Earth Day provides an opportunity to reflect on our relationship with the planet and celebrate our passion for a healthy environment. Recently, more faith groups are joining in this dialogue. As environmental messages ring from pulpits and the ‘go green’ mantra is chanted worldwide, faith communities are providing a new moral mandate in the green movement.

Diana Cartwright of Ottawa, Canada is a founding member of Faith and the Common Good (FCG), a national not-for-profit group that brings faith communities together on environmental initiatives.

“There’s many ways that religion motivates people in a very positive way,” says Cartwright, an Environment Canada employee and member of the Bahá’i faith. “When [environmental action] is within a faith context, and people feel it’s part of the moral mandate, they’re more likely to act on it.”

Cartwright is part of a growing global movement that sees faith and environmentalism as inextricably linked. By taking a closer look at religious teachings and working together on campaigns, faith-based environmental groups like FCG are reaching new sectors of society and providing insight into the current environmental crisis.

Various religious leaders have begun to take notice and become more vocal. Last year, the Vatican pronounced environmental pollution to be a sin; the United Church of Canada has also asked its members to stop buying bottled water, due to the excessive use of plastic and processing this sector requires.

While political regulations like the Kyoto Protocol can demand signatories to cut greenhouse gas emissions, members of groups like FCG put their confidence in sparking change on an individual basis – and hope for a trickle-up effect.

“The government can only move so far as it feels people will vote for them,” Cartwright explains.

“So we can’t just blame the government,” Cartwright says. “It’s really all of us who have a responsibility to change things, and recognize our moral responsibility to other people on this planet.” Cartwright says she converted to Bahaism after becoming frustrated with the limitations of traditional political structures; Bahá’is believe that humanity is facing a spirituality crisis due to division by race and religion.

In a similar way, Christians see themselves as stewards of the earth. As they seek to care for God’s creation, and are faced with the urgent message of environmental degradation, they begin to understand the consequences of a life based on material possession.

“When we’re looking at environmental sins, to me, it’s fundamental issue of: ‘do I love my God, do I love my neighbour, by how I act?” says John Dorner, a volunteer with the Archdiocese of Canada and a member of the Ottawa FCG. When seen in a global context, Dorner explains, greed and gluttony not only inflict harm on an individual, but also “cause suffering” in vulnerable areas around the world.

This action-based approach is one that is vehemently supported by Ian Prattis, a Buddhist teacher at Pine Gate Sangha in Ottawa and a retired Carleton University professor. He explains that just because Buddhism emphasizes meditation doesn’t mean it is disconnected from contemporary environmental issues.

“When we [meditate], we become aware of the consequences of our actions,” Prattis says. In this way, Buddhism and environmentalism are “totally inter-related.”

Clearly, faith communities are a strong force in the push to ‘go green.’ By tapping into the moral mandate of environmental protection in most religions, groups like FCG remind members of their earthly responsibilities and provide hope amidst the doomsday scenarios of the current environmental crisis.