Conference Summary
Some 150 activists participated in the New Mexico Conference of Churches' global warming conference November 7-8, at Albuquerque's historic La Posada Hotel. The conference, entitled "IS GLOBAL WARMING TOO HOT TO HANDLE?", included religious, environmental, public health and public interest activists from around the state.
Day one themes included how to effectively use language and narrative that translates deeply held religious and moral values into effective public advocacy. Rev. David Radcliff, Director of the New Community Project, gave a moving and urgent keynote, citing personal stories from around the world of global warming impacts. Rabbi Lev-Ward moved to the psychological dimensions of social change, while Jon Coifman of the Natural Resources Defense Council spoke about effective messaging to get the word out.
Throughout the day, numerous breakout sessions and panel discussions fostered networking and communication among participants. The first day closed with participatory working sessions on a proposed "New Mexico Sustainable Energy Charter." The charter provides a religious and ethical framework for guiding public policy toward sustainable energy. (For copies of this document e-mail Stan Euston, sustainstar@earthlink.net). On Friday evening, activists convened for workshops on a variety of sustainable energy topics. These workshops were free to the public.
Day two opened with powerful presentations by Dr. Jonathan Overpeck from the U. of Arizona on global and regional impacts of warming and Dr. Rob Bernstein from Physicians for Social Responsibility on health impacts. These presentations, with fresh scientific data that warming will likely be toward the upper end of current predictions, were both sobering and enlightening. Both emphasized the ethical imperative to move away from fossil fuels.
Representatives from Governor Bill Richardson and Senator Jeff Bingaman also spoke, and received framed editions of the conference poster: "It's Time for Sustainable Energy Now!". Workshops featured renewables, efficiency and conservation, transportation, existing source clean-up and Interfaith Power and Light.
The final conference sessions were devoted to free wheeling brain-storming sessions on how to organize a multi-year NM Sustainable Energy Campaign that combines the ethics/religion message on global warming with the urgent findings from science, technology, and public policy. Follow up is now is full swing on designing this campaign.
There was a feeling of solidarity throughout the conference and evaluations indicate that many participants felt empowered to act by the presentations and discussions. The conference was sponsored and planned by the NM Conference of Churches and COEJL Funding was provided by ICEN and a number of other organizations, including Environmental Defense, Sierra Club, Natural Resource Defense Council, Coalition on Clean Affordable Energy, NM Public Interest Research Group and the Thaw Foundation.
