Source: www.hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI, INDIA, July 5, 2009: Politicians may have achieved little consensus on stopping global warming, but religious leaders are moving quickly.
Some proposals make religious texts available on recycled paper, food in gurudwaras will be cooked in solar-powered kitchens, and places of worship around the world will install waste recycling and water-harvesting systems. Islamic leaders are expected to announce that the Haj pilgrimage will be green starting next year and environment studies will be taught in religious schools, and Pope Benedict XVI has just released an encyclical — a statement — that mentions the environment.
Some measures have already been taken. Sri Venkateshwara Temple in Tirupati, Sai Baba Temple in Shirdi, and the Golden Temple in Amritsar already use solar-powered kitchens — apparently the world’s largest — to prepare lunch for devotees, and churches in England and southern India have developed seven-year plans to save the environment.
Olav Kjorven, head of the United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) international policy division on the environment, points out, “Religious bodies are the world’s biggest civil society and they can make a huge impact on the fight against climate change.”