faithandenvironment
www.washingtonpost.com
Native American professor resigns over disputed lecture series
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insideclimatenews.org
Seeing God’s hand in the deadly floods, yet wondering about climate change
An evangelical mountain town lost eight people to flooding from an extreme rain storm. Many residents see the Biblical prophecy of the apocalypse, and welcome it.This story was also published with West Virginia Public Radio.
www.christiandaily.com
Christian leaders demand implementation of Paris Agreement ahead of climate change conference
Christian leaders from various countries have signed a letter demanding action on the Parish Agreement in 2015 as the next phase of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP23) in Bonn, Germany, draws nearer.
www.startribune.com
Mpls. church seeks for earth to power its heavenly work
The faithful at Mount Olive Lutheran Church just wanted to make their 80-year-old building energy-efficient, a tangible step to care for God's creation. They didn't know they'd be blazing a trail for geothermal heating.
Minneapolis church seeks for Earth to power its heavenly work.
The faithful at Mount Olive Lutheran Church just wanted to make their 80-year-old building energy-efficient, a tangible step to care for God's creation.
Mpls.' Mount Olive Lutheran Church turns to the earth to support the heavens
The faithful at Mount Olive Lutheran Church just wanted to make their 80-year-old building energy-efficient, a tangible step to care for God's creation. They didn't know they'd be blazing a trail for geothermal heating.
By Jean Hopfensperger Star Tribune OCTOBER 8, 2017 — 9:09PM
RICHARD TSONG-TAATARII • STAR TRIBUNE
“We soon realized we were doing something pioneering,’’ said Mount Olive’s Art Halbardier.
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The faithful at Mount Olive Lutheran Church just wanted to make their 80-year-old building energy-efficient, a tangible step to care for God’s creation. They didn’t know they’d be blazing a trail for geothermal heating.
Just a handful of churches have tried this hot approach in Minnesota. The construction crew that drilled 48 wells in the parking lot had never worked on a church before.
“We soon realized we were doing something pioneering,” said Art Halbardier, manager of the church building committee, as he watched the forklift on the Minneapolis construction site this week. “Geothermal is rarely used by churches, and especially by an inner-city church without much land for drilling.”
While religious institutions across Minnesota are exploring green energy options, installing systems ranging from solar panels to rain barrels, a geothermal energy system is generating excitement.
Mount Olive is not a wealthy church, and it is located in the heart of the city — not exactly a logical candidate for a relatively expensive and innovative investment.
“It’s a very impressive demonstration by the church,” said longtime environmentalist John Dunlop, a board member of Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light, which facilitates energy conservation programs for religious institutions. “It shows a strong commitment to climate change.”
The project is part of a $1.8 million plan to upgrade heating and add air conditioning to the church building, which includes a social hall and offices. Installing a geothermal system added $300,000 to the cost.
Mount Olive church leaders acknowledge it all requires a significant chunk of cash for a community of 600 members.
The congregation had mixed feelings about the investment.
“Every time the idea came up, the counterargument was we should be serving our neighbors,” said Mount Olive’s pastor, the Rev. Joseph Crippen. “But this building is the base from which we do that. It’s an asset to our neighborhood ministries.”
The church, for example, runs a variety of neighborhood efforts, including community meals, a youth job program and donations of backpacks and school supplies.
Walk into the church offices and you quickly discover Mount Olive’s environmental zeal. A lifesized poster of Martin Luther, wearing 16th-century robes, looks down from the wall with the words “Paris Accord!” coming from his mouth. It refers to the 2015 Paris agreement signed by nearly 200 nations to cut planet-warming greenhouse gases in half.
The church adopted that goal for itself. It calculated it was producing 140 tons of carbon dioxide a year and hopes to lower it dramatically.
In the church basement, a dozen construction workers are installing pipes, wiring and ductwork next to chalkboards asking the question, “What do you love and hope to never lose to climate chaos?”
Across the whizzing traffic on 31st Street, a crew is finishing the pipe installations in the dirt-covered parking lot. The dirt is dotted with the tops of 48 tubes that capture the heat far below the parking lot and transfer it to a series of pumps inside the church building.
“Instead of a furnace burning gas, we have pipes that capture the Earth’s energy to heat and cool the building,” explained Halbardier.
But digging holes for the geothermal wells in an inner-city parking lot had its surprises, he said.
“There were three house foundations still buried under the parking lot from when they were torn down in the 1940s,” said Halbardier, surveying the scene. “They had to be removed. That required us to do some asbestos abatement. It ended up being a much bigger thing than what we thought it would be.”
Only a handful of other churches in Minnesota have installed geothermal systems. They include Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in Edina, Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Elrosa and St. John the Divine Episcopal Church in Moorhead. Likewise nationally, geothermal systems lag far behind the installation of solar panels, which have taken off in recent years.
The prospect of bringing geothermal energy to another church, especially an inner-city church, was exciting to LuAnn Ferguson, regional manager the Mission Investment Fund, a loan fund of the national Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) that supported the Minneapolis project.
“The last geothermal project we financed was in 2009 in Colorado,” said Ferguson. “I know of several others that have looked into it, but it was cost prohibitive. It’s a real treat to be part of this.”
While too costly for many churches, Mount Olive members were remarkably generous. The midsize congregation has pledged $1.25 million toward the $1.8 million project, said Halbardier. The rest will be financed by the ELCA loan and a $60,000 state grant for the solar panels being installed on the church rooftop to help supply green electricity.
Church leaders still don’t know how much money they’ll save on energy bills. The church didn’t have air conditioning before, so there’s no clear comparison of before and after expenses, they said.
“But we hope that our bills will be at least half, and probably two-thirds of what they were,” said Halbardier, who predicted the project would begin producing energy within the month.
In the weeks ahead, work crews will build a new parking lot surface over the geothermal installation, adding trees, shrubs, some permeable pavers and a rain garden to control water runoff.
The thousands of cars that drive by this busy area each day will have no idea they’re passing a divine experiment.
“They’ll never see it,” Halbardier said, laughing. “I think it’s exciting that underneath is a treasure of heating and cooling for a church.”
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Should we be having fewer children for the sake of the planet?
Supporters’ contributions to our podcast on population and climate change show exactly why we need to talk about this issue.
Supporters’ contributions to our podcast on population and climate change show exactly why we need to talk about this issue
Listen to the podcast here
Many readers ask why childless lifestyles are not more actively promoted by politicians and celebrated in societies.
Many readers ask why childless lifestyles are not more actively promoted by politicians and celebrated in societies. Photograph: Sergei Fadeichev/TASS
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Vicky Frost and Guardian supporters
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Saturday 7 October 2017 07.41 EDT Last modified on Saturday 7 October 2017 08.08 EDT
Last month, on these pages, I asked if you might get in touch with your questions and thoughts on population and climate change. You did – in some numbers. These generous contributions form the heart of the latest edition of We Need to Talk About …, our podcast featuring supporters’ voices, in which your concerns are addressed by a panel of Guardian journalists and experts.
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As a starting point, we used a Guardian article with an arresting headline: Want to fight climate change? Have fewer children. In the podcast, we hear from one of the academics who produced the research which this article refers to, but equally interesting were your responses to this issue, and the discussions they prompted in our studio.
That’s why we’ve decided to publish some of them here. While we aim to hear from lots of voices and include differing points of view on the podcast, a lack of time means we sometimes have to cut people short, or use one person to represent the views of several who have contacted us making similar points. Here, we can give members a bit more space to air their views.
You can listen to the panel respond to them – our line-up is Damian Carrington, the Guardian’s environment editor; Lucy Lamble, the Guardian’s executive editor for global development, who often writes on and takes part in debates on global inequality; John Vidal, the multi-award winning former Guardian environment editor and Afua Hirsch, a writer and broadcaster for the Guardian and SkyNews among others, who has also worked in international development and the law.
But first gain a flavour of the concerns of your fellow readers below. Many of these questions appear in the podcast, while others influenced the direction in which we headed.
Poor allocation of resources is the problem – Kevin, Canada
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The issue isn’t overpopulation – it’s poor resource allocation. We do not live in a world of lack, but of extreme waste and inefficiency. This is true of food, energy, land use and the financial system. The overpopulation argument is a way to once again deflect from real societal change that is needed, and instead focuses the discussion on families, usually poor families, having too many children.
While it is likely that the Earth does have some sort of maximum carrying capacity, even that is not guaranteed with recent technological advancements such as vertical farming. The question is whether those technological advancements will be put to use to raise the standard of living for every human being on the planet, or are put towards continuing to line the pockets of the wealthiest individuals and their investors.
We consume without asking where these things come from – Cristina, Brazil
To my mind, it is not the countries in Africa, or groups with a more traditional and much simpler way of life – such as Native people in North and South America, for instance – that have caused so many environmental problems, but the irrationality and consumerism of our western society. It is the fact that we consume without truly asking ourselves where all these goods come from, how they were produced, what the environmental impact is of producting all these mostly useless things. Unless we seriously address these questions, I cannot see any significant change or serious solution to climate change.
A convenient way to blame others – Marc, France
I‘ve often noticed that some westerners, who have no agenda at all on any environmental question, are keen to invoke “overpopulation” as the main and only threat to survival on Earth. Is overpopulation just a convenient way for westerners to put the blame on Africans for the environmental threats we face?
Entitlement to reproduce - Clare, UK
How can those with the largest carbon footprint be encouraged not to reproduce, when they are ones who make the greatest impact and have the greatest sense of entitlement?
Access to contraception faces a barrier: the church – Angela, UK
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Pope Francis recently condemned climate change sceptics. He is passionate about protecting the planet and has called on everyone to care for creation, particularly as climate change disproportionately impacts the poor.
The Catholic church runs 25% of health and education systems worldwide and therefore, through its direct teaching and management, significantly reduces safe access to contraception for millions of women. No debate on controlling population growth and subsequent pollution can therefore exist without tackling this institutional barrier to action. Last year over 170 theologians issued a statement saying there was no reason for the Catholic church’s position against “artificial” contraception.
How does the panel feel the church can continue to do great work on this issue, yet continue to block safe access to contraception for some of the world’s poorest women?
Women are being denied choice about pregnancy – Sally, Hong Kong
I am a gynaecologist working in Hong Kong, occasionally counselling women considering having another child. If someone is ambivalent about doing so, I add into the decision-making the idea that having more children impacts climate change.
Since I was a teenager in the 1970s, I have believed it is a woman’s right to choose whether to continue a pregnancy. Working as a volunteer in an African country where abortion is illegal, I have seen women saved from death after trying to procure an abortion themselves. They were lucky – the hospital was nearby, there were good doctors, antibiotics, surgery, and blood transfusion.
2017: the year we lost control of world population surge?
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In African countries where abortion is often illegal, an unmet need for contraception is also common. I applied for a volunteer job in northern Uganda where women having five to six children is the norm; when asked, they say they would have preferred three or four .
Donald Trump’s global gag rule which removes US aid from any NGO providing contraceptive advice, is a huge problem. Not only because maternal mortality due to abortion deaths will rise in Africa, but also because the UNFPA [UN population fund] will stop training midwives, and the resulting reduction in maternal mortality will diminish. In addition, there will be greater unmet need for contraception.
With good information couples will do the right thing – Dave, US
Do you think our society can reach the point where choosing to have fewer children as an essential carbon-cutting strategy is as widely understood as conserving energy?
As a parent I would take a bullet for either of my two children. I’m certain almost all parents would do just about anything to ensure their kids have a decent life. Knowing this, I cannot help but feel that if young couples around the world have good information they will do the right thing. If they understand the ramifications of their family-size decisions on the quality of life – chance of survival even – of their children, then they will make the most loving, compassionate decision possible: to conceive no more than one child.
We are failing to get the family-size issue across – Alison, UK
I joined Population Matters, an organisation that promotes smaller family size and reduced consumption, to find like-minded people and put my energies into a worthwhile organisation. I appreciate the impact we are having on the environment, and am mindful of that. However, I have found people around me such as family, friends and colleagues are largely not interested, or suggest they should have the freedom to do as they please.
How do we start making a difference? Also we seem to have failed with high-profile individuals, royals and celebrities in particular. So what happens now?
What will persuade people? Money? – Gwyneth, UK
We have to reduce the population, hopefully not by severe climate change, war or disease. China’s one-child solution would not be accepted by most people. What do experts suggest? It seems money has the only power over most people. Should we pay people not to have children?
Politicians don’t talk about this – Mike, UK
How do we get politicians to talk seriously about the links between population and climate change? The last three elections in the UK have barely mentioned the environment. Is there an agreement between the political parties to avoid this discussion?
Childless lifestyles need promoting – Michelle, UK
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I like children, but have never felt that I would like to have my own.
I am very regularly treated as odd for this decision, and feel that if we don’t open up the discussion about not having children, people will never consider this decision thoroughly, whether for the environment or other reasons.
In the past three years, I have made a number of lifestyle changes in order to reduce my carbon footprint – which has only further cemented my feeling that I don’t want children. I often feel like I need to keep having what can be sometimes difficult conversations with people about this choice, so as to build conversation momentum around the subject. Alternative lifestyles need to be promoted. I would like to focus on supporting and improving the lives of people already on the planet.
Can we ditch our pro-reproduction stance? – Tet-Wo, New Zealand
I have made the decision to be childfree, largely due to environmental reasons. As a childfree person, I am constantly surprised how this decision is commonly questioned by others as being a poor or “selfish” choice when the evidence suggests that it is anything but.
Given the evidence that having fewer children isthe greatest decision one can make to combat climate change, do the panel think that society can switch from having a pro-reproduction stance, where policies promote reproduction and society views having children as the “correct” choice, to a neutral stance, where having children is considered optional and policies are made to promote other means of having a fulfilled life?
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Interfaith group addresses climate change.
Interfaith Power and Light, a nonprofit organization represented in 40 states, including North Carolina, and Washington, D.C., has become a leading nationwide faith-based player in the climate change debate.
Not that long ago, chance are pretty good Interfaith Power & Light (IP&L;) was not a household name in many homes in North Carolina.
The organization began in 1998 with Episcopal Power & Light and the support of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. It was, according to the website, “a unique coalition of Episcopal churches aggregated to purchase renewable energy.”
By 2000, though, the idea had caught on and expanded its mission, at least in California, and the Episcopalians had brought in other faith partners. It was re-christened as California Interfaith Power & Light, and the concept grew to include efforts to “educate … people of faith about the moral and ethical mandate to address global warming.” California IP&L; helped pass California’s climate and clean energy laws.
And like many things that start in California, it didn’t just stay in the Golden State. There are now IP&L; chapters in 40 states and Washington, D.C., and the 501(c)(3) organization has become a leading nationwide faith-based player in the climate change debate.
Conservatives might think of climate change fighters as faithless un-churched liberals, but IP&L; is now a part of more than 1,500 churches of various faiths, and many thousands of people in them are involved in what they consider a moral imperative, perhaps the moral imperative, of our time: saving the planet.
One of those congregations is the Unitarian Coastal Fellowship in Morehead City, where member and leader Penny Hooper of Smyrna received a request in 2006 from a friend, Robert Meadows, an Episcopalian in Beaufort, for a venue in which to show Al Gore’s movie, “An Inconvenient Truth.” Ms. Hooper, who was a member of the Green Sanctuary Committee at UCF, helped set it up for viewing there, became increasingly involved, and came to believe, she says now, that people of faith not only can be involved in fighting for the country’s efforts to address climate change, they must be, and can be among the most important players.
She’s now chairperson of the North Carolina IP&L; Leadership Council.
“Every faith has as part of its basic tenants the responsibility to take care of creation,” she said. She added there is that other basic tenant about taking care of the poor, who for a variety of reasons, tend to suffer the worst effects of a warming and a more unstable planet. As stated in the King James Version of the Bible: “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Hooper’s own faith, Unitarian-Universalism, expresses those things in a number of ways, including in its seven principles, two of which are:
The inherent worth and dignity of every person; and
Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.
But, Hooper said, UCF is far from alone in its support of IP&L; and its goals in North Carolina.
The North Carolina Council of Churches, founded in 1935 and now representing about 1.5 congregants in churches of 18 faiths, has a link to North Carolina IP&L; under the programs tab on its website. With urging from IP&L;, the North Carolina Council of Churches on Sept. 17 adopted an anti-fracking resolution that states, in part, that “… any new investment in energy infrastructure based on the extraction of fossil fuels is morally reprehensible and, as people of faith, we believe it is an abuse of the God-given gift of creation for which we are charged to care.”
Why is this important to IP&L;, the council of churches and others?
“This goes to the fact that if we build all these pipelines, then we will be beholden to burn fracked gas for 30-50 more years, rather than moving towards renewable energy throughout our state and nation,” Hooper said.
In that resolution, the council also states, “The Union of Concerned Scientists report(s) that burning fossil fuels shows us the visible cost to our ecosystem, but the hidden costs are much higher. Fracked gas is extremely dangerous. Besides being flammable, gas pipelines emit a significant source of methane emissions through leaks large and small, a material 84 times more detrimental to our atmosphere than carbon dioxide. No pipeline is … leak-proof, no matter the guarantees …
“Furthermore, we wholeheartedly disagree with the process of fracking because of the extreme detrimental effects to the environment where this process occurs. It has been well documented that irreparable damage is caused to drinking water and to the seismic stability of the earth when this technique is put to use.”
What’s needed for the future of the planet and future generations of its inhabitants, Hooper believes, is a true paradigm shift, and IP&L; is working toward that through education and programs. For example, there’s, “Cool Congregations,” in which IP&L; provides education and tools for churches, and individuals in them, to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions – and save money on energy bills.
Through a program known as “Cool Harvest” IP&L; will help churches learn more about climate-friendly foods that are also healthier than the diets of many people, and will teach people how to plan and create sustainable vegetable gardens.
IP&L; and its member churches will also do energy audits for homes and businesses. They work with power companies, such as Duke Energy and Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative, to bring in people trained to identify and help people implement energy-saving measures.
In addition, Hooper said, IP&L; is involved in lobbying, urging congregations to send letters, individually and as groups, to legislators who can make a difference in the effort to limit or stop carbon emissions that lead to climate changes.
Recently, Hooper penned a letter to U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr., R-N.C., thanking him for opposing oil and gas drilling and seismic testing off the North Carolina coast, but also urging him to join the House of Representatives Climate Solutions Caucus and sign on to House Resolution 195, which was started in September 2015 and has been supported by religious leaders who called for an interfaith moral “Call to Conscience on Climate Disruption.”
Hooper said in the letter that the resolution was “a timely response to Pope Francis’ address to the United States Congress following his release of his Papal Encyclical, “Laudato Si,” written earlier that year. I also know that you understand the risk climate change poses to our military in the form of increased destabilization across our nation and world,” she wrote. “Resolution 195 expresses the commitment of the House of Representatives to work constructively on creating and supporting economically viable and broadly supported solutions to measured changes in global and regional climates.”
Another issue Hooper and North Carolina IP&L; have been working on involves state House Bill 589, which was signed into law by Gov. Roy Cooper after being passed by a big bipartisan majority in the state General Assembly. While it imposed an 18-month moratorium on wind energy development, which jeopardized as much as $1 billion in new investments by two wind projects in largely rural and economically distressed counties in the eastern part of the state, it also updated the state’s solar energy policy, and according to some, should make it easier for home and business owners to use solar.
Hooper and others deplore the wind energy moratorium. But she said she and North Carolina IP&L; are working with Duke Energy on a program known as “Faith in Solar,” which aims to insure that H 589 gets interpreted by Duke Energy and the Utilities Commission “with houses of worship in mind, as well as the environmental justice Issues of installing new solar. We want to encourage putting solar in poor communities and in communities of color,” she said.
North Carolina IP&L; is also involved in what the organization calls the Paris Pledge, which encourages signers to strive for a 50 percent carbon emission reduction by 2030 and sets a goal of being carbon neutral by 2050. Interfaith Power & Light would like to see global nations commit to these levels.
IP&L;’s founder and president, the Rev. Sally Bingham, hand delivered to UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon in Paris a long list of congregations and individuals who indicated they were willing to commit to the same carbon reduction level the group is asking nations to make.
In addition, UCF and other IP&L-affiliated; congregations have adopted resolutions, or statements of conscience, urging the U.S. to get back into the Paris climate change accord.
President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the country from that accord placed a new urgency on actions, Hooper said. The country, she added, needs to be involved, so at least it has a “seat at the table” in discussions that will continue among the other industrialized nations in the world whether the U.S. is involved or not.
All of these things that IP&L; support, Hooper said, are meaningful individually, but are more important, larger than the sum of their parts, collectively.
And the wide variety of grassroots efforts initiated by people like Hooper in North Carolina IP&L; draw praise from Bill Bradlee, the California-based affiliate services director for IP&L;’s national office.
“My sense is that N.C. IP&L; is extremely effective,” he said. “They work a lot on the federal and state policy efforts, but they also undertake many efforts on the local level, both to affect policy and to engage people at that level and get them involved in the issues.”
N.C. IP&L;, Bradlee said, builds coalitions and tries to work with some that might not seem to be natural allies. “It’s not just quality of the outreach, but also the quantity of the outreach,” he said.
He conceded it’s hard to quantify the influence of IP&L; on decision-makers, but numbers matter, and the growth of the group in recent years has been significant. He does sense that when IP&L; speaks or writes, the fact that it’s a faith-based organization resonates with many, and that makes a difference.
Bradlee thinks that despite some setbacks under the Trump Administration, the American people increasingly embrace the need to address the issues raised by climate change.
“It’s hard to see day-to-day or even month-to-month, but you can sense that it’s building, especially if you look at it year-to-year,” he said. “Our growth – we have affiliates in 40 states now – gives us more cachet when we talk to members of Congress or state legislatures, as well as to other faith leaders.
“We’re building a faith-based movement, and that’s hard and takes time,” he said. “But at the same time, it’s clear that once people get involved in such work, which they consider morally and spiritually important, they find it very fulfilling. They realize how important it is, and they don’t give up. They keep moving, step-by-step, and they’re not going to stop.”
For more information about what N.C. IP&L; offers locally, contact Hooper at pjhooper@ec.rr.com or 252-729-2521.
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