Community & Social Concerns
social action networks

Our national organization, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, is a hub of activity for social justice and action. If you visit uua.org you will find a wide variety of information on current national & international congregational activities. (It will take a few moments to load on a dial-up connection.)

An Open Letter: Dear Church Members, we have missed quite a lot of Sundays lately in part due to our work on climate action issue and, as a result, being over-extended. We will eventually find our way back but in the meanwhile we wanted to share the message below. We recently sent it to members and friends of the WNY Climate Action Coalition. It outlines ways to address the global warming issue which we believe would be of interest to church members. The resolution could be endorsed by the board or congregation as well as by any group you are a member of. The handout can be printed up and distributed or circulated widely electronically. We appreciate your help in this urgent matter. Walter and Nan Simpson

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Many of you on our Western New York Climate Action Coalition e-mail list (there are 500 of us altogether on the list) signed up after seeing "An Inconvenient Truth" at a local theater. The film was inspiring or disturbing enough for you to want to do something about global warming. Now "An Inconvenient Truth" is up for an academy award and Al Gore has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on this problem. Gore, perhaps more than anyone, has raised this issue and changed the way Americans view it. As he said, the debate is over. It time to be active, to make a difference before it is too late.

How late is it? Well apparently pretty late . . . but not too late. Earlier this month, the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) released its Fourth Assessment on the global warming problem. The report stated that there is even more certainty that global warming is human-caused and that if greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere are allowed to reach twice their pre-industrial level of 280 parts per million (projected to happen just past mid-century if we don't adopt a different energy path) the Earth's atmosphere will warm by an additional 4 to 8 degrees with catastrophic results.

Our mission Al Gore said was to help people abandon denial for action (and not go from denial to despair).

What can you do? Set up showings of An Inconvenient Truth in your living room for friends and family or for groups. The DVD is available easily and cheaply through Amazon.com. Or to borrow a copy of the DVD for your showing, contact the UB Green environmental library at 220 Winspear Avenue, UB South Campus. Please call 829-3535 (weekdays, 9 – 5 p.m.) or e-mail ubgreen@facilities.buffalo.edu We have just stocked up on copies of the DVD as well as Gore's book so please make use of them.

There are other opportunities to get involved. The WNY Climate Action Coalition has committees working on political and legislative action as well as community education on global warming.
This is the website for Gore's The Climate Project, http://www.theclimateproject.org/

This is the website for the summary of the IPCC's latest report: http://daemen.edu/~byoung/IPCCSummary.pdf

Please let us know of the actions you take. Some feedback would be greatly appreciated. Also, if you need help, please let us know. Thanks for joining us in this important endeavor.
Nan and Walter Simpson
For the WNY Climate Action Coalition
enconser@acsu.buffalo.edu

UU-UN News –
August 2008
A terrible tragedy has struck Myanmar - formerly called Burma. On 3 May 2008, cyclone Nargis hit that beleaguered UN member state. As a result of this disaster, around 2.4 million people remain homeless and hungry and at least 134,000 others are dead or missing. Unfortunately, the country is currently ruled by an uncooperative military junta. For about 5 years they have had pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest. UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, and many others have pleaded with the junta to change its ill-conceived policies, but to no avail. Consequently, hardly any relief aid can enter the country and the plight of the cyclone victims keeps deteriorating. The voice of the international community must compel the junta to change its irrational ways and also set free Ms. Suu Kyi.

The military junta is also causing additional problems. Human rights groups have criticized the junta for forcing cyclone victims out of their shelters and thereby making it even harder for them to receive the aid they need. U.S. Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, has said that the junta's blockage of aid has cost "tens of thousands of lives." Anupama Rao Singh, the regional director of UNICEF, has depicted a grim picture of the worsening situation in Myanmar. The military government wants the world to believe that the emergency period is over and no more foreign aid is needed. In reality, the junta does not want the world to closely scrutinize its brutal ways.

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has called the military government "deaf and dumb" over its refusal to accept outside help. Something must be done if a worse catastrophe is to be averted. The voice of the international community must be heard and the junta must be compelled to act in a rational, humanitarian way. – David Slive, UN Envoy

March 2008
In the September 2007 issue of the UN Chronicle there is an important article about racism and human rights. It is entitled "Looking Beyond Durban." It was written by Louise Arbour, the current UN high Commissioner for Human Rights.
Opposition to racial discrimination is derived from the basic concept of human rights. From its inception, the UN has adopted a framework for eradicating racism. The UN's 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights is explicitly opposed to racism. The 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimi-nation and the Durban Declaration add further UN opposition to this basic human rights violation.
In 2001in Durban, South Africa, the international community organized the 3rd World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance to respond to the various contemporary manifestations of racism and other forms of intolerance. The conference agreed on tougher programs of action to eradicate these hideous social cancers. Nevertheless, the international community is still far from eradi-cating racism. Underpinning this phenomenon is an ingrained suspicion against difference. Anti- racist education is one of the best ways to eliminate this evil and promote social progress.
It is important to celebrate the fact that diversity enriches the human family. The Durban Declara-tion and Program of Action provides all UN member states with a means for implementing this anti-racist agenda. In 2009, the UN has called for a Durban Review Conference to determine what progress has been made in eradicating all forms of racism. – David Slive, UN Envoy

February 2008
There is an extremely important article about the United Nations relationship to Africa in the March 2007 issue of the UN Chronicle. It is written by Patrick Hayford, the Director of the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa.
Africa is an extremely impoverished continent, the former object of European colonialism. Mr Ban Ki -moon has stated that the status of Africa would be one of his highest priorities as Secretary General. The resolution of the crises in Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo area also extremely important to him. Indeed, Mr Ban Ki-moon has selected Asha-Rose Migiro of Tanzania as the UN Deputy Secretary General.
Africa remains at the center of the UN agenda. The UN desires to promote the peace, security and development of Africa. The stability of this continent is vital to world peace. The UN has many peacekeeping forces stationed there. Despite all the United Nations work in Africa, the general sense is that more needs to be done to resolve Africa's problems and crises. Of great concern is that the international community's response to Africa's crises is currently insuffi-cient. The UN Security Council needs to be more involved in promoting peace, security and development in this large but generally forgotten continent. At present, African countries are incapable of solving their own problems. African needs the help of the international community and it needs to be adequately represented on the UN Security Council.
The 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade is a time for reflection and action. Until Africa rises to its true stature, its status will continue to remain at the center of the UN agenda. – David Slive, UN Envoy
January 2008
In the March issue of the UN Chronicle there is an important article on the Secretary-General's agenda for disarmament. It was written by Natalie J. Goldring. Dr. Goldring is a Senior Fellow in the Center for Peace and Security Studies and an Adjunct Full Professor in the Security Studies Program in the Edmund O. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Dr. Goldring suggests four overriding themes that will effect the United Nations' ability to deal with this issue: the international security and disarmament agenda;
the need for a strong institutional structure supporting disarmament;
the danger of relying on consensus decision-making;
and the impotance of the UN being engaged in active partnership with non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
The international security and disarmament agenda: Critical disarmament treaties are in danger of unravelling. Preserving the non-proliferation regime is extremely important. Some nations remain outside the 1968 UN Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). The NPT is in grave danger because nuclear-weapon states are not fully behind it.
The need for a strong institutional structure for disarmament: The UN lacks a strong infrastructure supporting universal disarmament. The UN is at an important historic juncture and its capacity to promote universal disarmament must be strengthened. Consensus should not require unanimity. "Seeking consensus is is admirable; seeking unanimity is unrealistic."
Unfortunately, the U.S. has often obstructed progress on this issue and this must not prevent the UN from proceeding toward universal disarmament. NGOs must also be more active in promoting disarmament. Without their help, the United Nations' goal of achieving universal disarmament will be greatly hindered. Global progress in all these areas depends on the Secretary-General's leadership.
– David Slive, UN Envoy

December 2007
6 June 2007 at the G-8 summit in Heiligen-damm, Germany, all eight member states agreed that climate change must be addressed within the framework of the United Nations. The following observations were made by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. They can be found in the latest issue of the UN Chronicle entitled "Green Our World."
A new global climate change treaty is needed when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Only the U.S. government opposed mandatory emission reduction targets. A new treaty should be ready by 2009. The members of the G-8 summit agreed on two basic facts: that the existence of global warming is incontrovertible and that human activity is its principal cause. Global greenhouse gas emissions - especially carbon dioxide (CO ) - must be greatly reduced.
Wealthy nations, according to Mr Ban Ki-moon, are much better prepared to deal with this problem than their poor counterparts. It is extremely important for the entire world to address this planetary crisis: there is no time for meaningless academic debates. The Secretary-General convened a special high level meeting in NYC on 24 September 2007 to make this point crystal clear. "Climate change, and how we address it, will define us, our era and ultimately the global legacy we leave for future generations." The United Nations must ensure that global warming does not render the human family extinct. David Slive, UN Envoy