BELLS TO SOUND THE ALARM ON GLOBAL WARNING

The Ecological & Environmental Panel of the Church in Society Committee is calling on parish churches in Ireland to ring their bells as a warning about global warming on the Global Day of Action on Climate Change on 8 December. The call to ring the alarm is the Eco-panel's contribution to an international day of protest that coincides with the Bali talks on climate change. The aim of the action is to draw the issue to the attention of local politicians and call on them to do more about it.

At 2pm the bells of churches around Ireland will ring out to signal that the world must warm by no more than two degrees centigrade if mankind is to continue to live here with any level of comfort and safety. The directions for the bell ringing are included in the latest edition of 'Greening the Church', which may be found at this link (1.89MB pdf file).

In Dublin there will be an event, starting at 1pm, at the amphitheatre at the Civic Offices. A procession will move from here to the Custom House. A petition will be handed to a government representative, demanding strong political action to stop the planet burning and give us a future worth having.

Revd David Humphries, Chairman of the Ecological and Environmental Panel urges parishes to show their support by ringing their bells and by attending the public events. He says: "Global warming isn't just an international issue, it's something we should be engaged with at the national and local level too. We want to draw the attention of our politicians to this issue. But we also want parishes to become involved. Every member of the Church of Ireland has a part to play in ensuring the sustainability of our environment."

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