Eco-Justice Connection

An initiative of the North Carolina Council of Churches

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Special Places and Sacred Pursuits

By chris

Sportsmen, sportswomen, and wildlife conservationists are not couch potatoes. We get outside. The ones that are as old as I am have seen many, many years of change. When you […]

Special Places and Sacred Pursuits

by

RichardMode
Casting on the cold water portion of the Catawba River

Sportsmen, sportswomen, and wildlife conservationists are not couch potatoes. We get outside. The ones that are as old as I am have seen many, many years of change. When you spend your time outdoors it’s easy to see the impacts of climate change on the natural world.

As a dedicated trout angler I have observed trout streams warming, streams that are marginally cold enough to sustain trout are warming to a point that they will not sustain trout in the future. Scientists predict that a very small temperature rise will dramatically reduce the range of southern Appalachian brook trout, North Carolina’s only native freshwater trout.

As an avid duck hunter I’ve tracked duck migrations for 40 years.  We hunt local wood ducks during the early part of the season. Then a glorious thing typically happens, the big migratory birds come in from up north.  Last year they didn’t come.  It was “the season that wasn’t.”

Conservative estimates of sea-level rise on the coast of eastern North Carolina show that we are going to lose 1500 square miles of prime estuarine habitat. This is incredible wildlife habitat and it also supports robust seafood nursery habitat and migratory bird habitat.

2.25 million North Carolinians hunt and fish and watch wildlife.  We spend 2.6 billion dollars a year and we create 46,000 jobs. What’s good for sportsmen is good for North Carolina.  Additionally, outdoor recreation related tourism is a major economic driver in the state. This business relies on robust natural resources base to attract visitors.

I have been blessed with three granddaughters and I want them to be able to experience wild North Carolina like I have. I want them to know the holiness of these special places and sacred pursuits.

Addressing climate change as a moral imperative resonates deeply to my core. The value of NCIPL’s mission is one that all sportsmen, sportswomen, and wildlife conservationists must appreciate. I believe outdoor enthusiasts must partner with people of faith in leading the charge to activate our communities and educate our decision makers. Future generations of all species are calling upon us to protect what we love most, so they can experience the magic of life too.

Fish
Stream born brown trout from one of the special places – public lands in the mountains of North Carolina. A gift earned from good water, land and air management.

I hope you will join me in supporting NC Interfaith Power & Light’s great work.
A tax-deductible donation today will help create a future of tomorrows.
Now Go Get Outside!

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Richard Mode has served as a Trout Unlimited volunteer leader in positions from local chapter President through National President and Chairman of the Board. He currently serves as the NC Wildlife Federation Affiliate Representative and National Wildlife Federation Sportsmen Outreach Coordinator. He has received all three organization’s most prestige awards. In 2007 Budweiser and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation named Richard “Conservationist of the Year.” He lives in Morganton, NC.

My History, My Journey, My Inspiration, My Children

By chris

There is a future I want for my children – and for all children – and for the children of all children.  It is a future of abundance, diversity, beauty, […]

My History, My Journey, My Inspiration, My Children

by

Kathy Shea and her kids, Meg and Joey.
Kathy Shea and her kids, Meg and Joey.

There is a future I want for my children – and for all children – and for the children of all children.  It is a future of abundance, diversity, beauty, health, equity and peace.   The potential for that future is still real, but it is threatened.  Global climate change is one of the greatest threats to realizing that future, and it is up to those of us living and making decisions now to curb that threat and steer a new course for the future.  Here’s the story of why I work with NCIPL, seeking to mobilize the faith community to be the leaders charting this new course.

Over 30 years ago, I started my career as a pediatrician because I love children and wanted to help them grow up healthy and strong, and to reach their full potential as happy, fulfilled adults.  I concentrated on wellness and prevention and found my niche in university student health.  Then one day in 1990, after a particularly wonderful experience being told by a patient that she had completely abandoned all her self-destructive behaviors in favor of healthy ones because of the care and advice I had given her, I had an “ah ha” moment that changed my life.  I suddenly realized that her healthy lifestyle choices could only work if there was a healthy environment supporting them.  We all need clean air, clean water, wholesome food and the ecosystems that produce them in order for our personal choices to bear healthy results.

So, I decided to do something about my “ah ha” and went back to grad school to learn about the public health implications of environmental degradation. The idea was that it would be obvious to everyone that healthy bodies and healthy environments were inextricably interdependent.

Unfortunately, the “health message” for why we should care about restoring environmental balance was not strong enough either alone or in combination with the “economic”, the “ecologic”, or the “equity” messages to change the trajectory of most environmental harms, chief among them global climate change.  The forces causing climate change are powerful and the fact that the globe is still unequivocally and increasingly warming is proof that these standard approaches are ineffective.  I became despondent as I continued working with less hope and more fear year after year.

Then came another “ah ha” experience.  In 1999, I helped put together a Lenten series at my church on environmental theology.   With one of our pastors and a fellow environmentalist, we reframed our message within the context of our faith, and I found a new freedom and a new power that was completely unexpected.  Instead of developing scientific, logical, fact based arguments for working to restore creation, we found the scriptural instruction in our sacred texts and familiar traditions to do so.   Honoring and caring for creation in all forms is what we are told to do by our Creator.  It’s just the right thing to do.  We don’t need to look farther than our faith to know that we as a species are off track and need to change.  Even better, all faith traditions share this same theme.

So what could be more natural than for a medical doctor with and environmental sciences and engineering degree to start working with NCIPL?  Recognizing that the real power to change comes not from the head with facts and figures but from the heart with awe and love, I took the opportunity to work first as staff and now as a volunteer with the only organization in the state with the explicit mission to work on positive responses to the climate crisis as a matter of spiritual practice and faithful action.  I believe that the work of NCIPL is the work I need to be doing to help realize my hope for all children’s futures.  I hope you will join me in that work by giving of your time, your talents and your treasures.  A great time to start is now with a donation to this matching grant challenge.  Every dollar helps us grow our reach and strengthen our effectiveness.  Please give generously.

Kathy Shea

NCIPL Senior Advisor

A Special Energy Audit

By chris

United Church of Christ of Chapel Hill (UCC-CH) is my home church. My parents are committed members and, as a returning college grad, I feel excited about being part of […]

A Special Energy Audit

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UCCHUnited Church of Christ of Chapel Hill (UCC-CH) is my home church. My parents are committed members and, as a returning college grad, I feel excited about being part of this faith community. Going through an energy audit with my church pastor to learn about the church’s efforts for energy savings and lowering our congregation’s impact on the earth gave me that excitement and inspiration.

This summer I am interning with NC Interfaith Power & Light (NCIPL) and had the privilege of participating in an “Energy Savings Analysis” at United Church Chapel Hill.  As we surveyed the walls and walked down the halls I listened to Pastor Rick Edens, who I remember along with his wife, Jill, preaching to our congregation on Sundays throughout my childhood, tell me now about how the church has worked to lower its impact on the earth. I felt rush after rush of pride as NCIPL’s chief energy auditor, John Seymour, continued to make impressed recognitions of the energy-saving practices already in place. I wondered at how I had missed out on so much over recent years of spotty attendance and sleeping in.

The magic of witnessing this energy audit was that so much consideration had been given to energy efficiency since the construction of the new building 13 years ago. Hearing Pastor Rick review the building plan and system efficiency throughout the church showed me how much my congregation valued environmental conservation. As an intern at NCIPL I was excited, but as part of the congregation, I was proud of and impressed by the work and commitment my church showed.

NCIPL’s work touched me personally at this energy audit for the first time. I got to see firsthand how the emPOWERed program can serve churches. And I got to feel firsthand the excitement and pride of being part of an engaged congregation going through the process of matching its lifestyle to its beliefs in cherishing creation. Now, after the audit, I feel blessed to be part of a faith community that is committed to such action and am inspired to re-engage further with UCCH and its programs.

NCIPL opened my eyes to this blessing. We support faith communities as they engage their faith in new ways through action. I hope that you will support us in spreading this kind of inspiration to communities throughout our beloved home state. Let other’s blessings be revealed to them as mine was to me.

By: Joey Shea, NCIPL Intern, Member of UCC-CH Congregation

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NCIPL offers Energy Savings Analysis (energy audits) at no charge to congregations.  Contact Us to learn more about how to schedule one for your worship facility.

Congregations and Coal: Faith & the Riverbend Coal Plant

By chris

Facing the coal plant, smoke stacks and power lines looming over the sign of this church, I thought of the position of communities of faith as they face the energy realities of the future.

Congregations and Coal: Faith & the Riverbend Coal Plant

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Standing on the lawn of a small church facing Duke Energy’s recently decommissioned Riverbend Coal Power Plant, I reveled in the irony of an intern for North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light finding such a perfect image portrayal to remind me of the side-by-side presence of faith communities and big business in our state.

Jesus and Power PlantI travelled to the power plant just outside of Charlotte to attend a press conference for the release of “Closing the Floodgates: How the Coal Industry is Poisoning our Water and How we can Stop it”. This extensive report, written as a collaboration between the Sierra Club, Waterkeeper Alliance, Clean Water Action, the Beyond Coal campaign, the Environmental Integrity Project, and EarthJustice, reviewed hundreds of discharge permits for the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). The conclusions and findings of the study were striking, and reinforce the importance of committing to clean, renewable energy for the sake of the planet.

The two most shocking findings, to me, were that close to 70% of the plants monitored are allowed to dump unlimited amounts of arsenic, boron, cadmium, mercury and selenium into public waterways, and that nearly half of the plants studied are operating on an expired permit. The pollutants listed are highly poisonous for human health and aquatic ecosystems.

The report names coal-fired power plants as the number one point source for water pollution in the country and urges the EPA to select its most stringent option for new standards to be applied to the coal industry. Find the EPA’s five options in the “Closing the Floodgates” report, or this one-page summary on proposed legislation from the EPA itself.

RFKjrNC faith voices must come together to reject coal power plants and continued fossil fuel dependence. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who spoke at the press conference as the president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, reminded us that some of the worst offenders of water pollution are right here in NC. Both the Asheville plant and Riverbend plant are the subject of litigation brought by NC DENR in the past few months.

Facing the coal plant, smoke stacks and power lines looming over the sign of this church, I thought of the position of communities of faith as they face the energy realities of the future. The beauty of faithful commitment to climate work and care for creation, lies in the communities and social movements it fosters. United in interfaith Creation Care work, we stand against climate destroying energy production and for renewable, sustainable energy and lifestyle practices. Reports like “Closing the Floodgates” are a perfect opportunity for the faith community to join with advocacy and activist groups working for the same goals. Let us come together. Let us honor our faithful commitment while honoring the efforts and work of others, recognizing that our efforts are part and parcel with one another.

— Joey Shea, NCIPL Intern

Keep on the lookout for action alerts from NCIPL on writing a public comment for DENR on their settlement with Duke that is unsatisfactory and props up the coal industry in NC.

NCIPL Steering Committee Member Penny Hooper Speaks Out at Moral Monday

By nancy

People may think that Moral Mondays are over now that the state legislature is no longer in session. That is not so. Starting in April, numbers of attendees have ranged […]

NCIPL Steering Committee Member Penny Hooper Speaks Out at Moral Monday

Former U.S. Congressman Bob Etheridge (D-N.C.) speaks with Penny Hooper and Karen Rettie during this week's Moral Monday rally at Halifax Mall in Raleigh.
Former U.S. Congressman Bob Etheridge (D-N.C.) speaks with Penny Hooper and Karen Rettie during this week’s Moral Monday rally at Halifax Mall in Raleigh.

People may think that Moral Mondays are over now that the state legislature is no longer in session.

That is not so.

Starting in April, numbers of attendees have ranged from hundreds to thousands.  This Monday may be the largest one yet.  Rev. Dr. William Barber, II, President of the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP since 2005, is taking it to the streets.

He invites everyone to gather at Halifax Mall at 5 pm, Monday, July 29, and march to the State Capitol at 5:30 pm for the largest interfaith service to ever be held in the southeast.  He’s calling it a Mass Social Justice Interfaith Rally, and his goal is to “send every attendee from every part of the state back home to be a trumpet of conscience and agent of change.”

Rev. William Barber says, “The Moral Mondays are the result of seven years of progressive organizing for a new Southern ‘fusion politics’—a new multi-ethnic, multi-religious coalition with an anti-racist, anti-poverty agenda.”  He hopes it will become a model to be used throughout the southeast.

Many have agreed that building a broader grassroots base that has momentum regardless of who is in legislature is what is needed in North Carolina for the long haul.  The Moral Mondays are a platform for all people to have a peaceful and public voice and to hold representatives accountable to the voices of all the people – to restore the power of the people by reclaiming it.

NCIPL Steering Committee Member, Penny Hooper, traveled to last weeks’ Moral Monday from Morehead with 22 others and spoke out against deep water injection wells.  Read the whole article here.