Door County, Wis, (October 21, 2021) – A growing number of churches, including some in Door County, are joining in an effort to highlight the critical importance of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference, COP 26, taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, Oct. 31-Nov. 12. What began as a proposal to ring church bells in the United Kingdom at 6 pm GMT Oct. 30 to spotlight the conference is now spreading across the United States and beyond.
Church bells have been used as a warning for floods, fires and even potential invasions in the UK, and will now serve as a warning about climate change.
The Climate Change Coalition of Door County is calling on churches throughout the county to ring bells, gather for prayer, stand vigil outside or find whatever way works best for them at noon CDT October 30 to call attention to the climate crisis and the urgent need for action at COP 26.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated unequivocally that the extreme weather events sweeping the globe with increasing ferocity are the consequence of man-made climate change. Our planet has given us warning after warning, through floods, wildfires, droughts, heat domes and hurricanes, that we have profoundly altered the climate. Weather-related disease and crop failures and heat itself have caused sharp increases in mortality and have displaced millions of people — 30.5 million in 2020 alone.
Door County has been spared the worst of extreme weather events, but millions around the world are being profoundly affected — the poor who have contributed the least to the problem. The nations of the Global South are already suffering the severest effects of drought, crop failures, hurricanes and cyclones. But America’s poor are also suffering, from rising food prices, heat exhaustion and the inability to insure their homes and businesses against floods. Because care for the poor is a fundamental tenet of Christian teaching, churches here and across the world are joining this effort to support effective climate action at COP 26.
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