What a difference a year has made in our understanding of global warming and the public's perception. At the UU General Assembly 2005 in Fort Worth while presenting a global warming workshop with Reverend Craig Scott, I fielded questions about the "hockey stick" graphic, touted by industry-supported skeptics to confuse the public. Now skeptics have begun dropping away as the effects of global warming around the world have become obvious.

In the past year we've learned that global warming is coming on faster and stronger than predicted. Dr. James E. Hansen, NASA's chief climatologist, who the Administration tried to muzzle, said that our climate models were inadequate considering the recent onset of the rapid melting of the Greenland Icecap and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Little-understood positive feedback mechanisms may be at play. Also we learned that hundreds of millions of the poorest could lose their lives and many more their land and livelihoods during this century.

With solid evidence at hand, will the United States government now take steps to reduce greenhouse gases by the 60-80% required to bring the gathering planetary holocaust under control? Apparently not. Without the leadership of the United States, that produces more than one quarter of world's greenhouse gases, most other nations will not respond adequately and in time.

Unbridled corporate wealth and influence pervades our election process, the development of regulations and legislation, and the general media. Exxon along with US automakers are presently funding global warming skeptics who have often been successful at sowing misinformation. The White House, until exposed by the New York Times in June 2005, allowed the former chief climate lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute to change government science reports, downplaying global warming. Unaccountable for ecosystem destruction and social chaos, the global economic system is unsustainable and is headed toward general collapse unless significant changes are made.

In the past few months the public has been exposed to news stories and documentaries on global warming. Polling in early 2006 indicated that 85% of Americans think global warming is probably happening. Nearly half of respondents see it as extremely important, but more than half believe global warming is a problem not of the present but of the future. Chances are that Unitarians have similar views.

After we pass a strong Statement of Conscience on Global Warming in St. Louis in June 2006, where do we go from there? What needs to be done to get the United States government, our institutions, our businesses, and our fellow citizens to act?

Practice green living. Expand and intensify green lifestyles at home, at church, and at our workplaces, eliminating wasteful consumption.

Educate ourselves. Continue educating ourselves and spread the word about global warming and other environmental crises in our sermons, presentations, film festivals, and environmental writing.

Reign in corporate power. We must join efforts to move multi-national corporations and financial institutions toward greener practices using stockholder action and targeted boycotts. We must work to limit corporate money in the election process and corporate influence in formulating public policy.

Get Political. Government and business leaders have recognized the presence but not the urgency of global warming. We must build on recent momentum, joining with politically visible groups to demand immediate action. Write and call your elected officials to support global warming efforts and legislation.

Can we, the people of Earth, make it through the bottleneck of consumerism, overpopulation, and ecocide to emerge with a new ethic which values life, all life, on the planet? We now know that we must work with one another around the world to create not only planetary sustainability but a life-affirming spirituality, each in his and her own way.