Living the Change calls upon people of all faiths and religious backgrounds to lead the charge in making responsible lifestyle choices in order to preserve the world’s most precious resources and to reduce the acceleration of climate change by making “faithful choices for a flourishing world”. Part of making “faithful choices” is committing to three key pledges:
- reducing the consumption of meat
- limiting fossil fuel use by limiting air and car transportation
- switching to renewable sources of energy such as solar power
Celebrating an eco-conscious lifestyle
The goal of the Living the Change campaign is to limit the amount of harmful emissions produced by our activities. In addition, special events will be held in October to celebrate collective success in reducing emissions.
Thea Ormerod, the President of ARRCC, had this to say in a recent press release.
“We are excited to be promoting Living the Change in Australia. Everywhere people are feeling the impacts of climate disruption and time is running out for effective action to put the brakes on. While we do need to keep up the pressure for structural change, we are not restricted to helplessly waiting for politicians to act. Ordinary people and communities have the power to do something about their own carbon footprint and thereby help to protect our common home.”
The Living the Change initiative started in the United States and was conceived of by a multi-faith organisation called GreenFaith. According to its website, “GreenFaith believes that all people deserve a healthy environment, regardless of their race or income.”
Living the Change has grown into a global initiative which partners with a number of different faith traditions. The ARRCC join the Bhumi Project, the Global Catholic Climate Movement, Global Muslim Climate Network, Hazon, One Earth Sangha, World Council of Churches, and the World Evangelical Alliance in this global movement.
The Director of the Berlin arm of Living the Change, Caroline Bader said: “This is the first time in history that such a broad coalition of religious organisations from around the world in cooperating to promote sustainable lifestyles and behaviour change. We are convinced that, together, we can bring our commitments to scale, and work towards a flourishing world.”
A significant decline in carbon dioxide emissions
Living the Change is underpinned by the findings of scientist, Kevin Anderson.
In his research, Kevin hypothesised that “if the world’s top 10% of carbon emitters were to cut their emissions to the level of the average European Union citizen, global emissions would decline by 33%.”
To learn more about Living the Change, visit their website.