Converse to Create a Creation Care Culture

Thanks to Katharine Hayhoe for another installment of her Talk About It campaign!

No, she hasn’t actually declared this as a campaign, but for the second week in a row, Katharine Hayhoe cites data that clearly concludes: the best thing we can do for the planet is talk about climate care!!

I highly recommend this be an intergenerational conversation. See our Eco-Anxiety Toolkit for why and for some tips on how to get conversations rolling.

The upshot of this week’s Talking Climate post from Hayhoe is: ‘Pakistan… is solving energy poverty with sunlight and silicon. It’s trading diesel for distributed storage. And it’s doing it at a pace that should embarrass countries with ten times the GDP.’

That’s right Pakistan is a world leader in solar installations that simultaneously address climate change and poverty. Pakistan ‘‘upped [their Paris Agreement emissions] commitment to a 50 percent reduction‘ by 2030. America has pulled itself out of the Paris Agreement for no reasons other than greed, fear, and apathy.

But apathy and fear are really silly and unnecessary responses to climate change: there are really beautiful solutions! We know what they are. They are becoming cheaper every year. Many of them address climate change, poverty, and racism – all at the same time.

So while Pope Francis’s death deprives the planet of a major climate champion (see Hayhoe’s post), all of us are called to fill his shoes with conversations within our congregations, with our families and loved ones, with our neighbors. ‘89% of people [around the world] want more political action to fight climate change,’ according to one study cited in the post. But ‘only about 35% talk about climate even occasionally’.

Let’s get out of this ‘spiral of silence’ and get talking!!

Hayhoe’s post empowers and inspires conversations – start with the full post – here.

Expand to any one of our Toolkits related to climate:

Find a great book (or intergenerationally-related books) to read together from our Creation Care lib guide.

Build worship reflective of Creation Care values.

Or invite me in to begin or further a conversation. I’d love to share a presentation on any of the above topics or engage leaders in the workshop I shared at this year’s EcoFaith Summit: Creation Care 101: Creating a Creation Care Culture.

Start the conversation – and see what healing the Spirit has in store!!