In an interview with the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, broadcast Tuesday Mar. 28, Dr Rowan Williams described climate change as an “enormous problem”.
“It's a huge practical problem, it's a huge moral problem,” he said, before quoting the calculations of the International Energy Agency which predicted a 60 per cent rise in carbon emissions over the next quarter of a century with the expansion of the Indian and Chinese economies.
“Unless we are able to effect serious concrete reductions immediately, the problem really is vast,” said Dr Williams.
He went on to warn that if sea levels rise according to predictions over the next couple of decades then any possible agricultural development in areas like the Indian sub-continent will be “completely undermined by that”.
Unless we are able to effect serious concrete reductions immediately, the problem really is vast.
Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams
“So yes, there is moral question here, it's a question if you define morality as something which looks beyond just the interests of yourself and your immediate neighbours, then it is, I think, a profoundly immoral policy and lifestyle that doesn't consider those people who don't happen to share the present moment with us,” he said.
Dr Williams also warned that the moral responsibility to deal with climate change “lies with absolutely everybody, not only in terms of examining our own lifestyle and asking what concretely can be done, but also in sending a message to governments that this is recognised as a priority by the public”.
He said that educating people about this priority was in itself a ‘real priority’, adding that “the urgency has to be conveyed to people”.
