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University of Michigan's Erb Institute Announces ''Religious Perspectives on Climate Change''

Posted on: Wednesday, 3 October 2007, 12:00 CDT

The Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan today announced that it will sponsor "Religious Perspectives on Climate Change," a one-day conference on Friday, Oct. 19, that will bring together nationally known leaders in religion, academia, business and politics to discuss religious beliefs as they pertain to nature and the environment and how environmental issues, particularly climate change, can be impacted through personal belief systems that are transformed into action.

The morning session will feature Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale University, co-founder and co-director, Forum on Religion and Ecology, as keynote. Session participants represent a broad religious spectrum and will explore the environmental crisis and climate change as an article of religious faith. They will consider issues such as whether individuals have missed the Genesis mandate and how belief systems inform our moral responsibilities to address climate change.

The Reverend Sally Bingham, president, The Regeneration Project, will keynote the afternoon session. Participants will discuss the impact of turning religious beliefs into activism through lifestyle changes, engagement with city government, influencing developments in federal policy and, at the most personal level, through investing based on a socially responsible strategy.

"The question of how our religious beliefs impact our relationship to the environment has never been more relevant than in these times of great concern about the future of our world and our global climate," said Andrew Hoffman, Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise, Ross School of Business and conference chairman. "Our conference will bring together representatives of the Catholic, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Protestant faiths to discuss these major moral questions and to hear from political, business and academic leaders on how to turn those beliefs into every day actions that could drive major social change."

Conference participants include the Rev. Charles Morris, executive director, Michigan Interfaith Power and Light; Dr. Calvin DeWitt, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Dr. Christopher Key Chapple, Loyola Marymount University; Imam Achmat Salie, Islamic Studies Program, Oakland University; Rabbi Nathan Martin, Assistant Director, University of Michigan Hillel; and Dr. Larry Rasmussen, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics, emeritus, Union Theological Seminary; Danielle Conroyd, IHM Sisters; the Honorable George Hartwell, Mayor of the City of Grand Rapids; Prof. John Dernbach, Widener University School of Law; and Leslie H. Lowe, Energy & Environment Program Director, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.

The Conference will be held at Weill Hall, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, The University of Michigan, 735 South State Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Registration for the conference is available online through the Erb Institute Web page http://www.erb.umich.edu.

About the Frederick A. and Barbara M. Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise

Created in 1996, the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise is a 50-50 partnership between the School of Natural Resources and Environment and the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. The Institute fosters professional education, public outreach and scientific scholarship supportive of the transition to sustainability -- that is, meeting the fundamental needs of a growing human population in an equitable manner within the means of nature. Utilizing a collaborative approach, the Institute helps business, government and civil society organizations to achieve meaningful progress toward sustainability. Its mission is be a premier source of knowledge and leadership for the achievement of environmentally, economically and socially sustainable development and enterprise

Source: Business Wire

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