Most recent 40 articles: Yale Climate Connections - Faith
 |
Maryland rabbi calls on people to be good ancestors to future generations - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Aug 13) |
|
Aug 13 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
For decades, Fred Scherlinder Dobb has been a rabbi with the Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation, a Jewish community in Maryland.
As a rabbi, he draws on Jewish teachings to advocate for climate action – to help protect the well-being of future generations.
Dobb: “Judaism has this expression we use all the time, “l’dor vador,” from generation to generation – it is ultimately about sustainability.”
For Dobb, embodying this philosophy means taking action both in his own community – for example, by installing solar panels on the ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
'Not alone, but with others.’ Pastor helps faith leaders speak up on climate change - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (May 24, 2024) |
|
May 24, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Neddy Astudillo, an ordained Presbyterian pastor based in Florida, says the scriptures of the Bible celebrate the Earth as God’s creation and call upon people to care for it.
So as a Christian, she feels called to do something about climate change. And she says many other faith leaders feel the same.
Astudillo: “And they are looking for tools to figure out how to work with that issue within their faith communities, how to talk about it in a way that they can engage others in the work.”
Astudillo coordinates the Spanish-language Climate ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Baltimore church becomes an extreme weather 'resiliency hub’ - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Oct 24, 2023) |
|
Oct 24, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Stillmeadow Community Fellowship, a church in Baltimore, serves more than people’s spiritual needs.
Kids go there for help with homework. People have gatherings on the church’s grounds, pick up groceries from the food pantry, and grow veggies in the community garden.
And the church is one of about 20 organizations that have partnered with the city to become resiliency hubs.
“Because they’re seen as trusted, go-to resources daily, you know, it’s a natural fit for them to continue providing services during a hazard event like an ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Community 'lighthouses’ support New Orleans neighborhoods during power outages - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Aug 21, 2023) |
|
Aug 21, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
In 2021, Hurricane Ida hit New Orleans and knocked out power across the city.
In some neighborhoods, electricity was not restored for more than a week. During the wait, people struggled to find food, stay out of the heat, and keep in touch.
A coalition of congregations and community groups wants to prevent a similar crisis from happening again.
So the coalition, called Together New Orleans, is installing solar panels and battery backup systems at community and faith centers across New Orleans. They are calling these centers ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
One pastor’s mission to prepare his community for climate change - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (May 29, 2023) |
|
May 29, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Rev. Gerald Godette is a pastor and scientist. So he’s in a unique position to talk to people of faith about sea level rise, extreme weather, and other climate change impacts.
“My faith is a driving force that gets me excited about telling people that, 'Look, this Earth is a gift from God, this universe is a gift from God, and we’ve got to take better care of it,’” he says.
For Godette, the issue of climate change is personal. For about a decade, he was a steward and his wife was the pastor at the Saint Paul African Methodist Episcopal Zion ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
How faith-based groups are helping Arizonans survive brutal heat waves - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (May 10, 2023) |
|
May 10, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Summer in Arizona is hot - often more than 100 degrees.
That kind of heat is uncomfortable. And for people without access to air conditioning, it can be deadly.
“What gets really dangerous here is when we get to that part of the heat season where temperatures do not drop below 90 degrees at night,” says Rev. Katie Sexton-Wood of the Arizona Faith Network. “They can’t cool down their bodies.”
For the past few summers, the Arizona Faith Network, an interfaith organization, has offered training and support to churches, synagogues, and ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
New guide helps church communities respond to climate change - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Dec 26, 2022) |
|
Dec 26, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Experiencing a hurricane or wildfire can be traumatic. And seeing a landscape damaged by drought or other climate impacts can create a profound sense of loss.
“The church can provide a kind of spiritual support for that and a spiritual network,” says Avery Davis Lamb of Creation Justice Ministries.
His group created a guide called “Faithful Resilience” that helps church communities prepare for and respond to climate change.
It includes Biblical references, questions to prompt group discussions or sermons, and suggested actions.
Lamb says in addition to spiritual guidance, churches often have physical resources to offer the ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Meet a scientist who’s optimistic about climate change - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Jul 29, 2022) |
|
Jul 29, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Like many children of the ’80s, chemist Dick Co was both fascinated and traumatized by “Gremlins,” the iconic dark comedy featuring cuddly pets that transform into killer monsters when their owners break one of three rules.
The main character in the film, Billy, receives a furry creature called a “mogwai” from his father as a Christmas present. His father tells him the rules for mogwai care: Keep it out of direct sunlight, don’t let it touch water, and definitely don’t feed it after midnight.
Predictably, one of the rules is soon broken. With a splash of water, one mogwai becomes six. Then the mogwai transform into reptilian gremlins and ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
How US and UK faith communities are addressing global warming - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Jul 19, 2022) |
|
Jul 19, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Faith communities are an arena in which personal climate actions can expand to have a greater impact.
These inspiring examples of what faith leaders (and groups of the faithful) are doing about the climate may be of particular interest to pastors – or others with current or potential leadership positions among parishioners.
For a great introduction to the (mixed) overall situation, start here:
Then read “Faith for Earth,” an excellent three-part series by Ayurella Horn-Muller and Amber Strong of Climate Central, Southerly, and Newsy.
Here are several stories about particular people, places, and actions:
One action has been ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Online toolkit helps Muslims incorporate climate action into Ramadan - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Apr 04, 2022) |
|
Apr 04, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
This year, April 2nd marked the start of Ramadan, a month of daily fasting and prayer for Muslims.
“We’re turning, during this holy month, inwardly, to focus on our religion, to focus on God, to focus on improving ourselves,” says Sevim Kalyoncu, executive director of the nonprofit Green Muslims. “What better time than that … to think about the service that we need to be providing to God as the stewards of the Earth?”
Green Muslims encourages Muslims to consider which steps they can take each day during the month of Ramadan to protect the environment and reduce climate change.
To help, the nonprofit offers an online toolkit and a ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
The Bible is full of passages about caring for the Earth - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Mar 08, 2022) |
|
Mar 08, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Retired evangelical pastor Tri Robinson of Boise, Idaho, says his faith calls him to protect the climate.
He did not always link Christianity with the need for environmental action.
“I just hadn’t made that connection as an evangelical pastor because of politics, mainly,” he says.
But Robinson says that about 20 years ago, his adult children pointed out that the Bible is full of passages about caring for the Earth.
“They told me at the time that they’d never heard a message from any pulpit on the environment, when it was all over the Bible,” he says. “And so I went to the Bible, read it cover to cover with a green felt tip pen, ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Vatican launches online platform to help Catholics fight climate change - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Feb 25, 2022) |
|
Feb 25, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Pope Francis called upon the world to reduce global warming in a 2015 letter known as Laudato Si’.
Now the Vatican has launched an online platform to help inspire and guide Catholics who are ready to act.
Any Catholic congregation, organization, or individual can enroll in the Laudato Si’ Action Platform.
It helps them assess their environmental impact and create a plan for actions they will take, such as planting trees, reducing energy use, or divesting from fossil fuels.
Jose Aguto directs the Catholic Climate Covenant, a U.S.-based nonprofit working to support the campaign.
He says participants’ plans and ambitions will ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Georgia Interfaith Power and Light helps congregations cut carbon pollution - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Dec 17, 2021) |
|
Dec 17, 2021 · Yale Climate Connections
Churches, synagogues, and mosques are places for people to gather and pray. But they can also help lead their communities in climate action.
“They can be prophetic leaders. When we’re waiting on cities to implement their solutions, we’re waiting on states to pass a policy, congregations, and faith communities, denominations don’t have to wait,” says Codi Norred, executive director of the nonprofit Georgia Interfaith Power and Light.
To help congregations cut carbon pollution, Norred’s organization performs energy audits at churches and other houses of worship. It helps fund energy efficiency retrofits. And it works with congregations ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Hanukkah story can inspire energy conservation, rabbi says - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Nov 25, 2021) |
|
Nov 25, 2021 · Yale Climate Connections
Hanukkah means “dedication” in Hebrew, and Rabbi Katy Allen says the holiday is an ideal time for Jewish people to dedicate themselves to climate action.
“We have a responsibility to do as much as we can to diminish our personal impact and our communal impact,” she says.
Allen is co-founder of the Massachusetts-based Jewish Climate Action Network.
She says the story of Hanukkah invites people to consider how they can conserve energy today. As the story goes, a one-day supply of lamp oil kept a menorah in the second temple of Jerusalem lit for eight days.
“How do we use that image of, like, we need one cruse of oil to go much ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Mennonite leader helps other pastors speak up on climate change - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Oct 04, 2021) |
|
Oct 04, 2021 · Yale Climate Connections
Pastors can help their congregations navigate through many important and difficult challenges, including climate change.
“I think everyone, no matter what you do, you need to be thinking about how you can address climate change. It’s not something we can leave to scientists and certainly not something we can leave to politicians,” says Doug Kaufman, a Mennonite pastor in Goshen, Indiana.
Kaufman works with the Center for Sustainable Climate Solutions to lead retreats with other Mennonite pastors and leaders.
Participants reflect on how global warming threatens God’s creation. They learn about local impacts, discuss climate justice, ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
During Rosh Hashanah, rabbi calls on Jews to commit to climate action - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Sep 03, 2021) |
|
Sep 03, 2021 · Yale Climate Connections
On Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, celebrants traditionally blow the shofar – a ram’s horn trumpet.
“Hearing the blast of the shofar calls us to awaken to the reality of the world that we are living in, the world that human beings have in many ways created the conditions of, and to really contemplate what we need to do differently,” says Sharon Brous, the senior rabbi of IKAR, a Jewish community in Los Angeles.
She says this call to build a better world requires Jews to act on climate.
“From the very beginning of the Torah, of the Hebrew Bible, we’re told that when God began to create the heaven and the Earth, God created human ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Faith powers Georgia advocate who helps religious communities cut carbon - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Aug 06, 2021) |
|
Aug 06, 2021 · Yale Climate Connections
For Hermina Glass-Hill of Savannah, Georgia, caring about the environment started with religion. She grew up in a Christian church, and her family observed the Sabbath surrounded by the natural world.
“We would actually go camping on the Sabbath. We would go picking plums on the Sabbath,” Glass-Hill says. “They are some of the best memories that I have in my life. We would be able to … appreciate the gifts of Creation, which is land, air, clean water, wildlife.”
Glass-Hill remains committed to protecting these gifts, so she’s passionate about reducing global warming.
She works as the coastal engagement associate with the Georgia ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
The Catholic Church’s vast landholdings could help protect the climate - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Jun 19, 2021) |
|
Jun 19, 2021 · Yale Climate Connections
The Catholic church owns a huge amount of property – not only churches and monasteries, but farms and forests. It controls an estimated 177 million acres of land around the world.
So the decisions it makes about how to use this land can have a major impact on the climate.
“They’re kind of one of the institutional heavyweights in this,” says Molly Burhans, executive director of Goodlands.
The organization encourages the Catholic Church to use its property for environmental and social benefit.
Six years ago, she discovered to her surprise that the church lacked a modern, centralized inventory of its worldwide ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
The moral imperative behind the 'Big Bold Jewish Climate Fest’ - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (May 14, 2021) |
|
May 14, 2021 · Yale Climate Connections
Earlier this year, more than 5,000 people gathered online for the first Big Bold Jewish Climate Fest, a five-day festival designed to connect Jewish values with climate action.
Lisa Colton produced the festival. She says that for many Jews, climate change has become a moral issue.
“When framed as a moral issue, it requires that people get off of the sidelines, that you are either on the right side of history or you’re not,” she says. “And the question is not whether you think this is real or you think it’s important. The question is: What are you doing about it?”
She says the festival helped people share ideas, motivate one another, ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Free online class from Houghton College helps Christians engage with global warming - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Apr 16, 2021) |
|
Apr 16, 2021 · Brian Webb wants more conservative Christians to get involved in climate action.
“The church is really missing the ball on this,” he says. “We are not actively engaging with what is one of the most complicated and important issues facing humanity today.”
Webb is the sustainability director at Houghton College, a small Christian college in New York State.
This spring, he’s teaching an online class called “God, Country, and Climate Change” that helps Christians engage with global warming.
To reach people who may be skeptical, the course starts with the common ground of faith:
“This idea of God made the world ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Catholic seminary installs a solar farm shaped like a cross - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Mar 29, 2021) |
|
Mar 29, 2021 · From their plane windows, people traveling to and from Chicago may notice the shape of a cross in a field outside the city. This cross is made entirely of rows of solar panels that help power a Catholic seminary.
“The shape of it is really something I think is special,” says Father John Kartje, the rector and president of Mundelein Seminary at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake.
He says the 300-kilowatt array, which went online in December, is the first solar installation at a U.S. Catholic seminary.
The project is saving the seminary money on electricity bills. And Kartje says it represents the environmental stewardship that’s central to ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Why some Christians are participating in a ‘carbon fast’ for Lent - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Mar 19, 2021) |
|
Mar 19, 2021 · In Christianity, the 40-day period leading up to Easter is called Lent. It’s traditionally a time of fasting and reflecting upon the sacrifices Jesus made.
And now some Christians participate in what they call a Lenten carbon fast.
“It’s a way to think more deeply about … the actions in our lives that contribute to climate change … and to give those up,” Brittany Michalski says.
Michalski helps run Climate Caretakers, a Christian organization that’s leading a carbon fast. Each week, her group poses a different challenge for participants.
Some challenges are material, such as giving up meat, cutting back on ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Celebrating climate action during Kwanzaa - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Dec 23, 2020) |
|
Dec 23, 2020 · Today is the third day of Kwanzaa.
“For me personally, it’s a period of reflection, of preparation, of really centering myself in my culture and my spirituality and celebrating African Americans,” says Heather McTeer Toney, senior director at Mom’s Clean Air Force.
As an environmental activist, she takes time during Kwanzaa to celebrate ways African Americans are taking climate action, and she reflects on how their efforts embody the holiday’s seven principles.
For example, she says Green the Church – a group that mobilizes black congregations to fight climate change – demonstrates Imani or faith in action.
Fresh ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Why one man cut back on air travel for the sake of the climate - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Oct 02, 2020) |
|
Oct 02, 2020 · The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many people to cancel flights. But some – like Phillip Meintzer of Victoria, British Columbia – had cut back on flying even before the pandemic began.
“I’m just trying to limit my air travel because of the massive carbon emissions that are associated with air travel,” Meintzer says.
By some estimates, a flight from New York City to LA produces more carbon pollution than the average person in India produces in an entire year.
So flying less can be a significant way for individuals to reduce their climate impact. And Meintzer says it feels good.
“It’s nice that my actions sort of line up ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Nuns agree to convert damaged New Orleans convent into a flood-prevention project - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Aug 16, 2020) |
|
Aug 16, 2020 · When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, the convent of the Sisters of St. Joseph was severely damaged by flooding.
The nuns moved elsewhere while repairs began. But the following year, lightning struck the roof and started a fire. The convent could not be saved.
“We began to pray for some kind of insight that would enable us to use the property in a way that would minister to the people of New Orleans,” says Sister Pat Bergen.
She says an architect came to the nuns with an idea – converting the 25 acres into a wetland that helps prevent flooding in nearby areas.
They’re calling the project the Mirabeau Water Garden. Plans for ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Young climate activists and the language of God in ‘A Children’s Bible’ - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (May 12, 2020) |
|
May 12, 2020 · Young activists like Greta Thunberg, Xiye Bastida, and Isra Hirsi have changed public discourse surrounding climate change. Rarely anymore is the crisis discussed as a distant possibility; instead, it’s seen as here, now, and, unless greatly mitigated, as profoundly impacting the lives of these young people and their peers. The kids are angry with the older generations – their parents and their parents’ parents – who failed to imagine a more sustainable and just way of living, and who refuse to change their ways now, even as evidence mounts that they’re destroying everything they claim to hold dear.
Author and conservationist Lydia Millet captures ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Young climate activists and the language of God in ‘A Children’s Bible’ - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (May 12, 2020) |
|
May 12, 2020 · Young activists like Greta Thunberg, Xiye Bastida, and Isra Hirsi have changed public discourse surrounding climate change. Rarely anymore is the crisis discussed as a distant possibility; instead, it’s seen as here, now, and, unless greatly mitigated, as profoundly impacting the lives of these young people and their peers. The kids are angry with the older generations – their parents and their parents’ parents – who failed to imagine a more sustainable and just way of living, and who refuse to change their ways now, even as evidence mounts that they’re destroying everything they claim to hold dear.
Author and conservationist Lydia Millet captures ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
How one woman's Unitarian faith led her to climate activism » Yale Climate Connections - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (May 01, 2020) |
|
May 01, 2020 · Through her faith, Maryland resident Doris Marlin has found her way to a life of climate activism.
Marlin is a Unitarian Universalist. She says Unitarian principles affirm the worth of every person and the need for global justice and equality.
"We see the moral implications and the injustice that is happening as the result of climate change," she says. "It's very obvious in the global south that those who have done the least to contribute are the most vulnerable and will suffer the most and the soonest from climate change …. So at a very deep level, faith and climate connect as a moral issue."
Marlin says tackling these injustices requires reducing carbon pollution ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
How one woman’s Unitarian faith led her to climate activism - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (May 01, 2020) |
|
May 01, 2020 · Through her faith, Maryland resident Doris Marlin has found her way to a life of climate activism.
Marlin is a Unitarian Universalist. She says Unitarian principles affirm the worth of every person and the need for global justice and equality.
“We see the moral implications and the injustice that is happening as the result of climate change,” she says. “It’s very obvious in the global south that those who have done the least to contribute are the most vulnerable and will suffer the most and the soonest from climate change …. So at a very deep level, faith and climate connect as a moral issue.”
Marlin says tackling these ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Catholic institutions divest from fossil fuels » Yale Climate Connections - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Apr 09, 2020) |
|
Apr 09, 2020 · This year marks the five-year anniversary of Pope Francis's encyclical on the environment and human ecology. In his letter, the Pope called for bold climate action and a move away from fossil fuels.
"The call coming from Catholic leadership is clear," says Daniela Finamore of the Global Catholic Climate Movement, a coalition that's committed to implementing the actions Pope Francis called for.
The group is pushing Catholic organizations to take a moral and financial stand on climate change by ending their investments in fossil fuels.
Finamore says that more than 150 Catholic institutions - including banks, universities, and foundations - have pledged to divest from ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Catholic institutions divest from fossil fuels - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Apr 09, 2020) |
|
Apr 09, 2020 · This year marks the five-year anniversary of Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment and human ecology. In his letter, the Pope called for bold climate action and a move away from fossil fuels.
“The call coming from Catholic leadership is clear,” says Daniela Finamore of the Global Catholic Climate Movement, a coalition that’s committed to implementing the actions Pope Francis called for.
The group is pushing Catholic organizations to take a moral and financial stand on climate change by ending their investments in fossil fuels.
Finamore says that more than 150 Catholic institutions – including banks, universities, and foundations ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
A Baltimore church provides worshippers with fresh veggies grown right out front - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Apr 04, 2020) |
|
Apr 04, 2020 · At Baltimore’s Pleasant Hope Baptist Church, Sundays are a time for prayer … and a time to buy tomatoes, squash, and kale that were grown right out front.
Brown: “So I preach and we sing and we shout and we have a great time and worship. And then people walk into the multipurpose room and there’s a room full of fresh produce waiting there.”
Reverend Heber Brown III says his church’s program cuts climate pollution by reducing the need to truck food long distances. And it protects people by providing healthy food.
Brown: “It’s almost a euphoric feeling for some people just to experience real food again.”
The ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Colorado woman sounds the alarm about climate change by ringing a bell - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Apr 04, 2020) |
|
Apr 04, 2020 · Last December 11th at 11 a.m., Mary Beth Downing of Boulder, Colorado, stood outside her state capitol and rang a bell. She did it to express her concern about climate change.
“And people looked at me strangely,” she says, “but it felt like, OK, it feels like a right thing, a good thing.”
So she sent an email to members of her Methodist church community.
“I said, ‘Here’s a crazy idea: anybody want to join me on the 11th day of every month at eleven o’clock to raise an awareness, raise an alarm?'”
It was the start of a monthly interfaith event called the 11th Hour Calling. Participants ring the large bell ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
How family size shapes your carbon footprint - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Apr 04, 2020) |
|
Apr 04, 2020 · No responsible series discussing finite global resources or long-term sustainability – and certainly not one on the challenges posed by a human-caused warming of the atmosphere – can ignore what many consider the best-left-unmentioned “elephant in the room”: global population. Simply put, it is for many an issue too sensitive to be raised, too divisive to be considered … but yet too important to be ignored.
I must mention one more choice some of us can make to reduce the amount of GHGs emitted; the consumption of freshwater; and the further degradation of ecosystems. And that choice really does involve the elephant in the room when it comes to how ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
How Pope Francis inspired friars to start a sustainable farm near Baltimore - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Apr 04, 2020) |
|
Apr 04, 2020 · In 2015, Pope Francis issued a letter urging the world to act on climate change and protect those who are most vulnerable.
“He asked us to consider both the cry of the poor and the cry of the planet,” says Franciscan Friar Michael Lasky.
He says the message inspired him and his fellow friars to find a new use for 80 acres of land near Baltimore, Maryland.
For years, they had leased it to a farmer who grew corn and soybeans using industrial methods that deplete soil nutrients and compact the earth.
“I took a walk out into the middle of our farmland and it was like walking on concrete,” he says.
In Lasky’s region, climate ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
In ‘Buddhist Economics,’ sustainability trumps GDP - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Apr 04, 2020) |
|
Apr 04, 2020 · In a college economics class, students typically discuss concepts like supply and demand, opportunity costs, and purchasing power. But income inequality and climate change? Not so much.
Clair Brown is a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley.
Brown: “My students in Econ 1 used to come to me, ‘Professor Brown, these models don’t allow us to study the problems we care about. We care about inequality, we care about climate change, we care about global suffering, and these models just assume all that away.'”
So she created a class and wrote a book on what’s been called “Buddhist Economics.” It’s ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Reverend Mitchell Hescox encourages Christians to advocate for renewable energy - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Apr 04, 2020) |
|
Apr 04, 2020 · Reverend Mitchell Hescox encourages Christians to advocate for clean energy … a surprising cause for a man who grew up in coal country.
Hescox: “My grandfathers were both coal miners. My dad was a coal miner for the first part of his life.”
For fourteen years, Hescox worked in the industry, too, designing equipment. But he slowly began learning about what he calls the true costs of coal: acid rain, air pollution, water pollution, and climate change.
Hescox: “And I think that’s what really started to drive me to really care about clean energy was the fact that, you know, we’re destroying God’s creation.”
Today ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
What it means to be human in an age of climate change - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Apr 04, 2020) |
|
Apr 04, 2020 · We don’t often take to heart the full implications of climate change. When we do, we may find ourselves feeling profoundly unsettled, questioning the ways we have made meaning of our place in the cosmos, on our old Earth, and in our own lives.
Every now and then an essay comes along that can help illuminate such philosophical explorations – and, in so doing, strengthen and deepen our spirit. Consider these:
Use & Privacy Policy•Podcast Read more ...
|
|
|
|
New and recent books about hope in a time of climate change - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Feb 19, 2020) |
|
Feb 19, 2020 · A warm day in winter used to be a rare and uplifting relief.
Now such days are routine reminders of climate change – all the more foreboding when they coincide with news stories about unprecedented wildfires, record-breaking “rain bombs,” or the accelerated melting of polar ice sheets.
Where, then, can one turn for hope in these dark months of the year?
Yale Climate Connections turned to a surprisingly long list of new and recent titles that explore how we can effectively respond to climate change while enhancing our health and happiness. Some of these books call for better measures of economic vitality and social progress. Others call for ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Christian author sees climate change as a moral issue - Yale Climate Connections - Faith (Jul 12, 2019) |
|
Jul 12, 2019 · Scott Rodin was raised in Wyoming as a conservative evangelical Christian. As a child, he learned to love nature, but also to steer clear of environmentalism. He associated it with liberals and atheists. So as an adult, he was skeptical of global warming.
But then Rodin pursued a PhD in theology. And as he immersed himself in religious studies, he reflected on what it really means to be a steward of the earth.
Rodin: “Caring for God’s creation is one of the most important mandates that he gave us as his children. But when I looked at how I lived that out, I always just kind of gave it lip service and went on.”
He started to scrutinize his reasons ... Read more ...
|
|
|