Showing posts with label climate-issues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label climate-issues. Show all posts

Monday, June 19, 2017

Earth Knows


Earth Knows

by Lynn Johnson

Earth knows how to heal herself,
if we just let her.
She knows how her worms
can turn newspaper
into black soil.
She knows how her trees
make a canopy of shade,
bring oxygen to the ones that breathe it
in exchange for carbon.
She knows how leaves that fall
fertilize the ground beneath
if we just let them.
She knows how her tender grass
has the strength to crumble concrete.
She knows the heat of her Sun
could warm every home,
If we just let it.
She knows the power of her wind
could accomplish multiple tasks
If we would harness it.
All with no harm to her.
All with no harm to us.
If we don’t remove the poisons,
reduce the carbon
and let her heal,
If we don’t face the fact
that there are way too many of us,
using way too many resources,
way too fast,
If we don’t start following her lead;
She will shake us all off like a giant Mare shooing away flies

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Lazarus, come out! A Christian response to the climate crisis.

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, April 2, 2017, delivered by the Rev. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas at The Church of the Covenant, Boston, MA.

John 11:1-45 What a blessing it is to be here this morning and to join your Lenten exploration of “Fierce Love”!  Thank you, Rob (Rev. Robert J. Mark), for inviting me to preach, and thank you for your steadfast witness to God’s love for the Earth and for all its communities, human and other-than-human. I was arrested with you last spring at an interfaith ...

Read the full sermon:
http://www.macucc.org/blogdetail/lazarus-come-out-a-christian-response-to-the-climate-crisis-7882341

Sunday, May 7, 2017

We can reverse global warming... and we're doing it

"Scientists have studied the impact of carbon emissions and they have made their projections for global warming. But nobody did a proper integrated analysis of the solutions. Until now. On April 18, a new book offering a strategy will be published—it’s titled Drawdown: The most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming. How to ‘drawdown’ the amount of carbon in the atmosphere is the mission of the book. Drawdown is a project of an international coalition of 70 researchers and scientists from 22 countries who—since 2013—have analyzed the data and projections of the world’s leading research institutions in fields from energy to food and from family planning to reforestation. 
The result is a concrete map of where humanity stands today when it comes to climate change. And the conclusion is remarkably optimistic: Using a conservative approach based on current facts and technology it’s plausible that we can reverse global warming in the next 30 years."
Read more…
https://www.optimistdaily.com/2017/03/we-can-reverse-global-warming-and-were-doing-it/

For more information on Drawdown, visit
http://www.drawdown.org/

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Why humans are so bad at thinking about climate change

Why humans are so bad at thinking about climate change

How psychology can trick us into keeping Earth habitable.



Celebrate the People's Climate March

Climate change was identified as the top issue the UCC as a church needs to focus on going forward based on two surveys (with 4,000 responding) that was reviewed at the March 2017 National UCC Board of Directors meeting.

UCC advocates show love for creation at People's Climate March in D.C.
http://www.ucc.org/news_ucc_advocates_show_love_for_creation_at_peoples_climate_march_in_dc_04302017

The Crossroads of Climate and Faith

Years of Living Dangerously Season 1: Bonus Footage - The Crossroads of Climate and Faith


Published on Apr 11, 2014 Don Cheadle talks to Katharine Hayhoe, an Evangelical climate scientist, about how she reconciles faith and science and how to speak about climate change with people of faith.

https://youtu.be/nY1HweENTeU

An interview with Katharine Hayhoe in early 2015: Climate for Change

http://www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/discipleship/a-climate-for-change

Monday, April 24, 2017

Climate Change Awareness Education Survey

WHAT: The Green Team is initiating an effort to increase the Congregation's awareness of the various aspects of Climate Change thru various forms of education.

WHY: We think this is very critical to do at this point in time in order to understand how to put our faith into action by understanding the impacts to current and future generations and to bring healing to all of creation.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VRQ97NP

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Rise With Standing Rock and Native Nations

Rise With Standing Rock and Native Nations



More than 100 UCC folks from 26 states joined together in Washington DC to march in solidarity with Standing Rock and Native Nations in support of indigenous rights and environmental justice. The march started at the Army Corps of Engineers office building, paused at the Trump International Hotel, and ended at Lafayette park in front of the White House. 

Pam Arifian, Director of the Northeast Regional Environmental Justice Center at Silver Lake, reports that it was: "An incredible day of unity, hope, love and respect."

A Big City Voice on Climate Change

A Big City Voice on Climate Change

Mayor Hidalgo of Paris on cars, pollution and the impact of women.
Anne Hidalgo, the Paris mayor, said she was “convinced that together, cities, businesses and citizens will save the planet. Their alliance is critical.”

Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, is also chairwoman of C40, a network of the world’s biggest cities committed to addressing climate change. As mayor, despite strong opposition, she has closed parts of the city — including along the bank of the Seine River — to traffic. Recently, I asked Ms. Hidalgo about her interest in environmental issues and why women are important to the solutions. Her answers have been edited and condensed.

Women’s Crucial Role in Combating Climate Change


The link between climate change and women’s rights may seem baffling to some.

But for Zandile Gumede, the first female mayor of Durban, South Africa, they are inextricably woven together. She was elected last year in part on a promise to address environmental problems in the region, and engaging more women in the effort is crucial to finding solutions, she said.


People's Climate Movement Week of Action


Opportunities 

Live Climate Monday 4/24
1:00pm — Earth Week Climate Education Teach-InJoin ACE for a livestream teach-in on climate science and solutions. We’ll be playing trivia, watching videos from Our Climate Our Future, and taking Q&A with renowned climate scientist Scott Denning of Colorado State University and youth climate leader Maxine Jimenez of UC Santa Cruz. Click here to sign up

8:00pm — Chernobyl +31: From Nuclear Disaster to Renewable Energy Revolution
(This is a telebriefing event.) April 26 is the 31st anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster — one of the worst environmental catastrophes in world history, and one that is not and will not be over for many generations to come. But Chernobyl’s legacy is not only one of tragedy. The impact of Chernobyl convinced millions of the need to power the world with renewable energy, inspiring Germany’s Energy Transition, the foundation for the clean energy revolution we are building toward today. Join us for this live national briefing, to learn about Chernobyl, its legacy, and its relevance to the climate justice movement. Call: 712-770-4160. Passcode: 723281#. Click here to learn more

May Day 5/1

Eco-Justice Notes: Science, not Silence


Good read on March for Science and the issues.

Principles and Goals:

How the Active Many Can Overcome the Ruthless Few | The Nation

How the Active Many Can Overcome the Ruthless Few- the key to saving the earth in the 21st century

Nonviolent direct action was the 20th century’s greatest invention—and it is the key to saving the earth in the 21st century.



https://www.thenation.com/article/how-the-active-many-can-overcome-the-ruthless-few/

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Equal Exchange is proud to launch our new Climate Justice Initiative!

As Vandana Shiva explains in her new book, Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis, the solution to climate change lies not only in our ability to exercise our collective will to immediately reduce the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases that we emit INTO the air, but in our willingness to support, and thereby benefit from, the regenerative capacity of small-scale, organic agriculture to actually pull existing CO2 out of the air - back into the soil.
Equal Exchange now joins an emerging movement of farmers, scientists, researchers, and activists who advocate this new perspective to combat climate change.
for more details on how to participate in:
http://equalexchange.coop/climate-justice-initiative



Monday, January 25, 2016

The EarthJustice 2016 Legal Docket

With the generous investment of our members, Earthjustice is taking on some of the biggest environmental challenges of our time. In the new year, we will be pursuing nearly 400 active legal cases.



PRESERVING THE WILD
“The legal issues are challenging, and the opposition is daunting. 
But our track record of winning is remarkable, given the political and 
economic power that we go toe-to-toe against in court every day. 
Everyone connected with Earthjustice should take great pride in that.”
– DREW CAPUTO 
VICE-PRESIDENT OF LITIGATION FOR LANDS, WILDLIFE & OCEANS


PROTECTING OUR HEALTH
“Many communities still live with high levels of pollution and 
excessive toxic risk. We can do a better job. 
We have the technology and innovation—
and we have the wherewithal to reduce those burdens.”
– LISA GARCIA 
VICE-PRESIDENT OF LITIGATION FOR HEALTHY COMMUNITIES


ADVANCING CLEAN ENERGY
“What we excel at is forcing action. We’ve stepped into the vacuum of the 
policy debate and forced meaningful action to begin the shift away 
from fossil fuels. At Earthjustice, we have the opportunity to wield 
the law as a powerful force for good.”
– ABIGAIL DILLEN 
VICE-PRESIDENT OF LITIGATION FOR CLIMATE & ENERGY
Click here to read the highlights:

Sunday, April 26, 2015

A World of Solutions: The U.N. Climate Sequel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm5DxojGAEI

A week after the short film What's Possible opened the U.N. Climate Summit, Lyn Lear and director Louie Schwartzberg are back with a sequel that expands on their vision for climate change solutions.

Lear wrote in The Huffington Post:

Director Louie Schwartzberg and I had similar visions about the beauty and natural violence of evolution and the millions of years it took before human beings arrived on this planet. Then beginning with the Industrial Revolution, in less than two hundred years, man had almost brought this beautiful, complex creation to the brink of extinction. Inconceivable…right?

We wanted to show that we are still in peril, but more, we have the means to solve our problems in the present. There are many reasons to be optimistic and hopeful.

Part of that hope was to make a comparison of the semi-conscious mycelium root/soil system of the earth that feeds all plant life to the burgeoning Internet-connected global society we are evolving into today. If we could learn to use the Internet and mass media wisely we could be a powerful means for good and for progress.  

Learn more about climate change, and take action at takepart.com/climate.

WHAT'S POSSIBLE: The U.N. Climate Summit Film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vaajVtgRuI

Presented to world leaders at the United Nations Climate Summit in New York, this short inspirational film shows that climate change is solvable. We have the technology to harness nature sustainably for a clean, prosperous energy future, but only if we act now. Narrated by Morgan Freeman, it calls on the people of the world to insist leaders get on the path of a livable climate and future for humankind.

Learn more about climate change and take action at takepart.com/climate.

WHAT'S POSSIBLE was created by a team including director Louie Schwartzberg, producer Lyn Davis Lear, writer Scott Z. Burns, Moving Art Studio, and the Lear Family Foundation.