A US environmental group, the Evangelical Environmental Network, that previously had a fairly low profile has launched a campaign of radio advertisements targeted against three Republican members of the US Congress who are pro-life and who are active in trying to prevent the US Environmental Protection Agency from implementing new rules against mercury emissions from power plants. The theme of the advertisements is summarized by a sentence in one of the advertisements “I can’t understand why Congressman [Ed Whitfield] is fighting to stop the E.P.A. from enforcing its plans specifically meant to protect the unborn by cleaning up dangerous mercury pollution.”

The campaign has real potential to impact the US coal-burning electricity industry by encouraging the EPA to proceed with its mercury rules and by defeating the push in Congress to remove some of EPA’s powers in this area. However, the broader implication may be that this campaign represents the beginning of an increase in “evangelical environmentalism”,  a movement that is likely to be at least as popular among members of evangelical churches in Canada as in the US.

More on the EEN campaign on Mercury and the Unborn, including a link to audio files of the radio advertisements, at http://creationcare.org/mercury/

More on evangelical environmentalism on the Creation Care for Pastors website at http://www.creationcareforpastors.com/ 

A somewhat out of date summary of some evangelical environmentalist issues, particularly involving climate change, is on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelical_environmentalism