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Featured Issue: "God, Globalization, Global Warming and the Church's Response" by Eileen Harrington Index I. Preface II. Introduction III. Global Warming and Globalization: The Two Headed Beast? 4 A. What is Global Warming and Globalization? B. The White House responds to Global Warming and Globalization IV. Challenges in Addressing Economic Globalization and Global Warming: A Brief Look at the UN and Other International Conferences Leading up to Johannesburg, South Africa V. Today's Response to Global Warming and Economic Globalization: 25 Theologians and Christian Leaders Respond VI. Conclusion VII. Appendix: Chart of Conferences, Religious Meetings, Reports Produced Internationally Regarding Global Warming and Economic Globalization VIII. Bibliography I. Preface I normally do not write Prefaces to thirty page papers, but this one deserved a clarification before the reader begins. This topic of global warming and globalization and the Christian response, so near-and-dear to my heart, cannot be adequately served by such a brief paper. So many other authors' voices need to be included, including, but not limited to Amartya Sen, Vandana Shiva and Carolyn Merchant, all who have significant ideas to add to the conversation. In addition, of the many authors I did read for this paper, I needed a longer period of time to respectfully weave in their ideas and arguments. It is for this reason that I warn the reader that this paper is just but a very brief overview of the subject at hand, and as such should not be taken as the wide-ranging conversation that is taking place and changing on a daily basis. It is thus a "work-in-progress," one that I look forward to completing at a later date. II. Introduction Global Warming and Globalization are two of the most serious challenges presented to the world today. As important issues, they are found on the cover of major U.S. magazines such as Newsweek and Time. Both have entered the Academy as "hot" topics that serious scientists, ethicists, business faculty and theologians wish to have themselves and their students address. What has not been done often enough is to bring the two issues together. As more frequently both issues enter the academy, more often a link between the two is found-and in the hopes and despairs of students, teachers, faculty and staff. Clearly, those issues which give us most anxiety as people are those issues that the Christian academy, Christian communities and Churches should address. Clearly, globalization and global warming are at least two of the major issues. They both tie into how we perceive the world, people, creatures, nature, earth and ourselves. They both ask philosophical, scientific, economic, ethical and biblical questions. And, finally they both demand some real answers that impact the world for the better while demanding some action of ourselves. This paper will address, in general, both globalization and global warming. While addressing these topics thoroughly could result in a dissertation size paper, I will limit this paper to address the general information on the subject relying heavily on those economists and theologians who have addressed the issue through a social justice vein. And because I do believe the Christian academy, Christian communities, Christian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and Christian Churches are ethically called to educate their own people to take action, I focus the last section on this perspective. Finally, I remind these Christian groups that we Christians do not operate in a vacuum and perhaps our new "mission" and "call to evangelize" is in reaching out to other religious bodies and the general public to together spread the word: that we must educate and act on these serious issues for all peoples and nations, creatures and plants. III. Global Warming and Globalization: Two Headed Beast? A. What is Global Warming and Globalization? Global warming and globalization: two issues that strike concern, if not fear, into many peoples. For many middle class peoples in the Western world, they don't understand what these issues are; they just know that they are important because they show up in the media and in their grocery stores in packages of foods from all over the world. For the poor peoples inside and outside the Western nations who live with the consequences of global warming and globalization daily, they often don't know what it is that economically oppresses them and creates more drought and famine in their countries. But, for those highly educated and trained persons of many so-called first world countries, including economists, scientists and religious folks, these are serious issues that demand immediate attention. They are able to see that global warming and globalization tie into the daily food people eat or are not able to eat, the devastating super-storms that more frequently cause massive flooding and disease, the changing weather patterns, drought and famine, stock market crashes, the loss of endangered species and sea level increases that threaten to wipe out whole cities in the next 50 years. To these ethical, educated elite and non-elite of the one-third (developed) and two-thirds countries (developing), these issues are like monsters that both threaten to harm many peoples and destroy life as we know it as humans on the planet. Global warming and globalization are together a two-headed beast, and like a "B" monster movie, can create paralyzing fear and desire for escape. But how to escape from the only Earth that we have? Many conservative Christians have responded to the "two-headed beast" with apocalyptic thinking that perceives the end of the world coming. The majority of liberal Christians, educated with some of the facts that they read in newspapers and magazines, hope others can solve the problems and tame the beast. A much smaller group of Christians directly address these issues in hopes of changing the negative ramifications of both global warming and globalization. Yet, little has changed in the past 15 years. Where do those who desire to know more about global warming and globalization start to take on this two-headed beast? More importantly, how do we get Christians to understand the issues and take action, individually and collectively? A good place to begin is education as to the facts and figures of global warming and globalization-the science and the phenomenon of global warming and globalization. Global Warming Global warming is the term used to describe the change of the earth's atmosphere due to the increase of "greenhouse gases" including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapor, chlorofluorocarbons and hydro fluorocarbons which have resulted in the heating up of the surface of the earth. These gases cause this heating by not breaking down in the atmosphere, and so like the fog appears to do on a Bay Area weather inversion day, they sit in the atmosphere until a portion is rained down on the earth and ocean. The problem is that the amount rained down onto the earth and ocean isn't enough to decrease the warming process, thus the gases sit like an insulator over the planet causing the heat of the planet to be trapped and increasing global temperatures. The best report available on the subject is the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: the IPCC Third Report. This ground breaking research reveals that the "global average surface temperature has increased from the 1860's to the year 2000, the period of instrumental record." In fact, the Report goes on to state, that the 1990's is very likely to have been the warmest decade on record, with 1998 being the warmest year, until recent reports have shown that 2001 was the warmest year on record. The predictions of the temperature increase due to global warming are frightening: the warming process may be from 1.4 - 5.8 degrees Celsius between now and end of the century. Also serious to note is that the effects of global warming on weather, creatures on land and in the ocean, and forests -have all been seriously affected. Coral Reefs have been adversely affected by rising sea surface temperatures while negative changes in marine systems--in particular fish populations in addition to changes in stream flows, floods, and droughts-- have been observed. Climate and weather extremes have produced damaging effects on humans and their biosystems due to increases in floods and droughts: Preliminary indications suggest that some social and economic systems have been affected by recent increases…with increases in economic losses from catastrophic weather events… The fraction of weather -related losses covered by insurance varies considerably by region, and the uneven impacts of climate hazards raise issues for development and equity. Insurers pay only 5% of total economic losses today in Asia and South America, 10% in Africa, and about 30% in Australia, Europe and North and Central America. Also affecting humans and creatures negatively is the increased frequency of pests and disease outbreaks, including respiratory diseases and water contamination diseases, which have occurred due to floods and drought changes. Vulnerable species are becoming extinct as well, many which had the potential of being life saving medicines for humans one day. Finally, the increase of precipitation along with ocean warming (and thus expanding) and glacier and ice cap melting has created a rising of the sea level which is expected to increase by .09 to .88 m by 2100. This increase in ocean rise has led to predicted scenarios of whole cities and island communities being lost, such as New Orleans, Bangladesh and the Seychelles Islands. The controversy that surrounds this highly respected IPCC Report has caused problems in convincing an information-wary public that the issues will affect them, and that they have to help stem the tide of global warming and the bad effects of economic globalization. The controversy remains that the scientific evidence does not show that the information in the IPCC Report is 100% provable such that the rise in global temperature and the trappings of gases in the atmosphere is due to human activity. There is an extremely small percentage of possibility that it is a natural result. In addition, some of the predictions of the global warming effects of the next 100 years have small percentages of other possibilities less devastating and more devastating. However, science has been rarely able to show research that is 100% secure in its research findings and many prominent scientists, including the Union of Concerned Scientists, do not think action should be delayed because of this fact. Sadly, many use this excuse not to take action, including communities, corporations, and governments. For example, the current US White House Administration has used this "uncertainty" to avoid taking significant action to decrease its production of greenhouse gases and thus has angered many poorer countries in the world community. (see below for more details) Globalization Globalization has been defined and described many different ways depending on whether they - person, organization, business leader, church, etc. has benefited from globalization or whether globalization has "cost" them- the person, community, business leader and church, etc. Frank Lechner and John Boli from their book on Globalization talk about globalization as both: After World War II, the infrastructure for communication and transportation improved dramatically, connecting groups, institutions and countries in new ways. More people can travel, or migrate more easily to distant parts of the globe; satellite broadcasts bring world events to an increasingly global audience; the Internet begins to knit together world-spanning interest groups of educated users….Increasing international trade and investment bring more countries into the global capitalist system; democracy gains strength as a global model for organizing nation-states; numerous international organizations take on new responsibilities in addressing issues of common concern. These institutions are crystallizing into a comprehensive world society. The world is becoming a single place, in which different institutions function as parts of one system and distant peoples share a common understanding of living together on one planet. To links and institutions we therefore add culture and consciousness. Globalization can be talked about economically or culturally. Culture, as Peter Beyer writes in his book Religion and Globalization, is a very different way to examine globalization. Essentially to Beyer, globalization has created an interesting question of how ethnicities and subcultures live "side by side" while preserving a culture's own identity. Truly, culture and identity is both threatened and affirmed in globalization. Globalization depends on both the marketing of these unique cultures and identities all over the world, and also in subsuming them into the consumerist, capitalist, free-market identity. It could be said that these differences living side by side are also what is causing cultural misunderstanding, cultural imperialism from those with more money and access, and ultimately in the worst case scenarios-- wars. Beyer uses Salmon Rushdie's The Satanic Verses and the resulting action by the fundamentalist Islamic Iranians as an example of this conflict of cultures on a global scale: The key to the problem of The Satanic Verses for many Muslims is that it represents the larger global pressure towards the relativization of religion and cultural group identity as the price for fuller inclusion in the global system. They are being asked to bracket who they are and what they hold most sacred. Economically, to westernized countries, on the whole, globalization looks mixed. While the sense of isolation from the rest of the world has decreased due to Internet communication and a more varied trade, this hasn't resulted in each country's standard of living increasing for all. In fact, in the U.S. -the supposed center of the triumphant capitalist free market that globalization espouses -- the difference between the rich and the poor has grown tremendously in the past twenty years. Author, Joseph E. Stiglitz, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics, and author of the book Globalization and Its Discontents, writes a very personal viewpoint from his experience of chief economist at the World Bank to economic advisor to President Bill Clinton: I believe that globalization -the removal of barriers of free trade and the closer integration of national economies-can be a force for good and that is has the potential to enrich everyone in the world, particularly the poor. But I also believe that if this is to be the case, the way globalization has been managed, including the international trade agreements that have played such a larger role in removing those barriers and the policies that have been imposed on developing countries in the process of globalization, need to be radically rethought. Ian Barbour, noted theologian and scientist summarizes the problems he sees with economic globalization: In many developing nations the best land is used for nonfood or luxury food crops for export rather than stable crops for local consumption. Enough food is produced globally to meet everyone's dietary requirements, but the rich can outbid the poor in the global supermarket. Vast areas of forest in Brazil have been cleared for export timber or to produce beef for American fast food restaurants. In most of the Third World, land is concentrated in the hands of a few wealthy landowners-except for a few countries in which land reform has been achieved either peacefully or by revolutionary governments. Third World countries make larger payments in interest on debts than they receive in new loans and investments, resulting in net flow of $50 billion each year from North to South paid for largely by the export of crops, timber, and natural resources. Disparities between rich and poor countries are perpetuated by the new technologies that require extensive expertise, capital and infrastructure. Computers and communication systems are sources of social power, and access to them varies greatly both within nations and between nations (the so-called digital divide). Biomedical research is directed mainly to the disease of affluent societies, while tropical diseases affecting far larger populations are neglected. While globalization has led to economic growth in Asia through international trade, not many other countries have fared as well. To many nations in Africa and the "two-thirds world" economic globalization has had a mostly bad effect. It has resulted in the devastation of many of their cultures and their economic systems. Growing gaps between the rich and the poor in these countries have led to economic despair where there once was hope. In addition, the indirect effects of economic globalization has meant that the AIDS virus preys on the poorest of the poor of the world, which in Africa, for example has meant that there are thousands of deaths per day. Stiglitz writes that the actual numbers of people of the world living in poverty from 1990 to 2000 has increased by almost 100 million while world income increased by 2.5%, making it clear that the people who benefit from this global economic system are many less than those who are participating in this economic system by starving. Economic globalization has not created stability of the world's economy, but has caused additional instability. Just as the Asian economic crisis in 1997 and 1998 affected many countries' economies and seriously threatened the world economic stability, the U.S.'s high tech "bust" of 2001 has affected the US and many other countries to their economic detriment. In addition, Russia's economy switching from communism to the global capitalist economic system has caused widespread poverty in Russia; not the capitalist dream once promised to the former Soviet Union. Thus, there is something seriously going wrong in this current system of economic globalization. Should economic globalization be abandoned? The question is really whether anything can be done about globalization as it is a "train that has already left the station." Stiglitz says that globalization should not be ignored or completely repudiated, but that it needs to be changed. He says to change it so that global warming and the whole environment are taken seriously within the creation of new policies for economic globalization. Unlike some economists who believe a complete overhaul is needed of those international economic agencies that were originally created to help the poor and developing countries and yet have cause the most damage: the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, economist Stiglitz is more of an optimist. Stiglitz suggests re-management of the organizations-to rework the IMF, and the World Bank so that a variety of levels from each country's representation increases, transparency and openness increases, and the ideology of the IMF changes. The World Trade Organization, created after GATT was reorganized, is a separate organization that never had its mission to include aiding developing nations. It is also the organization that receives the most criticism of its organizational structure and its practices, resulting in the famous world-wide protest in Seattle, Washington in November and early December 1999. (see more information on the World Bank, IMF and WTO below) B. The White House Responds to Global Warming and Globalization In taking on our own United States to task, Ian Barbour in his analysis of the US role in global warming and bad effects of economic globalization states that the Consumption by industrial countries is responsible for a grossly disproportionate share of global pollution and resource use. In average, a U.S. citizen consumes as much of the world's resources as forty citizens of India. Clearly the whole world could not possibly live at the level of US affluence. More grain is consumed by livestock in the US and the former Soviet Union than by the entire human population of the Third World. Our dogs and cats are better fed than most of the children in Africa. Some 250,000 children die each week from malnutrition and the diseases associated with it, while the US pays farmers to reduce production of grains and dairy products. We import $1 billion in agricultural products each year from Central America, where a quarter of the children are malnourished. The United States, one of the richest countries in the world, has never been keen on affirming the devastating impact of global warming and the bad effects of economic globalization on the two-thirds world as serious issues which necessitated action. Worse, has been the recent (2000-2002) White House Administration response to global warming and economic globalization on the two-thirds world's people. For example, in March 2001, the White House, under the new George W. Bush presidency refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol. Thus, in Bonn, Germany, while 178 countries finalized the key rules of the Protocol, the United States negotiators stood by and watched. Also in 2001, the Bush Administration requested a substantial report on climate change be completed by the National Research Council Committee on the Science of Climate Change and provided to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This Report entitled, "Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions" confirmed much of the IPCC work and heavily challenged the current Bush Administration's pro-corporation policies. The White House decided against using this EPA-approved Report in the final U.S. Climate Report 2002 to the United Nations. In fact White House Spokesman, Scott McClellan, defended the new Report stating that "there remains considerable uncertainty in current understanding of how climate varies naturally" and that the new Report endorses the President's plan for "voluntary measures by US companies as the best way to 'significantly reduce the growth of greenhouse gas emissions'." Peter Singer in his new book entitled One World: The Ethics of Globalization (2002), comments on these disturbing responses from the White House regarding global warming and globalization. He writes: As scientists pile up the evidence that continuing greenhouse emissions will imperil millions of lives, the leader of the nation that emits the largest share of these gases has said: 'We will not do anything that harms our economy, first things first are the people who live in America….' President George W. Bush's remarks were not an aberration, but an expression of an ethical view that he has held for some time. …The first President George Bush had said much the same thing at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. When representatives of developing nations asked Bush senior to put on the agenda, the over consumption of resources by the developed countries, especially the United States, he said 'the American lifestyle is not up for negotiation.' It was not negotiable, apparently, even in maintaining this lifestyle will lead to the deaths of millions of people subject to increasingly unpredictable weather and the loss of land used by tens of millions more because of rising ocean levels and local flooding. Kamra Mofid writes also about the Bush Administration's response: The new American administration wasted no time in perverting international bodies into tools for advancement of American business interests, assisting them further to Americanise the world in the name of globalization. This President, more than any other, has been supported by the corporate sector. His administration firmly and unashamedly believes that everything should be subordinate to neo-classical economics. Their policies on global warming, arms control, the UN, world trade and the international criminal court-to mention a few from a long list-do not suggest an administration committed to building an ethical, moral and just world order. Both Singer and Mofid note what most of the leaders of the rest of the World have already noted through global meetings where US Representatives attended: when it comes to the negative effects of global warming and globalization, the current US White House Administration does not see that it has responsibilities that lie outside of US interests alone. However, due to the overwhelming information on global warming, the White House has not been able to avoid the question, nor avoid the pressure from neighboring countries such as Canada who recently ratified the Kyoto Treaty, the most recent United Nation's efforts at decreasing each country's use of carbon dioxide emissions. IV. Challenges in Addressing Economic Globalization and Global Warming: A Brief Look at the UN and Other International Conferences Leading up to Johannesburg, South Africa Global warming and economic globalization have not happened overnight. Global warming, typically dealt with as a separate issue from globalization and yet so interwoven of globalization as we saw above, has been discussed among scientists and the general public for over 30 years. However, it is not until recently that both have been taken seriously by many scholars, scientists, economists and theologians as critical to address issues to address together. Although addressing both economic globalization and global warming together in an international document is not new - the sustained addressing of the issues together is very new and critically important. The 3rd IPCC Report, dated 2001, notes emphatically in its' Synthesis Report that economics and climate change must be addressed together: Climate change impacts are part of the larger question of how complex social, economic, and environmental subsystems interact and shape prospects for sustainable development. There are multiple links. Economic development affects ecosystem balance and in turn is affected by the state of the ecosystem; poverty can be both a result and cause of environmental degradation; material-and energy-intensive life styles and continued high levels of consumption supported by nonrenewable resources and rapid population growth are not likely to be consistent with sustainable development paths; and extreme socio-economic inequality within communities and between nations might undermine the social cohesion that would promote sustainability and make policy responses more effective. At the same time, socio-economic and technology policy decisions made for non-climate-related reasons have significant implications for climate policy and climate change impacts, as well as for other environmental issues. In addition, critical impact thresholds and vulnerability to climate change impacts are directly connected to environmental, social and economic conditions and institutional capacity. The actual history of major international organizations addressing global warming and globalization together is the history of understanding how global warming challenges economic globalization and how economic globalization challenges global warming. As there are too many international organizations related to global warming and economic globalization to cover in a brief paper, only the role of the key international players will be examined here: the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization. (Please also see Appendix Chart of Conferences, Religious Meetings, and Reports Produced Internationally On Global Warming and Economic Globalization on page 25) The United Nations has been involved with both economic globalization and global warming almost from the beginning of international organizations. The predecessor to the United Nations, the League of Nations, helped form the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, otherwise known as the World Bank, in July, 1944 at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, USA. In addition, at that same United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, the International Monetary Fund was created. Both organizations were created to be separate from the United Nations with the intention of assisting in the development of a healthy global economy; the World Bank in particular was created to help eliminate poverty in the developing countries. Strangely enough, the United Nations wasn't officially "born" until the Charter was signed in 1945 in San Francisco, CA USA. Soon after the signing, the United Nations became the most active global organization addressing economic and later environmental issues. A. ECOSOC Meeting - New York, NY This important meeting resulted in the founding of the Commission on Human Rights and the Commission on the Status of Women. Held in 1946 in New York, the Economics and Social Council (ECOSOC) meeting led to the creation of many world wide organization addressing human rights and women's rights. B. United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment - Havana, Cuba This 1947 Conference led to the founding of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), a separate organization from the United Nations. The United Nations would follow this Conference with the special conference on Trade and Development in 1964 in Geneva, Switzerland which formed the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to assist in "the development friendly integration of developing countries into the world economy." Later in December, 1966, the UNCTAD adopts the International Covenant on Economic and Social Rights. C. United Nations Conference on the Environment - Stockholm, Sweden Groundbreaking work for the UN in 1972 in combining some development issues with the environment issues. The United Nations Environment Programme was "born," set up to encourage sustainable development through sound environmental practices everywhere. Its activities cover a wide range of issues, from atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems and the promotion of environmental science and information, to an early response capacity to deal with environmental disasters and emergencies. UNEP is based in many locations including headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya; Washington, DC USA; Geneva, Switzerland; Bangkok, Thailand; Mexico City, Mexico; Bahrain and West Asia. UNEP does not realize its potential until the 1980's. D. United Nations Environment Programme - New York, NY USA Reflecting years of work on behalf of the World Council of Churches in 1975, 1979 and 1983, and following the World Wildlife Fund Summit on Religion and the Environment in 1986, UNEP creates the Regional Office of North America's Interfaith Partnership for the Environment. Its founding purpose is to inform North American congregations about serious problems facing life on Earth. E. UNEP and the World Meteorological Organization - Geneva, Switzerland Another ground breaking United Nations Environment Programme Conference resulting in the formation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) occurred in Geneva in 1988. The IPCC's creation, consisting of 2,600 leading experts in science and economics of change from 55 nations, was created to focus on assessing scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to the understanding of human induced climate change, potential impacts of climate change and options for mitigation and adaptation. It is an intergovernmental body that provides advice to the world community. In November 1995, IPCC issued its second report which acknowledged daunting scientific figures. The scientists noted a one degree Fahrenheit average increase in temperature in the 20th century and concluded, "the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernible human influence on global climate." By the third report, it became very clear to the scientists that global warming is happening-and quickly. F. United Nations Conference on Environment and Development - Rio de Janeiro In 1992, the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. An unprecedented 172,108 government staff participated. In addition, 2,400 representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and 17,000 people attended the parallel NGO Forum. The Summit's general message was that a transformation of attitudes and behaviors -especially among the affluent countries-was needed. It was made clear that poverty as well as excessive consumption by affluent populations placed too much damaging stress on the environment. The documents produced from the meeting included "Agenda 21" --the Rio Declaration on the Environment and Development, Statement of Forest Principles, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. At that point there was still scientific uncertainty about what was causing the global warming-humans or natural occurrences. The United States used its considerable political clout and watered down the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. However, Rio set the standard for world conferences: the number of representatives from all over the world and the message of economics and environmental concerns discussed together, was heard loud and clear. G. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - Kyoto In 1997 many nations met in Kyoto, Japan and worked out the Kyoto Protocol, aimed at reducing greenhouse gases. It is considered by many to be just a first step towards the control of greenhouse emissions. The agreement asks industrialized countries to make significant reductions in their greenhouse gases over the next 10 to 15 years by the reduction of the use of fossil fuels (i.e. coal and oil) and increasing efforts toward a new energy system based on efficiency and renewable energy. In 1998, the nations met again in Buenos Aires to firm up the Treaty's requirements and have it in place by 2000. The Protocol needs at least 55 countries to ratify it to make it legally binding. Under the Kyoto Treaty the United States would commit to a 7% reduction by the period 2008-2012. The position being used by the Bush Administration (as mentioned above) which continues to attack the science of global warming, also includes the old rhetoric from opponents in the Senate that say we should not commit ourselves to that percentage reduction until the Two-Thirds World countries agree to exactly the same terms. The argument seems to minimize the fact that the overwhelming proportion of greenhouse gas emissions come from North America and Europe. H. United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development - Johannesburg Perhaps the most comprehensive of the UN Conferences that built upon the connection between global warming, environment and globalization that IPCC had already established and was 10 years after the Rio de Janeiro Conference. Top issues dealt with included: 1) reaffirmed sustainable development as a central element of the international agenda and gave new impetus to global action to fight poverty and protect the environment; 2) important linkages were made between poverty, the environment and the use of natural resources; 3) governments agreed to and reaffirmed a wide range of commitments and targets for action to achieve more effective implementation of sustainable development objectives; 4) energy and sanitation issues were critical elements of the negotiations and outcomes to a greater degree than in previous international meetings on sustainable development; 5) support for the establishment of a world solidarity fund for the eradication of poverty was a positive step forward. 6) Africa and NEPAD were identified for special attention and support by the international community to better focus efforts to address the development needs of Africa; 7) the views of civil society were given prominence at the Summit in recognition of the key role of civil society in implementing the outcomes and in promoting partnership initiatives; 8) the concept of partnerships between governments, business and civil society was given a large boost by the Summit and the Plan of Implementation. Clearly, in 2002, the United Nations has come to a comprehensive understanding of how to address global warming and economic globalization issues-sustainable development. The United Nations sustainable development work is the future for international environment and economic issues-or is it? Several questions begged to be asked since no one is protesting the United Nations Conferences while there continue to be tens of thousands protesting at WTO, World Bank and IMF Conferences. One is, why is the World Trade Organization not moving quickly on the same issues of economics and global warming? What is the history that led to these divisive tracks? While the origins of economic globalization can be traced back to European trade in the 1500's, economic scholars point to the end of World War II and the results of the UN Monetary and Financial Conference at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, USA, as the significant beginnings of economic globalization as we know it today. The 1944 United Nations launching of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank and the global free-trade agenda might have been in reaction to events of the time. Both were created to operate separately from United Nations governing. US economist Joseph Stiglitz states that these institutions were created to ensure "global economic stability" as the Treasury Secretary reaction to the 1930's economic depression. Economist Kamran Mofid notes that according to the then United States creation of these organizations was to "stimulate the creation of a dynamic world economy." By 1947, the United Nations was working on global economics through a new forum: the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Again, GATT was created as a separate entity from the United Nations. It wasn't until 1991 that GATT addressed environmental issues and trade in a formal meeting. This turned into a report called the "Trade and the Environment Report," published in 1992. The United Nations Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit produced Agenda 21 in which GATT states that it was a participant. During this time, the GATT Uruguay Rounds of Trade Negotiation were happening-from 1986-1994 in which trade-related environmental issues were discussed. Another groundbreaking meeting of GATT was held in 1994 in Marrakesh in which the World Trade Organization (WTO) was established. One of its charges, according to its own web page, was to work towards sustainable development in matters of Trade. This charge states that WTO members recognize: that their relations in the field of trade and economic endeavor should be conducted with a view to raising standards of living, ensuring full employment and a large and steadily growing volume of real income and effective demand, and expanding the production of and trade in goods and services, while allowing for the optimal use of the world's resources in accordance with the objective of sustainable development, seeking both to protect and preserve the environment and to enhance the means for doing so in a manner consistent with their respective needs and concerns at different levels of economic development. However, protestors at the WTO in Seattle and Genoa, for example, would disagree. The WTO has been under severe critique from economic justice NGOs and environmental justice NGOs since its creation in 1994. Clearly, the WTO has not lived up to this charge. Mofid, like many other social justice economists, critiques the GATT and WTO believing that the US has a heavy hand in what GATT was and the WTO has become: "given what has happened since [the founding of GATT and creation of the WTO], it seems that a prime purpose was to ensure American corporations increased access to new markets and raw materials." So clear in examining the history of the United Nations conferences related to the environment and economics is that global warming and the environment was not related to global economics for a long while. Now that the United Nations sees the environment, global warming and economic globalization as interconnected, this combined concept has challenged the IPCC to respond with both in mind. The IPCC 3rd Report does just this: its proposals for mitigating global warming include four scenarios in which sustainable development and the environment is addressed. These scenarios, more than being factual predictions of the next 100 years, actually show the complexity of balancing the sustainable economic growth of developing countries, the expectation of a commitment to reduction of greenhouse gases produced into the atmosphere by developed countries and the switch to more sustainable development in all countries. Lechner and Boli cite the fact that these scenario changes, that is whatever is agreed upon by the countries at the United Nations that leads to substantial change-including the complete ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and its subsequent positive results--will take time. They write: "… many problems are so large and so much built into the structure of global economic and political development that even modest improvements can come only over a few decades." Because of this length of time needed for change to occur, enormous pressure is put on the INGOs and NGOs so that "one critical issue is whether the global activists who make up the INGOs and NGOs working to ameliorate these stubbornly intractable problems will be able to sustain their efforts long enough to make a substantial difference." Alarmingly, they add: "An equally critical issue, however, is whether a world society will be able to avoid widespread catastrophes and collapses if they do not." INGOs and NGOs: Will They Save Us? Some INGOs, also known as transnational social movement organizations (TSMOs), intervene directly in intergovernmental conferences, like the United Nations. Many more work outside of the United Nations and other intergovernmental organization to educate national and local organizations and individuals about global problems and the political system designed to address these problems. Efforts by INGOs have helped advance mobilizing forces that amplify the prominence of environmental issues on many government's policy agendas in addition to reinforcing multilateral solutions to environmental problems. INGOs, however, are critical to the work of the United Nations to get its work done-they can help individual governments reach agreements in multilateral negotiations by expanding policy options, altering the political costs of multilateral cooperation, or through enhancing the transparency of international negotiations and institutions. In Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's book titled Empire (2000) they speak of the plusses and minuses of INGOs. They define NGOs (and subsequently INGOs) as any organization that states that they represent the People (those oppressed by the free market, capitalist system) and which operates in the interest (and often against) the structures of the state. The pluses include those INGOs which are representative of "global people;" and they are relatively independent of nation-states and capital. These organizations are often understood as functioning as the structures of global civil society, channeling the needs and desires of the multitudes into forms that can be represented within the functioning of the global power structures. Hardt and Negri honor the INGOs that "strive to represent the least among us, those who cannot represent themselves." They believe that these INGOs are the most "powerful and prominent" in the new global order. In essence, Hardt and Negri believe that these INGOs are the right kind of INGOs--"the broad base of the triangle of global power." They also issue several cautions about INGOs. They cite some INGOs such as Amnesty International, Oxfam, Medecins Sans Frontieres as being some of the most potent weapons of the new world order while others they refer to as "the charitable campaigns and mendicant orders of the Empire [international globalization powers]." Hardt and Negri believe that these INGOs conduct "just wars" without arms, without violence and without borders. They warn of those INGOs who attack the nation state and are really servants of the global capital game and the face of the neoliberalist agenda which in not always for the people. John Cobb in his book Religion and Politics: The Progressive Church Tackles Hot Topics (2002) also notes that there are some problems with INGOs. He states that "There are many, perhaps too many environmental organizations… They are vital and do good work. But each has its special issues and special constituencies." He goes onto describe the problem using as an example the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Nature Conservancy "support of the policy of buying and selling 'pollution credits' by which companies may delay conformity to some emission limits by trading with other companies that are below those limits. EDF and Nature Conservancy feel this is a reasonable way to move gradually beyond stated goals … [On the other side of the debate is] "The Friends of the Earth and the Natural Resources Defense Council whom oppose this policy as conceding too much to producers, and unfairly harming particular geographic areas." Religious Communities, Christian INGOs and NGOs - Will they save us? Hardt and Negri also examine religious INGOs. They warn against moral and juridical intervention, calling that which is practiced by a variety of bodies including religious INGOs dangerous. They go on to say that these organizations are like the "inquisitors of the old days of the Roman Catholic Church - they define the enemy as privation and then recognize the enemy as sin." They also criticized those religious INGOs who use tactics such as public denunciation of the sinners and then leaving the secular INGOs the task of addressing serious problems. They believe that these moral interventions may lead to military interventions. Hardt and Negri also compliment religious INGOS as being even more longstanding of the INGOs that represent the People. These INGOs represent to Hardt and Negri "the vital force that underlies the People, and thus they transform politics into a question of generic life, life in all its generality." But they are in danger of becoming the state power when they stand up to the state. So the caution remains. An example of a religious INGO is that of Jubilee Research and Jubilee Movement International (formerly known as Jubilee 2000) . Jubilee has been cited more often than any other INGO as a successful model of a religious INGO. Jubilee was created in 1996 in response to the World Bank and IMF combined initiative "to alleviate the debt burden of 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs)." This was assessed by Jubilee's expert economists as an inadequate response initiative. Not beholden to the IMF or the World Bank, Jubilee worked faster than the World Bank or IMF did to assist the debt reduction of the HIPCs through getting heads of state and government leadership of the G7 to cancel substantial portions of HIPC debt. As of 2002, Jubilee had eliminated a total debt of $42 billion from the HIPC debt load. The history and understanding of global warming and economic globalization and the Conferences to respond to the global needs is recent -- only within the past 50 years. And, yet much work has been done, as well as much more needed to be done by the United Nations, IMF, World Bank and the WTO. In addition, INGOs have significant roles to play in assisting the many changes that are needed and are able to respond quickly and intervene frequently better than governments. Religious INGOs are only a part of what religious, specifically Christian folks are doing regarding the environment and economic globalization. The importance of the Christian INGOs, schools, churches and communities should not be underestimated for the work that they can do on behalf the poor, marginalized and environment. The next section will "open-up" the question of what Christians can and are doing regarding global warming and economic globalization. V. Today's Response to Global Warming and Economic Globalization: Theologians and Christian Leaders Respond The IPCC 3rd Report scenarios can be daunting, and certainly some of the complex language needs translation. So how do Christian communities respond? As David G. Hallman so succinctly stated: "Climate change is not just a matter of the ecological impact of economic development. It has elements of religious responsibility." In the twentieth century, for example, religious leaders and theologians helped to give birth to progressive movements such as civil rights for minorities, social justice for the poor and liberation for women. Thus religious leaders responding to environmental/global warming issues and economic globalization issues is in this lineage of theological discourse and praxis. Many theologians refer to the famous Lynn White article when outlining the relationship between the environment and the Christian Church. Mr. White's thesis was to "point the finger" at Christianity for the attitudes and harm done to the environment over the years. Theologian and scientist Ian Barbour provides the most common sense assessment of the White article when he states: "White's historical account may be questioned, but he was surely right that the environmental crisis is a call to critical theological reflection." This call for critical theological reflection has been answered, especially in the past ten years. Certainly many theologians responded to the Lynn White article in an often apologetic mode. But today, there are many theologians who have moved on from the Lynn White critique of the Church, to the next level of assessment and action. Christian theologians Ulrich Duchrow, John Cobb, Sallie McFague, M. Douglas Meeks, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Ian Barbour and Dieter Hessel all offer profound varied and interesting visions, actions and guidelines for Christians in addressing global warming (environment) and economic globalization. They are not the only theologians doing this important work, however, but they are significant voices in the field. Ulrich Duchrow, a German Lutheran theologian, offers Christians a vision for a different way of living economically and environmentally --locally, nationally and globally in his book Alternatives to Global Capitalism: Drawn From Biblical History, Designed for Political Action (1995). He calls it an "economy for life." He believes that it in our thinking and actions we need to change from an "economy of death" due to the devastation that the unrestrained capitalist free market economy to an "economy of life:" He writes "The new economy should be all life-sustaining in three respects: 1) the life of present day people, i.e. it must satisfy their basic needs; 2) the life of all our fellow creatures on Earth; and 3) the life of future generations." Duchrow goes onto say that the economy must serve the three, not the other way around. This means an "economy from below" must replace an "economy from above". John Cobb, sociologist-theologian, has written quite a bit on Christians living a social justice praxis life in the world. He critiques the "devout Christian" who believes that politics is too messy of a matter to get involved in. He notes that his experience of working with Christian denominational offices in Washington, DC revealed that they might have excellent publications on environment and globalization issues but the local churches don't get this information and/or feel too removed from these offices. But, he still believes that the Church is in a good position to help educate and sensitize parishes and congregations in these issues. Reaching the individual is an important goal in his vision: Every church-member need not and cannot lead a crusade. But we can all let our Senators know that measures such as the Kyoto Global Warming Agreement out to be taken seriously. Just as there are higher and lower forms of religion, there are higher and lower forms of politics. With this vision, the church can be an effective agent of higher politics in the service of higher religion. Cobb goes onto offer a comprehensive theology and action plan for Churches: 1) Advocate for more efficient and generous systems of social insurance. 2) Taxation of "footloose" capital movements. 3) A new system of global safeguards. Multilateral institutions like the WTO should permit selective disengagement from the discipline of multilateral treaties, under well-specified contingencies, when countries need breathing room to satisfy domestic requirements that are in conflict with trade policies. 4) Debt forgiveness for impoverished nations. 5) Partnership relationships with local communities. 6) Reformation of the IMF and World Bank lending policies. 7) Support of legislation that helps end sweatshops. 8) Doubling of individual efforts to support self determination. 9) Redoubling of individual efforts to live frugally and generously. Sallie Mc Fague, one of the foremost writers on theology and the environment and a highly respected Ecofeminist theologian, provides Christians with a new vision. She calls her vision "a Christian ethic of care." She writes: A global example of Christian care can be seen in the impending crisis of climate change. There is now consensus among weather experts that global warming has begun…The results will be devastating … What is the specific Christian response to this situation? It is… twofold: a word to the oppressor and to the oppressed. A Christian ethic of care condemns the arrogant eye of the oppressor. A word of repentance should be spoken to the elites of both the first and third worlds as well as a call for radical change in their consumer lifestyle. … Christian witness, which demands that all God's creatures must have their basic needs met, condemns such outrageous greed… A Christian ethic of care sides with the oppressed, in this case those creatures and aspects of the earth that are experiencing the greatest deterioration. Christian radicalism-love for the neediest humans and devastated nature-helps to push more moderate forms of the care ethic towards greater justice for the forgotten and voiceless. Its particular role in issues of public policy is to move the powers in control beyond 'business as usual' compromises on critical issues, toward decisions that show concern for the most vulnerable. Theologian M. Douglas Meeks lays out his metaphor for God as Economist in his groundbreaking work, God the Economist: The Doctrine of God and the Political Economy (1989). Meeks write that an "economist" is a good metaphor because it helps reveal the Church's worship, structure and life which can be masked in economic privilege. He goes onto say: Perceiving God as the Economist has reminded us that the partitioning and narrowing of economy in the modern world have occurred as a great cost to the human being… Seeking to live the economy of God, the congregation can contribute to a more just public household. The church's economy and ultimately its mission to the public economy should take shape in the peculiar 'economic instruments' of the Holy Spirit: the Word as Gospel, baptism, the Eucharist, hospitable koinonia (community) and diakonia. Together they point to alternative ways of producing and distributing what is necessary for an inclusive household of life. And thus will the Church claim in its life that God's economy is the foundation of livelihood for all of God's creatures and in so doing will be a living hope for a just society. Rosemary Radford Ruether, noted Ecofeminist theologian, writes in the "Conclusion" of the Harvard University Center for the Study of the World Religions work on Christianity and Ecology (2000) the importance of weaving all the theologies of eco-justice into preaching, worship, biblical study and church life: This vision needs to become a visible part of how we design our churches and worship spaces. It needs to flow out in our stewardship of the land and church buildings, as well as through a community praxis of recycling and conservation of energy. It can be expressed in the transformation of our lands from wasteful over-watered lawns to natural grasses and permaculture gardens to help feed the poor. And it needs to be communicated through the public policy advocacy of church members and bodies seeking ecological health together with social justice. Only by embodying the vision of ecology and justice in its own teaching, worship and praxis can the Church make itself a base for an environmentally responsible ministry to the larger community in which it stands. Eco-justice becomes central to the Church's mission only when it is understood as central to the Church's life. Anything less will lack credibility. Ian Barbour, physicist and theologian, goes into great detail of what Christians should be reflecting on and taking action on regarding global warming and economic globalization in his book Nature, Human Nature and God (2002): 1. Environmental Impacts. The International Monetary Fund has made its loans to developing nations contingent on the promotion of exports above all other goals. Both the IMF and the World Bank should be required to give more attention to environmental consequences and to work more closely with the UN Environmental Program. I believe we should try to reform and improve these agencies, rather than to abolish them as some critics suggest. 2. Low Wages in Developing Nations. Some economists have argued that wages must remain low in order to attract foreign investment as a necessary first step toward economic growth. Under pressure from lending agencies, public funding for education has been reduced, which will slow acquisition of the skills needed for better paying jobs. 3. Political Accountability. Within each nation we have recognized that the market prices seldom include the indirect social and environmental costs of production, so we have introduced legislation through political processes to supplement unregulated market forces. The inclusion of a wider spectrum of participants in WTO deliberation would make it more representative and more accountable. 4. Transnational Corporations. It is easy to demonize transnational corporations and blame them for all the adverse effects of globalization. Religious communities are not immune to biases, but they do have diverse memberships and at their best they are committed to a broad range of values. They have the potential to present a balanced view of the public good if they inform themselves about the consequences of alternative policies. 5. New Technologies. At the outset new technologies are often expensive and only available to the affluent. But more recently it has been used to empower individuals and groups, including dissidents in China and protest movements around the world. 6. Strengthening communities. The global market treats people primarily as consumers, and the global media are a homogenizing influence undermining local cultures. We must do all we can to strengthen community relationships. Churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples can provide stability in a time of rapid change. They can provide a supportive community to individuals who feel alienated from the impersonal and distant institutions affecting their lives, and they can motivate people to act to further the values they hold. Theologian Dieter Hessel introduces the term that combine ecological concerns with liberation theology concerns -both which are the theological fields in which global warming and economic globalization is addressed. Thus, the term "eco-justice" describes a desire to both liberate the poor and the environment. Dieter Hessel writes As the world becomes hotter, stormier, less biodiverse, more unequal, more crowded, and more violent, the church must embody commitment to eco-justice. Reorientation to eco-justice is gaining enough spiritual and secular prominence to indicate that an ecological reformation of church and culture has begun. Such a reformation of religion and ethics takes seriously the reality of natural biophysical limits, the depths of the eco-justice crisis and the intricate and interdependent relationships of humankind with the rest of nature. The ecological reformation also positively intersects, rather than competes with struggles for economic, racial, and gender justice. The fact that many individual mainline Christian Churches don't get it-don't understand the idea that we must act in the world on behalf of the people and the world, is a concern for many Christian economists, theologians and leaders. Theologian Dieter Hessel writes: Christians on six continents are joining in this eco-justice journey. Yet compared with widespread church involvement in programs of social service and peace education/action, the churches have not institutionalized much care for creation or eco-justice ministry. Many Christians still do not see mission in terms of suffering with healing, and liberating creation. They continue to affirm and practice 'stewardship' in social terms apart from ecological responsibility. Congregations typically conduct religion business as usual with little time for the shared human vocation of earth-keeping (Gen.2:15), except perhaps for doing some recycling, exhorting members to reduce unnecessary consumption, and retrofitting church buildings for energy efficiency. In short, the bulk of clergy and laity who lead local, denominational, and ecumenical communities of faith tend to leave the well-being of creation to others called 'environmentalists'; they have yet to 'get it' with regard to an 'ecological reformation of Christianity,' that focuses on the new context of imperiled earth community and responds by reorienting liturgy, theology, ethics and mission. In addition, many Christian economists and theologians are frustrated by the local Church's lack of scientific understanding of these issues. Dieter Hessel writes of the importance of getting this scientific education: So, a second step toward becoming a church and culture that cares for earth community is to connect with current cosmology and physics as well as the ecological and biological sciences that reorient us to reality."… "Today, a philosophy of ecological realism, informed by current astronomy, biophysical sciences, ecofeminism, and nature writing, fosters respect for interrelatedness, spiritual kinship with other kind, commitment to ecological sustainability and advocacy for environmental justice." Ian Barbour concurs: In relation to such scientific evidence, the main task of members of the religious community is to listen to scientists, to become better informed, and to help in spreading the word. But religious communities also have a responsibility to raise questions. They can ask scientists to indicate the assumptions and the uncertainties present in their interpretation of data… In other cases there may be greater disagreement among experts. Assessment of risks often depend on assumptions that should be made explicit since they may be influenced by a scientist's ethical or political convictions. Regarding the issues of working together with groups outside of Christian churches on globalization and ecological issues, Barbour notes: The marketplace neglects indirect costs, whether borne by nature or by people. Labor unions and environmentalists have often been on opposite sides of local and national issues, but now we see them cooperating on occupational health and safety and in demanding greater accountability by corporations and government bureaucracies. A political strategy dedicated to both justice and the environment will require a broad alliance that includes labor, environmental groups, community organizations, urban and civil rights advocates, the women's movement ---and the churches. Barbour goes on to say why the Christian Church plays a unique, but significant role in intervening in global warming and economic globalization: Environmentalists have often neglected social justice, while social reformers have often neglected the environment. The religious community can bring these values together in a distinctive way because it believes God cares about both nature and people. This sampling of today's Christian theologians --Ulrich Duchrow, John Cobb, Sallie McFague, M. Douglas Meeks, Ian Barbour and Dieter Hessel - are only a small group of the many theologians writing on the environment and global economy. Vandana Shiva, Ivonne Gebarra, Kwok Pui-Lan, Mark I. Wallace, John Chryssavgis, James Nash, Larry Rasmussen are just a few of the others who are contributing significantly to the theological discussion. As Ian Barbour brought up the issue of information from denominational headquarters not getting back to the local church, for theologians the question is also whether the theological discussion makes it to their students and from there to the world. This question begs a much longer discussion about formal education---classes offered in seminaries, theological institutions and religious studies departments of Universities. If classes include these critical scientific, economic, ecological, political ideas about global warming and economic globalization, the theologian-teachers would equip future church and community leaders and teachers to address these issues with the people they serve, there is greater hope that these folks will reach many more of the People. And, as Ecofeminist theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether has role modeled in her classes, the students can change the institution as well-by changing worship, adding gardening, assessing wasteful behaviors, preaching, prayer - and the entire institution's "life." Education of Church members and of theological institutions in eco-justice issues is critical to the 1) individual's change 2) changing of thinking and practice in local communities, 3) in supporting denominational work in eco-justice, 4) in supporting of religious NGOs and INGOs, 5) in interacting with the political powers that be in each person's town, city, county and state; 6) and finally, in openly protesting against those powers that are not responding to those critical issues of eco-justice. It is a core piece of empowering church members and theological faculty, students and staff to engage in their globalized world. Perhaps the least known resource to assist in empowering new ways of eco-justice education in the United States is Dieter Hessel's organization entitled Theological Education to Meet the Environmental Challenge (TEMEC). TEMEC seeks to make 'eco-justice' - ecological integrity with social justice - a central focus of religious self-understanding, scholarship and teaching in higher education and action at the personal, institutional, and social policy level. The basic norms of eco-justice ethics include: ecological sustainability, fair participation in social policy decisions, sufficiency of production-consumption, and community life that is celebrative cares for the otherkind and uses appropriate technology. TEMEC, established in 1992 by the Program on Ecology, Justice and Faith and the Center for Respect of Life and Environment (CRLE) in Washington, DC, has been providing Conferences and other resource materials for over a decade. TEMEC has a strong relationship with the World Council of Churches and facilitated an international conference in 1999 at the WCC's Chateau de Bossey in Celigny, Switzerland entitled Earth Ethics and the Ecumenical Movement. The Conference brought Christians from several continents into the dialogue about the vision and values that under gird sustainable community, and how they relate to basic themes of Christian faith and ethics. Church and theological education is critical. New organizations are being created everyday to assist in the educational process, and theologians continue to write inspiring articles and books for their colleagues, theological students and church members. We can only hope that the educational processes continue at the rapid pace in which they are being implemented. The IPCC report should be a center point in this educational process and could be perceived as the loud, clanging, bell that awakens all Christians from their apolitical, overwhelmed or denial-filled slumber. VI. Conclusion And thus, this paper ends in a full circle: once we know the painful reality of the devastating effects of global warming and economic globalization, we must take action. And we must, as theologians, pastors, seminary students, faculty and staff, and as members of the Christian Church, teach others and empower others to help them take action. Education of all the issues - the science, the politics, economics, ethics and theological ideas --is critical. We can only hope, if when it is done well, there will still be time to turn back the damage that we, as humans -and Christian humans-have caused the planet, its creatures and ourselves. VI. Appendix CHART OF CONFERENCES, RELIGIOUS MEETINGS, REPORTS Produced Internationally On Global Warming and Economic Globalization Name of Conference, Meeting, Report etc. Name of Sponsoring Organization(s) DATES WHERE HELD? Main Focus; Summary of Work United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference League of Nations/United Nations July, 1944 Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, USA International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) founded United Nations Conference on International Organization League of Nations/United Nations 1945 San Francisco, CA USA Untied Nations Charter Approved ECOSOC Meeting United Nations Economics and Social Council (ECOSOC) 1946 New York, NY USA Forms the Commission on Human Rights and the Commission on the Status of Women United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment United Nations Oct. 1947 and activated Jan. 1, 1948 Havana, CUBA General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade signed and founded; separate organization from UN General Assembly; Universal Declaration of Human Rights United Nations 1948 New York, NY USA General Assembly adopts first Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Special Conference on Trade and Development United Nations 1964 Geneva, SWITZERLAND Forms United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) General Assembly United Nations 1965; 1969 New York, NY USA Forms the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; implements in i1969. General Assembly United Nations Dec. 1966 New York, NY USA Adopts the International Covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights Name of Conference, Meeting, Report etc. Name of Sponsoring Organization(s) DATES WHERE HELD? Main Focus; Summary of Work United Nations Conference on the Environment creates United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) United Nations 1972 Stockholm, SWEDEN First UN group on the Environment formed. The UNEP works to encourage sustainable development through sound environmental practices everywhere. Its activities cover a wide range of issues, from atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems, the promotion of environmental science and information, to an early warning and emergency response capacity to deal with environmental disasters and emergencies. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya; regional offices in Wash. DC, NY, Geneva, Bangkok, Mexico City, and Bahrain, West Asia. Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) (NATIONAL- USA) 1972 New York, NY USA Created this year. National Center that works ecumenically for justice in and through economic structures for stewardship of the earth and its resources. Comprised of 275 Protestant, Catholic and Jewish investors. 5th Assembly of the World Council of Churches World Council of Churches 1975 Nairobi, KENYA Environment. Call to "establish the conditions a 'just participatory and sustainable [global] society.'" "Faith, Science and the Future" World Council of Churches 1979 Mass. Institute of Technology (MIT) Cambridge, MA USA Environment. Follow-up Conference to 5th Assembly of WCC General Assembly United Nations 1981 New York, NY USA Adopts Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief Name of Conference, Meeting, Report etc. Name of Sponsoring Organization(s) DATES WHERE HELD? Main Focus; Summary of Work 6th Assembly of the World Council of Churches "Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation" World Council of Churches 1983 Vancouver, BC CANADA Focuses on the Environment. Summit on Religion and the Environment? World Wildlife Fund (WWF) 1986 Assisi, ITALY Attended by representatives of five world religions: Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and Sikhs, Bahais, Jains, and Taoists. The Assisi Declarations were created which established the interconnectedness between religious and environmental concerns. Interfaith Partnership for the Environment United Nations Environmental Programme, (UNEP) Regional Office of North America (RONA) 1986 New York, NY OR Washington, DC USA Met with UN to create an interfaith partnership project that would inform North American congregations about serious problems facing life on Earth. Treaty on the Protection of the Ozone Layer United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Sept. 1987 Montreal, CANADA Also known as the Montreal Protocol, built upon the work completed by the Vienna Convention on the Ozone Layer "Our Common Future" Brundtland Commission Report World Commission on Environment and Development 1987 Stockholm, SWEDEN Environment. Key Strategies of Sustainable Development (Report published by Oxford Press) Name of Conference, Meeting, Report etc. Name of Sponsoring Organization(s) DATES WHERE HELD? Main Focus; Summary of Work Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) 1988 Geneva, SWITZERLAND IPCC formed consisting of 2,600 leading experts to assess the science and economics of climate change. Its main objective was to assess scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to the understanding of human induced climate change, potential impacts of climate change and options for mitigation and adaptation. The IPCC is an intergovernmental body that provides advice to the world community. Worldwatch yearly magazine Reports Worldwatch Institute 1988 Washington, DC USA The journal is started which leads in 1999 to the first book. IPCC First Assessment Report UNEP and WMO United Nations 1990 Geneva, SWITZERLAND The Report played an important role in establishing the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by the UN General Assembly. See below. "Preserving and Cherishing the Earth: An Appeal for Joint Commitment in Science and Religion" Global Forum 1990 Moscow, RUSSIA Environment. Scientists urgently appeal to the world's religious communities to commit to preserve the environment of the Earth. 7th Assembly of the World Council of Churches: "Holy Spirit Renewing the Whole of Creation" World Council of Churches 1991 Canberra, AUSTRALIA Environment UN Conference on Environment and Development a.k.a. Earth Summit United Nations 1992 Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL Environment and Development. Name of Conference, Meeting, Report etc. Name of Sponsoring Organization(s) DATES WHERE HELD? Main Focus; Summary of Work "Letter to the Churches" World Council of Churches 1992 Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL Environment and Development. Called for attention to eco-justice concerns. UN Framework Convention on Climate Change United Nations 1992 New York, NY USA First meeting of the UN Framework Convention focused on Climate Change "The World Scientists' Warning to Humanity" Union of Concerned Scientists 1992 Cambridge, MA USA World is facing severe environmental crisis; new ethic required. Signed by more than 1,700 world's leading scientists from all over the world, including 200 Nobel Laureates. "The World Scientists' Warning to Humanity" was written and spearheaded by the late Henry Kendall, former chair of UCS's board of directors. UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) UNEP-WMO Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 1992 Bonn, GERMANY The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted in 1992 and entered into force in 1994. It provides the overall policy framework for addressing the climate change issue. World Council for Human Rights United Nations 1993 Vienna, AUSTRIA Meeting coincides with the International Year for the World's Indigenous People Conference Parliament of World Religions 1993 Chicago, IL USA Issued major statements on global ethics, stressing environmental issues and human rights. Conference Parliament of World Religions 1993 Cape town, SOUTH AFRICA Issued major statements on global ethics, stressing environmental issues and human rights. Name of Conference, Meeting, Report etc. Name of Sponsoring Organization(s) DATES WHERE HELD? Main Focus; Summary of Work UNEP-WMO Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) 1994 Geneva, SWITZERLAND See above. The LANDMARK REPORT concluded that "the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate." International Conference on Population and Development United Nations 1994 Cairo, EGYPT Population, sustained economic growth and sustainable development issues were the main agenda. Future of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 Marrakesh, MOROCCO Trade ministers meet for the final time under GATT auspices at Marrakesh, Morocco to establish the World Trade Organization and sign other agreements. Those parties decided to terminate the GATT 1947 as of 31 December 1995. The substance of GATT rules lives on since they are incorporated, with certain understandings, in the Marrakesh Agreement as GATT 1994. World Trade Organization (WTO) General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Jan., 1995 Geneva, SWITZERLAND The World Trade Organization is created in Geneva. The main differences between the WTO and the GATT are that GATT was a provisional legal agreement, whereas the WTO is an organization with permanent agreements. The WTO has members, GATT had only contracting parties. GATT dealt only with trade in goods, the WTO covers services and intellectual property as well. UN Framework on Climate Change United Nations 1997 Kyoto, JAPAN From whence the Kyoto Protocol was born; 2nd meeting. Name of Conference, Meeting, Report etc. Name of Sponsoring Organization(s) DATES WHERE HELD? Main Focus; Summary of Work "State of the World 1999 " Worldwatch Institute 1999 Washington, DC USA First Book of the Worldwatch Institute. Worldwatch is a non profit public policy research organization dedicated to informing policymakers and the public about emerging global problems and trends and the complex links between the world economy and its environmental support systems. World Trade Organization Annual Meeting World Trade Organization Dec. 1999 Seattle, WA USA Where the WTO Protestors caught the world's eye; WTO's mission is challenged and called into question. Labor, environment and other humanitarian groups demand that people and the environment be taken seriously. "Combating Climate Change" Campaign National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NATIONAL - USA) Dec. 1999 New York, NY USA NRPE made up of US Catholic Conference, National Council of Churches, evangelical Christian and Jewish organizations. "State of the World 2000" Worldwatch Institute 2000 Washington, DC USA See above. "Earth Charter Campaign" Earth Council; NGOs, international business groups and religious communities. June 29, 2000 : Hague, NETHERLANDS San Jose, Costa Rica based; Follow-up to Earth Summit; Consists of 16 key principles under four headings: respect and care for the community of life; ecological integrity; social and economic justice; and democracy, nonviolence and peace. UNEP-WMO Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) 2001 Accra, GHANA Nairobi, KENYA Third Report (TAR) Name of Conference, Meeting, Report etc. Name of Sponsoring Organization(s) DATES WHERE HELD? Main Focus; Summary of Work "State of the World 2001" Worldwatch Institute 2001 Washington, DC USA Worldwatch is a non profit public policy research organization dedicated to informing policymakers and the public about emerging global problems and trends and the complex links between the world economy and its environmental support systems. "Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good." United States Catholic Bishops Conference 2001 Washington, DC USA Followed Bishops letter and reports including Boston Bishops "And God Saw that it Was Good" and Bishops of the Pacific of the Northwest published "The Columbia Watershed: Caring for Creation and the Common Good." "Sustainable Development: Humanity's Biggest Challenge in the New Century" United Nations 2001 Dhaka, BANGLADESH President of the UN Kofi Annan statement "Earth Charter Endorsement" Earth Council brings to UN General Assembly 2002 New York, NY USA For approval of UN General Assembly on the 10th Anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) United Nations Aug, 26 - Sept. 4, 2002 Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA The WSSD brought together world leaders, concerned citizens, international agencies, multilateral financial institutions, and other major actors to assess global change since the historic United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) (also known as the Rio "Earth Summit"). "State of the World 2002" Worldwatch Institute 2002 Washington, DC USA See Above. VII. Bibliography Globalization Beyer, Peter. 1994. Religion and Globalization. London: Sage Publications. Cobb, John B., Jr. 1994. Sustaining the Common Good: A Christian Perspective on the Global Economy. Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press. Cobb, John B., Jr., ed. and The Mobilization for the Human Family. 2000. Religion and Politics: The Progressive Church Tackles Hot Topics. Claremont, CA: Pinch Publication Bigelow, Bill and Bob Peterson, eds. 2002. Rethinking Globalization: Teaching For Justice in an Unjust World. Milwaukee., WI: Rethinking Schools. Daly, Herman E. and John B. Cobb, Jr. 1989. For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future. Boston: Beacon Press. Duchrow, Ulrich. 1987. Global Economy: A Confessional Issue for Churches. Trans. By David Lewis. Geneva: WCC Publications. ________________. 1995. Alternatives to Global Capitalism: Drawn From Biblical History Designed for Political Action. Heidelberg, Germany: Kairos Europa. Hardt, Michael and Antonio Negri. Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Lechner, Frank J. and John Boli, eds. 2000. The Globalization Reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers Inc. Meeks, M. Douglas. 1989. God the Economist: The Doctrine of God and Political Economy. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press. Mofid, Kamran. 2002. Globalisation: For the Common Good. London: Shepheard-Walwyn (Publishers) Ltd. Singer, Peter. 2002. One World: The Ethics of Globalization. New Haven: Yale University Press. Stiglitz, Joseph E. 2002. Globalization and Its Discontents. New York: W.W. Norton and Company Van Drimmelen, Rob. 1998. Faith in a Global Economy: A Primer for Christians. Geneva: World Council of Churches Publications. Ecology and Ethics Barbour, Ian G. 2002. Nature, Human Nature and God. Theology and the Sciences Series. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress Press. Bassett, Libby, ed. & designer, and John T. Brinkman and Kusumita P. Pedersen Co-Editors. 2000. Earth and Faith: A Book of Reflection for Action. New York: United Nations Environment Programme. Boff, Leonardo. 1995. Ecology and Liberation: A New Paradigm. Trans. by John Cumming. Ecology and Justice Series. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. ______________. 1997. Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor. Trans. by Philip Berryman. Ecology and Justice Series. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. Hessel, Dieter T. and Larry Rasmussen, eds. 2001. Earth Habitat: Eco-Injustice and The Church's Response. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress. Hessel, Dieter T. and Rosemary Radford Ruether, eds. 2000. Christianity and Ecology: Seeking the Well-Being of Earth and Humans. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press for the Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2001. Climate Change 2001: Synthesis Report. {http://www.ipcc.ch/) Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Religion and Ecology: Can the Climate Change? National Research Council Committee on the Science of Climate Change, "Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions" (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2001.) Philander, S. George. "Global Warming: Risky Business," in Is the Temperature Rising? The Uncertain Science of Global Warming. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), 191-205. Tucker, Mary Evelyn and John Grim, eds. Daedalus. Vol. 130, no. 4 (Fall 2001). Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. White, Lynn, "The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis," Science vol. 155 no. 3767 (March 10, 1967): 1203-1207. Worldwatch Institute. 2001, 2002. State of the World: A Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress Toward a Sustainable Society: New York: WW Norton. Bibliography of Books to be Read on the Subject of Economic Globalization, Global Warming and Environmental Issues and the Church's Response Economics and Christian Theology to be Read: Barrera, Alvaro. 2001. Modern Catholic Social Documents and the Political Economy. Georgetown University Press: Washington DC. Benne, Robert. 1981. The Ethic of Democratic Capitalism: A Moral Reassessment. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. Charles, Rodger, SJ. 1998. Christian Social Witness and Teaching: The Catholic Tradition from Genesis to Centesimus Annus. (2 vols) Gracewing, Leominster. ___________________. 1999. An Introduction to Catholic Social Teaching. Oxford: Family Publication. Copeland, Warren R. 1998. Economic Justice: The Social Ethics of U.S. Economic Policy. Abingdon Press, Nashville. Danziger, Sheldon and Peter Gottschalk. 1995. America Unequal. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Duchrow, Ulrich, Martin Conway, Bob Goudzwaard & AnnCatherin Jarl. 2001. Next Steps towards a Comprehensive Jubilee: An Invitation to Churches and Ecumenical Groups in Western Europe. Heidelberg: World Council of Churches/World Alliance of Reformed Churches/Kairos Europa. Hicks, Douglas. 2000. Inequality and Christian Ethics. New Studies in Christian Ethics: Cambridge. Hutton, Will and Anthony Giddens. 2000. On the Edge: Living with Global Capitalism. London: Jonathan Cape. Long, D. Stephen. 2000. Divine Economy: Theology and the Market. London: Routledge. Marx, Karl. 1906. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Trans. by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling; ed. By Frederick Engels. New York: The Modern Library. Moltmann, Jurgen. 1999. God for a Secular Society: The Public Relevance of Theology. London: SCM Press. Pemberton, Prentiss L. and Daniel Rush Finn. 1995. Toward a Christian Social Ethic: Stewardship and Social Power. Winston Press, Minnesota. Potter, George Ann. 2000. Deeper than Debt: Economic Globalisation and the Poor. London: The Latin Bureau. Robb, Carol S. 1995. Equal Value: An Ethical Approach to Economics and Sex. Boston: Beacon Press. Redwood, John. 1993. The Global Marketplace: Capitalism and its Future. London: HarperCollins. Sen, AK. 1998. On Ethics and Economics. Oxford and New York: Basil Blackwell. Italian translation: Ed