Protect Vulnerable Children from the Threat of Climate Change

This week we celebrated Earth Day. Celebrate the glorious gift of God’s Creation and our responsibility to care for it and its most vulnerable inhabitants by observing Earth Day. Contact your members of Congress to call for a national strategy to protect the earth from its most dangerous threat: global climate change. Our values of justice and stewardship compel us to make addressing climate change a national priority.

Climate change is fundamentally altering God’s Creation. But just as important as climate change’s impacts on our environment and its species, we are learning more every day about the staggering human impacts that are resulting from climate change. Vulnerable populations in the United States and around the world are most severely impacted by climate change, and we are only just beginning to understand the impacts on our children.

For example, in the United States with increased greenhouse gas emissions from our cars and other daily activities, air quality worsens leading to increased incidents of asthma in young children. In addition, it's often much more difficult for children to cope with increased temperatures in the summer and chilling temperatures in the winter than for adults. Children from low income families and communities of color are more likely to suffer from the impacts of climate change as their families often live in areas with poor air quality which will only continue to get worse as climate change continues to progress. Children are also one of the most vulnerable populations of people living in poverty around the world, and climate change is severely affecting poor communities whose daily sustenance and livelihood is threatened by changing weather patterns. 

During the next month, the House of Representatives will begin to consider climate legislation to address the United States’ disproportionate contribution to global climate change emissions. Please ask your congressional members to ensure that any legislation:

• Includes strong emissions reductions,
• Protects for those living in poverty in the United States who will be impacted by an increase in energy related costs and
• Maintains the strong international provisions included by Congressmen Waxman and Markey in their draft bill.

Each of these components is vital to ensure that we protect God’s Creation as well as the vulnerable among us from climate change and that we minimize the impact of legislation on children in all communities.

The U.S. Senate has not yet begun considering a bill, but no less needs to hear that protecting the Earth is a priority of their constituents and people of faith.