I attended a great program today on climate change. The speakers were Bruce Knotts, Director of
the UUA United Nations Office (UU-UNO) and Salote Soqo, UU Service Committee (UUSC)
Senior Program Leader for Environmental Justice & Climate Action. They talked about the importance of the work being
done through the UN to foster international cooperation on climate change and
the UUSC’s work with indigenous people in Alaska and the South Pacific who are
having to flee their homes because of rising ocean levels.
I signed up for the UU Ministry for Earth’s Commit2 Respond campaign
and got information about coordinating our environmental justice work with a
network of UU Climate Action Teams (CATs).
Because of the important work the UN does on climate change
and to assist climate refugees, the speakers encouraged our congregations to support
continued US funding of the UN, to establish a connection with the UN through
UU-UNO and to have an annual UN Sunday each October. They also encouraged us to lobby our local and
state governments to adhere to the Paris Accord despite the Trump
administration’s decision to withdraw.
Several audience members shared stories of their
congregations installing solar panels to reduce their carbon footprint. Have we
looked into whether we have the roof space to do this? One UU shared that her Milwaukee
congregation (which she emphasized is not financially well off) raised $200,000
for solar panels in less than a year.
I learned that the UUA adopted a Statement of Conscience in
2011 about ethical eating and that there is an RE curriculum available –
Demonstrating our Values through Eating – that teaches how to eat a low carbon
diet.
A UU minister who is active with Greenpeace told us about
Greenpeace’s Summer of Resistance initiative in which the organization will be
offering training in non-violent resistance in 14 cities this summer including
an online webinar on Facebook this Sunday, June 25.
It was a great program and I’ll be coming back to Baltimore
very excited to continue working on environmental justice projects.
No comments:
Post a Comment