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Draft Minute on the Climate Crisis - 01-17-20

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Draft Minute on the Climate Crisis

Prepared by the PYM Eco-Justice Collaborative

January 15, 2020

The PYM Eco-Justice Collaborative plans to bring the following minute to individual meetings throughout the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and to PYM for consideration at Annual Sessions.  Our goal is to get a commitment from the Yearly Meeting to work with PYM meetings and Friends to take immediate and sustained action on this crisis.  As the climate crisis is inextricably linked with extractive economies, it must be addressed in concert with undoing racism and income inequality.

Minute to Address the Climate Crisis as a Corporate Witness

of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported to the United Nations in October, 2018, humanity is facing an unprecedented existential climate crisis.  We must cut carbon emissions in half in the next ten years, and we must get to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.  Otherwise, the world will face a global climate catastrophe  of incalculable severity before the end of the century.

While all people will suffer the impacts of the climate crisis, it is the most vulnerable populations who will suffer disproportionately.  Conflicts caused or exacerbated by droughts, water shortages, rising sea levels, food insecurity, and mass migration of climate refugees are increasing; escalating violence and wars seem inevitable.  If we as Friends are called to be true to our historic testimonies for peace, justice and stewardship of our earth, we must make work for climate justice a high priority at all levels of our yearly meeting.

To avoid the worst consequences of global warming and protect the earth for future generations, we must all work to make climate justice a clear corporate witness and a major priority of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.  We call on all parts of the yearly meeting to discern how best to contribute to the economic, political and societal transformations that will be required in order to address this crisis.

We call on Philadelphia Yearly Meeting to take immediate and resolute action.  We ask PYM to consider changes it can make and actions it can take and to encourage each monthly and quarterly meeting to do the same.  We ask that they report back to the body each year on what they’ve done.

BACKGROUND:  Timeline of Yearly Meeting Action Minutes on Climate Change

1972:  The Yearly Meeting adopted its first query on concern for the sanctity of life on Earth and reverence for all creation: “Query #10—Are you concerned that our increased power over nature should not be used irresponsibly but with reverence for life and with a sense of the splendor of God’s continuing creation?”

1989 and 1993:  The Environmental Working Group urged the Yearly Meeting to heed its own query on the environment, to recognize care for the earth as a religious concern and an extension of our testimonies on peace, justice and simplicity.

1998-2015:  PYM approved seven minutes recognizing our commitment to caring for the earth as an expression of our faith.  Excerpts from these minutes include:

  • The world is God’s creation.  How we treat the earth and all its creatures is basic to our relationship with God, and of fundamental religious concern to the Society of Friends
  • We unite in urging individual Friends, monthly meetings, and other Friends’ organizations to seek Divine Guidance in understanding how to reduce our own use of energy and material resources, to support strong international agreements for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to participate in a transition to less damaging technologies in our industries, agriculture, buildings and transportation.
  • We call upon the Yearly Meeting, in all its manifestations, to seek ways to hold our members lovingly accountable to live in God's world in a more environmentally sustainable fashion and to join other like-minded groups and organizations in supporting this concern.
  • We charge ourselves to examine all of our facilities and programs so as to continually ask, as a religious community, how we can live in God's world in a more environmentally sustainable fashion. . . [we] charge all Standing Committees and the working groups under their care to explore the implications of climate change and energy concerns for their work.
  • PYM encourages its Clerk, and empowers the General Secretary and Councils as they are led to pursue opportunities and communicate publicly on behalf of PYM in support of strategic and effective efforts to abate climate change, as appropriate to their positions of leadership. 

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