WHEREAS, The Earth’s climate is changing.  Our planet is getting warmer, the polar ice caps and glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, the oceans are getting warmer and more acidic, and

WHEREAS, Earth’s weather is becoming more unstable. We are seeing unprecedented hurricanes, droughts, floods & fires, and

WHEREAS, these changes are having disastrous effects on the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. Species are going extinct. Crops are failing, diseases are spreading, populations of seafood are crashing, and

WHEREAS, these changes often have the strongest effect on people who are least able to cope with them: the poor and people living a subsistence existence, and

WHEREAS, scientists agree that the primary cause is that we are burning fossil fuels (coal, petroleum and natural gas), which release vast quantities of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) into our atmosphere; CO2 is a greenhouse gas that traps the Sun’s heat, warming the planet, and

WHEREAS, the burning of fossil fuels exacts a toll on our health, especially children, the elderly and those with weak respiratory systems, and

WHEREAS, scientists say that we have at most 10 years to stop emitting CO2 if we are to have a livable world to pass on to our descendants, and

WHEREAS, economists on all sides of the political spectrum, including those in energy companies, agree that the best way to reduce carbon emissions is to add a fee onto fossil fuels, thereby making them more expensive, thus encouraging us all to switch to a renewable energy economy, and

WHEREAS, the best way to avoid burdening lower income people is to pass the fees directly back to all citizens as a monthly dividend. People who switch to renewable energy would receive the dividend without paying the fees and come out ahead, and

WHEREAS, switching to renewable energy would create many more jobs, better health and increase our national security, therefore

Be it resolved: that the congregation of the Chalice Unitarian Universalist Fellowship demands Congress to immediately pass legislation to drastically reduce our nation’s carbon emissions by legislation such as The Energy Innovation & Carbon Dividend Act H.R. #763, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: that the congregation of the Chalice Unitarian Universalist Fellowship demands our country to immediately rejoin the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.