7/21 CCC: Eco-theology, Climate, Environment, Pandemic, Children

 July 2021 Creation Corner Column:  Summer readings on Eco-theology, Climate,     Environment,  the Pandemic, and Children's books 

EcoTheology titles

The Cosmic Spirit: Awakenings at the Heart of All Religions, the Earth, and the Multiverse.  Roland Faber.

The Earth Cries Out: How Faith Communities Meet the Challenges of Sustainability.  Gary Gardner. 

Ecotheology: A Christian Conversation.  Kiara Jorgenson and Alan Padgett.

The Green Good News: Christ's Path to Sustainable and Joyful Life.  T. Wilson Dickinson.

Hope in Disarray: Piecing Our Lives Together in Faith.  Grace Ji-Sun Kim.

Jesus for Farmers and Fishers: Justice for All Those Marginalized by Our Food System. Gary Paul Nabhan.

Shalom and the Community of Creation: An Indigenous Vision.  Randy Woodley.

Theologies of Land:  Contested Land, Spatial Justice, and Identity.  K.K. Yeo and Gene L. Green, eds.

Climate Crisis and Environment Book Titles  (A-to-H; balance I-to-Z next month)

The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization.  Roland Ennos.

The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another.  Ainissa Ramirez.

An Atman Visits Planet Earth: 250 Million Years of Evolution.  Robert H. Brown.  Sci-Fi novel

Animal, Vegetable, Junk:  A History of Food, From Sustainable to Suicidal.  Mark Bittman.

Animal Welfare in China: Culture, Politics and Crisis.  Peter J. Li.

Animals' Best Friends: Putting Compassion to Work for Animals in Captivity and in the Wild.  Barbara J. King..

Another End of the World is Possible: Living the Collapse (and not merely surviving it). Pablo Servigne, Raphael Stevens, & Gautheir Chapelle.

Antarctica: The Sleeping Giant.  Sebastian Copeland.

The Arctic: What Everyone Needs to Know.  Klaus Dodds and Mark Nuttall.

Baggage: Confessions of a Globe-Trotting Hypochondriac.  Jeremy Hance.

Bay Lexicon.  Jane Wolff.

Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction.  Michelle Nijhuis.

Below the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir of Exploring Light and Life in the Deep Sea.  Edith Widder.

Beneath My Feet: Writers on Walking.  Duncan Minshull, editor.

The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think.  Jennifer Ackerman.

Breaking Through: Understanding Sovereignty and Security in the Circumpolar Arctic.  Edited by Wilfrid Greaves and P. Whitney Lackenbauer.

The Brilliant Abyss: Exploring the Majestic Hidden Life of the Deep Ocean, and the Looming Threat That Imperils It.  Helen Scales.

Cataclysms: An Environmental History of Humanity.  Laurent Testot.

Catastrophic Thinking: Extinction and the Value of Diversity from Darwin to the Anthropocene.  David Sepkosi.

The Chemical Age: How Chemists Fought Famine and Disease, Killed Millions, and Changed Our Relationship with the Earth.  Frank A. von Hippel.

A Children's Bible.  Lydia Millet.  A Climate Fiction Novel.

Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist and Other Essays.  Paul Kingsworth.

The Conscious Closet: The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good.  Elizabeth L. Cline.

Conservation Science and Advocacy for a Planet in Peril: Speaking Truth to Power.  Dominick A. DellaSala.

The Contamination of the Earth: A History of Pollutions in the Industrial Age.  Francois Jarrige and Thomas Le Roux, translated from the French by Janice Egan and Michael Egan.

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.  Michael Braungart and William McDonough (re: circular economy).

The Culture of Feedback: Ecological Thinking in Seventies America.  Daniel Belgrad.

The Day the World Stops Shopping: How Ending Consumerism Saves the Environment and Ourselves.  JB MacKinnon.

Deep Adaptation: Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos.  Edited by Jem Bendell and Rupert Read.

Diet for a Large Planet: Industrial Britain, Food Systems, and World Ecology.  Chris Otter.

Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West.  Heather Hansman.

Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming.  Paul Hawken, editor.

Drought, Flood, Fire: How Climate Change Contributes to Catastrophes.  Chris Funk.

Earth Detox: How and Why We Must Clean Up Our Planet.  Julian Cribb.

Earth Spirit Dreaming: Shamanic Ecotherapy Practices. Elizabeth E. Meachem.

Eat Your Front Garden: The Invisible Allotment.  Mat Coward.

Elsewhere: A Journey into Our Age of Islands.  Alastair Bonnett.

Encounters With the Archdruid: Narratives With A Conservationist and Three of His Natural Enemies.  John McPhee.

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures.  Merlin Sheldrake.

The Epilogues: Afterwords on the Planet.  Barbara Hurd.

Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land.  Leah Penniman.

A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet.  Sarah Jaquette Ray.  (advertised as "Gen Z's first 'existential toolkit' for combatting eco-guilt and burnout while advocating for climate justice.")  Google the title for similar books.

Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest.  Suzanne Simard.

Fixation: How to Have Stuff without Breaking the Planet.  Sandra Goldmark.

Flights of Passage: An Illustrated Natural History of Bird Migration.  Mike Unwin and David Tipling.

A Friend of the Earth.  T.C. Boyle.  (Novel).

From Here to There: The Art and Science of Finding and Losing Our Way.  Michael Bond.

Hatched: Dispatches from the Backyard Chicken Movement.  Gina G. Warren.

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need.  Bill Gates.

How Climate Change Comes to Matter: The Communal Life of Facts.  Candis Callison.

How to Love Animals: In a Human-Shaped World.  Henry Mance.

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Special Periodical Issue

The American Scholar (published by Phi Beta Kappa),for Summer 2012 features "Turning to Nature: How it consoled us, how it can heal us, and how we could show our gratitude", by Lucy Jones, as its cover story.  Her article, "Rewilding Our Minds: Why nature is so necessary during the pandemic---and how we repay the debt", arrives before the August publication of her new book, Losing Eden: Our Fundamental Need for the Natural World---and Its Ability to Heal Body and Soul.

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More Pandemic  Books

The Biomedical Empire: Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic.  Barbara Katz Rothman.

How to Make a Vaccine:  An Essential Guide for COVID-19 and Beyond.  John Rhodes.

The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid.  Lawrence Wright.

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Books for Younger Readers (recommended for Earth Day 2021 in the April issue of Book Page.com )

Fatima's Great Outdoors.  Ambreen Tariq.  Ages 4 to 7. 

Hello Earth: Poems to Our Planet. Joyce Sidman.  Ages 5 to 9.

Once Upon Another Time.  Charles Ghigna and Matt Forrest Esenwine.  Ages 4 to 8.

The Outdoor Scientist: The Wonder of Observing the Natural World. Temple Grandin.  Ages 8 to 12.

Treaty Words: For as Long as the Rivers Flow.  Aimee Craft.  Ages 10 to 17.

Wonder Walkers.  Micha Archer.  Ages 3 to 7.

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Mike Ochs finds common ground between religion and politics in his concern for the environment.

Politically he self-published the first "Greens Bibliography" of the English-language literature on the international Green Party movement (1989), the project for his Master of Liberal Arts in International Studies degree at Lock Haven (PA) University. He also helped plant the seeds for the Green Party of PA at that time, and remains a cyber-activist with it.

For a monthly newsletter of the ecumenical United Churches of Lycoming County (PA), he has written the "Creation Corner Column" since 1997.  It became a blog in 2011 at 

http://lutheransrestoringcreationblog.blogspot.com/

He received a B.A. degree from Gettysburg College in 1965.

CCC 6/2021: Pandemic Books & Environmental Features

 CCC 6/2021: Pandemic Books and Environmental Features

Pandemic Book Titles

Averting Catastrophe: Decision Theory for COVID-19, Climate Change, and Potential Disasters of All Kinds.  Cass R. Sunstein.

The Beautiful Cure: The Revolution in Immunology and What it Means for Your Health.  Daniel M. Davis.

The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Control.  Laurie Garrett.

The Corona Transmissions: Alternatives for Engaging with COVID-19---from the Physical to the Metaphysical.  Edited by Sherri Mitchell, Richard Grossinger, and Kathy Glass.

Coronavirus Politics: The Comparative Politics and Policy of COVID-19.  Edited by Scott L. Greer, Elizabeth J. King, Elize Massard Da Fonseca, and Andre Peralta-Santos.

The COVID-19 Catastrophe: What's Gone Wrong and How to Stop it Happening Again, 2nd edition.  Richard Horton.

A COVID Charter, A Better World.  Toby Miller.

Death in Hamburg: Society and Politics in the Cholera Years, 1830-1910.  Richard J. Evans.

Economics in One Virus: An Introduction to Economic Reasoning through COVID-19. Ryan A. Bourne.

The End of Epidemics: The Looming Threat to Humanity and How to Stop It.  Jonathan D. Quick.

Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain's Battle with Coronavirus.  Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott. 

Fighting the First Wave: Why the Coronavirus Was Tackled So Differently Across the Globe.  Peter Baldwin.

From Here to There: War, Peace, Pandemic---A Memoir.  Romy Wyllie.

The Great Inoculator: The Untold Story of Daniel Sutton and his Medical Revolution.  Gavin Weightman.

How to Make a Vaccine: An Essential Guide for COVID-19 and Beyond.  John Rhodes.

Impact of COVID-19 on the Careers of Women in Academic Science, Engineering, and Medicine.  Eve Higginbotham and Maria Lund Dahlberg, editors.

Intensive Care: A GP, a Community and Covid-19.  Gavin Francis.

The Monster Enters: COVID-19 and the Plagues of Capitalism.  Mike Davis (an update of his 2005 book on the avian flu).

New Pandemics, Old Politics: Two Hundred Years of War on Disease and its Alternatives.  Alex de Waal.

On Immunity: An Inoculation.  Eula Biss.

Pandemic! 2: Chronicles of a Time Lost.  Slavoj Zizek.  (also titled as PANdemiC!)

Pandemic 1918: Eyewitness Accounts From the Greatest Medical Holocaust in Modern History.  Catharine Arnold.

Pandemic Prayers: Devotions and Prayers for a Crisis.  Beth Felker Jones.

Pandemic Societies. Edited by Jean-Louis Denis et al.

A Planet of Viruses, third edition.  Carl Zimmer.

The Premonition: A Pandemic Story.  Michael Lewis.

Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-Science.  Peter J. Hotez, MD, PhD.

The Psychology of Pandemics: Preparing for the Next Global Outbreak of Infectious Diseases.  Steven Taylor.

Public Health: A Very Short Introduction.  Virginia Berridge.

Rebuilding Trust in Healthcare: A Doctor's Prescription for a Post-Pandemic America.  Paul Pender, MD.

Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World's Economy.  Adam Tooze.  Forthcoming.

Viral BS: Medical Myths and Why We Fall for Them.  Seema Yasmin.

VIRUS: Vaccinations, the CDC, and the Hijacking of America's Response to the Pandemic.  Nina Burleigh.

Web site of value at MayoClinic.org/coronavirus-covid-19 .

Web site on the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines, from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (now celebrating 50 years), as part of its participation in the Biden administration's "We Can Do This" campaign:  cspinet.org/covidvaccines .

Special Cover Environmental Feature Issues of Two Periodicals

Creatures: The Nature Issue, for the Summer 2021 Plough Quarterly: Stories/Ideas/Culture, published by the Bruderhof community.

The Solving Plastic issue, for the Summer 2021 magazine YES!: Journalism for People, Building a Better World, published by the Positive Futures Network.

New Newsletter from Greenpeace

The Summer 2021 update, "Compass," draws our attention to their "Just Recovery Agenda" (recovering from fossil fuels dependence), climate campaign divesting from the bad and investing in the good, environmental racism, the Brazil Pantanal on fire, the Greenpeace 2021 Indian Ocean voyage, five ways nature supports life on earth, progress reports for people, wildlife, and the planet, as well as a link for how supermarkets ranked on efforts to reduce single-use plastics: 

greenpeace.org/usa/shopping-for-plastic-2012 .

For the general reader of the popular press:

The Good Housekeeping Sustainable Living Guide can be seen in their April 2021 magazine issue and on-line.  Also therein is an article by Meryl Davids Landau on "Five Ways to Breathe Easier" regarding advice for responding to the changes in our climate that are affecting our air quality, food and water supply, and making us more vulnerable to illness.

A "20-5-3 Nature Cure" is highlighted in the June issue of Men's Health because "Americans today spend 92 percent of their time indoors, and their physical and mental health are suffering."  The "nature pyramid" devised by Rachel Hopman, Ph.D. neuroscientist advises 20 minutes of time three days a week being spent outside in nature such as a neighborhood park, 5 hours a month spent in semi-wild nature, like a forested state park, and 3 days a year (the top of the pyramid) lived off-the-grid in nature, camping or renting a cabin (with friends or solo).  The magazine article is adapted by the author of the book The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self, by Michael Easter.

Quotation

Some people, in order to find God, will read a book.  But there is a great book, the book of created nature.  Look carefully at it top and bottom, observe it, read it.  God did not make letters of ink for you to recognize him in; he set before your eyes all these things he has made.  Why look for a louder voice?

Augustine of Hippo

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Mike Ochs finds common ground between religion and politics in his concern for the environment.

Politically he self-published the first "Greens Bibliography" of the English-language literature on the international Green Party movement (1989), the project for his Master of Liberal Arts in International Studies degree at Lock Haven (PA) University. He also helped plant the seeds for the Green Party of PA at that time, and remains a cyber-activist with it.

For a monthly newsletter of the ecumenical United Churches of Lycoming County (PA), he has written the "Creation Corner Column" since 1997.  It became a blog in 2011 at 

http://lutheransrestoringcreationblog.blogspot.com/

He received a B.A. degree from Gettysburg College in 1965.

5/21 CCC: Secular enviro. publications, TIME on Climate is Everything, etc.

 5/21 CCC: Secular enviro. publications, TIME on Climate is Everything, New Documentary, IPPNW, more Earth Day resources, Creation Justice Ministries Bible quotation.

A sample of periodicals from secular environmental advocacy organizations.  These membership groups are directed to the general public, not specialists or scientists.

America's Wilderness is the member newsletter from The Wilderness Society.  wilderness.org .

Arbor Day is the official publication of the Arbor Day Foundation.  arborday.org .

Audubon magazine.  audubon.org .

Banking on Climate Chaos 2021: Fossil Fuel Finance Report.  Rainforest Action Network. ran.org .

Catalyst. Union of Concerned Scientists.  ucsusa.org .

CeresWorks arrives from the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible EconomieS (CERES).

Defenders: The Voice of Defenders of Wildlife. defenders.org .

Earth Island Journal: News of the World Environment.  An Earth Island Institute publication. eii.org/projects .

Green American: Live Better, Save More, Invest Wisely, Make a Difference.  GreenAmerican.org .

Humane Activist and Humane Scorecard (reports on U.S. Congressional Sessions).  Humane Society Legislative Fund.  hslf.org .

The Living Planet Report is issued every two years by the World Wildlife Fund. worldwildlife.org .

National Parks.  The magazine of the National Parks Conservation Association.

Nature Conservancy.  See Nature.org/magazine .

Newsmagazine: Eco Edition.  Friends of the Earth.

Orion: People and Nature.  orionmagazine.org .

PETA Global: Advancing the Animal Rights Revolution.  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.  peta.org .

Population Connection.  Magazine from Population Connection.

Rails to Trails: Inspiring Movement.  Magazine from Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.

Rainforest-Alliance.org has many reports on-line.

Sierra: Explore, Enjoy, Protect.  Sierra Club magazine.

Solutions: Finding the Ways that Work.  Environmental Defense Fund periodical.  edf.org .

The Source. Newsletter of American Rivers.org (Rivers Connect Us).

Splash.  oceanconservancy.org .

Spotlight is the new newsletter from Corporate Accountability: Join the Global campaign, a 501(c)(3) non-profit.  It also conducts annual "Corporate Hall of Shame" inductee ballot votes.

A Year of Progress for People and the Planet.  greenpeace.org .

Note: Membership benefits may include

action plans, bookmarks, briefing papers on issues, bumper stickers, calendars, financial reports,

greeting cards, legislation profiles, maps, matching funds appeals, petitions, postcards, priority projects,  return address labels, survey questionnaires, "things-to-do" lists, voting record profiles, wallet membership cards, writing note tablets, year-end reports, etc.

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Another "environmental" group (a continuation  from earlier monthly columns):

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW)

IPPNW received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1985, by which time it had 135,000 members in 41 countries, having been founded in 1980 by a group of six American and Soviet doctors, one of whom was Harvard cardiologist Dr. Bernard Lown (1921-2021).  An obituary for him shares these quotes:  "To me, you cannot be committed to health without being engaged in social struggle for health."  His involvement in the IPPNW led detractors to accuse him of playing into the 'hands of Soviet propagandists,' said The New York Times.  He dismissed such criticism as irrelevant considering the cataclysmic threat posed by nuclear weapons.  "We are not indifferent to other human rights," he said in accepting the Nobel.  "But first we must be able to bequeath to our children the most fundamental of all rights, which preconditions all others: the right to survival."  (Obituary: The cardiologist who campaigned against nukes, THE WEEK, March 12, 2021, p. 35).

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A valuable TIME magazine double issue theme: CLIMATE IS EVERYTHING for April 26/May 3 is 36 pages (1/3 of the total pages) and continues their launch of a decade-long "TIME 2030" effort to spotlight "the ideas and innovations driving progress toward a more sustainable and equitable world."

The concept of "climatization" runs through the many articles: the course of processes by which climate change will transform society.  Policies and systems such as national security, finance, energy, housing, architecture,  racial justice, public health, schooling and academia, crime, transportation, economics, economies, and economic growth, politics and government, labor markets, corporate social responsibility, food, poverty, trade routes, supply chains, leadership advocacy and activism, media, science, ethics, climate risk disclosures,  the legal and medical professions, taxes, technologies, emergency preparedness, migrations, infrastructures of all kinds, urban adaptations, challenges of pollution and sanitation, the need for climate literacy at all levels of education, biodiversity protection, global senses of racial and economic inequalities, global senses of moral obligations and interdependency, catastrophic weather event warnings, etc., etc., etc., are each detailed in these TIME essays.

It is these climate connections, intersections, linkages, cross-cuttings, intertwinings, interactions, spillovers, externalities, etc., call them what you will--- the wide gamut of efforts to save the integrity of the environmental commons--- will become the priority for us.  The economic and environmental benefits and losses, the "trade-offs", will factor in more decision-making transformations across all sectors.  The essays in this edition of TIME covers these.

In other words, climate change will permeate everything.

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New Documentary

Extinction: The Facts is narrated by Sir David Attenborough, and premiered on PBS 3/31/2021, and is about biodiversity loss and halting it.  Attenborough is vice-president of Fauna & Flora International.  One review of the documentary is by Ed Rampell, "How We Can Put a Halt to Biodiversity Loss."

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Some resources from Earth Day 2021:

Parade magazine for April 11 and again on April 18 provided several pages devoted to Earth Day issues (problems and solutions), some of which are derived from Laurie David's co-authored book Imagine It: A Handbook for a Happier Planet.  Some "earth-friendly cities" are raised up (Louisville KY, San Diego CA, Seattle WA, Orlando FL, and Washington DC).  An article by Kathleen McCleary notes "5 Ways to Help the Planet Today" (ditch the glitter; be food smart; embrace earth-friendly fashion; try a new way to compost; quit the plastic habit).  The 4/18 article "Go a Little Greener" has tips for a better wipe, a better cup of coffee, a better swab, a better ride, a better clean, a better wrap, and a better wash.

See parade.com and search for earth, earth-day-facts, and picks.

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2 Peter 3:12-13.  The second letter of Peter asks early Christian communities to orient their lives towards their hope for "a new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home."  Such was the Bible study for Earth Day 2021 recommended by Creation Justice Ministries.

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Mike Ochs finds common ground between religion and politics in his concern for the environment.

Politically he self-published the first "Greens Bibliography" of the English-language literature on the international Green Party movement (1989), the project for his Master of Liberal Arts in International Studies degree at Lock Haven (PA) University. He also helped plant the seeds for the Green Party of PA at that time, and remains a cyber-activist with it.

For a monthly newsletter of the ecumenical United Churches of Lycoming County (PA), he has written the "Creation Corner Column" since 1997.  It became a blog in 2011 at 

http://lutheransrestoringcreationblog.blogspot.com/

He received a B.A. degree from Gettysburg College in 1965.

                                                                        -30-

4/21 CCC: Earth Day '21, expanded edition

 April 2021 Creation Corner Column

Earth Day, Faith Climate Action Week, Stewardship Week, Arbor Day, Creation and Climate Care Zine, Inter-Faith Environmental Conversations

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April 22, 2021 is Earth Day

CreationJustice.org upholds an Earth Day Sunday theme of "A New Heaven and a New Earth" as it focuses on health, environmental racism, and eco-justice.  Educational materials available as free downloads. "Creation Justice Ministries: Justice for God's Planet and God's People" has many denomination partners and free materials can be downloaded from their web site, including "52 Ways to Care for Creation.".

EarthDay.org is the official secular site theme of "Restore Our Earth" with campaigns of The Canopy Project, Food and the Environment, the Great Global CleanUp, climate literacy, and Earth Challenge.  With many partners advancing its theme goals, an earth day tool kit, and partnering possibilities, their web site provides a link to the Biden administration's hosting an Earth Day global climate summit.

Faith Climate Action Week (.org) is April 16-25, with a theme "Sacred Ground: Cultivating Connections Between our Faith, our Food, and the Climate.  An organizer's kit is available that includes sample sermons, talks, and resources for worship services.  It is brought to us by the Interfaith Power and Light national effort that has a PA affiliate based in Lewisburg.  paipl.org .

Soil and Water Stewardship Week and Sunday, April 25-May 2, is sponsored by local affiliates of the National Association of Conservation Districts.  Since 1955 the NACD Stewardship Week has encouraged  individual responsibility for the caring of natural resource conservation, between the last Sunday in April and the first Sunday in May.  "Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities" is the theme this year, and at the NACD marketplace can be found free downloadable materials such as student booklets, an educator guide, placemat/activity guide, poster, bookmark, church leader guide, litany and program insert.

April 30 is Arbor Day and as it begins a year-long celebration up to its 150th anniversary, this year it advises "6 Ways to Celebrate Arbor Day in a Time of Social Distancing." Arbor Day Foundation.

Creation and Climate Care Zine is a free 17-page downloadable resource available from Sojourners, at sojo.net/zine.  Its 12 chapters are well-illustrated with simplified narratives.  The first two chapters begin with Bible verses:

1. Creation Care.  Gen 2:15, Lev 25:23-24, John 3:16, Job 12:7-10.

2. Creation Care & Place-Rootedness. Gen 2;15, Mark 2:30-31

3. Climate Science.  

4. Frontline Testimonies.

5. Ways to Care for Creation.

6. Communicating Faith & Climate (A Quick How-To Guide).

7. What Is Climate Justice?

8. Climate  Justice & Women

9. Climate Justice & Race

10. Climate Justice & Migration

11. Climate Justice & Peace

12. Climate Action Resources include several at sojo.net, footprintcalculator.org, global weirding series with Katharine Hayhoe, Blessed Tomorrow, Climate Justice Alliance, Christian Climate Action, and also see the Paris Agreement, Laudato Si, Jemez Principles, Principles of Environmental Justice.

A Conversation with Inter-Faith Leaders where they share how their beliefs inform their environmental advocacy and action includes participants from various religions: Buddhism, Christian (Baptist and Episcopal), Islam and Judaism, can be found at ucsusa.org/conversation-faith-climate-justice.  The sponsor is the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Faith is Green program has leaders from multiple faiths joining in a conversation on the theology of why faith communities care for the environment.  Participants include the Evangelical Environmental Network, a professor of Moral Theology at the Catholic University of America, a U.S. Muslim environmental leader, the president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, and a representative from the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.  See earthx.org/event/faith-is-green .

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Other Resources

Re: Climate change, a web site for adults is climate.nasa.gov .

One for children is climatekids.nasa.gov .

Climate Church, Climate World: How People of Faith Must Work for Change. Rev. Jim Antal.

Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We're in without Going Crazy.  Joanna Macy and Chris Johnson.

DVD series: ProFuture Faith: The Prodigal Species Comes Home.  Rev. Michael Dowd.

Journey of the Universe  book and film celebrates its 10th anniversary.  A collaborative effort of Brian Swimme, Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim,  et al, it combines scientific knowledge with the humanistic wisdom traditions of the West, China, India and indigenous traditions.  The creators credit inspiration from the late Thomas Berry, "geologian" and cultural historian, whose efforts included a call to humanity to save nature to save itself.  More information from the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology.

The Pulse of the Planet celebrates its 30th anniversary as a radio program from National Public Radio (NPR).

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Three environmentalists raised up by TIME magazine in their "The Next 100 Most Influential People" special issue of March 1/ March 8, 2021:

Vanessa Nakate, 24, climate justice champion in Uganda, Green Schools Project.

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, 40, climate optimist, marine biologist, All We Can Save Project.

Julian Brave NoiseCat, 27, policy adviser; climate journalist and advocate; one of many in what is called the Standing Rock generation; works for the Data for Progress think tank.

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Upcoming Events

World Environment Day is June 5 and begins the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Decade on Ecological Restoration.  The Sunday nearest June 5 is celebrated as the Environmental Sabbath (June 6).

The 8th Parliament of World Religions will take place October 17-18, 2021.  The theme is "Opening Our Hearts to the World: Compassion in Action." 

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Mike Ochs finds common ground between religion and politics in his concern for the environment.

Politically he self-published the first "Greens Bibliography" of the English-language literature on the international Green Party movement (1989), the project for his Master of Liberal Arts in International Studies degree at Lock Haven (PA) University. He also helped plant the seeds for the Green Party of PA at that time, and remains a cyber-activist with it.

For a monthly newsletter of the ecumenical United Churches of Lycoming County (PA), he has written the "Creation Corner Column" since 1997.  It became a blog in 2011 at 

http://lutheransrestoringcreationblog.blogspot.com/

He received a B.A. degree from Gettysburg College in 1965.