From giving up their cars to abandoning their Facebook pages, many Christians in the United States are being called on to help reduce global warming and turn their backs on internet distractions over Lent.

"It's an insult to God, it's a sin to spoil the environment, to hurt creation," said Episcopalian pastor Reverend Sally Bingham, who is coordinating The Regeneration Project, an interfaith group of some 4,000 congregations looking for a religious response to global warming.

The idea of a "green" Lent was launched last year by two British Anglican bishops, who called for a "carbon fast," Reverend Bingham told AFP.

Another Catholic group, the St Paul Newman Centre in Fresno, California, is organising a Lent program on global warming.

An Italian bishop in Modena has called for giving up texting during Lent in order to "detoxify from the virtual world and become one again."

Across American universities, students are also giving up social networking websites like Facebook.