Letter to Bicameral Task Force on Climate Change, February 21, 2013

Letter from Bishop Stephen E. Blaire, Chairman, Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development to Bicameral Task Force on Climate Change, February 21, 2013

At the request of Cardinal Dolan and as chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, I am responding to your letter dated January 31, 2013. We thank you for your leadership to address climate change and for the opportunity to share our suggestions for effective measures to address the moral and environmental challenges of climate change with this Bicameral Task Force. 

Effective measures to address climate change are urgent and necessary. Evidence continues to point toward significant damaging impacts from climate related events in the United States, across the globe, and particularly for the poorest developing countries.  Some poor nations and small island states already experience these impacts as a matter of survival for their people and cultures.

People living in poverty in communities served by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) already suffer the tragic consequences of climate change. Increasingly limited access to water, reduced crop yields, more widespread disease, and increased frequency and intensity of droughts and storms all make the lives of the world’s poorest people even more precarious. CRS, which supports projects in almost 100 countries, already assists many communities to adapt to the consequences of climate change. 

Letter-to-Bicameral-Task-Force-on-Climate-Change-2013-02-21.pdf