Evangelical leaders mobilize against global warming

WASHINGTON -- A group of 85 evangelical Christian leaders yesterday backed legislation opposed by the White House to cut carbon dioxide emissions, kicking off a campaign to mobilize religious conservatives to combat global warming.

The group, which included megachurch pastors, Christian college presidents, religious broadcasters, and writers, also unveiled a full-page advertisement to run in today's New York Times and a television ad it hopes to screen nationally.

''With God's help, we can stop global warming for our kids, our world, and our Lord," the television spot declared.

The campaign by evangelicals coincided with a call yesterday by a leading US think tank for the United States to take immediate steps to fight global warming, including working with other nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Pew Center for Global Climate Change said in a report that America has waited too long to seriously tackle the climate change problem and spelled out 15 steps the United States could take to reduce emissions it spews as the world's biggest energy consumer and producer of greenhouse gases.

''This transition will not be easy, but it is crucial to begin now," the Pew Center said. ''Further delay will only make the challenge before us more daunting and more costly."

The campaign by the evangelical leaders represented a possible split in President Bush's political base, in which Christian evangelical voters are heavily represented.

However, the names of most of the president's most influential Christian political backers were notably absent from the list of signatories joining the campaign. Possibly the best-known signer was Rick Warren, author of the best-selling book, ''The Purpose Driven Life."

Mirroring a proposal by the Pew Foundation, the leaders called on Congress to pass laws to create a trading system that would spur companies to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, which scientists say is a major cause of global warming.

One such bill, The Climate Stewardship Act, first introduced in 2003 by Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Senator Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, would require that US emissions return to their 2000 levels by 2010.

The United States, with around 5 percent of the world's population, accounts for a quarter of its greenhouse gases and US emissions rose by two percentage points in 2004 alone, according to government figures.