Last month, NPR rounded out its series on the “past, present and future of global warming,” a comprehensive look at climate change co-produced with National Geographic that ran more than 200 stories. The last installment featured an onsite interview with Martin Palmer, an Anglican priest and founder of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation.
I am not a farmer, much less a subsistence farmer. At the same time, I know what effort I put in. I know how often I bark my knuckles in the process; and so I know some of my sweat and blood feeds the roots of the peppers. I know what it means to put in two hours in the hot sun; and if I don’t know what it means to put in twelve hours, I do know that my life would be very different if I had no choice.
For many Episcopalians—indeed, many people of faith, every day is Earth Day. The Rev. Sally Bingham founded Interfaith Power and Light (then Episcopal Power and Light) in 1998 as an initiative to allow churches to purchase renewable energy and is part of The Regeneration Project, an “interfaith ministry devoted to deepening the connection between ecology and faith.”
While HIV/AIDS is thought of as the world’s greatest public health challenge, there are other significant diseases that are are taking a similar toll. Today is World Malaria Day and a number of organizations around the world have taken advantage of the attention being paid to their work to call for new initiatives in the prevention of Malaria.
It is the locavore’s dilemma that organic bananas delivered by a fuel-efficient boat may be responsible for less energy use than highly fertilized, nonorganic potatoes trucked from a hundred miles away. Even locally grown, organic greenhouse tomatoes can consume 20 percent more resources than a tomato from a far-off warm climate, because of all the energy needed to run the greenhouse.
Food banks supported by churches and others are seeing an increase in numbers of clients as the cost of food and fuel rises. Rationing has
Back home, as I put the shrimp (shrink-wrapped and farm-raised) along with the basil and fruit (each stuffed into an oversized plastic package) into my hefty side-by-side fridge (how much of an EnergyStar can it really be?), the whole effort seemed absurd. Can a few green bags really lighten my carbon footprint?
Since the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, Earth Day has been an annual event for people around the world to celebrate the earth and renew our commitment to building a safer, healthier and cleaner world for all of us. It is a wonderful opportunity to embrace all of God’s creation, raise awareness and pray for “this fragile earth, our island home” (Eucharistic Prayer C, Book of Common Prayer). We have collected many resources and websites to facilitate the planning of education offerings and worship celebrations for this day.
Climate change exacerbates extreme world poverty and poverty is hastening global warming. Most people living in poverty around the world lack access to a reliable energy source, forcing many to choose energy sources such as oil, coal, or wood, which threaten to expand significantly the world’s greenhouse emissions and thus accelerate the effects of climate change.
The Arizona Republic reports “that church leaders and their congregations are increasingly becoming God’s green soldiers” by bringing together spirituality and ecology.