A dimension of the ecological crisis, climate change paves the way for a more specific reflection on the relationship between science and politics. How are the religious communities helping? Our program will … This is a transition to a clean-energy economy. And now we’d like to feel some of the passion in questions from the audience. We’re already seeing this great migration. TUCKER: She was a huge supporter of all of this work and a great hero for reforestation, for empowering women, and so on. I’m a little nervous. So I want to suggest to you, if you find me afterwards, I’ll have a long discussion with you and we can talk about how we see the needle changing and how there are ways to move the needle in the conservative faith community. We did not grow up with factory-farmed meat, of pigs, chickens, and beef. But I’d like to just end with—it’s an economic issue about subsidy. But they are leaving a huge carbon print on the planet. Look at the amount of energy we use in the United States versus the majority of the world. HESCOX: I agree. It’s cultural change. And we have to act now to minimize it, but realize putting on the brakes now, we can’t stop the extremes by 2030. It reaches out to all persons on the planet of good will and in other places, to all living beings, whether or not they have good will. I’d like to follow up, then, on this point about religious traditions and bring you to just reflect a bit more on this. So those are some things we have to levelize out. And you’ve got this wonderful pope and patriarch, and we went on many of his trips. To understand the broader epistemological and ontological politics of human dimensions of climate change, this review adopts a political ecology approach, informed by Science and Technology Studies concepts and research on multiple ontologies. December 22, 2020, To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that And we want to empower you to work together with all of us to come up with the right solutions that work for Kenya and other places in Africa. You know, according to the International Energy Agency, we give about $500 billion a year in fossil-fuel subsidies worldwide and about $110 billion for renewables. What Is the World Doing to Distribute COVID-19 Vaccines? And that is also destroying the environment; charcoal. But we need to acknowledge we have our doubts. Donald J. Trump’s presidency has marked a profound departure from U.S. leadership in areas such as trade and diplomacy, as well as an across-the-board toughening of immigration policies. But what was quite interesting was when Sir Ghillean Prance and Sir John Houghton in the U.K. brought a group of about 26 Evangelicals to Oxford. As I say, this is why we began our work on world religions and ecology. That’s the hope—an alternative to consumption. About twice that number believe that changes in climate are due to the end times. It is a change on such a level, you see, of consciousness and conscience. And it invites and it welcomes that response. It seems clear that climate refugees will be a way that climate change confronts us very directly. TUCKER: We created a world food crisis thinking we were making biofuels, just not thinking of the long term. The tar sands in Alberta are going to China. And we’ve seen it from all the major faith traditions of the world, building on the advocacy and the coalitions that have been under way for a very long time. Climate activists have worked to get celebrities to speak, sing, paint, sculpt and perform about climate change. TUCKER: Thank you. And that’s the whole point of it. I have been to many conferences where Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism—the three traditions are one, incidentally; a little different from our Abrahamic traditions—but that they are coming forward with new visions for a flourishing future. It has worked. And Mitch, perhaps you will mention, when your turn comes around, your upcoming publication also with Bethany House. But national political interests have consistently curbed international efforts to reduce CO₂ emissions. The other thing that I would urge us to do collectively as a faith community is we have to be ready for this problem. And he proposes that members of the developed nations for—he’s calculated $22—purchase these solar cookstoves and see it as a carbon credit, and furthermore, emphasize the need to support the transition to clean energy in the developing world, lest emissions rise, because it’s essential that there be this development. And there are fights going on. And this is something that we’ve needed for a long time, because we have science and policy and technology and economics and law, regulation and so on. It involves a range of things, including economic change. TUCKER: Yes, I think what’s astonishing, the encyclical is addressed not just to Catholics, not just to Christians, but to all people on the planet, and that we share this moment. And I think the religious leaders, religious communities, should step up and then say, you know, don’t make it a corporate manipulation. It’s a fact that fourteen out of the fifteen years are the warmest on record, and to, as far as possible, not engage the debate about denial and to assert it’s over. It’s just really gripping the students. Six years ago, when I became the Evangelical Environmental Network, we had 15,000 people who we e-mailed to regularly. LOTHES: Well, I think that one of the great messages of the encyclical is its appeal to human dignity and to human decency. than our Catholic brothers and sisters in that regard. Therefore, I studied the case of Switzerland, a highly developed country that is also terribly sensitive to climate changedue in particular to its alpine topography and the economic and cultural importance of glaciers and snow availability. And whether it’s a seminary or a college or a local congregation, the first thing I would urge you to do is become energy-efficient yourselves, to take the time to work on your own carbon footprint and not only save money, but save the planet. As a former environmental scientist as well, I’m very concerned about the 200 species a day that we’re losing, in part due to climate change. Maybe they are getting better, but I think even their statistics are probably not very transparent at this point. Looking at the encyclical, some of the citations from John Paul II, which go back 25 years and further in other teachings, we hear talk of a moral obligation to care for creation. Our building at Yale is a green building, energy-efficient and so on. We can talk about nonpartisanship, but the Senate also just passed a resolution saying that anthropogenic climate change is not real. He talks about the violence that the earth experiences, the violence that the marginalized and the poor experience. It’s made this question of climate change very visible. And, maybe because of that last fact, I feel like I inhabit a different universe from this panel, one in which climate denial is still a major issue, with zero out of 14 Republican presidential candidates even agreeing that anthropogenic climate change is real. And therefore, even as we know right now, what is the dignity of the human around the world? HESCOX: Let me go, and I’ll talk to—I believe that the individual engagement proves success and can built collective engagement and help lead to policy action. This is nothing new, speaking of duty. CHOGE-KERAMA: My name is Emily Choge-Kerama. Mary Evelyn Tucker is my wife, which gives us an intimacy, an arc of intimacy here, and also senior lecturer and research scholar at Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and Yale Divinity School. To observe strategies for adaptation to rising sea levels and coastal defense being adopted, as well as upland efforts. And also Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country, but I’m minority back home. It shows that people are increasingly looking towards walkable lifestyles, that millennials do not want to be at the beck and call of an employer who keeps them there for fourteen-hour workweeks, and that there’s dictating some of the terms in their employment. I mean, it is a risk that is there. And what this is primarily about is affirming the priorities of doing so in order to protect the marginalized, in order to protect vulnerable communities, and to emphasize that we need the transparency, that we need to account for the full range of costs and move beyond externalizing these costs, being honest about the subsidies that are going on, and to emphasize that these are the priorities of our energy ethics. Has anything actually worked to move the needle in terms of climate denial, particularly given the vast expenditure of resources that’s on that side? And I am always asked the—. We’re delighted to be here today sponsoring this lunch at the American Academy of Religion. So the boardrooms are taking it. GRIM: And yet the science community has effectively partnered, allied with many religious—. LOTHES: I would simply say I think what climate psychology has often said is what we need to emphasize is solutions, to express the solutions that we have, because it’s true, being overwhelmed makes it almost impossible to go forward, although my own research with faith-based communities says that many of the most stalwart advocates do so not because of hope but out of virtue and a sense that their identity compels them to do this work. But Mitch, can I ask you—and then coming this way—how do you see the traditions of bringing moral and ethical force to bear on questions of population, consumption, and equity of growth? I mean, there’s plenty of people in this room who are vegetarian or vegan and so on. January 12, 2021. HESCOX: First off, let’s talk about—I think if people really examine China from the point of view—and Mary Evelyn can join in right now. But I wanted to throw a curve at our panelists and just ask them for a brief comment so that we can get to the fourth question. But what I want to come back to is this sense that here’s an activist, John Seed, in Australia dealing with the loss of rain forest for years and years and years, wondering how he can keep up his activism, his contribution. You can be a Catholic and believe in climate change. That wouldn’t have happened a couple of years ago. And it’s not just to feel good that we have a Prius or this or that. Erin Lothes Biviano is the assistant professor of theology at the College of St. Elizabeth. How do you teach people stewardship? Who is suffering first and worst from climate change? I wouldn’t deny that. But the good news is it’s also the greatest opportunity for building a sustainable clean-energy world. Even people like Dow Chemical are cutting their energy use because of climate change and the monetary advantage they’re getting out of both. I’m Christian. HESCOX: I would completely agree with you. The leading scholars of Chinese studies are deeply concerned about this. We don’t have an answer. But I just want to share with you this thing that, as John mentioned, statements of all the world’s religions have been growing for twenty years. Rich Cizik was one of them. We have the happy occasion to talk about the moral and political dimensions of climate change. They’ve been at this for a very long time. We will compare this with the piece by World Bank urban specialist Anthony Bigio comparing Casablanca, Tunis and Alexandria’s vulnerability and flooding preparations. In section 4 “Health Infrastructure, Climate Change, and Ebola’s Spread”, photos and statistics demonstrate the relationship between climate change, poverty, poor nutrition, eroding infrastructure, and Ebola transmission rates. LOTHES: Well, towards that, it’s essential that plain language is used. And these are traditions who have deeply understood the cycles of life, the ecosystems, the seasons, and embedded humans within them for millennia. And where do we get the long-term sensibility of sustaining ourselves, sustaining our vision and our hope? So, to pick up on these comments, clearly what we were suggesting earlier, there’s personal change. (Laughter.). I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. That’s why this is important. climate-change opinions: OPINION: If humanity does not take dramatic steps to curtail fossil-fuel consumption, civilization may collapse . But in addition to that, are they not still fairly closed towards religion coming in and basically having freedom of religion, even close to freedom of religion in China? I worry about this action that I’ve done, because I start to feel pretty righteous about it. It’s more gritty. Governments and researchers have been working with an extremely ambitious timetable to provide billions of people with immunity to the new coronavirus. Let me come back just a moment. So I think that it’s more and more—and even in the latest polling, you know, there were sort of different polls, one from the University of Texas that was purely political, looking at Republicans, and saw a massive increase in the spike of Republicans believing in climate change in the past six months. And it has to be released from that and empowered by the reality that this is a consensus issue, that this is something everybody wants, and the polling that suggests that 80 percent of Catholics want more investment in renewable energy, that they understand the need—that the climate-change authority, authority of the scientists. So coming together with the powerful dimension of social justice, which has been at the heart of religious communities for a long time, along with the long-term efforts of environmentalists and scientists, ecologists, this is a new framing for the issue and a new framing for the future, I would suggest. That has changed the face of the planet. We have prepared some questions, which is obvious. Mitchell Hescox, as the program notes indicate, is president and chief executive officer of the Evangelical Environmental Network. They will collect notes and photos during the visit, and produce a 3 page review tying the trip to the course’s larger themes of the social and political dimensions of climate change. There’s systemic change. There will be a microphone, so please stand and wait for the microphone and identify yourself. And it’s the first time that I’ve ever been at the White House where everybody was nice to each other—(laughter)—from people in the crowds and stories, and even in the reflection between President Obama and Pope Francis. Stanford has divested from coal. But the—(inaudible). Where are we going to stand up for dignity, for hospitality, for future generations? So it’s a big problem. KELLER: Oh. Otherwise they’re going to have a revolt on their hands. with Jennifer Hillman and Matthias Matthijs HESCOX: As one who lives that livelihood every day, the needle is moving. But this is—you know, this is for sustenance, for food, you know. And I think one of the things, from the Evangelical perspective, is that, you know, for us at EEN, Evangelical Environmental Network, we say that creation care is a matter of life, that it is integral to who we are. So this is something that is part of Catholic development philosophy. State and Local Conference Calls and Webinars. I’m looking for the sheet. What can you say about our need to simplify our consumption by also instituting a meatless day in this country and in western countries as part of our consumption simplicity, simplification? So it’s a radical call for dialogue. But we want to give a vision to our students that hospice may be new kinds of technologies. It’s amazing what’s happening. So I think these are complementary ideas. General Mills is going the same direction. I mean, in Sri Lanka we do have our own issues—you know, racial issues, fighting, violence. What I find interesting is that these traditions, including “Laudato Si’,” they’re not positioning themselves first. They’re closing down coal plants. And we have to go about working with indigenous people and empower them, to make sure they’re locally supplied, not just handed down through that. We’re going to get started now. And, of course, I think we’re seeing the pope, again, is one of the stair steps, maybe a great big stair step, of bringing more people on board. Because they too are desperate about not having their science understood. Yet, IAMs are built in the face of pervasive uncertainty, both scientific and ethical, which requires modelers to make numerous choices in model development. Do we report these events and their effect on our people? We have been subsidizing fossil fuel as a nation for one hundred years. Earth is not just resources to be consumed. It is doubtful that they’ll ever connect to any kind of grid if there’s the money to ever build it, which I doubt that. Our report suggests that climate change is not about 'the environment', it's a problem with seven main dimensions: Science, Behaviour, Technology, Culture, Law, Economy and Democracy. You know, we saw three Republicans last week vote for—against the CRA to stop the Clean Power Plant. You can see them on this website. to climate change. TUCKER: I think the push towards climate justice, this integration of cry of the earth, cry of the poor, that the focus presented and many other theologians have presented and people from various religious communities is key here, because we’ve been saying forever this isn’t—the environment isn’t about whitewater rafting. And he, Pan Yue, is one of the leading spokespersons for this sense of bringing forward these traditions for an ecological civilization, against great odds. And then the last thing, I would agree that it’s a tragedy to know that the first oil subsidy that is still on the books happened in 1916. by Ankit Panda, Rocio Cara Labrador and Amelia Cheatham Mary Keller, University of Wyoming. You know, the largest problem that local church pastors have in China right now, according to the people that I know that go there, is consumerism, absolutely. In fact, you know, energy is so cheap—NV Energy, Nevada Energy, just signed a contract to buy 100 megawatts of solar power for 3.78 cents a kilowatt. Just to pick up on those wonderful comments of Erin, I would just offer maybe three other points, related points. But what is so critical about this, and I think the pope highlighted it in his, and Mary Evelyn alluded to it, it’s OK to believe in climate change within the framework of who you are in a faith characteristic. Invite people to read the IPCC documents. GRIM: Please join me in thanking our panelists. So I want to look very frankly without thinking the one thing you have to do is give everybody hope, because I do think there is something very serious about living with hospice in this moment as well. And what are the ethics needed for this transition? December 21, 2020, Women, Civic Participation, and the Legacy of the 19th Amendment, Conference Call If climate change is … And the University of Michigan, I think, two weeks ago released a study showing that Evangelicals and mainlines are now actually—yay for Evangelicals, who now have about a fraction marginal percentage point above mainline Protestants in believing in climate change. And it’s—we have to be prepared for it. But most people who are denialists do not have that expertise. Students that hospice may be new kinds of technologies not so much wrong as misguided, a. These other traditions are coming roaring back re turning algae—absorbing carbon out of it 35 minutes of discussion to. 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