A Twitter acquaintance (Ryan; met him via some post comments on UMC.org), asked me via Twitter yesterday:  “Can you give me a list of top 10 things to do to live as an ecological steward?” .  I responded with a followup , clarifying question:  “as individuals, collectives, or all of the above?”.   And  also : “regardless of your reply, that is a great subject for a blog post. Thanks! might do 10 of each ( individual,collective)”.   and then “that has opened up such an awesome theological exploration for me. Thanks again. I will attribute the question to you.”

And then I offered up a “preview”:  “this may take a day or two….but major will be getting off fossil fuels ASAP, with attention to how urgently (fast)” followed by “that’s a collective one, but it syncs with an individual one: to work on the church level to raise awareness in that collective”

I would say that is my number one.  As one working in the Web communications business since 1994,  and doing it almost exclusively from within the church,  this is my natural concern:  that the church awaken to its call to be a “City on a Hill”; to be a foretaste of Kingdom-of-God living.  The conference I attended at Pomona College Claremont , CA ,  organized by the Center for Process Studies (and John Cobb)  ,  “Seizing An Alternative: Toward An Ecological Civilization” sounded like a call to me.  That “Ecological Civilization” is all about a wholistic approach in all disciplines,  with a keen focus on ecology and economics as they pertain to “The Common Good”.

So,  I think I will do two lists,  and these lists overlap at points,  as I anticipated in my initial response tweets, listed above.

So far,  I have a total of 13,  but I want to end up with 10 of each.

Collective
1.  getting off fossil fuels ASAP

2. include the ecological costs in our accounting and economics

3. develop programs to promote and incentivize individuals/families to implement solar for electricity

4. Ramp up dramatically the move to ZERO emissions autos (electric, not “hybrid”)

5. Collaborate with the world efforts to seriously address the problem of global economy being so dominated by oil interests.

6.Get the churches involved in lobbying government to recognize the neccessity of immediate re-orientation efforts

7. More to add as I think of them

Individuals/Families

1. Be present in your church and share your concerns about the Ecological (and increasingly, Economic)  crisis we face.

2. Get moving to find programs (or be active in efforts to get them going) to promote solar for homes and businesses (syncs up with number 3 collective)

3. Economize on trips, errands, water usage (especially hot water that uses both water and electricity) , heating and air, and local food over big chain, big brand (which cuts down on emissions created in transporting food, and on demand for high-carbon “Big Agro” production)

4. Waste less food and water

5. Move to much -lower emissions means of transport in personal transport (public transport where feasible), especially in choice of vehicles (Electric is preferrable over hybrid, which still creates emissions, only 50% less,  which is good,  but don’t stop there.

6. Find active organizing, lobbying group such as “Citizen’s Climate Lobby” to hook up with people collaborating on ways to help the collective.

7. Stay educated on Climate issues,  and avoid the “Denier” memes propogated by conservative media,  and the “jury’s still out” debates that pit the science vs the “Denier-groups” which are largely funded by fossil fuel interests.  Staying educated will also help you to add new items to this list.  Hopefully, some day,  and very soon,  you will be able to find “Eco-mission” with people in your congregation.

8. More to add as I think of them

My online friend Ryan is at @ColtsFan254 on Twitter.  Ryan is much more conservative theologically and politically than I am,  but he has engaged me on 2-3 occasions via Twitter,  and as I have told him,  he has been a help and a very civil debater on these topics.