News, Boost, Updates
8th April Weekly(ish) Climate Cafe Multifaith, Faiths4Future, More...
Scroll for info and links in this week’s weekly(ish):
JustCreation prior weeks of this Weekly and other articles.
Faith voices this week, webinars and Earth Month!
Reports and Studies
There is Good News, too!
Boost
Earth Day Vigil for Creation. United Methodists are gathering in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the big General Conference. In observance of Earth Day a number of United Methodist organizations and agencies are organizing a service on April 21 that will be livestreamed. People can register to view the livestream, and invited also to host an event alongside the livestream at the local church. There is even an opportunity to win $1,000 toward the local church green team/creation care team. Register to learn more, and see the Host Handbook.
Faith Climate Action Week. A number of events will happen around Earth Day, now Earth Week and Earth Month. Interfaith Power and Light has injected fresh energy into Faith Climate Action Week with an inspired new coordinator. Check out the Faith Action Week Toolkit, and connect with your state IPL affiliate for movie viewings and other events. In general, their Faith Climate Action pages are full of ideas and resources.
National Faith + Climate Forum. Blessed Tomorrow, part of EcoAmerica, is also offering opportunities to engage with Creation in April. This will be an online, livestreamed event on April 16, and there are some ideas as to how you can gather in the local place of worship together for the forum. Learn more and register.
Please Sign-On! The UMC is still investing (a lot) in fossil fuels. This is heartbreaking especially from a faith institution. Hundreds of faith groups have divested, and I am asking, please support the Fossil Free UMC effort. Please sign on to this Letter. You can sign as an individual or as a group, church, or organization, now also in Spanish. You can sign if you are a United Methodist, or if you aren’t. If you aren’t please consider signing on in support, we need your voice to show the power of witness outside the denomination.
Reports & Studies
Find more reports on the reports page.
Annual State of the Global Climate. The World Meteorological Organization out of the UN published their report on last year’s state of the climate. The Story Map is accessible and gets to the point. Read about the report in the AP, UN weather agency issues ‘red alert’ on climate change after record heat, ice-melt increases in 2023. Read the WMO Press Release, Climate change indicators reached record levels in 2023: WMO, read from SDG Development Hub, Climate Inaction is More Expensive Than Climate Action: WMO Report. And read the Report.
Tracking Food Waste. The UN Food report tracking food waste was out last week. Read about the report in the AP, 783 million people face chronic hunger. Yet the world wastes 19% of its food, UN says. From The Guardian, Millions go hungry as a billion meals binned every day, says UN report, UN Food Waste Index report also finds global food wastage is big contributor to climate crisis. Read the Report.
Plastics on the Ocean Floor. Millions of tons of plastic—not just microplastics—are littering the floor of our oceans. Worse, plastic manufacturers look to doubling plastic use by 2040. Read about the report from Phys.org, Ocean floor a 'reservoir' of plastic pollution, study finds. Read a deep dive from The Guardian, Radioactive waste, baby bottles and Spam: the deep ocean has become a dumping ground. The ocean’s depths are not some remote alien realm, but are in fact intimately entangled with every other part of the planet. We should treat them that way.
Heat—yes it’s climate change. Peer reviewed research from World Weather Attribution, Dangerous humid heat in southern West Africa about 4°C hotter due to climate change. Read also from Carbon Brief, Climate change made west Africa’s ‘dangerous humid heatwave’ 10 times more likely. And another study this week also, read from AP, Study says since 1979 climate change has made heat waves last longer, spike hotter, hurt more people. Read the Report.
A Pair of Forest Studies. There are of course many studies coming in centering forests, forest impacts, deforestation and restoration. These studies address the ability of forests to recover after logging, from Mongabay, Previously logged forests struggle to thrive, even with restoration, study finds. And from EcoWatch, Rainforest Seedlings Grow Better in Natural Forests Than Restored Ones, Even After 30 Years, Study Finds. Read the study. Read also from World Economic Forum, Tropical forest regeneration offsets just a fraction of deforestation emissions. Here's why. Read the study.
Deep Dive
The news this last week or so doesn’t lend itself to a single deep dive. Instead, there was a range of worthy stories:
Lawsuits, Damages, and Accountability. What does accountability look like? If companies knowingly sold products that caused harm, and covered up that harm and lobbied to prevent public disclosures of extent of that harm and even to protect them from liability…what do we as a culture do with that? What counts as a public or economic benefit? And where is the moral thread. Those questions are at the center of some of those questions this week:
From Civil Eats, Inside Bayer’s State-by-State Efforts to Stop Pesticide Lawsuits.
From Inside Climate News, Should Big Oil Be Tried for Homicide? A group of activists and legal experts are promoting the argument that fossil fuel companies should be charged for homicide and other crimes for their roles in driving climate harms.
From the AP, Vermont advances bill requiring fossil fuel companies pay for damage caused by climate change.
NIMBYism and consent. Another big set of questions revolves around the subject of ‘how do we go about this’? We can generally agree that how we have approached industrialization has lead us to the precipice of environmental disaster. Whatever our first reasons were for harnessing oil for energy so that we might ‘power the future,’ it turns out that future itself—earth’s species, our water, our children, our communities—is at risk. What’s next? How do we sort out the issues of privilege and consent—with everything at stake—right now.
From AZ Central, A solar ban, a gas power plant and the rural retirees firing back at dirty energy. I appreciated this deep dive into the challenges right now and what the way forward could look like.
From High Country News, Wenatchi-P’squosa people demonstrate against proposed solar project. The Badger Mountain development in eastern Washington threatens heritage foodways on sacred lands. This story yet again challenges the colonial status quo, it calls us to seek consent, and acknowledge the human right to food, cultural heritage, and spiritual ceremony.
And from the forests of Oregon, where the last remnants of standing forests are still big business, despite the die-offs, dehydration, and fire. From Oregon Capitol Chronicle, Activists protest in trees, file lawsuit to block old growth logging on BLM land. A coalition of conservation groups and activists have blocked a logging site and filed a legal complaint over another area with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. And from OPB, Forest agencies seek tribal inclusion in policymaking. Indigenous leaders are holding them accountable.
Faith Voices in the News This Week
Church Coalitions Step Up. Shout out to the COAD in Florida, an organization of faith groups leading strategic effort of resilience in facing climate change and un/natural disasters from The Independent Florida Alligator, Gainesville religious communities use faith to inspire climate action.
Church-Community Solar. A community solar project connecting churches in community, Methodists, Presbyterians, and more. From United Church of Christ, Hope Community Solar Project.
The Feast of Creation. We celebrate Easter, Christmas, why do we not celebrate Creation? That was the question at a recent high-level ecumenical gathering. From Lutheran World Federation, Ecumenical efforts to introduce a Christian Feast of Creation.
Earth Day - Get Ready, Preach! With Earth Day coming right up, pastors are encouraged to reach into the science to bring the Word for creation. In Patheos from Leah D. Schade, Preaching About Climate Change? Scientists Can Help!
Congratulations Eco-Church! A little late on this good congratulations, but none-the-less, job well done! From The Free Press, Gold eco award for Henllan Church – only the second in Wales!
Divestment Action! Thank you to the Faith Foundation Northwest, they are divesting their funds from fossil fuels! The United Methodist pensions agency, “Wespath,” has also made it easier for United Methodists to divest with expanded Social Values Choice Funds. And thank you also to The Jewish Federation of Greater Portland for divesting, Our values compel us to move away from fossil fuels, the good news picked up by Dayenu! Oregon Jewish Federations Lead the Way on Climate Action, Pulling Investments from Fossil Fuels.
Good News
Lots of good news this week! Find more news in the news archive here.
Leading the Charge. This is a report but I am putting this under ‘good news’ because this report addresses the really important imperative that even as we vault with everything we can to address emissions, we do not replicate the abuses and injustices that got us here in the first place. The Report is ‘Leading the Charge’ and it seeks to define what makes a good EV car, including rating not just emissions reductions, but also looking at manufacturing supply chains to assess human rights and environmental harms. Read about the report in Mongabay, This year’s ranking of EV carmakers from most to least ‘clean’: Report. Read the Report.
Clean Energy Growth. A number of articles with good news for ongoing phasing in of clean energy. From Grist, US experienced staggering growth in solar and wind power over the last decade. Nearly a quarter of the nation's grid now runs on renewables, bringing the country closer to its climate goals. From Electrek, Solar topped coal in Texas for the first time ever in March.
Community, Environmental Restoration. I love this story! Humans can do a lot toward resilience, and this story will inspire you. From The Guardian, It takes a village: the Indian farmers who built a wall against drought. In rural Rajasthan, villagers have taken action against climate damage by constructing water-saving walls, trenches and dams to revive their farmland. Another story of empowering communities also from The Guardian, Three Indigenous American tribes to get funding to manage ocean and coasts. Communities in Washington, California and Maine will receive $755,000 under the Infrastructure Act to build climate resilience.
Taking Expertise from Oil to Renewables. Two great stories about this, also! From The Texas Tribune, In Texas, ex-oil and gas workers champion geothermal energy as a replacement for fossil-fueled power plants. And an expansive project in Estonia designed to provide good clean energy while staving off tyrants and authoritarians, from Clean Technica, Invisible 12-Hour Energy Storage Project To Chase Oil Shale From Estonia.
Prayers up!
Richenda
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Just to say… my updates are not endorsements, and links are usually third party. Please make your own determinations. My goal here is to amplify the conversation and encourage engagement, learning, and resilience. And of course, to bless your efforts!