In the same week that the Anglican Communion became the first global religious body to recognize a climate crisis, the Episcopal-led National Religious Coalition on Creation Care (NRCCC) released its own set of dire warnings and bold remedies at its most recent annual gathering in Washington, DC.

Amplifying similar statements made by various Christian and Jewish denominations across the country, this “Religious Declaration of Unprecedented Human Emergency” highlights the extremely short window in which elected officials must now act to avert a thousand years of irreversible climate chaos. Pulling no punches on human-created climate change, the report reads, “we will significantly alter the future of civilization as we know it and may eventually cause its collapse if we continue down this path.” Quoting climate economist Ross Garnaut, the report says that decisions made now could “haunt humanity until the end of time.”

The report continues: “Decades of delay on climate action have made small corrective measures and incremental approaches useless… Those who are invested in maintaining the status quo, or who put forth proposals that are clearly incompatible with what climate science demands, are condemning innocent young people – including their own children and generations to come – to a future of unimaginable suffering: the mass death of human populations and the extinction of species.”

But here’s the Declaration’s true moral kicker: “Further delay in addressing climate change is a radical evil that as people of faith we vigorously oppose...READ MORE