Archive for the ‘Environmental Stewardship’ Category

“US evangelicals warm to climate change science in Capitol Hill campaign”

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Leading environmental scientists and evangelical Christians join forces to lobby senators in support of the climate bill

Read Article Here

The Earth is the Lord’s, and the Fullness Thereof,” (Ps. 24:1) and the tradition has always then wondered whether we received dominion of the earth (and this has a significant history of consequences, especially as political systems further defined “dominion”); another emphasis has been placed on stewardship rather than dominion.

Read about Matthew 25 Network’s approach to this issue here: http://matthew25.org/issues/ (scroll down to Environmental Stewardship).

There are of course many issues at play here:  the fatalism that has existed when some traditions have viewed their eschatology as a way to see the earth’s destruction as simply a sign of the ending age.  And yet, there is that ever-present issue of God’s sovereignty, or as one theologian puts it, the sovereignty of God’s grace.

At last, is the earth the Lord’s?  Is it subject to God’s Kingdom?  And what role has the Church in all of this?  Are we called to be observers of the world as it destroys itself, as fate would have it, or are we called to witness to God’s kingdom? To act in correspondence to God’s Grace?

I think as people of faith, we need to wrestle with all these issues, and take seriously whether or not we have “surrendered all” of the spheres of our existence just as we are called to follow God, a God who is For Us and decidedly Lord of all creation.

So, take these next days to wrestle with that.  And then give thanks, both at your dining table and with your actions.

If you’re interested in becoming active:

http://www.greenfaith.org/    Here’s an organization where their faith has empowered their action on behalf of creation.

http://climatebill.org/  Here’s a site that is tracking the 2009 Climate bill and also has ways you can be involved

If you’re interested in finding out more:

Wendell Berry’s The Unsettling America (1977)

Vigen Guroian, Inheriting Paradise (1999)

 

Michael Pollan, Second Nature (2003) and The Omnivore’s Dilemma (2007)

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Posted in Christian Community, Economic Justice, Environmental Stewardship | No Comments »

EPA’s pledge to environmental justice: a start for health care.

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

Healthcare goes beyond governmental coverage.  Over the past few weeks of our discussions about the healthcare issue, it has strengthened my perspective to look at it through the eyes of Matthew 25.  So, thank you!

Similar to the obligation our country has to insure healthcare for its people, we the people have a moral obligation to care for the health of ourselves and our neighbors.  What responsibilities does this commitment hold us accountable for? We can look at this answer through many different lenses: social, religious, economical. But as I read environmental news every day I see more and more how related our environmental stewardship and healthcare are.  Lisa Jackson, who President Obama elected to head the EPA, recently reports about environmental justice and EPA’s pledge to renew it for minorities. It is fact that minorities and low-income people are victims of more pollution and riskier environmental degradation. Extensive exposures to pollutants cause these groups to fall ill with diseases like asthma and cancer and are a real threat to their health.  Every day there are reports about exposures to lead in neighborhoods where owners are too poor to replace paint, old pipes and other sources of the contaminant. Liver disease is linked to pollutants such as pesticides and heavy metals in our water and air. We are all held accountable for these pollutants; they are not exclusively generated within the boundaries of these neighborhoods but are carried universally from each emitter. What are we subjecting ourselves to?

Additionally, businesses that could provide jobs are leaving these areas of town.  Companies like coal plants and similar polluting manufacturers are coming into these neighborhoods where land is not as valuable. This challenges minorities’ quality of life and jeopardizes their healthcare. Chris Foreman, who is professor at University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy, expressed threats to minorities’ neighborhoods that include filth, odors, dust, noise, congestion, and the absence of recreational and park facilities.

These neighborhoods are truly “the least of these.” This is our obligation as Matthew 25 believers. Jackson encourages, “we have to go to every community and show them that the issues of environmental protection are their issues and that our world is their world. That’s how we bring every voice to this discussion. That’s how we bring real change.” Environmental stewardship is where health care, true care for the health of our neighbors, begins.

Posted in Environmental Stewardship, Health Care, Human Rights, Race Relations | No Comments »

So…what do YOU think?

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

Congress says it might have a healthcare package by August.  Obama has made it a top priority since his days on the campaign trail. The health industry seems to be “open” to a healthcare package, even if reluctantly. 

So, where does your faith inform you on this issue?

So, my challenge to you this week is: 

1) what is the “issue”? does it matter that the US doesn’t have a healthcare system? who is most affected by the current healthcare industry in the US?  how do we compare to other systems, financially, but most importantly MORALLY?

2) what’s your Scripture? what are the Scriptures that you feel most powerfully sustain not so much your “argument”, but your “convictions” regarding this issue?

3) what’s another source? who is the theologian, philosopher, political scientist that deeply affects your view on this issue? 

and lastly…

4) should the church care? should people of faith care? why?

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Posted in Christian Community, Economic Justice, Environmental Stewardship, Health Care, Human Rights | 6 Comments »

The small things

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

Today, energy, sustainability, going green, even the word “environment” itself are all buzz words all the way from the environmental sector into peoples homes. These words trigger excitement, encouragement, fear, boredom, confusion within our daily lives. With all the political, economical, religious, and social perceptions of our environmental issues at hand, it is difficult as citizens of this Earth to grasp a solution that is communicative.  I am a strong believer in living simply, without living in denial or naiveté. So, as I delve into the morning newspaper, search the Internet for answers and for knowledge, my mind is somewhat overwhelmed and congested. Until I come across an article in the New York Times titled, Toilet Paper and Other Moral Choices. Is switching to less fluffy, more rough, recycled toilet paper woth it?

I am also a strong believer in the small things making a big difference. Though this is optimistic today, and I am oftentimes discouraged realizing what is important to me is not important to others, but, I would like to offer some options to turn our environmental degradation process around.  At this time, we cannot all switch to more fuel-efficient vehicles or install solar panels on our roofs. However, there are things we adopt daily, simplifying the big picture into something more tangible, that I believe can offer answers.

Eat less meat. Livestock production produces 18% of global greenhouse gases today. Animals feed on large quantities of grain, which is energy-intensive to produce. Also, they emit methane, a particularly pungent greenhouse gas that stays in the atmosphere beyond that of CO2. What’s more, livestock facilities cover 30% of the world’s non-ice landscape and damanges our soil and water resources. We consume roughly 75 grams of protein a day from animals, including dairy, and 110 grams total; the government recommends only 50 grams a day. Vegetarianisn is not a change that is widely accepted in America; I am not one. But it is a pivotal part of a transforming our nation into a healthy, sustainable economyand environment  for humans and the planet. If everyone would just cut back.

If you can, drive less. It saves you money and helps fight climate change. Climate change being another buzz word, I will say that driving less will simply emit less pollutants in general. If I could have it my way I would design all cities around being able to ride your bike conveniently, and without fear of getting hit by the bigger better SUV’s of America. Living in Fort Collins, CO for part of 2008, I loved not only the convenience and joy of riding my bike everwhere but also the money I saved on gas. Unfortunately, biking is neither ideal or safe in a lot of cities. However, find ways to drive less: shop online, bundle your errands, telecommute once a week. Also, smart drive: do not idle, carry extra weight, or speed.

As in the grocery bag debate (using cloth bags or recycling used ones), will “green choices” amount to much. Either its benefits do not really outweigh its costs, because few people will adopt it, or broad adoption will consequentially be trivial in the grand scheme of things. Stewardship is not necessarily sacrifice; sacrifice means the giving up of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim.  So, I suppose it depends on where your values lie; what is more pressing to you?  If it is in the Earth, giving up meat won’t be too big of a sacrifice. Stewardship is mostly responsibility, generosity, humility, prudence, and kindness in our daily decisions.

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Posted in Economic Justice, Environmental Stewardship, Health Care, Human Rights, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Auto Industry and Environment Together

Monday, March 9th, 2009

Never that interested in the auto industry before, I have recently been watching it closely in the news as plans for environmental and energy goals surface. On the Obama timeline, he implemented the Emission Standards bill during his first week as president. The bill directed the Environmental Protection Agency to re-evaluate their past rejection of California’s rigid greenhouse gas emissions from cars. California, among some 13 other states, wants to set their own, more strict, air pollution standards on automobiles to improve their air quality.

However, during this economic downturn, it is difficult for the auto industry to retool and balance the challenge of new standards. The California law requires automakers to cut emissions by a third by 2016, four years ahead of the national agenda. They will have to quickly produce and sell cars that get higher mileage, from the current average of 27 miles per gallon to roughly 35 miles – but only for these certain states? Even though the technology is ready in California, can automakers meet the expectations without handicapping the industry, and without suffering job loss? If so, Obama will order regulations to be complete soon so automakers have time to renovate for vehicles sold in 2011 and not lose a year.

I believe global warming is not a state-by-state issue and there should not by different standards for different states. I do applaud California for their initiatives.  But, in addition, applying standards to only California creates confusing manufacturing models that are not consistent across the country, not something automakers need to complicate their work. California has said they will not accept a standard lower than their state’s; hopefully there is a federal standard that will be best for all states. Obama has also called on the Department of Transportation to raise national fuel efficiency standards.

Car makers worldwide should reduce emissions. The Global Fuel Economy Initiative is aimed at reducing fuel expenditures per kilometer by 50% by 2050 (coined 50 by 50). New to mass-market commercialization are battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, and perhaps hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Though not necessary to achieving the 50% decrease, these highly developed technologies will complimentarily reduce CO2 and further oil savings, not to mention craft a new market for employees who have been laid off the past months. This way support for auto industry during a time of economic recession is combined with achieving environmental and energy goals.

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Posted in Economic Justice, Environmental Stewardship | 4 Comments »

Overcoming our Addiction to Stuff: Brian McLaren on Economic Recovery

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

I wanted to highlight friend of the network Brian McLaren’s extremely interesting post on his blog about economic recovery. I think his examination of the current economic situation through the lens of addiction is worth further exploration. There’s a lot of good material in there, but I was especially intrigued by this part:

4. Our addiction to stuff. Jesus said that a person’s life doesn’t consist in the abundance of her possessions. An economy that measures growth by the number of durable goods (resources) extracted from the environment and turned into non-durable goods that are bought, used, and then thrown away into a landfill … that economy “succeeds” by turning goods into trash, and calling it success. That’s not success. We need to imagine moving beyond an extractive, consumptive economy to a sustainable economy, and beyond a sustainable economy to a regenerative economy. I believe that in God’s world, if billions can be made destroying the planet and exploiting people addictively, trillions can be made caring for the planet wisely and caring for people justly.

Some commentary after the jump…
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Posted in Christian Community, Economic Justice, Environmental Stewardship | 3 Comments »

God-driven Climate Change

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

The energy industry, among everyone else interested in gathering, has joined at the Cambridge Energy Research Associates conference, known as CERAWeek, at the Galleria in Houston, TX this week.  It began Sunday an concluded today.  Attendees and speakers included chief executives and leading thinkers of the energy world, heads of national oil industries, oil ministers, instrumental government officials, policymakers, and top financial executives.  In recent years the conference’s tone has been excitement because prices in crude oil were on the rise.  As these prices rose, doors opened to oil and gas operations to invest in renewable and alternatives.  Great!  However, this week: a much more solemn view of how to simply manage during the economic downturn will dominate discussions.  For reference, oil prices plummeted from triple digits to $40-a-barrel last year.  With this recession, demand is down.  Now, with economists influencing the agenda and environmentalists as a backdrop at the conference, they focused on this fall.  Is it entirely tied to the recession? Or does the fall reflect a more permanent shift to conservation and energy efficiency? How does awareness of environmental and economic footprint of coal in the US play a role on our daily actions to demand oil?  

Outside of the conference, I read a very amusing and interesting retaliation to promoting this awareness.  Environmental Minister of Northern Ireland, Sammy Wilson, banned local broadcast ads on climate change.  He discredited the message as “insidious propaganda.” He argues that global patterns are naturally cooling, not warming.  He says too many people are under the impression that if they drive less, or turn off the standby light on their TV for instance, they are saving the world from melting glaciers. He pinpoints the climate change as “God-driven” and says “humanity should invest in coping with it,” as opposed to trying to slow down the problem

What if Wilson were to speak at CERAWeek. I would have to disagree with him.  He is writing off excuses for humanity; that we do not need to take responsibility for the condition of our planet. God-created, I believe so.  Intended for stripping our earth of nonrenewable resources so we can live more comfortably, quickly, glamorously?  For what ever purpose you burn fossil fuels, to that extent, I believe was not a part of the design.

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Posted in Environmental Stewardship, News Feed | No Comments »

A Breath of Fresh Air?

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

In a time of economic uncertainty and war, it is hard to imagine anyone considering life in more general terms than the well-being of citizens. It is precisely at these times that we can justify cutting back on regulations to stimulate economic recovery, or else indiscriminately seek to expand our available resources. While the Obama administration is at its infancy, it is already demonstrating itself not to use such excuses lightly. Instead, it seems to ambitiously seek to fulfill its promises over and against such pressures, in at least one respect. A new article on the Christian Science Monitor outlines revealing new directions with respect to environmental policy. And this comes at a time where the administration could use any number of big excuses, ranging from two wars to what is mounting to be a global economic recession, to delay action.

Prominent among these directions is the more thorough investigation concerning what lies beyond American beaches for potential offshore drilling. As we may recall, it was not too long ago that we heard the myopic, “Drill, Baby, Drill” as the potential national energy policy. In the process, the Obama administration is delaying a blind assault not only on the beauty of our beach horizons, but also on significantly complex environmental sensitivities and various economic sectors involved. The Drill, Baby, Drill crowd is likely not impressed. After all, more oil would ease our dependence on foreign powers and increase our own wealth, or so the argument goes. Would it have surprised anyone if the Obama administration had reversed gears and given into geo-political and industrial-complex pressures by keeping Bush’s energy policies untouched for time being? Perhaps in politics this could even be expected. But this infant administration has started on the right track: that of seeking principled solutions over supposed quick fixes.

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Posted in Environmental Stewardship | 3 Comments »

Faith-Based Investing: Challenging the Paradigm

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

I’ve been mulling over Grant’s book-of-a-post on (among other things) our nation’s acceptance of the “greed is good” economic model, and of possible alternatives to this model.

Especially relevant has been some recent news reports on faith-based investment practices that — because of their rejection of certain greed-risk practices — have been outperforming in this toxic market.

Muslim investors adhering to Islamic business values, which include a rejection of interest-based profit models, have been largely shielded from the risk-heavy parts of the markets that have been at the front of the free fall:

As credit markets have imploded, triggering a global economic crisis, Islamically correct investors have seen a change of fortune: The conservative principles this small group of devout Muslims clung to during the economic heyday has insulated them from the worst of the past year’s suffering.

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Renouncing interest is the high-profile element of Islamic finance that relates to the current economic crisis. For Islamically correct investors, that means there are limits to how much debt a company can have or how much profit it can derive from interest-based investments…Islamic finance also prohibits selling assets you don’t own, selling someone’s debt and engaging in high-risk investments. Thus, there was no participation in practices that have been blamed for Wall Street’s meltdown: complex derivatives trading, short-selling and the $30 trillion market in credit default swaps.

Interestingly, however, these Islamic investing advocates make sure to insist that extra profit is not the rational behind these investment practices, but rather following their faith values:

But performance alone isn’t the point of compliance with Islamic law, known as sharia. For the committed, investing finance with faith is about living with values.

“We don’t claim to our investors that we’re going to be consistently outperforming the market because we have sharia criteria,” said Monem Salam, director of Islamic investing and deputy portfolio manager for Saturna Capital, which manages the Amana funds. “We’re going to give our investors the best return they can (get) based on the criteria. If that means outperformance on certain indices, then great.”

Frederick Clarkson  also has a similar piece up on Religion Dispatches on Christian investment firms that have taken conscientious investment practices on issues such as environmental issues that have proven largely prophetic:

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Posted in Economic Justice, Environmental Stewardship, Labor and Employment | 3 Comments »

How do you take your coffee?

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

I like mine harvested with synthetic fertilizers, hormone-induced cream, and a heavy metal Twinkie on the side.

We are warned and should know that there are dangerous toxins in our environment. Environmental Health’s new study (well, an old study that has recently been published) shows correlation between processed foods containing high fructose corn syrup and mercury contamination. These HFCS foods are highly processed, abundantly subsidized, and nutritionally deficient, but now are toxic?! Mercury is said to cause impaired mental development, impacting memory, language, and disturbing our senses. So, we’re scared and vow never to eat Pop Tarts again, right?

A few days later scientific consulting firm, ChemRisk, releases a report that this report and its research provide empty data and misleading conclusions. Distinctions between forms of mercury and their implications for human health are ignored. Findings were irresponsible and extremely limited. There was no comparison between levels of mercury in HFCS foods and other sources, such as fish and even water consumption. We all have traces of different types and levels of mercury in our tissue due to this element accumulating in our air, soil, etc. So, I’ll dunk my Twinkie in my coffee and chase it with a soda pop. Then concern myself with cleaning up coal burning power plants that supply over 40% of mercury to our environment.

But, I also take my coffee as a grain of salt.

Posted in Environmental Stewardship, Health Care, Human Rights | No Comments »