This week was the UN Climate Action Summit and a global climate strike led by Greta Thunberg, a sixteen-year old Swedish activist. Millions of people around the world marched for climate justice on Friday, because the largest carbon emitters on the planet (U.S., China, and India) are not doing enough to reduce their impacts. We are facing a very uncertain future on the planet. The time for action is now! There is no debate about climate change. It is real and there is plenty of evidence. But even if it weren’t as dire as predicted, Christian are called to love, cherish, care for, and protect the earth. From Genesis to Revelation, humans are called by God to serve the creation and bless the earth. Earth is our only home, created by God for life to flourish. Our home is threatened. We are to blame. We have to act.
Three billion birds have disappeared from North America in the past 50 years due to habitat and climate disruption. Like the canary in the coal mine, this news about bird loss indicates that ecosystems are collapsing. Floods, wildfires, massive storms, and heat waves threaten many populations. We are facing a mass extinction event. 150 to 200 species (plant, insect, bird, mammal) go extinct every day! This is upwards of 10,000 times the natural rate of extinction.
Every one of us must do our part to reduce carbon emissions and curb the effects of global warming and climate change. As Lutherans we are called to enact climate justice. Perhaps nothing we do will be more important in the next decades than what we do to impact the earth.
Sometimes the news is so bleak and hopeless about climate change, the adaptive changes humans must undertake so drastic, that we feel paralyzed. So here are a few things you might consider in the hours, days, weeks, or even months ahead.
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Get educated about climate change, the growing ecological crisis, and personal steps we must take collectively. Check out: https://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/Environment_IPCC_Report_Resource_1811v2.pdf
Reduce your personal impacts.
- Buy local. Research the environmental aspect of a company before you buy their product our shop in their store.
- Purchase ecofriendly products: from bathroom tissue to kitchen trash bags, there are companies that make and sell environmentally friendly products you use every day. Check out: www.whogivesacrap.org.
- Consider a household energy audit. Check out your electric generation supplier. Are they generating electricity with renewables (solar, wind)? Switch to a 100% renewable energy generator.
- Compost food waste. We will make 5 gallon buckets available for every household to begin composting. Bring your compost to St. Paul. The green team will use it here and at Wittel Farm.
- Consider solar panels for your home.
- When shopping for a vehicle, take emissions and gas consumption more seriously. Consider a hybrid or electric vehicle.
- Bike or walk to school or work more often
- Refuse single use plastics: sandiwich bags, drinking straws, plastic grocery bags. Check our www.creationjustice.org/blog/52ways-to-care-for-creation for more ideas.
- Sign up for Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in PA action alerts to learn about how you can support public policies that promote climate justice.
- In 2019, St. Paul and Wittel Farm are teaming up with the Lancaster Conservancy to develop native habitat, plant trees and gardens. We encourage your participation.
