|
|
Increase Awareness | Earth Letter | Articles
Earth Letter Articles
March 2003
Book Review - Stormy Weather by Guy Dauncey and Patrick Mazza
We Are Dust, but We Are Not Throwaways, by Nancy Roth
The Rev. Nancy Roth, Episcopal priest and Affiliate Scholar at Oberlin College, offers this Lenten meditation. “Our denial of our dying … blinds us to the death that we ourselves cause in the world around us through our negligent and thoughtless choices. This kind of death – of endangered species, sickened forests, and polluted air – differs from the natural intertwining of life and death that are part of God’s design in nature.”
Freedom, Security, ... and Sustainability, by Toni Bennet Easterson
Toni Bennet Easterson, Naturalist and Researcher for American P.I.E., takes a deeper look at freedom and security in light of our country’s concerns about terrorism. Have our nation’s actions actually increased our freedom and security? “We need desperately to include another word in our discussions of freedom and security: sustainability – the ability to sustain ourselves, our communities, our fellow citizens, our artistic endeavors, our economies, our ecological systems, our Earthly environment, so we can live freely and securely.”
The Local is the Global: Global
Warming and the Puget Sound Region,
by Patrick Mazza
Patrick Mazza, Researcher-Writer for Climate Solutions, examines what’s at stake for us as global warming progresses. This leads him to suggest action steps for “global grown-ups.” Also in this issue Dr. Richard Gammon reviews Patrick’s latest book, Stormy Weather: 101 Solutions to Global Climate Change.
Energy and Ethics, by Robert Edgar
The Rev. Dr. Robert Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ, writes on the connections between our energy choices and other concerns of the Church: “Energy choices that damage the Earth also fuel injustice in many parts of the world.” He reports on the efforts of religious leaders who met with auto industry executives and labor leaders in Detroit. “Our faith groups pledged themselves to fresh initiatives in education and advocacy aimed at establishing greater fuel economy [in Detroit’s cars and trucks] as a moral priority [for the religious community].”
Blessed Are They Who Turn Things Off, by Andrew Rudin
Andrew Rudin, Project Coordinator for the Interfaith Coalition on Energy (ICE), has first-hand knowledge of changes in energy use by more than 1,800 buildings belonging to congregations in Philadelphia, Boston, Phoenix, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, and other cities. He shares what he has learned over the past twenty years about energy conservation in churches.
January 2003
Full of Grace, by Tanya M. Barnett
During a visit to the S&S Homestead farm on Lopez
Island, the author is entranced by a Jersey cow named Loveday. Her milk
nourishes forty-five “milk subscribers” on the island. The farm owners,
Henning Semsdorf and Elizabeth Simpson, see Loveday, along with their other
farm animals, as coworkers with them. Indeed, all their animals are treated
with great respect and loving dignity. Loveday’s milk is a nourishing
mystery much like that of God’s love, reflected in the scupture Gratia
Plena (Full of Grace), which graces the Chapel of St. Ignatius at
Seattle University and, with its milk imagery, moved the author during a
time of meditation there. The author affirms that, were we to respect and
love animals, cows would not be treated mechanistically, as are so many that
live in our country in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations.
Reflections on the Death of a Dog, by Tony B. Robinson
Pastor Tony Robinson writes of the death and life of Homer, the family dog. Homer, in teaching one family how to simply care for the dying, also offered lessons on how to truly live.