Increasing Moral Engagement on Climate Change | ecoAffect

How could it be that so many Republicans view global warming as a problem, but so few on the right are pressuring the government to take action to address it? – Robb Willer, Contributor to The New York Times via Increasing Moral Engagement on Climate Change | ecoAffect. The “gap” is actually believing it.  As in,  if you BELIEVE something,  you Continue Reading

Religion as an automatic hyperbole

Just read this headline:  “How religion and American exceptionalism are undermining our future.” What I immediately notice is that “American” has a qualifier,  and “Religion” does not.  Interesting.   Why?  It would seem to me that a PARTICULAR approach to religion (one which is actually dominated by the same “American exceptionalism”),  is what is being described.  Imhofe is but one Continue Reading

My take on Rick Scott, Florida, and their “orders” not to mention global warming or climate change.

[Forida Governor] Scott told reporters who asked about his views on climate change that he had “not been convinced,” and that he would need “something more convincing than what I’ve read.” via In Florida, officials ban term climate change | Miami Herald Miami Herald. You mean , like,  SCIENCE?  That’s what you need to read.  I am amazed at the Continue Reading

Protecting the Science of Climate Change via @AGU_Eos

During my tenure on the Council on Environmental Quality(CEQ) from 2001 to 2003, I witnessed firsthand the fight to protect scientific integrity in government documents. – Alan Hecht Director for sustainable development in the Office of Research and Development at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Since 2003 he has led ORD’s planning on sustainability research. via Protecting the Science of Continue Reading

Desperately seeking Eco-centric church community

Bill McKibben ‘s Deep Economy yields the subtitle: The Weath of Communities and the Durable Future.  “Communities” there is pretty clearly a substitution for “Nations” in Adam Smith’s classic economics title.  The “Limits to Growth” has apparently overtaken “Nations”,  and so “Communities”, smaller, local,  interdependent co-ops,  seem to be the necessary alternative to nations and economies seemingly intent on proving Continue Reading

We need ECO-centered churches

With all the theological “specialties” that the various denominations and certain Christian communities emphasize,  it seems the time has come for churches to call themselves “EcoTheological” Communities/Churches.  I see “Bible-centered” all the time;  I see “justice” centered,  so why not “Eco-centered”.  Why not the VERY BIBLICAL message of the close and dependent relationship of creature to creation?  Why not catch Continue Reading

OccupyTheology is Eco-Centric…No economy without ecology

the paradigm for @OccupyTheology has shifted. It now recognizes that the the health of the economy depends upon a radical #ecoTheology. The time has come,  and has for quite some time,  that a just economy has to centered in an healthy ECOLOGY.  And a faithful theology had better tell this story.  Larry Rasmussen’s wonderful work of #ECOTheology , Earth Honoring Faith: Continue Reading

The ultimate “free-riders” in global ECOnomics : The Global oligrachy #PeoplesClimate #OWS

A devastating neglect of nature and its requirements, matched to unprecedented wealth , are the “strongest” marks of modernity as the triumph of free-market magic. Here an irony surfaces: “Free riders” are scorned by capitalist industrial orders, yet these same orders are saddled with a free-rider problem they barely recognize. “Free riders” are those who consume more than their share Continue Reading

“Creation justice is not bereft of antecedents” Larry Rasmussen #PeoplesClimate #EcoTheology

Creation justice is not bereft of antecedents. Indigenous peoples across the globe have tried their best since the onset of colonization, conquest, and the Industrial Revolution to say that the community of life’s own integral functioning was being violated by foreign notions of justice and human organization that did not recognize that peoples and their lands were inextricably linked together. Continue Reading

“eco-nomics: cultivating the material conditions for the continuation of life”

the very purpose of eco-nomics in the biblical world carries new force on this side of modern economics; namely, to cultivate the material conditions for the continuation of life. Rasmussen, Larry L. (2012-10-02). Earth-honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key (p. 150). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition. Amen! It seems obvious, but not when you look at our present Continue Reading

a political economy that operates with a different metabolism from that of the rest of nature

From Earth -Honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key (which would make a great textbook for a class in EcoTheology 101) The chief obstacles will be the political-economic and sociocultural dimensions of ways of life that remain addicted to fossil fuels, that have not yet come to terms with the limits of planetary systems, that assume happiness and fulfillment Continue Reading

Obama has some catching up to do on ACTIONS and POLICIES re: Climate Change

Bill McKibben published his thoughts on what the deal with China means and doesn’t mean. One stood out forme. It is not remotely enough to keep us out of climate trouble via The Big Climate Deal: What It Is, and What It Isn’t | Bill McKibben We need to rid ourselves and our leaders from the notion that “finally” we’re actually doing Continue Reading

The staggering irresponsibility of Imhofe’s Climate -denying “God is up there” #PeoplesClimate #EcoTheology

Senator Inhofe (set to become the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee)   quoted the Bible (Genesis 8:22) to support his thesis. “My point is, God’s still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous,” he said. Genesis 8:22   Continue Reading