A Letter from Bill McKibben

Dear Friends,

From very ancient times, walking on pilgrimage has been a deep part of the spiritual experience. And in recent decades, of course, it's also been a way to win political change, from the plains of India to the highways of the American South. This spring, I hope you'll be able to join people from around the Northeast in a walk across Massachusetts to urge action on the most pressing problem of our era, the rapid onset of climate change.

Religious Witness for the Earth is inviting everyone who can walk--whether for a city block or a mile, whether for a day, a weekend, or the whole 9 days--to join in a public pilgrimage to express the moral and spiritual urgency of addressing global warming. People will be walking because stopping climate change is a way to honor the sacredness of God's creation and to recognize our responsibility to future generations and to the poor. As global warming worsens, poor people throughout the world will be its first victims, for they are already living on the margins and ill-equipped to flee or mitigate the damage. It's time for religious voices to ring out in defense of creation and our most vulnerable neighbors.

Hundreds of us staged a similar walk across Vermont last summer, and it was dusty, sweaty, blister-inducing--and also joyful and life-changing. We finally felt that we were doing something about this scourge. And indeed, by the last day, we had convinced all the candidates for federal office in the state to sign on to ambitious climate change legislation. One conservative congressional candidate, who only a month before had said she wasn't sure global warming was real, emerged as a champion of the issue throughout her campaign; our new Senator was subsequently asked to serve on both the Energy and Environment committees.

We turned out a thousand people for the final day of that walk--the largest single protest yet held in this country on climate change. That's a record that needs to be broken, and very soon. We have only a few years to try and deal with this crisis, and only our hearts (and our feet) with which to fight the enormous wealth and power of the special interests on the other side. But it is possible. When you walk, you will feel that hope building with every step!

Sincerely,

Bill McKibben

The Interfaith Walk is sponsored by Religious Witness for the Earth.