IPLog

10 Questions for Allison Fisher

This week on “10 Questions” we learn a little more about Allison Fisher, Program Director for Greater Washington Interfaith Power & Light, serving the D.C. area. “10 Questions” features a different IPL leader (mostly) each week.

Allison enjoying some biking in Mexico.

What is your faith tradition?

Jewish

When did you become aware of the connection between ecology and faith? more »

Web Wednesday

IPL Links:

Eileen Horn of Kansas Interfaith Power & Light is coordinating a guest blogging series on the Climate and Energy Project Blog.

• Sister Esther Pineda, of Sisters of St. Joseph in Concordia, KS, answers the question: Why should people of faith care about climate change?
• Shane Moore, a Methodist Seminarian, offers his insights on energy stewardship from his faith tradition.
• Rev. Lynn Schlosser, a Mennonite Pastor, shares her sermon on the issue of climate change, “Climate Change Prophets: From Jonah to James Hansen”.

10 Questions for Rev. Dr. Clare Butterfield

10 Questions is back with Rev. Dr. Clare Butterfield, the Executive Director of Illinois Interfaith Power & Light.

What is your faith tradition?

I was not raised in any religious tradition, and as a teenager I became Unitarian Universalist. I was ordained as a UU minister in 2000.

When did you become aware of the connection between ecology and faith? more »

Is Global Warming a Spiritual Question?

21 Religious Leaders Say YES!

What does it take to power a great awakening about Earth’s environmental crisis? Until recently, science has been alone in sounding the alarms while many religious leaders have held back, viewing global warming as a purely secular issue. Now, in an unprecedented demonstration of unity and moral purpose, religious voices from across the spectrum–liberal, conservative, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists–are joining in one of the largest movements in human history…declaring the environment to be an urgent matter of faith.

In Love God, Heal Earth: 21 Leading Religious Voices Speak Out on Our Sacred Duty to Protect the Environment (St. Lynn’s Press, 2009, ISBN: 798-0-9800288-3-6, $17.95), the Rev. Canon Sally G. Bingham brings together 21 highly regarded spiritual leaders from diverse faiths to make the case for environmental stewardship and show how their faith communities are tackling the issue of religion and environment.

Comments about this book from the worlds of science and religion:

“Love God, Heal Earth is a historically important contribution. Its authors of diverse faiths recognize that protecting the planet and all of life is a transcendent responsibility – for both the scientists who study it and those of religious faith who are able to express its spiritual importance.”
–E.O. Wilson, Harvard biologist and naturalist,
author of The Creation: an Appeal to Save Life on Earth

“Love God, Heal Earth features some of the clearest and most compelling voices in the emerging creation care movement–a unifying and rallying point for people of faith from across diverse traditions.”
–Jim Wallis, President of Sojourners,
author of The Great Awakening.

About the Author

Sally G. Bingham, the principal author, is on the short list of America’s most influential religious environmentalists. She is environmental minister for San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral and for the California Episcopal Diocese; and founder and president of the fast-growing Interfaith Power and Light Campaign, involving more than 4000 congregations and over 500,000 people in 28 states in faith-based action to heal the Earth.

About the Book

Love God, Heal Earth (St. Lynn’s Press, February, 2009, ISBN: 978-0-9800288-3-6, $17.95) is available at bookstores nationwide, major online booksellers, and at www.theregenerationproject.org ($20.00 includes shipping).

A Road Not Taken

President Carter dedicated solar panels on the roof of the White House in 1979. They were removed in the 80s, and reappeared at Unity College. Here is a quote from Carter at their dedication:

“This dependence on foreign sources of oil is of great concern to all of us. In the year 2000, this solar water heater behind me, which is being dedicated today, will still be here supplying cheap, efficient energy. A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people.”

Google has one of the panels on display at its DC office.

This is a trailer for the film A Road Not Taken, which shows the dedication.

Inauguration Highlights: the Prayers

It is remarkable that in both the invocation and the benediction, forgiveness was asked for human disrespect toward creation. This is a first for the faith community.

From Pastor Rick Warren’s Invocation:

When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve–forgive us.

May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy, and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet.

From Rev. Joseph Lowery’s Benediction:

And while we have sown the seeds of greed — the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.

More Inauguration Highlights

Web Wednesday

IPL links:

• Allison Fisher, Greater Washington IPL: Faith-Based and Secular Groups Join Forces to Fight Big Coal in Virginia
• Jill Rios, NC IPL: video of press statement in opposition to Duke Energy’s proposed expansion of a coal plant in Rutherford County.
• Howie Brown, RI IPL and Sally Bingham, The Regeneration Project: “Faith Lights Our Way Toward a Sustainable Future” – annual interfaith conference on climate change

Inauguration Highlights

“We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.”

“With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet.”

“To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow … And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect.”

(ht Grist.org)

Here is a shot of the new White House website. Notice the only two issues currently under the Agenda heading on the main page.

Interfaith Power & Light will continue to work to make sure the new administration follows through with these promises. Please sign our petition joining the faith community in urging the inclusion of green jobs, clean energy, and energy efficiency in the upcoming economic stimulus package.

Reflections on Poland from Sister Pat, Part 3

This is the final reflection on the UNFCCC from Sister Patricia Nagle, IHM. She has shared her thoughts of concern that the Convention needs a new vision. But she ends with expressions of hope in the youth and in creating networks for change.

Sister Pat will continue to establish a relationship with the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Commitee, and will work with her friends Hindou and Margaret, whom she introduced in Part 2, to bring their message to the U.S.

Previous Posts from Sr. Pat: Part 1, Part 2

REFLECTIONS FROM THE UNFCCC
IN POZNAN, POLAND, DECEMBER 2008, Part 3
Submitted by Patricia Nagle, IHM

There was some progress in Poznan.  The adaptation fund set up in the Bali negotiations of ’07 became legal.  The purpose of this fund is to assist developing countries in addressing the effects of climate change and also to initiate programs of C02 emission reductions.  At present the fund is inadequate and a question of how the fund will be administered is still standing.  The World Bank has positioned themselves in the international climate change arena to be “in charge.”  One must question this on the basis of the bank’s history of funding polluting industries and driving deforestation by promoting industrial logging.  Holmes Hummel has said that the “bitter negotiations over the Adaptation Fund spanned the full two weeks, reflecting a sorely missing spirit of cooperation and a deep lack of trust between parties.” Holmes, p. 10 [Download PDF of Poznan Debrief by Holmes Hummel, PhD]

I believe that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change needs a “tune-up!”  The World Council of Churches has called for a change of paradigm if we are to adequately respond to the challenge of climate change: “societies (and I add, individuals) must change their relationship towards nature, economic policies, consumption, production and technological patterns. We must shift to a new vision where the operative principles are justice, equity, solidarity, human development and care for the environment.”  This change needs to be evident in the structure and process for the  UNFCCC negotiations. more »

Reflections on Poland from Sister Pat, Part 2

This is the second of a series of reflections from Sister Pat, who attended the recent UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. For more on Sr. Pat and Part 1 of her reflections, please read this post first.

REFLECTIONS FROM THE UNFCCC
IN POZNAN, POLAND, DECEMBER 2008 (Part 2)
Submitted by Patricia Nagle, IHM

“Among international institutions, the United Nations is exceptional for the level of representation and participation by countries without regard to their economic scale or military might.”  Holmes, p.8 [Download PDF of Poznan Debrief by Holmes Hummel, PhD]  What I witnessed in the Poznan negotiations is that it is not enough to seat these countries/people at the table. What about a process that facilitates true dialogue and will allow for the voices of the marginalized communities to be heard, and to influence the discourse? more »