IPLog

Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

Every year, Blog Action Day focuses on an important issue facing the world and asks all bloggers to post on the issue at the same time. This

Doug and Rob, two members of the AZ IPL steering committee watching a slideshow on the construction of the Church of the Brethren

year the issue is, as you have probably guessed, climate change.

We thought we would take this opportunity to give you a snapshot of what’s happening around here today, and just remind you of some of the important ways that people of faith around the country are participating.

• Our founder, the Rev. Canon Sally Bingham is currently in Arizona, at the official launch of Arizona IPL and giving a keynote lecture tomorrow at the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona Conference, after stops this month in University Park, PA for the Religion and the Ethics of Climate Change Conference, Wisconsin for the Interfaith Earthkeeping Conference, New York, and Washinton D.C. Next week, she will be on her way to New Orleans to meet with Patriarch Bartholomew. She’s been keeping us updated with photos from Arizona all day from her iPhone.
• We’ve been excited to hear about everyone’s plans in the faith community for the 350.org’s Oct. 24th Day of Action. Maine IPL will be gathering at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception to ring the bell 350 times, raising a ruckus both for a strong agreement in Copenhagen and to get the attention of their senators to pass the climate bill.
• California IPL has been gearing up for the Third Annual Energy Oscars on Nov. 10 at Grace Cathedral here in San Francisco.

And here’s a reminder about all the ways you can get involved:

• Join thousands of others in sending a message to your senators urging them to pass the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act.
• Visit your state’s Interfaith Power and Light.
• Sign up for email alerts and join the IPL Online Activist Team for more frequent action alerts.
• Discount prices for energy-efficiency products: ShopIPL.org – Coupon code: shopipl
• Measure your congregation’s carbon footprint: CoolCongregations.com
• Purchase a copy of Love God Heal Earth by Sally Bingham
• Connect with IPL on: Facebook | Twitter | Subscribe to the IPL Blog

And finally:

Your tax-deductible contributions help us mobilize a religious response to global warming.

October Brought to You by the Number 350

There are two numbers to remember this month: 350 and 24. Experts say 350 ppm CO2 in the atmosphere is the safe limit for humanity. And on Saturday, October 24, many communities of faith across the land will be gathering for the 350.org Day of Action. Their activities will include prayers, celebrations, worship services, and creative messages using the number, such as ringing a church bell 350 times.

If you would like to get your faith community involved, or you want to attend an event that is already planned, visit 350.org/faith to get started.

You can also contact your state IPL leader to get plugged in to events happening around you.

Today, Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, and Mary Evelyn Tucker, of the Forum on Religion and Ecology sent out this message to faith leaders:

Friends—We need you to help at the last minute, and here’s a few sentences to get you inspired. They come from an op-ed that one of our leading 350.org spokespeople, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, just wrote for the African newspapers:

‘In South Africa we showed that if we act on the side of justice, we have the power to turn tides; on October 24 we have a chance to start turning the tide of climate change.’

He’s right—October 24, which is the 350 day of global action, has taken off like a great wave of hope. People all over the world—especially young people and people of faith—have done such an amazing job of organizing that this looks like it will be the most widespread day of political witness the world has ever seen, with several thousand actions and events in more than 150 countries. Every one will be focused on those three numbers, 3-5-0, because scientists tell us that it’s the most important number on earth: it’s the most carbon we can safely have in the atmosphere, at least if we want a planet “similar to the one on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted.”

So there will be climbers high on the melting slopes of Mt. Everest with 350 banners. And the entire cabinet of the government of the Maldives has been taking scuba training so they can hold an official underwater meeting on Oct. 24 to pass a 350 resolution. I was just in Bethlehem to meet with activists from across the region: on the Israeli shore of the Dead Sea, activists will use their bodies to make a giant human 3, and in Palestine a giant 5, and on the Jordanian shore an enormous 0.

We need you and your community to join in: to join thousands of churches in ringing the steeple bell 350 times, or use that week’s Torah portion—the story of Noah—to make the case for creation care. Here’s how Archbishop Tutu put it:

Buddhist monks and Muslim congregations are joining in the same kind of hopeful actions. Everywhere participants will be worried about the fate of their own particular places—but they’ll also be standing up for the weakest people and places on earth, whose voices simply must be heard. People in almost all the nations of the earth are involved—it’s the same kind of coalition that helped make the word “apartheid” known around the world.

How You Can Help Pass a Clean Energy and Climate Bill in the Senate

At local town hall meetings around the country, opponents of climate and energy legislation are turning out in force along with  opponents of health care reform in an orchestrated strategy to shout down congressmembers and intimidate them.

As senators head home for the August recess, we must step up our efforts to demonstrate faith community concern for this issue.

Here is what you can do to help push for climate legislation:

1. You can find more information about an upcoming town hall meeting near you by clicking on one of the orange markers on this map. Or download the spreadsheet) Please attend an event near you, and peacefully display your support, as a person of faith, for a clean energy and climate bill. While we certainly do not want to imitate their angry mob tactics, it’s important that our senators hear a more accurate portrayal of public opinion at the meetings.
2. Visit our Action Center and send a letter to your senator saying that as a person of clean faith you support:

• increasing our competitiveness in a global clean-energy market that could reach nearly $2 trillion in the next decade.
• creating millions of new American jobs
• protecting God’s Creation for future generations
• protecting the most vulnerable members of our society from catastrophic climate change

Call Your Representative Today to Support ACES

UPDATE (6-26): The bill passed! It was very close. Thanks to everyone who took action!

The American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) will head to the House floor for a vote by the end of the week. This bill brings us close to the clean energy revolution that we have been working and praying for, but we still need your help to push this legislation through! Call your representative today to express your support for this bill. Here’s how:

1. If you do not know who your representative is, click here and enter your zip code in the top left corner of the page.
   
2. Call the Congressional Switchboard and ask to be connected to your representative: (202) 224-3121
3. Ask your representative to support HR 2454. What you can say:

Please pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act, HR 2454. I am calling as a person of faith (and/or as a member of ___________ congregation in _______). This bill will help launch a clean energy future and avert the worst impacts of climate change.

Your Congressional representatives have been inundated by calls and letters from the opposition. Please take a few moments today to call your representative and tell him or her that global warming is a moral issue people of faith care deeply about.

Baptists Sign Letter Supporting ACES

The Baptist Center for Ethics gathered 140 signatures from Baptist leaders across the country in support of H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act. The letter urges Congress to strengthen and pass the bill.

The letter states:

We understand that this bill is a comprehensive one that promises to create millions of clean energy jobs, to advance American security from foreign oil, to protect the planet by capping global-warming gases, to increase electricity from renewable energy sources and to improve energy efficiency.

What they want to strengthen:

We wish the bill provided more funding to help the marginalized and those most at risk — those least responsible for climate change.

Nonetheless, an imperfect bill will not keep us from speaking up and encouraging our fellow church members to support this legislation. We are determined that the tyranny of moral perfectionism will not block the urgency of moral realism.

IPL shares their view of the bill, and we invite you to take action if you haven’t, urging your congressperson to pass this important legislation.

Have You Urged Your Congressional Representative to Pass ACES Yet?

UPDATE (6-26): The bill passed! It was very close. Thanks to everyone who took action!

Earlier this week we sent out an action alert asking people of faith to urge their representatives in Congress to strengthen and pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act (Download IPL’s Fact Sheet on ACES), which is making its way to the House floor after a trip to the Ag Committee. Here is what the alert said and how you can take a minute to send a message to your representative. If you haven’t signed up for our action alerts, you can sign up here. more »

A Vote in Congress or a Test of Faith?

Click on the image below to view the full-size ad as seen in The Desert Sun newspaper, Palm Springs, CA:

On Sunday, newspapers in key areas across the country printed full-page ads addressing congressional representatives. The message in the ads, sponsored by Interfaith Power & Light, was from religious leaders about the importance of protecting Creation.

The ads ran in The Desert Sun (CA), Rocky Mount Telegram (NC), The Daily Reflector (NC), The Marquette Mining Journal (MI), The Augusta Chronicle (GA), and Savannah Morning News (GA).

On Wednesday, similar ads will run in San Antonio Express-News (TX) and Traverse City Record-Eagle (MI).

Read the full text of the ad after the jump (click on “more” to read on) more »

Lights Dim Worldwide for Earth Hour 2009

From a reseach base in Antarctica to the Empire State Building in New York, illuminated patches of the globe went dark Saturday for Earth Hour, a campaign to highlight the threat of climate change.

More on the event from USA Today

Don’t Forget! Earth Hour is Tomorrow at 8:30 PM Local Time

Join IPL in being a part of this historic event, in solidarity with millions of people globally. You can participate simply by turning off non-essential lighting in your home for one hour tomorrow, March 28th at 8:30 PM local time. This symbolic event is a message from the world that it’s time for their governments to join together in solving global warming.

Visit EarthHourUS.org to sign up and get details.

IPL Invites You to Participate in Earth Hour 2009

Interfaith Power & Light is participating in Earth Hour. You can join us by more »