CHICAGO - Pope Francis' call last month to "protect the planet" was heard and is being heeded in Chicago's Catholic Archdiocese. The Chicago Office for Peace and Justice announced the Archdiocese will now be keeping track of energy usage and their properties' carbon emission footprint, among other energy awareness projects.
Last Friday, Archbishop Blase J. Cupich and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Gina McCarthy co-authored an op-ed for the Chicago Sun-Times, declaring the urgency of new climate change policies put into effect throughout the Chicago area's Catholic circles. In the piece, entitled "We have a moral obligation on climate change," they write:
The pope’s encyclical is a call to action. The Archdiocese of Chicago has partnered with the EPA’s Energy Star program, as it works to make its operations more sustainable and efficient.
With this step, the Archdiocese of Chicago became the first U.S. archdiocese to commit to benchmarking and tracking its energy, water, and emissions performance. We are already seeing the results in energy savings and carbon footprint impact as creation care is promoted in communities across Lake and Cook counties. The hope is that congregations across the nation will be encouraged to join this effort to promote environmentally important behavior by way of education and education through action.
Under the Sustainable Chicago 2015 Action Agenda, the city has made remarkable progress toward an ambitious set of goals for climate action. Through programs such as the Retrofit Chicago Commercial Buildings Initiative, buildings all across the city are seeing gains in energy efficiency, and millions of dollars in savings. The Chicago Solar Express project is on track to bring clean, affordable solar power to hundreds of homes and businesses.
That’s exactly the kind of innovation that the EPA hopes to accelerate with its Clean Power Plan, which will be finalized later this summer. By dramatically reducing the carbon pollution from power plants that causes climate change, as well as the soot and smog that come with it, the proposed Clean Power Plan will protect our children from 100,000 asthma attacks, and help the U.S. avoid nearly 2,100 heart attacks — and that’s in 2030 alone.
And concluded with:
A month ago, Pope Francis asked, “What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up?”
We all know the answer, and that’s why we’re working together — faith leaders, public officials and private citizens — to make it a reality.
