One of the six core beliefs of the Quaker Faith is STEWARDSHIP – To Protect and care for the Earth in a sacred trust.
Annapolis Friends Meeting Minute – On Zero Fossil Fuel Use
Adopted by AFM in 2021
MINUTE Annapolis Friends Meeting, having studied the dangers of climate change and embracing our faith that calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves, joins with Quakers and other people of faith: -to live according to our convictions and to learn how to eliminate our own fossil fuel consumption as soon as possible; -to call upon our governments and our power companies to abandon of all incomplete infrastructural designed to generate or distribute fossil based electrical power, including all planned, and not-yet operating infrastructural investments; and -to reach out to our brothers and sisters in other nations to seek as soon as possible a worldwide ban on any greater fossil-fuel generation. We recognize that such a worldwide ban may impact most severely those nations, such as China and India that have major fossil fuel infrastructure planned and under construction. Therefore, we call upon our economists, diplomats, and our representatives in the United Nations to devise plans to mitigate this loss and to assist in the international transition to clean energy sources. What clean energy alternatives will prove the best replacement for our toxic tradition of fossil fuels? Could solar, wind, ocean-hydropower, and geothermal reach the level of efficiency needed? Could greater energy efficiency in our homes, our transportation, and, even, our military make a difference? Could the next generation of safer nuclear power with molten salt reactors be adopted? Could clean biofuels decentralize our current production models? We cannot foresee the details of this future. But, we cannot avoid knowing the continuation of human life and the natural world requires these steps.
The Minute is followed by recommended actions…