Interfaith Scotland Scottish Interfaith Week 2015 Care for

Interfaith Scotland Scottish Interfaith Week 2015 Care for the Environment

Climate Change What is climate change? • Caused by build up of greenhouse gases (CO 2, Ozone, etc) • These trap heat in the earths atmosphere – known as the greenhouse effect • Over time, there has been a considerable build up of greenhouse gases which scientists state is caused by human behavior

• This is because the earth has stores of CO 2 which humans have been exploiting and releasing back into the atmosphere • The CO 2 has been stored in vegetation and fossil fuels • Humans have found that burning these can produce heat and energy • Since the industrial revolution, the levels of CO 2 released from these stores has increased significantly • The more of these quantities there are in the atmosphere, the more heat gets trapped

What does all this mean? Climate change has many aspects • Most visible is the increase in frequency in extreme weather events such as floods, tornadoes, typhoons and hurricanes • We can’t pin one of these events down to climate change, but what we can do is look at the frequency and severity in which they occur • Glaciers are melting • Sea levels are rising

What does climate change affect? • It affects us all differently • SCCS ran a campaign called For the Love of… which asked people the issue that they cared about that was affected by climate change • Here are some of their responses:

For the love of everything that makes life worth living and to ensure a future for my children and grandchildren. Philip, Dunbar Scotland's coasts are vitally important to the population of north Atlantic seabirds and they are already under severe pressures due to climate change. Jean, Glasgow Here’s what I love that is affected by climate change: I love my children! Lucy, Edinburgh As a probationer minister in the Church of Scotland, I view looking after the world as important as feeding the hungry through foodbanks, as climate change will affect the world's ability, particularly the world's poorest, to feed itself. Susan, Fife The Isle of Tiree and other coastal communities all round the world Liz, Glasgow

Another World is Possible • We already have many of the solutions • Moving to renewable sources of energy can lead to a safer, cleaner world • It’s not going to be easy, but it can have a lot of benefits • For example, air pollution in Scotland kills thousands of people prematurely

Global Action • At the end of the year, world leaders meet in Paris to agree a global agreement on how to act • This has to be ambitious and binding • The summit has to learn from previous failures – spanning 20 years!

National Action • We have to decarbonise our energy system • We need to leave some of our fossil fuel reserves in the ground • We need to share our knowledge with other nations

Local Action • Every school, hospital, place of worship has a responsibility to take action to make their buildings more ‘eco-friendly’ • A good resource for this is the Interfaith Scotland booklet, ‘Our Sacred Earth’ which is available in the resources section on our website for good tips and hints

Personal Action • Transport - Active travel such as walking /cycling, using public transport and flying less • Home - Turn down heating • Food - Eating locally sourced food • Demand action from our political leaders at the Paris Summit - Join ‘The People’s Climate March’ on the 28 th of November in Edinburgh - It may be for different reasons that we are all there, but we have one common goal – care for our shared environment