What Faith Groups can Teach us about Climate Communications

Climate communication is a complex topic but faith groups provide compelling examples of how it can be done. Rather than facts and figures, faith groups speak in terms of narratives. Climate change adversely impacts us all, especially the poor. ' So independent of environmental justice, this is a powerful social justice issue. "This is the issue of humanity," the Dalai Lama said.

"If you are in church rgualrly you are in the business of looking for moral causes, your there becaus you think your life is better for a spiritual aspect expressed in daily action and climate change, climate activism is a big part of this."

Churches and mosques can teach us a great deal about spreading the climate change message. Leading faith groups have championed the cause of climate action and encouraged their members to engage.

The Guardian explores what climate activist can learn from religion. In addition to its narratives, it specifically explores sacrifice and salvation.  It is not about blame it is really ultimately all about love and about actions that articulate that love.

The podcast narrated by Aleks Krotoski and produced by Francesca Panetta, Alannah Chance, Lucy Greenwell, Harriet Green, Jason Phipps. Sound design is by Chris Wood and original music by Matthew Herbert

Click here to go to the podcast

Anglicans and the Environment: Creation Matters

Did you know that Anglicans are concerned about and engaged in environmental issues? Did you know that Creation Matters, The Anglican Church of Canada’s, environmental task group, wants to connect with interested Anglicans and share information via social media?

In many parts of the world local Anglican Churches have given leadership by being advocates for responsible environmental stewardship. They are also providing support and leadership to local initiatives to protect the environment and by seeking to educate Anglicans as individuals and as communities to become better stewards of creation.

Click here to connect with them on Facebook
To go to the Creation Matters site click here.

Creation Matters is premised on the 5th Mark of Mission: "To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the earth." Similarly, the Stewardship of the Environment Committee in the Anglican Diocese of Montreal derives it core mandate from the same place. To see our full mandate see the right side of this page.

Faith-based investing is about more than avoiding sin stocks

While talking investing, Sameer Azam brings up the subject of halal meat. Islamic rules known as halal specify the procedures for slaughtering an animal, and they vary among the Muslim traditions.

Faith-based investing is similar, says Mr. Azam, senior wealth manager at Absolute Wealth Management in Mississauga. Basic tenets apply, but they’re open to interpretation and degrees of strictness. For instance, halal investing screens out companies that sell tobacco, alcohol and other obvious vices. Also excluded are companies making money by charging interest. So no bank stocks.

Entitlement and Creation

I’ve known that I wanted to do a post about the environment for a while, but I haven’t really known what to say. Not because there’s nothing to say, but because it’s all been said so many times by so many people who know way more about it than I do.

Basically, we either get serious about being a sustainable part of creation, or we watch our behaviour degrade and destroy the stuff of which we’re made.

It seems like a pretty simple choice, but we seem to unable to make it.

As a church, we haven’t been helped by the language of dominion that we find in scripture. The creation story of Genesis puts human beings at the centre and peak of creation. It describes a particular kind of relationship with the rest of creation that has too easily slipped from dominion over something that was never ours to begin with to domination over something to which we feel entitled.

American Christians on Climate Change: It is Not as Bad as You Might Think

The climate denial we see in Donald Trump and the GOP is not a true reflection of the sentiments of most American Christians. While support for climate denial is evenly split among evangelicals the clear majority of most other Christian denominations think climate change is real. Almost 70 percent of Catholics think climate change is real which is higher than the percentage of Americans in the general population as a whole. Around 62 percent of non-evangelical Protestants think climate change is real. Even more uplifting is the finding that between 73 and 83 percent of Christians support policies that help combat climate change. This includes tax rebates for people who purchase energy-efficient vehicles & solar panels, and research funding for renewable energy. A clear majority indicated that they favor requiring electric utilities to produce at least 20 percent of their electricity from wind, solar, or other renewable energy sources. These numbers hold even if it costs the average household an extra $100 a year. American Christians also express strong support for strict carbon dioxide limits on coal-fired power plants. Sadly, the EPA's Clean Power Plan is being dismantled by the Trump administration.

Most American Christians agree with the statement that "God expects people to be good stewards of nature, which is not only here for human use" over the more literal biblical interpretation that, "God expects people to rule over nature, which is here for human use." More than 80 percent of Catholics, Protestants, and evangelicals say it is important to them personally to care for future generations. A solid majority (63% - 73%) believe we must tend to the world’s poor.

These are some of the findings in a study titled, "Climate Change in the American Christian Mind" which was derived from a national survey of global warming opinion. To download the report click here.