IPLog

Oblates like GW IPL

It’s not every day that an IPL newsletter gets mentioned in the blogosphere. Solid work GW IPL newletterers!

From the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate

Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light (GWIPL) is a non-profit initiative that helps congregations, religious institutions and others in the Washington, D.C. area work for a more just, sustainable and healthier creation by reducing the threat of global warming. Their website is an excellent resource, with everything from sermon suggestions on global warming to energy saving light bulb orders.

Their recent newsletter features several award-winning Earth Day sermons.

Sign Up for their Monthly Newsletter

More Faith in Action

The U.S.A. Today reports on the Sierra Club’s Faith in Action report which gives IPL states lots of attention.

From Christians in Hawaii to Buddhists in Connecticut, and from Jews in New York to Muslims in Wisconsin, people of all walks of faith are finding a myriad of ways to care for the environment, according to a first-of-it-kind report from the Sierra Club.

According to the report, “Faith in Action: Communities of Faith Bring Hope for the Planet” 67% of Americans said they care about the environment because it is God’s creation.

Highlighting faith-based environmental initiatives in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, the report praises the “breadth, depth and diversity of spiritually motivated grassroots efforts to protect the planet.”

The 36-page report highlights different programs, from Episcopalians working to restrict oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to a large-scale recycling program at a Southern Baptist megachurch near Orlando

The report said faith communities are leading a new eco-conscious wave that is rolling across the nation, “greening” all areas of religious and secular life. Reducing their carbon emissions, protecting endangered species and launching energy awareness campaigns are just some of the efforts being made.

The report is the latest indicator of a fledgling alliance between environmental groups and religious institutions, even as some conservative religious groups remain skeptical about the causes and concerns over climate change.

“Lasting social change rarely takes place without the active engagement of communities of faith,” the report said

Read more about the Sierra Club’s report and IPL here.

What’s Really Up With North Pole Sea Ice?

Andrew Revkin at the Times’ science blog, Dot Earth has a good post up with the facts (and great graphs) on the recent news about the North Pole losing its ice caps. He writes:

“it’s clear that, by the end of the 1990s, the veneer of ice on the Arctic Ocean had shifted to a far more tenuous state, with ever less thick, years-old ice like the floes I camped on when I went with the team setting up the annual North Pole Environmental Observatory. The animation above shows that the ice was flushed out, not melted.

Most of the seasoned Arctic ice experts I’ve canvassed for recent stories see the region exhibiting a mix of natural variability in the ice (like the flushing process) and a long-term trend toward less of it in summer, and more of it being fresh-made each season, and thus thin and easy to melt. Most also are convinced the change is now at least partly driven by human-caused global warming.

Their various projections are laid out in monthly Sea Ice Outlook reports. Right now the odds are essentially even on a 2008 match for the dramatic ice loss last year.”

Some Right-wingers (Kinda) Attack IPL

Some right-wing, climate science deniers are attacking Interfaith Power and Light in the blogosphere.

A commenter on the Free Republic blog ponders:

IPL seems to be some liberal religious group that is working to shut down capitalism via “environmentalism” and “global warming.”

Steelyourfaith writes:

Ok! Lets gets this global warming fixed:
1. No sports at night.
2. No sports that require light inside.
3. No more movies.
4. No more TV shut all stations down. Radio only.
5. No more street lights.
6. No meetings after the sun goes down of any kind political, religious, or business.
7. No commercial ships at sea.
8. No commercial transportation after the sun goes down.
9. Evacuate all homes that spit our as much carbon as Al Gores Home.
10. Since no food will be delivered plant you own garden or say good by.

Talk about loony mischaracterizations!

It does show that folks are starting to pay attention to Interfaith Power and Light and the larger movement of America’s religious folks doing something reasonable about global warming.

Have you encountered any opposition?

What’s the craziest denier argument that you’ve heard?

Now the Weather Channel cares about religion and the environment?

The Weather Channel’s Forecast Earth talks with Evangelical leaders about the “greening” of God’s people. This 8 min. clip features Dr. Joel C. Hunter, author of “A New Kind of Conservative” and senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed and Richard Cizik, governmental affairs director of the National Association of Evangelicals. Both are good friends of Interfaith Power and Light.

Sierra Club and Us

The Sierra Club has just published its first ever national report on the environmental engagement of communities of faith, Faith in Action: Communities of Faith Bring Hope for the Planet.

It reads like a who’s who of what we do and who we, and many of our friends, are.

Several of the state IPL programs are featured including: Iowa, Illinois, New Mexico, Rhode Island, our evangelical Florida friends, and Oregon.

Mazel Tov Kansas

Another bloggin’ leader has joined the IPL fold. Look out Rev. Denise (CT) he’s also a Kossack.

Meet Moti Rieber, of Wichita, Kansas, who has just joined the new Kansas IPL steering committee. He says that he’s “a rabbi, writer, and new Federation exec. I’ve been married for 10 years and have 3 kids – 9, 7 and 4. I grew up in New Jersey but have been slowly moving west!”

Yesterday on his blog he wrote:

This from Kos on the importance of this year’s election for the issue of climate change. Fortunately, both candidates are speaking about this issue, which may at long last take it out of realm of “partisanship” into which years of industry and political manipulation have placed it. Obviously one can debate the most effective ways of addressing the issue, but the sooner we get past the question of whether it should even be addressed, the better.

On the same subject, I’ve accepted being named to the steering committee of Kansas Interfaith Power & Light, which is the local arm of a national group that works to encourage churches and synagogues to “green” their spaces – CFL lightbulbs, LED exit signs, energy efficiency and the like. I told the organizer that if she wanted a Jew, she’d be better off picking someone from KC, but she asked me anyway so I agreed. It will give me a chance to do some tikkun olam work, interfaith work that doesn’t revolve around Israel, which is good. I think it’s important for Federations to get involved with the issues of the day, and not just solely focus on Israel, and many of the Jewish organizations (JCPA particularly) agree with me.

Making Sense

By Freddie Ghesquiere, Beatitudes Society Fellow with Interfaith Power and Light

I have a theory that the bike commuters of San Francisco have organized themselves into a secret society that operates throughout the city. Neophytes are inducted after making it to work alive for eleven consecutive workdays, which should land me a spot in their group some time this afternoon. Once in, I will be taught the secrets of telepathic communication with muni drivers and given an extrasensory detection of upcoming roads with a 17+% grade.

My daily commute to work at The Regeneration Project winds through several neighborhoods, landing me eventually into the corporate heart of Fog City: the Financial District. The route is relatively flat, relatively un death-defying, and the experience fits in nicely with the ethos of my internship. The Regeneration Project overseas Interfaith Power and Light, a nationwide religious response to global warming that seeks to promote renewable energy, energy conservation and energy efficiency. The Interfaith Power & Light headquarters here in San Francisco oversees the twenty-seven state IPL affiliates, including 4000+ congregations. Rather than micromanaging each program, however, the Regeneration Project seeks to empower each state to implement programming tailored to the needs and concerns of that state. Activities range from replacing light bulbs to energy audits to solar panel installation to education to film screenings to lobbying efforts.

I have never worked a 9 to 5 job in my life, so this is new and strange. I’ve also never had a job in an office building before, so that too is strange. When I think back on the work commutes of my past they seem surreal, like I was playing at the game of “job.” For one job, I canoed across the Connecticut River from Vermont to New Hampshire, hopped on a trail and walked into the Dartmouth Outing Club’s building. Later that year I would find myself biking daily along the narrow sandy paths of a Filipino island village, underneath a baking sun, to reach the migratory bird sanctuary where I worked. For another job, this time on a log-cabin building crew, I would bundle up for the frigid November mornings in New Hampshire and hike along the Appalachian trail for a few miles to get to work. In some ways my current internship makes me feel like I’m just playing the next round of this big game: the grown-up part.

And yet I don’t think I’ve ever experienced work for an organization that lines up so closely with my values. I’m passionate about the environment and fascinated by religion and am often seeking out the overlap. I’m working on a joint degree program from the Forestry and Divinity Schools at Yale, and the combination still raises eyebrows in many circles. It’s nice to be surrounded by people here who agree that, yes, this combination indeed makes perfect sense. So amidst the foreignness of high-rise office buildings, throngs of corporate businesspersons, and an elevator ride (!) each morning, there’s something about biking to and from work along the streets of San Francisco that feels familiar. The commute, like the internship, makes perfect sense.

IPL in the News

Already the Renewal screenings are popping up on blogs and Google News Alerts. Green Muslims in the District and Greater Washington IPL are having a screening on July 16.

Also, here’s a great mention of IPL in the news:

Switching to an alternative energy source was both a practical decision and one rooted in social and environmental awareness, said the Rev. Rachel Anne Nyback, senior associate of the 400-family congregation.

Church leaders moved cautiously at first, trying to hear peoples’ concerns while explaining the benefits, she said. After all, solar panels are expensive, they’re not the only alternative energy source, and they probably wouldn’t look attractive hanging on the peaked roof of the mission-style church. (As it turned out, that section didn’t get panels.)

“Some people had a few questions, reservations. But the majority of the congregation supports it,” Nyback said, adding: “This is a way to take care of what we’ve been given.”

Although St. Cross is believed to be the first church in the South Bay to use solar power, the concept has already caught on elsewhere in the state.

The group California Interfaith Power and Light, which unites religious leaders concerned about environmental issues, has been keeping a tally of solar-powered churches and religious institutions for a few years now, outreach director Jessica Brown said.

“I can think of 10 congregations off the top of my head that have solar panels. It’s a relatively new phenomenon, but it’s something that I have churches calling (about) all the time to see if they can do it,” she said.

The installation at St. Cross is the work of the Foster City firm Solar City, which started an aggressive marketing campaign in the South Bay beach cities this spring. The company, which has a local office in Culver City, is offering a zero-money-down lease option statewide through July 31 to entice homeowners, businesses and nonprofit groups to go solar.

Furthermore, the Providence, R.I. Journal reports:

Channing Memorial Church of Newport, which has been in an informal participating relationship with Rhode Island Interfaith Power and Light for the past year, has officially voted through its board to join the 18-month-old organization.

Founded in January of 2007, the organization is part of a nationwide network of 4,000 congregations dedicated to crafting a religious response to global warming. Their activities range from working to get energy audits for Rhode Island’s houses of worship to lobbying at the federal level for passage of climate-change legislation. Currently, about 50 congregations have been represented in RI-IPL activities or have formally joined the organization. For more information, call (401) 268-3833 or visit www.riipl.org.

Evangelicals and Global Warming

There’s plenty of news out there about growing divisions among evangelicals over the science and the action required to address global warming. Although this video is a bit light on information, the young Christians here actually give a good sense of the debate and reveal some emerging generational, authority, and messaging issues.

Here’s head of governmental affairs head for the National Association of Evangelicals Richard Cizik bringing his faith down to earth. Note: Interfaith Power and Light on that Sen. Boxer poster.

Interfaith Power and Light is beginning to work more closely with committed evangelicals who care deeply for creation and understand the science. Have you had any conversations with global warming skeptics? What have you said that’s helped create common moral ground or explain the science? Share your experience and ideas below for all our IPL folks.