Climate Change a Crisis of Conscience for All Canadians

TORONTO , Jan. 17 /CNW/ - Mardi Tindal, the Moderator of Canada's largest Protestant denomination, The United Church of Canada , today issued an open letter to Canadians calling on them to consider climate change a crisis of conscience.

In the letter Tindal urges Canadians "to choose hope and action over despair and paralysis" in addressing what she calls "one of the most urgent moral challenges in human history."

"I believe this is a unique time in humanity's fretful reign on Earth, a rare moment that will have historic significance," writes Tindal in the letter that was written after she returned from the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this past December.

She returned to Canada bitterly disappointed with the outcome of the negotiations.

"Our moment of opportunity came and then went, and here we are now, the fate of civilization and of millions of the planet's life forms hanging by the frayed thread of inaction," she writes in the letter titled "Where Is the Hope after Copenhagen ?"

Tindal believes this is a transformative moment in the planet's history and that "the world will be shaped by how we and our communities respond in the months to come."

The complete text of Tindal's letter is posted on The United Church of Canada's website (www.united-church.ca).

For further information: or to arrange media interviews, please contact: Mary-Frances Denis, Program Coordinator, Media and Public Relations, The United Church of Canada, Tel: [phone] ext. 2016, Cell: [phone], E-mail: [email protected]