The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
6.5 (May 2012)
Contents:
1. Editorial, by Elizabeth McAnally
2. “Summer Symposium: Religion and Environmental Stewardship” (June 5-7, 2012 at Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT, USA)
3. Journey of the Universe Film Screenings
4. Events
5. New Books
6. Calls for Papers
7. “America the Possible: A Manifesto,” by James Gustave Speth
8. Garrison Institute’s “Climate, Mind and Behavior Symposium” (February 15-17, 2012 at Garrison, NY, USA)
9. Sophia Summer Institute: “Our Way into the Future: A Celebration of the Story and Work of Our Time” (July 19-22, 2012 in Oakland, CA, USA)
10. Summer Institute in New Economics (June 24 - July 1, 2012 at Boston College, MA, USA)
11. Powerful U.S. Bishops/United Methodist Church Statement Marks Earth Day
12. TEDxBozeman Talk: “The Many Gods of Planet Earth,” by Betsy Quammen
13. Minding Animals Bulletin
14. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
1. Editorial, by Elizabeth McAnally
Greetings,
Welcome to the May issue of the newsletter for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. I have much to share with you this month with regards to developments in the field of Religion and Ecology, including publications, conferences, events, calls for papers, and more.
I am happy to invite you to a symposium taking place June 5-7, 2012 at Yale Divinity School in New Haven, CT, USA. The symposium, “Religion and Environmental Stewardship,” is organized by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, and it is sponsored by the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale, Yale Divinity School, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, and Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. The symposium will focus on environmental education that brings together science, theology, and ethics. The symposium will engage experts from Yale and across the country to address topics such as the greening of seminaries and churches, curricular initiatives in eco-theology, climate change, environmental justice, and preaching and liturgical approaches to environmental stewardship. Students, ministers, and lay people are welcome to attend. For more information, see below or visit: http://summerstudy.yale.edu/environmental-symposium
I also want to inform you that we have now completed the Journey of the Universe Trilogy (film, book, and educational series of interviews). The book is available through Yale University Press, your local bookstore, and Amazon.com. The film and Educational Series are available through the website: www.journeyoftheuniverse.org. We are also making copies for use overseas, as well as Blu-Ray which plays in high definition.
I would like to let you know about a recent review of the Journey of the Universe book. This review by Julianne Lutz Warren was published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences and can be read at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/k38115284124q33p/ You can find more reviews of the Journey book on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Universe-Brian-Thomas-Swimme/dp/0300171900/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316903370&sr=1-1, as well as on the Journey website: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/news-articles/
The Journey of the Universe Facebook page is a great way to connect with others and show your support for the project. Come “Like” us on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=212293652138039#!/pages/Journey-of-the-Universe/179213572122084
The film is continuing to be broadcast nationwide on PBS for their pledge drive over the next 2 years and has already been carried by 70% of the stations (with over 600 showings). The PBS broadcast consists of the film and an interview with Mary Evelyn Tucker. It is wonderful to have this opportunity for the New Story to be available for an even wider audience. Inspired by the New Story described by Thomas Berry, the Journey of the Universe draws on the latest scientific knowledge to tell the story of cosmic and Earth evolution. It aims to inspire a new and closer relationship with Earth in a period of growing environmental and social crisis.
The DVD Educational Series was completed in December and consists of 20 interviews. The first 10 are conversations with scientists and historians discussing the evolution of universe, Earth, life, and humans. The last 10 are discussions with environmentalists who are working on issues such as eco-cities, eco-economics, permaculture, energy, and arts and justice. We think these interviews will be very useful to complement the film and book. They will be excellent sources of discussion in your communities, churches, learning centers, and schools. You can see an overview of the series and short selections of each person interviewed online at:
www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/ed-series-previews
There is also a helpful set of Curricular Materials that accompany the Journey of the Universe project. Prepared by Matthew Riley, these Curricular Materials contain scientific summaries, discussion questions, and resources. They can be downloaded free of charge at: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/curriculum/
I hope this newsletter supports your own work and helps you further your own engagements with the field of Religion and Ecology.
Warm wishes,
Elizabeth McAnally
California Institute of Integral Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Website Manager & Newsletter Editor
http://www.yale.edu/religionandecology
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
2. “Summer Symposium: Religion and Environmental Stewardship” (June 5-7, 2012 at Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT, USA)
“Summer Symposium: Religion and Environmental Stewardship”
Environmental Education For Clergy, Lay Leaders, and Seminary Faculty
Bringing Together Science, Theology, and Ethics
Organized by Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim, Co-Directors of the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Sponsored by:
Yale Divinity School
Berkeley Divinity School at Yale
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
June 5-7, 2012 at Yale Divinity School, 409 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT, USA
The symposium costs $100.
It is free of charge for full-time students.
Registration closes on May 15, so don’t delay!
To register please contact: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
http://summerstudy.yale.edu/environmental-symposium
3. Journey of the Universe Film Screenings
Greenburgh Nature CenterConcordia University
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Discussion with Mary Evelyn Tucker and Bill Rees
May 14, 2012
The Christine Center
Willard, WI, USA
May 25, 2012
Garrison Institute
Garrison, NY, USA
Discussion with Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim
May 30, 2012
Yale Divinity School
New Haven, CT, USA
Discussion & panel with John Grim & Mary Evelyn Tucker
June 5, 2012
For more screenings, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/upcoming-events/
4. Events
“Degrowth in the Americas”
International Conference
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
May 13-19, 2012
http://montreal.degrowth.org/
“Animal Welfare: Ethical & Behavioral Questions”
Aarhus University, Denmark
May 14-16, 2012
http://conferences.au.dk/animalwelfare/
13th Congress of the International Society of Ethnobiology
Montpellier, France
May 20-25, 2012
2 sessions related to religion and ecology:
The large religions of the world and the environment
Sacred lands - dynamic archetypes for changing times
http://congress-ise2012.agropolis.fr/ftpheb.agropolis.fr/en/Home.html
“Global Stewardship: An Integrating Story for Ecological Civilization”
With Mary Evelyn Tucker
The Spring of Sustainability 2012
Free online, live event with Mary Evelyn Tucker
Hosted by Betsy Rosenberg
12:00 - 12:30pm
May 24, 2012
http://springofsustainability.com/
“Climate Change and Sustainable Development: Ethical Perspectives on Land Use and Food Production”
10th Congress of the European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics (EurSafe) 2012
Tübingen, Germany
May 30 - June 2, 2012
http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/einrichtungen/internationales-zentrum-fuer-ethik-in-den-wissenschaften/aktuelles/veranstaltungen/eursafe-2012.html
“Living Dao Today: Views and Visions”
8th International Conference on Daoist Studies
Utting am Ammersee near Munich, Germany
June 6-10, 2012
http://liviakohn.com/
“Strategies for a New Economy”
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA
June 8-10, 2012
http://neweconomicsinstitute.org/conference
For more events, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/
5. New Books
The Wisdom of John Muir: 100+ Selections from the Diaries, Journals, and Essays of the Great Naturalist
By Anne Rowthorn
Foreword by Bill McKibben
Wilderness Press, 2012
http://www.annerowthorn.com/
No single American has done more to preserve our wilderness than John Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club and a self-taught botanist, inventor, glaciologist, geologist, ornithologist, world traveler, and writer. The Wisdom of John Muir: 100+ Selections from the Diaries, Journals, and Essays of the Great Naturalist is a compilation of more than 100 of John Muir’s most evocative writings drawn from his better-known works as well as from his letters and journals. Highlights of Muir’s life introduce each chapter of the book and brief reflective comments accompany the selections to explain or elaborate upon their particular contexts. Building on her lifelong passion for the work and philosophy of John Muir, author Anne Rowthorn has created an entirely new treatment for showcasing the great naturalist’s philosophy and writings. By pairing carefully selected material from various stages of Muir’s life, Rowthorn’s book provides a look at the experiences, places, and people that inspired and informed Muir’s words and beliefs.
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The Sacred in the City
Edited by Liliana Gómezand Walter Van Herck
Continuum, 2012
http://www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?BookId=159765&SearchType=Basic
The book reflects the way in which the city interacts with the sacred in all its many guises, with religion and the human search for meaning in life. The sacred has become an important category of a new interpretation of social and cultural transformation processes. From a unique broader perspective, the volume focuses on the relationship between the city and the sacred. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, combining the expertise of philosophers, historians, architects, social geographers, sociologists and anthropologists, it draws a nuanced picture of the different layers of religion, of the sacred and its diverse forms within the city, with examples from Europe, South America and the Caribbean, and Africa.
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Water, Cultural Diversity, and Global Environmental Change: Emerging Trends, Sustainable Futures?
Edited by Barbara Rose Johnston, Lisa Hiwasaki, Irene J. Klaver, Ameyali Ramos Castillo, and Veronica Strang
UNESCO, 2012
http://www.springer.com/environment/aquatic+sciences/book/978-94-007-1773-2
A product of the UNESCO-IHP project on Water and Cultural Diversity, this book represents an effort to examine the complex role water plays as a force in sustaining, maintaining, and threatening the viability of culturally diverse peoples. It is argued that water is a fundamental human need, a human right, and a core sustaining element in biodiversity and cultural diversity. The core concepts utilized in this book draw upon a larger trend in sustainability science, a recognition of the synergism and analytical potential in utilizing a coupled biological and social systems analysis, as the functioning viability of nature is both sustained and threatened by humans.
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Raising Elijah: Protecting Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis
By Sandra Steingraber
Da Capo Press, 2011
http://steingraber.com/books/raising-elijah/
Our children face an environment more threatening to their health than any generation in history. Sandra Steingraber confronts this crisis with precise science and a lyrical, witty, moving memoir. Each lively chapter of this unique book focuses on one of the universals of childhood–milk, laundry, pizza, homework, the “Big Talk”–and explores the hidden, social political, and historical forces behind it. Throughout, Steingraber demonstrates how closely the intimate world of parenting connects to the public world of policy-making and how the ongoing environmental crisis is, fundamentally, a crisis of family life.
6. Calls for Papers
“Bioethics: Religious and Spiritual Approaches”
2012 Claremont International Jain Conference
Claremont Lincoln University, Claremont, CA, USA
August 24-25, 2012
Submission Deadline: May 15, 2012
http://jain.claremontlincoln.org/2012-conference-2/
“Ahimsa and Sustainable Happiness”
Prem and Sandhya Jain International Conference on Nonviolence
Cal Poly Pomona, Los Angeles, CA, USA
November 2-4, 2012
Submission Deadline: May 18, 2012
http://www.csupomona.edu/~ahimsacenter/conference/conference_2012_CallForProposals.shtml
The Changing World Religion Map
Edited book to be published by Springer
Deadline for chapters: June 2012
http://fore.research.yale.edu/call-for-possible-contributors-to-an-edited-volume-the-changing-world-religion-map
“Everyday Religion and Sustainable Environments in the Himalaya”
The New School, New York, NY, USA
March 8-10, 2013
Deadline for Submissions: June 15, 2012
http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/item/everyday-religion-and-sustainable-environments-in-the-himalaya/
“Environment in South-East Asia”
Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies
Deadline for Submissions: June 30, 2012
http://www.seas.at/?page_id=799
7. “America the Possible: A Manifesto,” by James Gustave Speth
“America the Possible: A Manifesto,” Part I
From decline to rebirth
By James Gustave Speth
March/April 2012 issue of Orion magazine
Like you and other Americans, I love my country, its wonderful people, its boundless energy, its creativity in so many fields, its natural beauty, its many gifts to the world, and the freedom it has given us to express ourselves. So we should all be angry, profoundly angry, when we consider what has happened to our country and what that neglect could mean for our children and grandchildren.
For full story, visit:
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6681
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“America the Possible: A Manifesto,” Part II
A new politics for a new dream
By James Gustave Speth
May/June 2012 issue of Orion magazine
We need a compelling vision for a new future, a vision of a better country—America the Possible—that is still within our power to reach. The deep, transformative changes sketched in the first half of this manifesto provide a path to America the Possible. But that path is only brought to life when we can combine this vision with the conviction that we will pull together to build the necessary political muscle for real change. This article addresses both the envisioning of an attractive future for America and the politics needed to realize it. A future worth having awaits us, if we are willing to struggle and sacrifice for it. It won’t come easy, but little that is worth having ever does.
For full story, visit:
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6810
8. Garrison Institute’s “Climate, Mind and Behavior Symposium” (February 15-17, 2012 at Garrison, NY, USA)
The Climate, Mind and Behavior (CMB) Project at the Garrison Institute in New York convenes leading thinkers and practitioners in the fields of climate change and environmental advocacy, neuro-, behavioral and evolutionary economics, psychology, policy-making, social networking investing and social media. During the program’s annual symposia and regional meetings, CMB network participants work together to identify ways to shift human behavior so as to realize large-scale greenhouse gas emissions reductions. It brought experts from these fields together for the third annual CMB symposium on February 15-17, 2012 to explore the connection between social sciences research and human-based solutions to climate change.
Materials from this symposium can be found at:
Video recordings of the lectures of the key presentations from the symposium can be found at:
Mary Evelyn Tucker was one of the participants in this year’s symposium. Her lecture on “The Emerging Alliance of Religion & Ecology” can be found at:
9. Sophia Summer Institute: “Our Way into the Future: A Celebration of the Story and Work of Our Time” (July 19-22, 2012 in Oakland, CA, USA)
Summer Institute — July 19-22, 2012
Post-Institute Retreat — July 22-24, 2012
Holy Names University
3500 Mountain Blvd.
Oakland, CA, USA
Presenters include: Brian Swimme, Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Fox, Diarmuid O’Murchu, Miriam Therese Winter, Peter Mayer, Jim Conlon, and Belvie Rooks.
The Sophia Center is a wisdom school celebrating earth, art, and spirit. The Sophia Center story is a story of the emergence of creation spirituality, the New Universe Story and Great Work of Our Time.
http://www.hnu.edu/sophia/summerInstitute.html
10. Summer Institute in New Economics (June 24 - July 1, 2012 at Boston College, MA, USA)
Increasingly dire ecological news and the failure of the global economy to generate adequate jobs and incomes has undermined the legitimacy of conventional economics. As our economic system fails, interest in a “new economics” is expanding. New economics is grounded in principles of ecological sustainability, equity and fairness, the democratization of wealth, community empowerment and the importance of social connection. New economists can be found throughout the social sciences, as well as in adjacent disciplines and interdisciplinary fields. If you are a graduate student, you are invited to join us for the first-ever summer institute in new economics. We have brought together a dynamic group of distinguished faculty who are eager to engage with graduate students interested in pursuing research and practice in this emerging field. We will meet on the campus of Boston College for a one-week intensive program of classes, workshops with leading new economy practitioners, and scrumptious artisanal meals. Students attending the workshop can expect to leave with a solid grounding in the latest research and theory, and with a strong network of faculty and other graduate students. We hope that all participants will experience a renewed sense of accomplishment and inspiration for the challenging task of building an ecologically viable and socially just economy.
Topics:
Equity and Environment
Growth and Scale
Community economics and planning
Food and agriculture
Labor Markets and consumption
Politics and transition strategy
http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/sociology/neweconomics/
11. Powerful U.S. Bishops/United Methodist Church Statement Marks Earth Day
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and the United Methodist Church (UMC) marked Earth Day 2012 with the release a joint statement on the Eucharist and the environment. The statement, “Heaven and Earth are Full of Your Glory,” affirms that both Methodists and Catholics believe their celebration of the Eucharist helps them to see God’s glory in all of creation and therefore leads to greater care for the environment.
The document says: Jesus chastises the Pharisees for being able to interpret the appearance of the skies while being unable to interpret the signs of the times (cf. Mt 16:3). In our time the appearance of the skies has become a sign of the times. The threat of climate destabilization, the destruction of the ozone layer, and the loss of bio-diversity point to a disordered relation between humankind, other living beings and the rest of the earth.
The elements of nature—grain for bread and grapes for wine—become part of salvation through the Eucharist and that salvation itself is an act of God at work in all of creation and all creation encountering God. Additionally, the document call[s] both Methodists and Catholics to participate more deeply in the Eucharist by recognizing its intrinsic connection with the renewal of creation.
Bishop William Skylstad, retired bishop of Spokane (and honorary chairman of the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change) and Methodist Bishop Timothy Whitaker of the UMC Florida Conference co-chaired the dialogue.
Read the statement here:
12. TEDxBozeman Talk: “The Many Gods of Planet Earth,” by Betsy Quammen
This talk examines connections between religions, cultures and environmental ethics. This idea of caring for species, rivers and landscapes is embedded in the world's many faiths and traditions. Betsy Gaines Quammen and the organization she founded, The Tributary Fund, explores world cultures to identify, reinforce and put into action values and practices that safeguard our species and planet. I order to further conservation, Gaines Quammen attests, we must understand the beliefs of communities that have a direct impact on threatened wildlife, in order to encourage empathy and bestow responsibility. Betsy founded The Tributary Fund after visiting the Eg-Uur watershed and Dayan Derkh Monastery ruins in 2002 and falling in love with the rivers, landscapes and people of Mongolia. Betsy has a Master's of Science from University of Montana in Environmental Studies and is a PhD candidate at Montana State University in Religion and Environmental History. She lived in Kenya and worked for Swara (the magazine of the East African Wildlife Society) and has served on the national board of directors for the Sierra Club and for American Wildlands. Over the years, she's worked with the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Montana State University's Center for Native American Studies and Wallace Stegner Chair, and many other conservation groups. Betsy lives in Bozeman, MT, with her husband, writer David Quammen.
http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxBozeman-Betsy-Quammen-The-2;search%3Atag%3A%22tedxbozeman%22
13. Minding Animals Bulletin
May 3, 2012
Minding Animals International
This is the final Minding Animals Bulletin to be released before the Minding Animals Conference (MA2) in Utrecht, the Netherlands on July 4-6, 2012.
Inside this edition you will find:
Call for Nominations for MA Board and Academic Advisory Committee; and Nomination Form.
Information relating to the ICAS Satellite Event at MA2 on 3 July.
Upcoming Minding Animals and Partner Events.
Information on Getting to Utrecht.
Information on Registration at Utrecht and other important times for the conference.
To read the bulletin, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/news/item/minding-animals-bulletin-no.11/
14. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme. For more information, visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo
For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental ethics/philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html. If you know of a publication that needs to be added to this list, email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/index.html
I am editing a book, to be published by Springer, entitled The Changing World Religion Map, which will contain chapters on cutting-edge topics for those in the social sciences and humanities who study religion and culture, society, and politics. The book will be international in themes and authors, interdisciplinary and also interfaith. There are several major themes, including globalization, new diasporas, virtual religion as well as religion and education, the environment, gender, the media, geopolitics and law. It is my hope that this multivolume book will be used as a major reference source for the coming decade by those in colleges, universities and seminaries around the world.
If anyone is interested in contributing, please contact me. I have a good number of authors already identified. Chapters I am specifically looking for include the following: religion and social media, investments by churches, religious TV and radio networks (in US or any region), religion and fashion, church properties, organizations that help victims of AIDS and human trafficking, religions/linguistic “islands,” relict/endangered religious groups, the history of black religious colleges in the US, the national or international tours of some religious music group, and the exhibition tours of some religions art project. Chapters would be about 5-7000 words, although I have some a bit longer. Deadline would be early to mid-June. I look forward to hearing from those with an interest in contributing.
Thanks,
Stan Brunn
Stanley D. Brunn, Ph.D.
Department of Geography
1457 Patterson TowerUniversity of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40506-0027
Phone: (859) 257-6947 or 2931
Fax: (8598) 323-1969
www.uky.edu/AS/Geography/Dept/brunn.htm
http://www.uky.edu/AS/Geography/dept/brunn.htm
The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
6.4 (April 2012)
Contents:
1. Editorial, by Elizabeth McAnally
2. “Summer Symposium: Religion and Environmental Stewardship” (June 5-7, 2012 at Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT, USA)
3. Journey of the Universe Film Screenings
4. Events
5. Annual Meeting of the American Teilhard Association (April 21, 2012 in New York, NY, USA)
6. New Books
7. “Sustainable Energy: Politics and Technologies” (April Issue of Mother Pelican)
8. Calls for Papers
9. Holmes Rolston III Early Career Essay Prize in Environmental Philosophy
10. Bard Center for Environmental Policy Announces Two New Scholarships
11. “The Inner Life of the Child in Nature: Presence and Practice” (Program for Educators)
12. “Food, Glorious Food: The Eucharist & Your Foodshed” (June 18-24, 2012 at Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, NM, USA)
13. “Contemplative Environmental Studies: Pedagogy for Self and Planet” (July 1-7, 2012 at Lama Foundation, Questa, NM, USA)
14. Resources for Islam and Ecology
15. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
1. Editorial, by Elizabeth McAnally
Greetings,
Welcome to the April issue of the newsletter for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. I have much to share with you this month with regards to developments in the field of Religion and Ecology, including publications, conferences, events, calls for papers, and more.
I am happy to invite you to a symposium taking place June 5-7, 2012 at Yale Divinity School in New Haven, CT, USA. The symposium, “Religion and Environmental Stewardship,” is organized by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, and it is sponsored by the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale, Yale Divinity School, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, and Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. The symposium will focus on environmental education that brings together science, theology, and ethics. Aimed at clergy, lay leaders, and seminary faculty, the symposium will engage experts from Yale and across the country to address topics such as the greening of seminaries and churches, curricular initiatives in eco-theology, climate change, environmental justice, and preaching and liturgical approaches to environmental stewardship. Students, ministers, and lay people are welcome to attend. For more information, see below or visit: http://summerstudy.yale.edu/environmental-symposium
I also want to inform you that we have now completed the Journey of the Universe Trilogy (film, book, and educational series of interviews). The book is available through Yale University Press, your local bookstore, and Amazon.com. The film and Educational Series are available through the website: www.journeyoftheuniverse.org. We are also making copies for use overseas, as well as Blu-Ray which plays in high definition.
The Journey of the Universe Facebook page is a great way to connect with others and show your support for the project. Come “Like” us on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=212293652138039#!/pages/Journey-of-the-Universe/179213572122084
The film is continuing to be broadcast nationwide on PBS for their pledge drive over the next 2 years and has already been carried by 70% of the stations (with over 600 showings). The PBS broadcast consists of the film and an interview with Mary Evelyn Tucker. It is wonderful to have this opportunity for the New Story to be available for an even wider audience. Inspired by the New Story described by Thomas Berry, the Journey of the Universe draws on the latest scientific knowledge to tell the story of cosmic and Earth evolution. It aims to inspire a new and closer relationship with Earth in a period of growing environmental and social crisis.
The DVD Educational Series was completed in December and consists of 20 interviews. The first 10 are conversations with scientists and historians discussing the evolution of universe, Earth, life, and humans. The last 10 are discussions with environmentalists who are working on issues such as eco-cities, eco-economics, permaculture, energy, and arts and justice. We think these interviews will be very useful to complement the film and book. They will be excellent sources of discussion in your communities, churches, learning centers, and schools. You can see an overview of the series and short selections of each person interviewed online at:
www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/ed-series-previews
There is also a helpful set of Curricular Materials that accompany the Journey of the Universe project. Prepared by Matthew Riley, these Curricular Materials contain scientific summaries, discussion questions, and resources. They can be downloaded free of charge at:
http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/curriculum/
I hope this newsletter supports your own work and helps you further your own engagements with the field of Religion and Ecology.
Warm wishes,
Elizabeth McAnally
California Institute of Integral Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Website Manager & Newsletter Editor
http://www.yale.edu/religionandecology
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
2. “Summer Symposium: Religion and Environmental Stewardship” (June 5-7, 2012 at Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT, USA)
“Summer Symposium: Religion and Environmental Stewardship”
Environmental Education For Clergy, Lay Leaders, and Seminary Faculty
Bringing Together Science, Theology, and Ethics
Organized by Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim, Co-Directors of the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Sponsored by:
Yale Divinity School
Berkeley Divinity School at Yale
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
June 5-7, 2012 at Yale Divinity School, 409 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT, USA
Cost for participants in the symposium will be $100. Students can attend for free.
The registration deadline is May 1.
To register please contact: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
http://summerstudy.yale.edu/environmental-symposium
3. Journey of the Universe Film Screenings
Southern Connecticut State University
New Haven, CT, USA
Discussion with Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim.
April 11, 2012
Pilgrim Place
Claremont, CA, USA
April 11, 2012
Litchfield Community Center
Litchfield, CT, USA
April 18, 2012
American Teilhard Association Annual Meeting
New York, NY, USA
Film introduction by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim
April 21, 2012
Liberty Hall
Lawrence, KS, USA
April 23, 2012
The Graduate Institute
Bethany, CT, USA
April 25, 2012
Pilgrim Place
Claremont, CA, USA
Lecture by Mary Evelyn Tucker
April 26, 2012
St. Mary Catholic Church
Wytheville, VA, USA
April 26, 2012
For more information about these and other upcoming screenings, visit:
http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/upcoming-events/
4. Events
“Getting Greener Faithfully”
Annual Spring Convocation
Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Gettysburg, PA, USA
April 17-18, 2012
http://www.ltsg.edu/Lifelong-Learners/Spring-Convocation
“Religious Response to Ecological Challenges”
International Conference
Nilackal St. Thomas Church Ecumenical Centre
Kerala, IndiaApril 17-20, 2012http://www.nilackaltrust.org/
“Creation, Creatureliness, and Creativity: The Human Place in the Natural World”
The Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology Conference
Loyola Marymount University
Los Angeles, CA, USA
April 20-22, 2012
http://www.scptonline.org.
“The Intersection of Poverty and the Environment”
Webcast sponsored by the Episcopal Church
April 21, 2012
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/notice/episcopal-church-sponsors-major-topical-forum-intersection-poverty-and-environment
“What is Life?”
14th Conference of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology (ESSSAT)
Tartu, Estonia
April 24-29, 2012
http://www.esssat2012.edicypages.com/
“Transfiguration of Christ and Creation: A Ministry of Wholeness”
St Mary's Sewanee, TN, USA
May 4-6, 2012
http://www.sewanee.edu/cre
“Degrowth in the Americas”
International Conference
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
May 13-19, 2012
http://montreal.degrowth.org/
“Animal Welfare: Ethical & Behavioral Questions”
Aarhus University, Denmark
May 14-16, 2012
http://conferences.au.dk/animalwelfare/
“Strategies for a New Economy”
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA
June 8-10, 2012
http://neweconomicsinstitute.org/conference
Global Ecological Integrity Group International Conference
Confronting Collapse: What Agencies, Institutions and Strategies Are Needed for a Better World? How to Achieve Environmental Justice?
University of La Rochelle, France
June 18-23, 2012
http://www.globalecointegrity.net/conferences.html
For more events, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/
5. Annual Meeting of the American Teilhard Association (April 21, 2012 in New York, NY, USA)
The 2012 annual meeting of the American Teilhard Association will take place Saturday, April 21, 2012, at the Union Theological Seminary (3041 Broadway at 121st St.) in New York. We will be screening the Journey of the Universe film. The film will be introduced by the Executive Producers, Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim. A panel of respondents will follow the screening. For more information about the film, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/
Schedule:
10:00am - Board Meeting
12:00pm - Lunch
1:30pm - Film
Everyone is welcome to attend.
Cost: $25 for lunch and film/panel, $10 for film/panel only.
Register online through Paypal at this link: http://teilharddechardin.org/index.php/event
If you will be paying at the door, please RSVP by April 13th to (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) as we need to know the number of people who will be in attendance.
6. New Books
The Way Forward: Educational Reforms that Focus on the Cultural Commons and the Linguistic Roots of the Ecological/Cultural Crises
By Chet Bowers
Eco-Justice Press, 2012
http://ecojusticepress.com/bowers_thewayforward.html
This latest book by Chet Bowers provides an in-depth examination of understanding cultures, including daily cultural practices, as ecologies–– and how these micro-ecologies affect the life-sustaining viability of natural ecologies. Also explored in depth are how the community-centered cultural commons represent the early stages of a post-industrial future, as well as how public schools, universities, and environmental writers continue to perpetuate the linguistic colonization of the present by the past and the linguistic colonization of other cultures. Special attention is given to how to reframe the meaning of words (metaphors) in ways that are culturally and ecologically informed. In short, this book challenges both environmentalists of all stripes as well as educational reformers to recognize that addressing the environmental crisis cannot be separated from addressing the cultural crises being perpetuated by late 20th century thinking. It also challenges educational reformers to recognize that the needed curricular reforms are easily derived from an understanding of the differences between ecologically sustainable and unsustainable cultural practices.
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Sacred Acts: How Churches are Working to Protect Earth's Climate
By Mallory McDuff
Foreword by Bill McKibben
New Society Publishers, 2012
http://www.newsociety.com/Books/S/Sacred-Acts
Sacred Acts documents the diverse actions taken by churches to address climate change through stewardship, advocacy, spirituality and justice. This book includes stories from across North America of contemporary church leaders, parishioners, and religious activists who are working to define a new environmental movement, where honoring the Creator means protecting the planet. Contributions from leading Christian voices such as Norman Wirzba and the Reverend Canon Sally Bingham detail the concrete work of faith communities such as:
* Englewood Christian Church in Indianapolis, IN, where parishioners have enhanced food security by sharing canning and food preservation skills in the church kitchen
* Georgia's Interfaith Power & Light, which has used federal stimulus funds to weatherize congregations, reduce utility bills and cut carbon emissions
* Earth Ministry, where people of faith spearheaded the movement to pass state legislation to make Washington State a coal-free state.
Sacred Acts shows that churches can play a critical role in confronting climate change - perhaps the greatest moral imperative of our time. This timely collection will inspire individuals and congregations to act in good faith to help protect Earth's climate.
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Who Stole My Religion? Revitalizing Judaism and Applying Jewish Values to Help Heal Our Imperiled Planet
By Richard Schwartz
Lulu Press, 2011
http://whostolemyreligion.com/
In the five decades since Richard Schwartz first became a religious Jew, he has watched the mainstream Jewish community shift more and more to the Right, often abandoning the very values that originally attracted him to Orthodox Judaism. In this soul-searching book, Schwartz examines the ways in which he believes his religion has been “stolen” by partisan politics, and offers practical suggestions for how to get Judaism back on track as a faith based on peace and compassion. Tackling such diverse issues as U.S. politics, Israeli peace issues, the misuse of the Holocaust, antisemitism, U.S. foreign policy, Islamophobia, socialism, vegetarianism, and the environmentalism, Schwartz goes where many Jews fear to go — and challenges us to re-think current issues in the light of positive Jewish values. (With photos, notes, action ideas, resource lists, and annotated bibliography. Also includes appendix materials with Rabbi Yonassan Gershom.) This book is available as a free eBook at: http://www.box.com/s/2508ypqz2l207nvsxbga
7. “Sustainable Energy: Politics and Technologies” (April Issue of Mother Pelican)
“Sustainable Energy: Politics and Technologies”
Mother Pelican
A Journal of Solidarity and Sustainability
April 2012 Issue
http://www.pelicanweb.org/solisustv08n04page1.html
There can be no question that political institutions are becoming increasingly dysfunctional, especially with regard to energy. Naive hopes for technological breakthroughs notwithstanding, the plain fact is that fossil fuels are both limited and ecologically oppressive. Furthermore, the energy return on energy invested for solar and other "clean" energy sources is relatively low and would not be able to sustain the insatiable demand for energy that has become prevalent in industrial societies. Since, for reasons that are not hard to imagine, current political institutions are utterly unable to resolve the issue, it is imperative to redesign them in order to attain the transition from consumerism to sustainability. This is precisely the subject of a recently published book, Plato's Revenge: Politics in the Age of Ecology, by William Ophuls. The book examines the root causes of the current political gridlock and proposes a "recycling" of Plato's political theory, based on natural law and recent advances in the human and physical sciences, in order to navigate impending situations of energy scarcity.
Outline:
Book Review of Plato's Revenge: Politics in the Age of Ecology, by Luis T. Gutiérrez
Global Sustainable Development Goals: The Unresolved Questions for Rio+20, by Mukul Sanwal
Seizing Sustainable Development, by Jacob Zuma and Tarja Halonen
Intergenerational Justice: How Reasonable Man Discounts Climate Damage, by Marc Davidson
The Fallacy of the Tragedy of the Commons, by Marq de Villiers
From Identity to Solidarity, by David Hollinger
The Masculinity Conspiracy - Part 7: Spirituality, by Joseph Gelfer
Machismo and Energy Planning: Time for Soft Energy Paths, by Hélène Connor
World Religions, the Earth Charter, and Sustainability, by Mary Evelyn Tucker
Supplements:
Advances in Sustainable Development
Directory of Sustainable Development Resources
Long-Term Strategies for Sustainable Energy
Short-Term Strategies for Sustainable Energy
Fostering Gender Equality in Society
Fostering Gender Equality in Religion
8. Calls for Papers
“Sharing the Wisdom, Shaping the Dream: Reclaiming Moral & Spiritual Roots of Economics & Capitalism”
Globalisation for the Common Good Initiative (GCGI)
10th Annual International Conference
Theology, Philosophy, Ethics, Spirituality and Economics: A Call to Dialogue
Oxford, UK
September 2-5, 2012
Deadline for abstracts: April 12, 2012
http://gcgi.info/news/141-gcgi-conference-call-for-presentations-oxford-2012
International Interdisciplinary Conference: Nature and Culture
North-Eastern Federal University, Yakutsk, Russia
June 13-15, 2012
Deadline for abstracts: April 16, 2012
http://s-vfu.ru/university/institutions/science/filos_osnovy_grazhd_cult/conferencii/page.php
Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Conference Expo
L.A. Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA
October 14-17, 2012
This conference will include a faith-based workshop.
Deadline for proposals: April 23, 2012
http://conf2012.aashe.org/
The International Association for Environmental Philosophy (IAEP) Meeting
At the annual meeting of the American Philosophical Association-Eastern Division
Marriott Atlanta Marquis, Atlanta, GA, USA
December 27-30, 2012
Deadline for abstracts: April 30, 2012
http://environmentalphilosophy.wordpress.com/2012-iaep-apa-call-for-papers/
“Sustainable Alternatives for Poverty Reduction and Ecological Justice”
International Conference for Justice and Sustainability
Orthodox Academy of Crete, Chania, Greece
September 27-30, 2012
Deadline for proposals: June 30, 2012
http://saprej2012.webs.com/
9. Holmes Rolston III Early Career Essay Prize in Environmental Philosophy
The International Society for Environmental Ethics (ISEE) and the Center for Environmental Philosophy invite submissions for its annual essay prize for scholars in the early stages of their career. The prize is named in honour of Professor Holmes Rolston III, for his pioneering work in the field of environmental philosophy. Papers are invited on all aspects of environmental philosophy or environmental affairs (with a strong theoretical component). A prize of $500 will be awarded to the winning essay. The winning essay will be published in the journal, Environmental Ethics.
Submissions are invited from scholars who already hold a PhD and have earned their doctorate no more than five years prior to the submission deadline.
-Word limit: 60,000 characters (including spaces), including notes and references. An abstract of 100-150 words should also be included.
Deadline for submissions: June 1, 2012
For more information, visit:
10. Bard Center for Environmental Policy Announces Two New Scholarships
Bard CEP is pleased to announce two new scholarships, the Rachel Carson Scholarship and the Wangari Maathai Scholarship, available to current and future CEP applicants. These two $20,000 scholarships are awarded to future leaders in sustainability. The deadline is May 15.
Rachel Carson Scholarship
U.S. students are eligible to apply for a merit scholarship as part of the Rachel Carson Scholars program. This new program will grant one $20,000 scholarship per year to a student who shows promise of a leadership career in environmental policy. Interested students should email a statement of no more than 500 words to (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on the following: Please define and explain leadership in the context of the sustainability challenges we face in the coming decades. Finalists will be reviewed based on this statement and their application materials, and will be interviewed by the selection committee. Applicants must be accepted to the Bard CEP masters program and have completed a FAFSA in order to qualify. Applications are due by May 15th. The scholarship recipient will be notified on June 1st.
Wangari Maathai Scholarship
Funding is available for one outstanding international student as part of the Wangari Maathai Scholars program. This new program will grant one $20,000 scholarship per year to a student who shows promise of a leadership career in environmental policy. Interested students should email a statement of no more than 500 words to (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on the following: Please define and explain leadership in the context of the sustainability challenges we face in the coming decades. Finalists will be reviewed based on this statement and their application materials, and will be interviewed by the selection committee. Applicants must be accepted to the Bard CEP masters program and have completed a international financial aid application, including a certificate of finances, in order to qualify. Applications are due by May 15th. The scholarship recipient will be notified on June 1st.
http://www.bard.edu/cep/news/release.php?id=2259
11. “The Inner Life of the Child in Nature: Presence and Practice” (Program for Educators)
The Center for Education, Imagination and the Natural World is accepting applications for “The Inner Life of the Child in Nature: Presence and Practice,” a two-year program designed to prepare educators to develop capacities to nurture the deep inner faculties of imagination and intuition in children and young adults, and to create contexts within which children and young adults are given the opportunity to develop a bond of intimacy with the natural world. The group may comprised of teachers, parents, child psychologists, guidance counselors, religious educators, child care providers, naturalists, college professors, and others who are entrusted with the care of children or young adults and who indicate a deep interest in developing capacities for nurturing a relationship between the inner life of the child/young adult and the natural world.
For a full description of this 2-year co-research program and a downloadable application, please visit: https://beholdnature.org/prog_inner_life.htm
12. “Food, Glorious Food: The Eucharist & Your Foodshed” (June 18-24, 2012 at Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, NM, USA)
“Food, Glorious Food” is part of a ten-year commitment on the part of Ghost Ranch to "Earth-Honoring Faith: A Song of Songs." The goal of the series is to construct justice-centered, Earth-Honoring, christianities that promote interfaith efforts on common earth issues.
Glorious food—sacrament, commodity, both or neither? If most of us do not produce our own food, what is our relationship to the food web and our foodshed? If being at table is a core sacrament for most religions, as it is for the Christian Eucharist, what is its relationship to the foodshed? Is there a Eucharistic vision of the natural world that intersects agribusiness? What does Eucharist mean if God is a gardener, we are tillers and keepers and the world is hungry? Norman Wirzba’s newest book, Food and Faith, will be the anchor book for the week.
For more information, visit:
http://www.ghostranch.org/courses-and-retreats/earth-honoring-faith
13. “Contemplative Environmental Studies: Pedagogy for Self and Planet” (July 1-7, 2012 at Lama Foundation, Questa, NM, USA)
Environmental challenges call into question not simply our technological, economic, and political capabilities, but also our fundamental understandings of who we are as a species, and how we fit into the more-than-human world. This Summer Institute aims to develop tools for teaching and researching environmental dilemmas with this broader sensibility in mind. It focuses on the interface between environmental challenges and contemplative practices with the understanding that the latter can provide access to inner resources for understanding and responding meaningfully to environmental issues. Through discussions with distinguished scholars, focused conversations among colleagues, artistic exercises, and regular contemplative practices (meditation, yoga, journaling, nature walks, etc.), participants will collectively deepen higher education’s orientation to Environmental Studies. Part workshop and part retreat, the Institute seeks to widen our own capabilities as university and college teachers committed to education on a fragile and wild planet.
The Institute will take place at the Lama Foundation in the mountains of northern New Mexico (http://lamafoundation.org). Lama is a beautiful, off-grid community committed to sustainable and mindful living. It sits on 100 acres surrounded by National Forest land and draws its power from the sun, water from a spring, and much of its food in the summer directly from the garden. At 8500 feet, Lama provides an ideal setting for reflection and engagement with contemplative environmental issues.
Faculty include David Abram, Nicole Salimbene, Paul Wapner, and Jeff Warren.
For more information, visit:
http://www.american.edu/sis/gep/Contemplative-Environmental-Studies-Workshop.cfm
14. Resources for Islam and Ecology
“Globalized Eco-Islam: A Survey of Global Islamic Environmentalism”
By A.M. Schwencke
Leiden Institute for Religious Studies (LIRS), Leiden University
February 2012
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“Green Islam in Indonesia”
Short videos sharing perspectives about Islam and ecology in Indonesia.
Made possible with support from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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“The Globalization of Eco Islam”
By Fachruddin M. Mangunjaya
“Islam dan Ekologi” Blog
March 2012
http://agamadanekologi.blogspot.com/2012/03/globalization-of-eco-islam.html
15. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme. For more information, visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo
For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental ethics/philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html. If you know of a publication that needs to be added to this list, email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/index.html
The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
6.3 (March 2012)
For more events, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/
7. The Ash Wednesday Declaration
Climate change and the purposes of God: a call to the Church
Operation Noah launched The Ash Wednesday Declaration on February 22, 2012 at the start of the Christian season of Lent. The Declaration, written by Operation Noah’s theology think tank, challenges the church to realise that care for God’s creation – and concern about climate change - is foundational to the Christian gospel and central to the church’s mission.
Operation Noah sees this Declaration as a call of considerable significance. It marks a definitive line for the church: if we are Christians these are key issues which we need to respond to – as individuals, as local churches and as a national Church.
To read, download, or sign the declaration, visit:
http://www.operationnoah.org/ash-wednesday-declaration
8. Calls for Papers
American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting
Chicago, IL, USA
November 17–20, 2012
Submission Deadline: March 13, 2012
Religion and Ecology Group is seeking papers or panels on several themes:
Ecological evil
Time — linear, cyclical, seasonal, mythic, no time
Ecological restoration and service learning
Rio + 20
Queer ecologies
Exploring, in a cosponsored session with the Religion and Disability Studies Group, intersections of environmental crisis and disability — the social/religious refiguring of disability in light of the Anthropocene, the relationship between environmental health, toxics, and disability, and critical race/class implications of how bodies are affected by environmental risk
http://www.rsnonline.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=939&Itemid=1093
Animals and Religion Group is seeking papers or panels on all topics that engage religion scholars with the emergent field of animal studies. The following submissions are especially encouraged:
The role of space and place in mediating relationships between animals and religion, cosponsored with the Space, Place, and Religious Meaning Group
Critical Buddhist perspectives on animals, cosponsored with the Buddhist Critical–Constructive Reflection Group
Contemplative studies and animals, cosponsored with the Contemplative Studies Group
Race and/or class and animals
Marti Kheel’s legacy for animals, religion, and ethics
Animals and nationalism
Animals as religious subjects
Ethical and/or religious investigations of slaughterhouses
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“The Ethical Challenge of Multidisciplinarity: Reconciling ‘The Three Narratives’—Art, Science, and Philosophy”
A Workshop at the 13th International Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas
University of Cyprus, Nicosia
July 2 – 6, 2012
Deadline for abstracts: March 15, 2012
http://issei2012.haifa.ac.il/
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“Environmentalism, Spatiality and the Public Sphere”
NIES Research Symposium VII
Oslo, Norway
September 27–30, 2012
Orthodox Academy of Crete
Chania, Greece
September 27-30, 2012
Deadline for proposals: June 30, 2012
http://saprej2012.webs.com/
“Religion and Rethinking the Human”
Journal for the Academic Study of Religion: Special Postgraduate Issue
Deadline for abstracts: July 1, 2012
Deadline for complete articles: December 1, 2012
http://philevents.org/event/show/1838
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Journal of Daoist StudiesDeadline for articles: September 30, 2012
To view the table of contents for Vol. 5 (2012), visit:http://threepinespress.com/?p=6
9. “The Intersection of Poverty and the Environment” (Webcast on April 21, 2012)
On April 21, the Episcopal Church will sponsor a forum on a critical topic: “The Intersection of Poverty and the Environment.” Originating from St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Salt Lake City, UT, the two-hour ecumenical forum will be live webcast beginning at 10 am Mountain (9 am Pacific, 11 Central, noon Eastern).
Moderated by Kim Lawton of PBS’s Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly, featured speaker at the forum will be Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who was an oceanographer prior to ordination and is well-versed in environmental matters.
Bonnie Anderson, author of Spirituality and the Earth: Exploring Connections and Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources, will be a key panel member along with experts in the fields of the environment and poverty, as well as ecumenical representatives.
The forum is ideal for group watching and discussion, or on demand viewing for Earth Day observations as well as Sunday School, discussions groups, community gatherings, and other get-togethers.
The event leads the way in implementing the recommendations of the Environment and Climate Change Committee of the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships to hold regional conferences on engaging faith and community groups in environmental stewardship.For more info contact: Neva Rae Fox, Public Affairs Officer, The Episcopal Church, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), 212-716-6080 Mobile: 917-478-5659
10. ExtinctionWitness.org Research Opportunity for Graduate Students
ExtinctionWitness.orgLeveraging human empathy and genius to allay the 6th Great Mass Extinction of species and cultures.
ExtinctionWitness.org is looking for two to three highly motivated graduate students to conduct research in one or more focus areas of a bold on-line community networking project (see project summary below). Students will have the opportunity to choose their focus area of choice (ex. Innovative Food Systems, Institutions, Architecture, Industry and Energy; Faith Communities; Education; Direct Action; Philanthropy; Cultural Survival). Students’ research will result in a comprehensive annotated bibliography for cutting-edge efforts in any given focus area. Research will begin mid-March and carry through April 2012. This is an opportunity to contribute to an on-line commons that will amass and profile the variety of activities required to address the present mass extinction of species and cultures. For more information, contact: Megan Elizabeth Drimal, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), 406.224.2560Project Summary: ExtinctionWitness.org is a web project that uses provocative short films, stunning images, and updated posts to ignite human empathy and catalyze innovative solutions. As a virtual commons, ExtinctionWitness.org profiles a broad range of human responses to the 6th great mass extinction. The website houses regularly updated posts and comment threads in a variety of focus areas, including Innovative Human Systems, Cultural Survival, Right to Life (for all in existence), Education (includes reform), Faith Communities, Ritual (includes celebration and species memorials), Creative Witness, Direct Action and Philanthropy. Intelligent, respectful debate serves as a foundation of the site to foster the cross-fertilization of ideas and support practical, radical (root) change in human thinking, processes, and systems. Archives of comment threads may also fuel qualitative research in psychology, sociology, and thanatology. Anticipated site launch is autumn 2012. To learn more, contribute, comment and share, please visit http://www.indiegogo.com/ExtinctionWitnessorg
The European Network for Political Ecology (ENTITLE) offers 11 generously-funded three-year PhD scholarships available to candidates from all over the world. ENTITLE is an EU-funded Initial Training Network whose aim is to promote European research and advanced training on the field of political ecology, including: the study of the commons; social metabolism and environmental conflicts; movements; disasters; ecological democracy; and environmental justice. Successful applicants will be hosted in one of the participating institutes of the network in Barcelona, Coimbra, Manchester, Lund, Berlin, Athens, Istanbul or Santiago de Chile. For information on eligibility criteria, conditions and application procedures, visit: http://www.politicalecology.eu/ or email for further information: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Deadline for applications: April 20, 2012.
12. “From Preaching to Investing: Attitudes of Religious Organisations towards Responsible Investment”
You can now freely access the academic paper “From Preaching to Investing: Attitudes of Religious Organisations towards Responsible Investment” published by the Journal of Business Ethics. The Journal is a high impact journal on the themes of Philosophy, Ethics, Economic Growth, Management and Quality of Life Research. It is the first time ever that the main academic journal on Business Ethics includes research on Religious Investing.
To read the abstract of the paper, visit: http://www.3ignet.org/documents/WebsiteJan2012JoBEpublication.pdfTo read the full article, visit: http://www.springerlink.com/content/24lw238v18291527/
3iG is continuing its partnership with ESADE Business School and Vlerick Leuven Gent School of Management. The current research relates to Religious Shareholder Engagement. Please contact us if you would like to participate in future research projects or if you have suggestions on the improvement of our work.Kindest regards,
Katinka C. van Cranenburgh
Secretary General 3iG
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
www.3ignet.org
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme. For more information, visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo
For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental ethics/philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html. If you know of a publication that needs to be added to this list, email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/index.html
The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
6.2 (February 2012)
Contents:
1. Editorial, by Elizabeth McAnally
2. “Summer Symposium: Religion and Environmental Stewardship” (June 5-7, 2012 at Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT, USA)
3. Flyways Celebration with Paul Winter Consort and the Great Rift Valley Orchestra (March 16-17, 2012 at St John the Divine, New York City, NY, USA)
4. Journey of the Universe Film Screenings
5. International Big History Association Newsletter
6. New Books
7. “Uses of the Bible in Environmental Ethics”
8. Silent Spring Essay Competition
9. Calls for Papers
10. Year of Jewish Learning on the Environment
11. “Transfiguration of Christ and Creation: A Ministry of Wholeness” (Retreat on May 4-6, 2012 at St Mary's Sewanee, TN, USA)
12. Events
13. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
1. Editorial, by Elizabeth McAnally
Greetings,
Welcome to the February issue of the newsletter for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. I have much to share with you this month with regards to developments in the field of Religion and Ecology, including publications, conferences, events, calls for papers, and more.
I am happy to let you know about a symposium taking place this summer at Yale Divinity School in New Haven, CT, USA. The symposium, “Religion and Environmental Stewardship,” will be held on June 5-7, 2012 and is sponsored by Yale Divinity School, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale. The symposium will focus on environmental education that brings together science, theology, and ethics. Students, ministers, and lay people are welcome to attend. For more information, see below or visit: http://summerstudy.yale.edu/environmental-symposium
We also want to inform you that we have now completed the Journey of the Universe Trilogy (film, book, and educational series of interviews). The book is available through Yale University Press, your local bookstore, and Amazon.com. The film and Educational Series are available through the website: www.journeyoftheuniverse.org We are also making copies for use overseas, as well as Blu-Ray which plays in high definition.
The DVD Educational Series was just finished in December and consists of 20 interviews. The first 10 are conversations with scientists and historians discussing the evolution of universe, Earth, life, and humans. The last 10 are discussions with environmentalists who are working on issues such as eco-cities, eco-economics, permaculture, energy, and arts and justice. We think these interviews will be very useful to complement the film and book. They will be excellent sources of discussion in your communities, churches, learning centers, and schools. You can see an overview of the series and short selections of each person interviewed online at:
www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/ed-series-previews
There is also a helpful set of Curricular Materials that accompany the Journey of the Universe project. Prepared by Matthew Riley, these Curricular Materials contain scientific summaries, discussion questions, and resources. They can be downloaded free of charge at: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/curriculum/
You may also know that the film was broadcast on PBS nationwide and was carried by 67% of the stations for their December pledge drive (with 520 showings). The PBS broadcast consists of the film and an interview with Mary Evelyn Tucker. It will continue to be broadcast over the next 2 years starting up again in March for pledge drives. It is wonderful to have this opportunity for the New Story to be available for an even wider audience. Inspired by the New Story described by Thomas Berry, the Journey of the Universe draws on the latest scientific knowledge to tell the story of cosmic and Earth evolution. It aims to inspire a new and closer relationship with Earth in a period of growing environmental and social crisis.
I hope this newsletter supports your own work and helps you further your own engagements with the field of Religion and Ecology.
Warm wishes,
Elizabeth McAnally
California Institute of Integral Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Website Manager & Newsletter Editor
http://www.yale.edu/religionandecology
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
2. “Summer Symposium: Religion and Environmental Stewardship” (June 5-7, 2012 at Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT, USA)
“Summer Symposium: Religion and Environmental Stewardship”
Environmental Education For Clergy, Lay Leaders, and Seminary Faculty
Bringing Together Science, Theology, and Ethics
Sponsored by:
Yale Divinity School
Berkeley Divinity School at Yale
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
June 5-7, 2012 at Yale Divinity School, 409 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT, USA
Cost for participants in the symposium will be $100. Students can attend for free.
The registration deadline is May 1.
To register please contact: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
http://summerstudy.yale.edu/environmental-symposium
3. Flyways Celebration with Paul Winter Consort and the Great Rift Valley Orchestra (March 16-17, 2012 at St John the Divine, New York City, NY, USA)
Flyways: A Celebration of the Great Bird Migration from Africa through the Middle East to Eurasia
Presented by Paul Winter Consort and the Great Rift Valley Orchestra
Friday, March 16, 8pm
Saturday, March 17, 8pm
St John the Divine, New York City, NY, USA
Each spring, more than half a billion birds of 350 species follow the Great Rift Valley along the length of the African continent from South Africa to Ethiopia, and continue across the Middle East to Turkey where they diverge to Europe and Asia. This flyway is one of the most important bird migration corridors in the world. Paul Winter first experienced the miracle of the migration some years ago when he flew in a glider across Israel with the migrating storks as they soared on the thermal currents coming up from the Rift Valley below. From that unforgettable adventure came the vision for this project: to create a musical chronicle of the birds' long journey using music from each of the cultures over which they fly and weaving the voices of the birds into the fabric of the music.
The music will be performed by a new international ensemble, the Great Rift Valley Orchestra, comprised of indigenous musicians from cultures along the flyway and including members of the Paul Winter Consort. The motto of the Flyways project is: “migrating birds know no borders.” Beneath this overarching aerial highway live millions of people of diverse races and cultures. The flyway embraces all of these cultures, and the project aims to harness the timeless languages of birds and music with the goal of bringing people together in common cause across borders.
http://www.stjohndivine.org/Flyways.html
4. Journey of the Universe Film Screenings
WomanWell
St. Paul, MN, USA
Seminar on Fridays: Jan. 27; Feb. 24; March 23; April 20, 2012
January 27 – April 20, 2012
Cultivating Connections
Louisville, KY, USA
Study Group meets the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays, February through May
February 14 – May 22, 2012
The Henry Carter Hull Library
Clinton, CT, USA
February 15, 2012
Florida International University
Miami, FL, USA
Discussion with John Grim
February 16, 2012
Orchard House Cafe
New York City, NY, USA
February 16, 2012
Western Kentucky University
Bowling Green, KY, USA
February 17, 2012
Carnegie Institution for Science
Washington, DC, USA
2012 Distinguished Lecture by Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker
February 23, 2012
Washington National Cathedral
Washington DC, USA
Film Screening & Lecture by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim
February 25, 2012
Friends Meeting at Cambridge
Cambridge, MA, USA
February 29, 2012
St. Andrews Episcopal Church
Madison, CT, USA
February 29, 2012
Essex Town Hall
Essex, CT, USA
March 1, 2012
Knox United Church
Calgary, AB, Canada
March 6, 2012
For more information about these and other upcoming screenings, visit:
http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/upcoming-events/
5. International Big History Association Newsletter
Volume II, Number 2
February 2012
To read this newsletter, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/files/International_Big_History_Association_Newsletter.pdf
This issue includes a section about the Journey of the Universe film.
For past newsletters, visit: http://www90.homepage.villanova.edu/lowell.gustafson/bighistory/newsletters.html
6. New Books
Religion in Environmental and Climate Change Suffering, Values, Lifestyles
Edited by Dieter Gerten and Sigurd Bergmann
Continuum, 2012
http://www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?BookId=159045&SearchType=Basic
Climate change and other global environmental changes deserve attention by the the humanities - they are caused mainly by human attitudes and activities and feed back to human societies. Focusing on religion allows for analysis of various human modes of perception, action and thought in relation to global environmental change. On the one hand, religious organizations are aiming to become "greener"; on the other hand, some religious ideas and practices display fatalism towards impacts of climate change.
What might be the fate of different religions in an ever-warming world? This book gathers recent research on functions of religion in climate change from theological, ethical, philosophical, anthropological, historical and earth system analytical perspectives. Charting the spread from regional case studies to global-scale syntheses, the authors demonstrate that world religions and indigenous belief systems are already responding in highly dynamic ways to ongoing and projected climate changes - in theory and practice, for better or for worse. The book establishes the research field "religion in climate change" and identifies avenues for future research across disciplines.
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The Christian Consumer: Living Faithfully in a Fragile World
By Laura M. Hartman
Oxford University Press, 2012
http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199746422.do
Be it fair trade coffee or foreign oil, our choices as consumers affect the well-being of humans around the globe, not to mention the natural world and of course ourselves. Consumption is a serious ethical issue, and Christian writers throughout history have weighed in, discussing topics such as affluence and poverty, greed and gluttony, and proper stewardship of resources. These voices are often at odds, however. In this book, Laura M. Hartman formulates a coherent Christian ethic of consumption, imposing order on the debate by dividing it into four imperatives: Christians are to consume in ways that avoid sin, embrace creation, love one's neighbor, and envision the future. An adequate ethics of consumption, she argues, must include all four considerations as tools for discernment, even when they seem to contradict one another. The book includes discussions of Christian practices such as fasting, gratitude, solidarity, gift-giving, Sabbath-keeping, and the Eucharist. Using exemplars from the Christian tradition and practical examples from everyday life, The Christian Consumer offers a thoughtful guide to ethical consumption.
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Making Good: Finding Meaning, Money & Community in a Changing World
By Billy Parish & Dev Aujla
Rodale/Penguin Books, 2012
http://makinggoodbook.com/order/product/preorder/
As we emerge from the recession, a generation is searching for practical answers about how to succeed and make positive change in the world. With real-life success stories and practical advice and exercises, Making Good outlines how to find opportunities to effect change and make money. These opportunities are not just for entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies: Making Good shows step-by-step how any person can achieve financial autonomy, capitalize on global changes to infrastructure, and learn from everyday success stories—providing the skills and insights this generation needs to succeed and build careers and lives of consequence.
7. “Uses of the Bible in Environmental Ethics”
A recently completed project at the University of Exeter, UK, has sought to develop the connections between biblical studies and ecotheology and ethics. “Uses of the Bible in Environmental Ethics” was sponsored by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council and involved a team covering biblical studies and ecotheology: David Horrell, Cherryl Hunt, Christopher Southgate, and Francesca Stavrakopoulou. Two visiting scholars, Ernst Conradie and Harry Maier, also played a significant role in the project, which sought both to appraise critically the kinds of appeal to biblical material made in ecotheological and environmental-ethical discussion and also to offer proposals in ecotheological hermeneutics. A wide range of scholars, from biblical studies and patristics through to systematic theologians and ethicisits, contributed to an edited volume entitled Ecological Hermeneutics (T&T Clark, 2010). Other major publications to appear from the project were published in 2010: Greening Paul (Horrell, Hunt, and Southgate, published by Baylor University Press); and The Bible and the Environment (Horrell, published by Equinox). Some of the key ecoethical ideas were also developed in Christopher Southgate’s The Groaning of Creation (Wesminster John Knox, 2008). For further information, visit:
http://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/theology/research/projects/uses/
8. Silent Spring Essay Competition
Rachel Carson’s seminal book Silent Spring launched the modern American environmental movements and also influenced similar movements all over the globe. In commemoration of the book’s fiftieth anniversary, the Rachel Carson Center is soliciting essays from junior and senior scholars that analyze the impact and reception of the book, as well as Carson’s legacy.
The award for the junior essay winner is $1000 and for the senior essay winner, $2000. In addition, the winning essays, as well as those receiving an honorable mention, will be published in the Center’s RCC Perspectives series.
The submission deadline is March 15, 2012.
For more information, visit:
http://www.carsoncenter.uni-muenchen.de/about_rcc/silentspring_essay/index.html
9. Calls for Papers
American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting
Chicago, IL, USA
November 17–20, 2012
Submission Deadline: Mid-March 2012
Religion and Ecology Group Call for Papers:
http://www.rsnonline.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=939&Itemid=1093
Animals and Religion Group Call for Papers:
http://www.rsnonline.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=867&Itemid=985
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International Association for Environmental Philosophy 16th Annual Meeting
The Hyatt Regency
Rochester, NY, USA
November 3-5, 2012
Deadline for proposals: March 15, 2012
This conference will follow the 51st Annual Meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP) in NY.
http://www.environmentalphilosophy.org/2012cfp.html
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"Saving the Future"
2012 Conference of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS)
Silver Bay Conference Center
Lake George, NY, USA
July 28 - August 3, 2012
Deadline for proposals for poster session: April 18, 2012
http://www.iras.org/posters.html
10. Year of Jewish Learning on the Environment
Canfei Nesharim and Jewcology have just launched a Year of Jewish Learning on the Environment. From food, energy and waste to consumerism, Sabbath and prayer, the materials cover eighteen topics where Jewish wisdom has an important message for today. This will be a significant contribution to the field of Jewish environmental learning.
These materials will be released approximately every 3 weeks between Tu b'Shevat 5772 and Tu b'Shevat 5773. All materials have been reviewed by rabbis and scientists.
Each of the 18 topics includes:
- a short article (800 words) with a brief overview of the topic for blogs and articles
- a long article (2000-2500 words) for in-depth study of the topic
- a study guide with Hebrew/English sources and discussion questions for chavruta study or group learning
- a 5 minute video
- a podcast
Jewcology and Canfei Nesharim are now inviting Jewish and interfaith organizations, websites, publications, and communities to join their Year of Jewish Learning on the Environment by becoming a Core Teachings Sponsor, sharing a minimum of six resources with your audience across the year. To learn more about being a Core Teachings Sponsor, and for a full schedule of topics and posting dates, please contact them at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
11. “Transfiguration of Christ and Creation: A Ministry of Wholeness” (Retreat on May 4-6, 2012 at St Mary's Sewanee, TN, USA)
What is the meaning of the story of Jesus’s transfiguration “on a high mountain”? Does it have any connection to our spiritual lives in the present day? Through this familiar biblical passage, retreat participants will reflect on the concept that Christ’s glorification is for the whole creation and, accordingly, that it has the its potential to re-energize environmental attitudes and policies. Through teaching, discussion, reflection, networking, resourcing, planning, and walking a “Canticle Trail” at the Organic Prayer Project (a program of the Center on Religion and Environment centered on a biodynamic farm at the Sisters of St. Mary Convent), this retreat is designed to provide theological insight, restful reflection and practical advice for those involved in environmental ministry in Christian churches and organizations. Come prepared to think, reflect, and engage with others.
For the retreat brochure, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/files/CRE_Transfiguration_Retreat_Brochure.pdf
12. Events
“Climate, Mind and Behavior 2012 Symposium”
3rd Annual Climate, Mind and Behavior Symposium
Garrison Institute, Garrison, NY, USA
February 15 - 17, 2012
http://www.garrisoninstitute.org/
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“Religions, Science and Technology in Cultural Contexts: Dynamics of Change”
International Association for the History of Religions Special Conference 2012
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Rica Nidelven Hotel, Trondheim, Norway
March 1-3, 2012
http://www.ntnu.no/iar/konferanser/relsci
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“Ground for Hope-Westchester: Mobilizing Interfaith Action for the Earth”
Spellman Hall, Iona College, Iona College, New Rochelle, NY, USA
March 11, 2012
http://www.iona.edu/academic/artsscience/orgs/isi/
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“Biodiversity Conservation and Animal Rights: Religious and Philosophical Perspectives”
14th Jaina Studies Workshop
Soas: University of London, United Kingdom
March 21-22, 2012
http://www.soas.ac.uk/biodiversity/
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“Making Peace with the Earth: A Spiritual Imperative, A Survival Necessity”
With Dr. Vandana Shiva
Lecture: James Memorial Chapel
Reception: The Social Hall
Union Theological Seminary, New York City, NY, USA
March 22, 2012
https://www.utsnyc.edu/sslpage.aspx?pid=2646
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“Strategies for a New Economy”
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA
June 8-10, 2012
http://neweconomicsinstitute.org/conference
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For more events, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/
13. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme. For more information, visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo
For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental ethics/philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html. If you know of a publication that needs to be added to this list, email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/index.html
The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
6.1 (January 2012)
Contents:
1. Editorial, by Elizabeth McAnally
2. Open Letter from the Union of BC Indian Chiefs Supporting the Save the Fraser Declaration and the Ban of Crude Oil Pipeline
3. The Blue River Declaration
4. Journey of the Universe Film Screenings
5. Jesus, Jazz, and Buddhism
6. New Books
7. Events
8. “Sharing the Wisdom, Shaping the Dream: Deep Transition” (Sisters of Earth Conference on July 12-15, 2012 in St. Mary-of-the-Woods, IN, USA)
9. “Creation, Humanity and Science in the Franciscan Intellectual Tradition” (Summer Course on July 29-Aug 12, 2012 at Santa Barbara, CA, USA)
10. Green Community Connections
11. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
1. Editorial, by Elizabeth McAnally
Greetings,
Welcome to the January issue of the newsletter for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. I have much to share with you this month with regards to developments in the field of Religion and Ecology, including publications, conferences, events, and more.
We wanted to let you know that we have now completed the JOURNEY TRILOGY -- film, book, and educational series of interviews. The book is available through Yale University Press or your local bookstore or Amazon. The film and Educational Series are available through the website: www.journeyoftheuniverse.org We are also making copies for use overseas, as well as Blu-Ray which plays in high definition.
The DVD Educational Series was just finished in December and consists of 20 interviews. The first 10 are conversations with scientists and historians discussing the evolution of universe, Earth, life, and humans. The last 10 are discussions with environmentalists who are working on issues such as eco-cities, eco-economics, permaculture, energy, and arts and justice.
We think these interviews will be very useful to complement the film and book. They will be excellent sources of discussion in your communities, churches, learning centers, and schools. You can see an overview of the series and short selections of each person interviewed online at: www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/ed-series-previews
There is also a helpful set of Curricular Materials that accompany the Journey of the Universe project. Prepared by Matthew Riley, these Curricular Materials contain scientific summaries, discussion questions, and resources. They can be downloaded free of charge at: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/curriculum/
You may also know that the film was broadcast on PBS nationwide and was carried by 67% of the stations for their December pledge drive (with 520 showings). The PBS broadcast consists of the film and an interview with Mary Evelyn. It will continue to be broadcast over the next 2 years starting up again in March for pledge drives. It is wonderful to have this opportunity for the New Story to be available for an even wider audience. You can check the Journey website for the latest showings.
Inspired by the New Story described by Thomas Berry, the Journey of the Universe draws on the latest scientific knowledge to tell the story of cosmic and Earth evolution. It aims to inspire a new and closer relationship with Earth in a period of growing environmental and social crisis.
I hope this newsletter supports your own work and helps you further your own engagements with the field of Religion and Ecology.
Warm wishes,
Elizabeth McAnally
California Institute of Integral Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Website Manager & Newsletter Editor
http://www.yale.edu/religionandecology
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
2. Open Letter from the Union of BC Indian Chiefs Supporting the Save the Fraser Declaration and the Ban of Crude Oil Pipeline
January 10, 2012
OPEN LETTER: The Union of BC Indian Chiefs fully supports the Save the Fraser Declaration, the Coastal First Nations Tanker Ban and the Indigenous laws banning Crude Oil Pipeline and Tanker Shipments through BC
Dear Premier Clark and Prime Minister Harper
We are writing with respect to Union of BC Indian Chiefs Resolution 2011-54, "Support for the Save the Fraser Declaration, the Coastal First Nations Tanker Ban and the Indigenous laws Banning Crude Oil Pipeline and Tanker Shipments through BC." which was presented, affirmed and endorsed by consensus at the UBCIC Chiefs Council on November 23rd, 2011.
The UBCIC Chiefs Council endorses the Coastal First Nations Tanker Ban and Save the Fraser Declaration that prohibit the transportation of crude oil by pipeline and tanker on the north and south coast and through the Fraser River watershed. As Indigenous Peoples, we continue to exercise our laws and jurisdiction to protect our lands, our waters, our coasts and our rivers, as we have done for thousands of years and both the Save the Fraser Declaration and the Coast First Nations Tanker Ban are grounded in our laws. Further, we draw your attention to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which states:
Article 32:
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies for the development or use of their lands or territories and other resources
2. States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the Indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources.
We urge your governments to reject the proposed Enbridge pipeline and Kinder-Morgan pipeline and to respect the laws and authority of BC First Nations and ultimately to protect the environment, fisheries and health and safety of all BC communities.
On behalf of the UNION OF BC INDIAN CHIEFS
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip
President
Chief Robert Chamberlin
Vice-President
Chief Marilyn Baptiste
Secretary-Treasurer
For the PDF copy of the letter, along with the Union of BC Indian Chiefs Resolution 2011-54 and Save the Fraser Declaration, visit:
http://www.ubcic.bc.ca/files/PDF/SavetheFraserTankerBan_2011_54.pdf
3. The Blue River Declaration
An Ethic of the Earth Creates a Concordance between Ecological and Ethical Principles
In the ancient forests along the Blue River in Oregon, the Spring Creek Project gathered a thinking community to give voice to an ethic that responds more powerfully to current environmental emergencies. The collaborative group of ecologists, philosophers, novelists, poets, theologians, and social scientists set out to write the principles of an ethic that not only acknowledges, but emulates, the ways by which life thrives on Earth.
Here is the challenge they set themselves: Human-centered moral systems, based on out-dated science that separates humans from the world and exempts them from its limits, have allowed humanity to ransack the Earth. But contemporary science describes an interdependent world in which humans are deeply of the Earth, kin to its other lives, and members of its communities of interdependent parts. If we truly understood that we live in complete dependence on an Earth that is interconnected, interdependent, finite, and resilient, could we imagine a better set of ideas about our moral responsibilities to one another, to the Earth, and to the future?
Together, they wrote “The Blue River Declaration: An Ethic of the Earth.” A 2000-word document, it aligns ethics with the ways of the Earth, addressing three perennial questions: What is the world? Who are we humans? How, then, shall we live?
The document can be found at: http://springcreek.oregonstate.edu/documents/BlueRiverDeclaratonNov2011.pdf
For more information or for printed copies of the Declaration, please contact Kathleen Dean Moore, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
4. Journey of the Universe Film Screenings
Wild & Scenic Film Festival
Nevada City, CA
January 14-15, 2012
Cultivating Connections
Louisville, KY
January 14, 2012
Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago
Skokie, IL
January 15, 2012
Sophia’s Portico, Inc.
Fort Wayne, IN
January 17, 2012
Cultivating Connections
Louisville, KY
January 20, 2012
Jewish Community Center
Woodbridge, CT
Discussion with Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim.
Benefit for the Massaro Community Farm in Woodbridge.
January 22, 2012
Cultivating Connections
Louisville, KY
January 24, 2012
Athens Public Library
Athens, OH
January 26, 2012
The Theater at Colorado Heights University
Denver, CO
January 27, 2012
The Well
LaGrange Park, IL
January 31, 2012
Princeton Environmental Film Festival
Princeton, NJ
Discussion with Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, along with Lars Hedin from the Princeton Environmental Institute.
February 4, 2012
Blackstone Memorial Library
Branford, CT
February 5, 2012
For more information about these and other upcoming screenings, visit:
http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/upcoming-events/
5. Jesus, Jazz, and Buddhism
A new online international magazine edited Jay McDaniel can be found at: http://www.jesusjazzbuddhism.org/index.html
The magazine encourages East-West dialog and a creative exchange of ideas concerning food, music, art, religion, philosophy, culture, education, and science. Influenced by ecological and multicultural points of view, articles are published in English, Chinese, and Korean.
Some recent articles related to Religion and Ecology include:
“Ten Ideas for Saving the Planet: An Overview”
By John B. Cobb, Jr.
http://www.jesusjazzbuddhism.org/ten-ideas-for-saving-the-planet.html
“Gratitude, Connectedness, and Awe: The Spiritual Side of Sustainability”
By Jay McDaniel
http://www.jesusjazzbuddhism.org/gratitude-connectedness-and-awe.html
“Small But Included in the Milky Way”
By Jay McDaniel
http://www.jesusjazzbuddhism.org/the-milky-way.html
6. New Books
Saving Nature: Religion as Environmentalism, Environmentalism as Religion
By Tarjei Rønnow
Studies in Religion and the Environment/Studien zur Religion und Umwelt
Lit Verlag, 2011
http://www.lit-verlag.de/isbn/3-643-11052-7
Environmentalism has moved into the centre of the most influential social movements in late modernity. From preserving pre-industrial landscapes, advocating the intrinsic value of nature and protecting ecosystems against overexploitation, it has developed into a worldview, ethos and practice, that is radically shifting the frontiers of politics, economics and ethics.
Saving Nature approaches environmentalism as a belief system. It explores the impact of environmentalism on faith communities and vice versa, and analyses how environmental worldviews, values, attitudes and discourses affect religion. By drawing on sources in the sociology of religion and environmental sociology, the study sheds light on the religious dimensions of environmentalism. The author locates the quick growth of environmentalism in the history of allegedly secular modernity, and interprets environmentalism in the context of modernity’s re-sacralization.
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Growing Stories from India: Religion and the Fate of Agriculture
By A. Whitney Sanford
Foreword by Vandana Shiva
University Press of Kentucky, 2011
http://www.kentuckypress.com/live/title_detail.php?titleid=2634
In Growing Stories from India: Religion and the Fate of Agriculture, A. Whitney Sanford uses the story of the deity Balaram and the Yamuna River as a foundation for discussing the global food crisis and illustrating the Hindu origins of agrarian thought. By employing narrative as a means of assessing modern agriculture, Sanford encourages us to reconsider our relationship with the earth. Merely creating new stories is not enough—she asserts that each story must lead to changed practices. This book demonstrates that conventional agribusiness is only one of many options and engages the work of modern agrarian luminaries to explore how alternative agricultural methods can be implemented.
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In Praise of Mother Earth: The Pṛthivī Sūkta of the Atharva Veda
Translated and interpreted by O.P Dwivedi and Christopher Key Chapple
Marymount Institute Press, 2011
http://www.tsehaipublishers.com/index.php/about-us/who-we-are-2/marymount-institute-press/126-in-praise-of-mother-earth-the-pthivi-sukta-of-the-atharva-veda
In Praise of Mother Earth is a new translation of the Earth Verses (Pṛthivī Sūkta) of the Atharva Veda, the youngest of the India’s four Vedas. The Pṛthivī Sūkta of the Atharva Veda is a collection of beautiful hymns in praise of medicinal plants, inter-human relationships, and Mother Earth. The book includes the original Vedic verses in Devanagari script, in Romanization, and in English translation. Stunning photographs from around the world are included with each of the 63 verses of the Pṛthivī Sūkta to enhance the experience of reading these verses. This new compilation and translation is intended to help cultivate within the reader a reverence for nature that will inspire protection and healing of the planet.
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God in an Open Universe: Science, Metaphysics, and Open Theism
Edited by William Hasker, Thomas Jay Oord, Dean Zimmerman
Pickwick Publications, 2011
https://wipfandstock.com/store/God_in_an_Open_Universe_Science_Metaphysics_and_Open_Theism
Since its inception, the discussion surrounding Open Theism has been dominated by polemics. On crucial philosophical issues, Openness proponents have largely been devoted to explicating the underlying framework and logical arguments supporting their perspective against competing theological and philosophical perspectives. As a result, very little constructive work has been done on the interconnections between Open Theism and the natural sciences.
God in an Open Universe demonstrates that Open Theism makes a distinctive and highly fruitful contribution to the conversation and constructive work occurring between philosophy, theology, and the sciences. The various essays explore subjects ranging from physics to prayer, from special relativity to divine providence, from metaphysics to evolution, and from space-time to God. All who work at the intersection of theology and the sciences will benefit greatly from these essays that break new ground in this important conversation.
7. Events
“Environment and Security”
12th National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment
Washington, D.C., USA
January 18-20, 2012
http://www.environmentandsecurity.org/
“The Powers of the Universe”
Screening and Discussion of Brian Swimme’s DVD Series
Knox United Church
Calgary, AB, Canada
Five Tuesday evenings, 7:00-9:00PM
January 31, February 7, 14, 21, and 28, 2012
http://fore.research.yale.edu/files/Knox_United_Church_flyer.pdf
“Climate, Mind and Behavior 2012 Symposium”
3rd Annual Climate, Mind and Behavior Symposium
Garrison Institute
Garrison, NY, USA
February 15 - 17, 2012
http://www.garrisoninstitute.org/
Paul Winter’s Premiere of the Flyways Music
St John the Divine
New York City, NY, USA
March 16-17, 2012
http://paulwinter.com
“Making Peace with the Earth: A Spiritual Imperative, A Survival Necessity”
With Dr. Vandana Shiva
Lecture: James Memorial Chapel
Reception: The Social Hall
Union Theological Seminary
New York City, NY, USA
March 22, 2012
https://www.utsnyc.edu/sslpage.aspx?pid=2646
For more events, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/
8. “Sharing the Wisdom, Shaping the Dream: Deep Transition” (Sisters of Earth Conference on July 12-15, 2012 in St. Mary-of-the-Woods, IN, USA)
Aware of the increasingly critical times we face – and with continuity to our 2010 Sisters of Earth Conference – we will explore 'landscapes' of the Outer Transition Movement (e.g. food sovereignty, the localisation movement, 'gardens of hope') in balance with the deep, transformative Inner Transition that requires equal attention. Our conference intends a holistic experience connecting ‘soil’ and ‘body’ and ‘spirit.’ Gathering at a beautiful and inspiring mid-western location there is also opportunity to learn from a land-based model. Enjoy creative opportunities to network with attending Sisters of Earth, as primary agenda for our time together.
For the registration form, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/files/2012_SISTERS_OF_EARTH_CONFERENCE.pdf
For more about Sisters of Earth, visit: www.sistersofearth.net
9. “Creation, Humanity and Science in the Franciscan Intellectual Tradition” (Summer Course on July 29-Aug 12, 2012 at Santa Barbara, CA, USA)
Three leading Franciscan scholars will address environmental concerns from in a two week summer course title “Creation, Humanity and Science in the Franciscan Intellectual Tradition,” July 29-Aug 12, 2012, at Old Mission Santa Barbara. Br. Bill Short OFM is the Dean of the Franciscan School of Theology, and one of the top scholars in the Franciscan world. Sr. Mary Beth Ingham CSJ is internationally recognized for her pioneering work in the theology and philosophy of Bl. John Duns Scotus. Br. Keith Douglass Warner OFM has written extensively about Franciscan environmental ethics. If you want to learn what the Franciscan tradition can contribute to environmental justice, this will be an ideal two week professional development experience.
For the brochure, visit: http://webpages.scu.edu/ftp/kwarner/Fran-CHSnov9.pdf
10. Green Community Connections
Green Community Connections (http://greencommunityconnections.org/) is an emerging electronic gathering place for stimulating conversations, useful resources, neighbors helping each other, all working to build a resilient, environmentally sustainable community. Green Community Connections is a volunteer effort by members of The Power of 10, Oak Park Energy Initiative, Openlands, Green Blocks, the Active Transportation Alliance, the Interfaith Green Network, and other volunteers.
Green Community Connections will be what we make it together. Please sign up now to stay informed and be involved! Sign up for the e-newsletter at: http://greencommunityconnections.org/e-news-signup
The January issue of the Green Community Connections e-newsletter featured these articles:
“Making a Difference with Low Cost Green Actions at Oak Park Temple”
By Melanie Weiss
http://greencommunityconnections.org/greening-oak-park-temple
“Euclid Ave United Methodist Church Digs Deep to Install Geothermal”
By Frank Fletcher
http://greencommunityconnections.org/euclid-ave-church-goes-geothermal
“Community Gardening at Ascension”
By John Owens
http://greencommunityconnections.org/green-gardening-at-ascension
“Multifaceted Approach at Unity Temple”
By Anne White
http://greencommunityconnections.org/sustainability-at-unity-temple
11. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme. For more information, visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo
For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental ethics/philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html. If you know of a publication that needs to be added to this list, email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/index.html
The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
5.12 (December 2011)
Contents:
1. Editorial, by Elizabeth McAnally
2. Canadian Interfaith Call for Leadership and Action on Climate Change
3. Statement of Our Nation’s Moral Obligation to Address Climate Change
4. New Books
5. Events
6. Paul Winter’s Solstice Celebration (December 15-17, 2011 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NY, USA)
7. “Food, Glorious Food: The Eucharist & Your Foodshed” (June 18-24, 2012 at Ghost Ranch, NM, USA)
8. “Contemplative Environmental Studies: Pedagogy for Self and Planet” (July 1-7, 2012 at Lama Foundation, NM, USA)
9. Calls for Papers
10. Job Announcement: Genesis Farm Director
11. Water Ethics Network
12. Earth Story Calendar
13. Swedish Poet Tomas Tranströmer Wins the Nobel Prize in Literature
14. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
1. Editorial, by Elizabeth McAnally
Greetings,
Welcome to the December issue of the newsletter for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. I have much to share with you this month with regards to developments in the field of Religion and Ecology, including publications, conferences, events, calls for papers, and more.
The PBS national broadcast premiere of the Journey of the Universe film is happening throughout December. Over 430 stations nationwide are broadcasting the film. WNET Channel 13 in New York City will broadcast the film primetime in place of NOVA on December 7 at 8pm. Los Angeles, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Houston, and others will be airing it primetime as well. For the most up-to-date schedule of broadcasts, please check your local listings or visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/pbs/
I am pleased to let you know about the release of the twenty-part Journey of the Universe Educational Series for use in classrooms, community centers, or religious institutions. This consists of interviews with scientists, humanists, and environmentalists. For more information, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/ed-series/ Inspired by the New Story described by Thomas Berry, the Journey of the Universe draws on the latest scientific knowledge to tell the story of cosmic and Earth evolution. It aims to inspire a new and closer relationship with Earth in a period of growing environmental and social crisis. You can purchase the Journey of the Universe film, book, and educational series at: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/buy/
There is also a helpful set of Curricular Materials that accompany the Journey of the Universe project. Prepared by Matthew Riley, these Curricular Materials contain scientific summaries, discussion questions, and resources. They can be downloaded free of charge at: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/curriculum/
I want to share news about two important statements on climate change. The first is the Canadian Interfaith Call for Leadership and Action on Climate Change. This statement was written by thirty faith communities of Canada in advance of COP 17, the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Durban, South Africa on November 28 through December 9, 2011. The second is the Statement of Our Nation’s Moral Obligation to Address Climate Change written by the National Climate Ethics Campaign. Please see below to read these two statements.
Finally, I would like to let you know that Miriam MacGillis will be stepping down from her role as founder/director of Genesis Farm in May 2013. We would like to share our deep gratitude for Miriam and all of her wonderful work. You can find the job announcement below for a full-time position of Director of Genesis Farm, an ecoliteracy center in Blairstown, New Jersey that is inspired by the universe story. For more about Genesis Farm, visit: http://www.genesisfarm.org/
I hope this newsletter supports your own work and helps you further your own engagements with the field of Religion and Ecology.
Warm wishes,
Elizabeth McAnally
California Institute of Integral Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Website Manager & Newsletter Editor
http://www.yale.edu/religionandecology
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
2. Canadian Interfaith Call for Leadership and Action on Climate Change
At an historic meeting in Ottawa on October 23-24, some 30 faith communities of Canada met on Parliament Hill and discussed the urgent need for ecological justice, especially with regards to the climate change crisis. CPJ helped organize these meetings and the CPJ Board chair, Mark Huyser-Wierenga of Edmonton, is a signatory. This “Canadian Interfaith Call for Leadership and Action on Climate Change” was developed in advance of the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held in Durban, South Africa, November 28 to December 9, 2011.
To read this statement, visit:
http://interfaithpowerandlight.org/2011/10/canadian-interfaith-call-for-leadership-on-climate/
3. Statement of Our Nation’s Moral Obligation to Address Climate Change
The National Climate Ethics Campaign steering committee has written a “Statement of our Nation's Moral Responsibility to Address Climate Change.” Because climate change affects everyone, we are now seeking signatures of endorsement on the statement from Republicans and Democrats as well as conservatives, moderates, liberals and all other leaders from the public, private, academic, and non-profit sectors nationwide. It was released to President Obama, Congress, each governor, key leaders within the private sector, and the media in Fall 2011. Following the release of the statement, the campaign will assist organizations, sectors and communities nationwide to continually insist that when making decisions about energy use, emission reductions, or climate preparedness and adaptation our moral obligations must hold equal or greater weight to economic or national self-interest.
To read this statement, visit:
http://climateethicscampaign.org/statement/
4. New Books
Animals and World Religions
By Lisa Kemmerer
Oxford University Press, 2011
http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/ReligionTheology/PhilosophyofReligion/?view=usa&ci=9780199790685
In this comprehensive examination, Lisa Kemmerer explores animal-friendly teachings in the world’s indigenous and dominant religious traditions, including the religions of India (Vedic/Hindu, Buddhist/Jain), China (Daoism and Confucianism), and the Middle East (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Kemmerer writes with a keen eye to contemporary relevance, practical application, and moral hot-spots (such as our relations with environment and dietary choice). Standing at the intersection of religion, ethics, and animal advocacy, Animals and World Religions demonstrates that rethinking how we treat nonhuman animals is essential for anyone claiming one of the world's great religions. Lisa Kemmerer has six books available: http://www.amazon.com/Lisa-Kemmerer/e/B001JOKT0M
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Theology on the Menu: Asceticism, Meat and Christian Diet
by David Grumett and Rachel Muers
Routledge, 2010
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415496834/
Food—what we eat, how much we eat, how it is produced and prepared, and its cultural and ecological significance—is an increasingly significant topic not only for scholars but for all of us. Theology on the Menu is the first systematic and historical assessment of Christian attitudes to food and its role in shaping Christian identity. David Grumett and Rachel Muers unfold a fascinating history of feasting and fasting, food regulations and resistance to regulation, the symbolism attached to particular foods, the relationship between diet and doctrine, and how food has shaped inter-religious encounters. Everyone interested in Christian approaches to food and diet or seeking to understand how theology can engage fruitfully with everyday life, including pressing ecological issues, will find this book a stimulus and an inspiration.
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Educational Reforms for the 21st Century: How to Introduce Ecologically Sustainable Reforms in Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies
By C. A. Bowers
Eco-Justice Press, 2011
www.ecojusticepress.com
This book introduces three of the most critical areas that affect teacher decision-making in the classroom and community in light of sustainability-oriented educational reforms: (1) Introducing the pedagogical strategies for addressing the linguistic colonization of the present by the past that should be at the core of the teacher’s professional knowledge; (2) How the teacher’s role as a cultural mediator helps students to understand the differences between the traditions of self-sufficiency and mutual support systems within the local cultural commons and the economic and technological forces that create new dependencies; (3) How the increased reliance upon computer-mediated learning and communication reinforces abstract thinking that undermines both the intergenerational renewal of the cultural commons and the development of ecological intelligence that takes account of local contexts, tacit understandings, and the patterns of interdependent relationships that cannot be digitized.
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Only the Sacred: Transforming Education in the Twenty-first Century
Edited by Peggy Whalen-Levitt
Center for Education, Imagination and the Natural World, 2011
https://beholdnature.org/publications.htm
In Only the Sacred: Transforming Education in the Twenty-first Century, we are introduced to a sacred universe that is intimately connected to the consciousness of the human being. Those of us who see ourselves as educators now have to reckon with a question that can no longer be ignored: Can we, in good conscience, continue to educate our children from within the materialist worldview or are we now being asked, really required, to allow the new life of a more profound world to penetrate the consciousness of our schooling? In this remarkable collection of articles inspired by the mentoring of Thomas Berry, we journey with twenty-three educators through an exploration of fundamental questions of our time, a path of inner schooling for educators, and practices where we see this new understanding of a sacred universe actualized in diverse educational settings.
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Singing the Sacred: A Collection of Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs
By William L. Wallace
World Library Publications, 2011
http://www.wlp.jspaluch.com/11263.htm
A new collection of 36 original songs by William L. Wallace of New Zealand that have never before been published. Known for his work in interfaith activities, his songs featured in this collection bridge the gap between traditional Christianity and a scientific view of humans and the universe. Many are set to original, easily sung tunes while others carry a familiar melody. Great for Sunday liturgies, retreat groups, and personal meditation on spirituality and mysticism. A collection to enlighten and challenge all musicians!
5. Events
"Love Letter to the Milky Way: A Celebration"
A book release party and conversation with author, poet, teacher and activist Drew Dellinger
Lakeside Theatre at the Kaiser Center, Oakland, CA, USA
December 9, 2011
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=109692205808731
http://lovelettercelebration.eventbrite.com/
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“Environmental Justice: A Human Rights Issue”
An Interfaith Educational Event
Islamic Society of Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA
December 11, 2011
http://islamicenvironmentalgroup.org/events/
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Eighth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
January 10-12, 2012
http://www.SustainabilityConference.com
6. Paul Winter’s Solstice Celebration (December 15-17, 2011 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NY, USA)
Winter Solstice Celebration with A Holiday Celebration on a Spectacular Scale
Music, dance and renewal of spirit at the great turning point of the year.
For more than three decades, Paul Winter’s Solstice Celebration at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine—the world’s largest cathedral—has been one of New York’s favorite holiday alternative to The Nutcracker and Radio City Christmas.
For the 32nd annual performance, the seven-time Grammy® winning Paul Winter Consort will be joined this year by special guests: Gospel singer Theresa Thomason, African mbira master Chris Berry, and the dynamic dancers and drummers of Forces of Nature Dance Theatre, who will celebrate their 30th anniversary with two new compositions.
Four performance are given at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Amsterdam Ave. at 112th St., Manhattan. Dec. 15 and 16 at 8 p.m., Dec. 17 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $35-$80, 866-811-4111, www.solsticeconcert.com
7. “Food, Glorious Food: The Eucharist & Your Foodshed” (June 18-24, 2012 at Ghost Ranch, NM, USA)
"Food, Glorious Food" is part of a ten-year commitment on the part of Ghost Ranch to "Earth-Honoring Faith: A Song of Songs." The goal of the series is to construct justice-centered, Earth-Honoring, christianities that promote interfaith efforts on common earth issues.
Glorious food—sacrament, commodity, both or neither? If most of us do not produce our own food, what is our relationship to the food web and our foodshed? If being at table is a core sacrament for most religions, as it is for the Christian Eucharist, what is its relationship to the foodshed? Is there a Eucharistic vision of the natural world that intersects agribusiness? What does Eucharist mean if God is a gardener, we are tillers and keepers and the world is hungry? Norman Wirzba’s newest book, Food and Faith, will be the anchor book for the week.
Faculty include Norman Wirzba, Melanie Harris, Janet Walton, Larry Rasmussen, Troy Messenger, and Jay Harris.
For more information, visit:
http://www.ghostranch.org/courses-and-retreats/earth-honoring-faith
8. “Contemplative Environmental Studies: Pedagogy for Self and Planet” (July 1-7, 2012 at Lama Foundation, NM, USA)
Environmental challenges call into question not simply our technological, economic, and political capabilities, but also our fundamental understandings of who we are as a species, and how we fit into the more-than-human world. This Summer Institute aims to develop tools for teaching and researching environmental dilemmas with this broader sensibility in mind. It focuses on the interface between environmental challenges and contemplative practices with the understanding that the latter can provide access to inner resources for understanding and responding meaningfully to environmental issues. Through discussions with distinguished scholars, focused conversations among colleagues, artistic exercises, and regular contemplative practices (meditation, yoga, journaling, nature walks, etc.), participants will collectively deepen higher education’s orientation to Environmental Studies. Part workshop and part retreat, the Institute seeks to widen our own capabilities as university and college teachers committed to education on a fragile and wild planet.
The Institute will take place at the Lama Foundation in the mountains of northern New Mexico (http://lamafoundation.org). Lama is a beautiful, off-grid community committed to sustainable and mindful living. It sits on 100 acres surrounded by National Forest land and draws its power from the sun, water from a spring, and much of its food in the summer directly from the garden. At 8500 feet, Lama provides an ideal setting for reflection and engagement with contemplative environmental issues.
Faculty include David Abram, Nicole Salimbene, Paul Wapner, and Jeff Warren.
For more information, visit:
http://www.american.edu/sis/gep/Contemplative-Environmental-Studies-Workshop.cfm
9. Calls for Papers
“Nature and the Popular Imagination”
5th Conference of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture (ISSRNC)
Pepperdine University
Malibu, CA, USA
August 8-11, 2012
The deadline for proposals is April 1, 2012.
http://www.religionandnature.com/society/conferences.htm#malibu
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“The Ethical Challenge of Multidisciplinarity: Reconciling ‘The Three Narratives’—Art, Science, and Philosophy”
13th International Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas (ISSEI)
University of Cyprus - Main Campus
Kallipoleos Avenue 75
Nicosia 2100 Cyprus
July 2-6, 2012
The deadline for submitting abstracts is April 15, 2012.
http://issei2012.haifa.ac.il/
10. Job Announcement: Genesis Farm Director
Genesis Farm, an ecological learning center in northwestern New Jersey, is receiving applications for the full-time position of Director.
Genesis Farm is sponsored by the Sisters of St. Dominic of Caldwell, NJ who founded it in 1980 to welcome all people of good will to search for more authentic ways to live in harmony with the natural world and with each other.
This position requires a person of vision and perseverance, grounded in the knowledge and ecological implications of the evolutionary story of the Universe, a deep respect for the diverse religions and cultures of the human community, and a strong sense of place within this bioregion. This position would also assume a commitment to personal and organizational simplicity and frugality of means.
Responsibilities include:
* The fostering of the mission of Genesis Farm
* Overall responsibility for 231 acres of land and its infrastructures as well as for the farm’s programs, resources and outreach
* The development and implementation of staff participation in the mission of the farm as well as the policies, systems and procedures to fulfill it.
Review of applications will begin on December 15, 2011 and continue until the position is filled. A complete application consists of a letter of intent, curricula vitae and three references. Please send application to Elsie Bernauer, OP, Sisters of St. Dominic, 1 Ryerson Avenue, Caldwell, NJ, 07006 or email to (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). For a complete description, e-mail (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
11. Water Ethics Network
The Water Ethics Network was launched in August by the Water-Culture Institute, to link people who are working on water ethics in some way. The purpose is to promote exploration into the values dimensions of water behaviors and policies. The November Water Ethics Newsletter is posted at www.waterethicsnetwork.blogspot.com. Past newsletters, as well as links to the Network's presence on Linked-in, Twitter, and Facebook, and other resources, are on the new Water Ethics website, http://waterethics.org
12. Earth Story Calendar
The scientific account of Earth’s formation and development is a story of vibrant creativity and stunning transformation. The journey begins within the fiery core of a star, and gives rise to the emergence of a species able to comprehend its origin. We have learned that the unfolding of the human is interwoven with the unfolding of the planet. This is the theme of Earth Story Calendar.
This beautiful calendar is the inspiration of Peter Adair, with graphic design by Julia Jandrisits. This calendar was entirely conceived, written, designed and printed in Vermont. Twelve stunning images illustrate Adair’s evocative prose, as the story unfolds one month at a time. 12” x 12” glossy format opening to 12” x 24”.
For more information, visit:
http://www.earthstorycalendar.com/
13. Swedish Poet Tomas Tranströmer Wins the Nobel Prize in Literature
Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer was recently rewarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in Stockholm. Tranströmer, long a favorite to win the prize, is well known poets and readers around the world. He is most translated living poet today with his poetry in more than 60 languages.
Tomas has described his poetry as a meeting-place where aspects of life not ordinarily joined come together. What first appears to be a conflict turns out to be a connection. It is a compelling poetry for our time. Deeply rooted in nature, with a clarity of concision and concreteness, and a persistent spiritual journey, his poems invite you in to this meeting-place of new glimpses into histories and mysteries that reveal boundless fields of experience.
To read the New York Times article “Swedish Poet Wins Nobel Prize for Literature,” visit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/arts/swedish-poet-wins-nobel-prize-for-literature.html
To read more about Tranströmer's life and view a list of his books, visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomas_Transtr%C3%B6mer
14. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme. For more information, visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo
For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental ethics/philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html. If you know of a publication that needs to be added to this list, email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/index.html
The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
5.11 (November 2011)
Contents:
1. Editorial, by Elizabeth McAnally
2. Events
3. Interfaith Petition for Climate Justice at COP 17
4. New Website: Forum on Religion & Ecology @ Monash University (Melbourne, Australia)
5. New Books
6. “Religion and Environment” Review by Willis Jenkins and Christopher Key Chapple
7. New Classroom Edition DVD & Study Guide: Shugendo Now
8. Calls for Papers
9. “Renewing the Face of the Earth: Lenten Reflections on Air”
10. Community Solar Day: Occupy Rooftops (Nov. 20)
11. Christianity and Ecology Statements
12. Message of Solidarity for Small-Scale Farmers
13. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
1. Editorial, by Elizabeth McAnally
Greetings,
Welcome to the November issue of the newsletter for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. I have much to share with you this month with regards to developments in the field of Religion and Ecology, including film screenings, conferences, events, calls for papers, publications, and more.
This month I am pleased to announce the release of a twenty-part Journey of the Universe Educational Series for use in classrooms, community centers, or religious institutions. This consists of interviews with scientists, humanists, and environmentalists. For the press release, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/storage/JOTU_edu_release_10.13.11.pdf
There will be a PBS national broadcast premiere of the film this December. For listings nationwide, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/upcoming-events/ WNET Channel 13 in New York City will broadcast the film primetime on December 7 at 8pm. For the press release, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/storage/JOTU_PBS_Broadcast_PR.pdf
Both the Journey of the Universe film and book have both been released and are available to purchase at: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/buy/
Inspired by the New Story described by Thomas Berry, the Journey of the Universe draws on the latest scientific knowledge to tell the story of cosmic and Earth evolution. It aims to inspire a new and closer relationship with Earth in a period of growing environmental and social crisis.
Please join us for a free screening of the Journey of the Universe film in San Francisco on Friday, November 18, before the start of the annual meetings of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL). The screening will be held at 7:30pm at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, 55 Fourth Street (Room: Marriott Marquis Golden Gate A). There will be discussion afterwards with Brian Thomas Swimme, Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, and Heather Eaton.
During the meetings of the AAR and SBL, many events will take place that relate to ecological and animal issues. To view a list of these events, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/item/american-academy-of-religion-annual-meeting2/ Many thanks to Laurel Kearns and Elizabeth Freese for compiling this list!
I am also happy to inform you about a recent publication on “Religion and Environment” by Willis Jenkins and Christopher Key Chapple. This is an important review of recent literature in religion and ecology. Please see below for more information.
Finally, I would like to let you know that a memorial service for Wangari Maathai will be held on Monday, November 14 at 4:30pm at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, NY. All are invited to attend, and donations can be made to the Green Belt Movement. As founder of the Greenbelt Movement and as an Earth Charter Commissioner, Wangari worked closely with thousands of people around the planet to create a world based on ecological integrity, social and economic justice, democracy, non-violence, and peace. Her vision, dedication, and courage were recognized when she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. She taught and lectured at many universities around the world, including the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale. Wangari participated in several of our Forum conferences on World Religions and Ecology. She spoke eloquently at Thomas Berry's memorial service in 2009 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, and she delivered an inspiring video message in 2005 at the UN at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Teilhard's death.
I hope this newsletter supports your own work and helps you further your own engagements with the field of Religion and Ecology.
Warm wishes,
Elizabeth McAnally
California Institute of Integral Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Website Manager & Newsletter Editor
http://www.yale.edu/religionandecology
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
2. Events
“A Conversation on The Great Work”
An evening with Doug Demeo
Romita Auditorium of Ryan Library, Iona College, New Rochelle, NY
November 9, 2011
http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/item/a-conversation-on-the-great-work/
Memorial Ceremony for Wangari Muta Maathai (1940–2011)
The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue (at 112th Street), New York, NY
November 14, 2011
http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/item/memorial-ceremony-for-wangari-muta-maathai-19402011/
American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting
Moscone Center & Surrounding Hotels, San Francisco, CA, USA
November 19-22, 2011
http://www.aarweb.org/
“The Earth’s Imagination - Brian Swimme DVD Series”
Knox United Church, 506 4th Street SW, Calgary, AB, Canada
November 26, 2011
www.knoxcentre.ca
Interfaith Rally for Climate Justice at COP 17
Kings Park Stadium, Durban, South Africa
November 27, 2011
http://www.wehavefaithactnow.org/
“Towards Indian Ecocriticism”
Central University of Tamil Nadu, India
December 2-3, 2011
http://www.cutn.ac.in/news-29-09-2011.php
For more events, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/
3. Interfaith Petition for Climate Justice at COP 17
COP 17, or the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties will be run by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban, South Africa in November 28 - December 9, 2011. The conference aims to negotiate an international agreement on greenhouse gas emissions to prevent worsening global warming and climate change.
On November 27, the day before COP 17 starts, the faith community will be holding an interfaith rally in Durban to ask the delegates to negotiate with courage and fairness. Join us in the call for a just and legally binding climate treaty. We will deliver signatures from all over Africa and beyond to the worlds leaders during the rally. Please sign the following petition:
We call on our leaders to fight for a just and legally binding climate treaty!"
We call on our negotiators to treat the Earth with respect, resist disorder and live in peace with each other, including embracing a legally binding climate treaty.
Africa must unite, and with one voice speak out for the justice of the poor in Africa and beyond!
http://www.wehavefaithactnow.org/
4. New Website: Forum on Religion & Ecology @ Monash University (Melbourne, Australia)
The website of the Forum on Religion & Ecology @ Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) is now on-line at http://artsonline.arts.monash.edu.au/fore/. The website contains a variety of resources, including a list of publications and media in the field of Religion and Ecology by Australian authors/journalists or about Australia http://artsonline.arts.monash.edu.au/fore/australian-content/. It also includes a list of contact information for academics and allied professionals working in this field: http://artsonline.arts.monash.edu.au/fore/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Academics-list.pdf.
5. New Books
Hungry for Change: Food, Ethics and Sustainability
Northwest Earth Institute, 2011
http://www.nwei.org/discussion_courses/course-offerings/hungry-for-change-food-ethics-and-sustainability
Hungry for Change explores the true meaning of the phrase "you are what you eat." In four to six sessions, this discussion course challenges participants to examine their roles, not only as consumers of food, but also as creators -- of food, of systems, and of the world we all live in. Each session includes readings, short assignments and accompanying discussion questions that address the impact of individual food choices on a range of issues, including ecosystem health, the treatment of factory and farm workers, and the global economy. Many sessions also include video clips, podcasts and websites to deepen the learning experience. Hungry for Change helps participants commit to lasting change by developing and sharing personal Action Plans with each session.
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Environmental Ethics: An Introduction (2nd Edition)
By Patrick Curry
Polity, 2011
http://politybooks.com/book.asp?ref=9780745651255
In this thoroughly revised and updated second edition of the highly successful Ecological Ethics, Patrick Curry shows that a new and truly ecological ethic is both possible and urgently needed. He discusses light green or anthropocentric ethics with the examples of stewardship, lifeboat ethics, and social ecology; the mid-green or intermediate ethics of animal liberation/rights; and dark or deep green ecocentric ethics. Particular attention is given to the Land Ethic, the Gaia Hypothesis, Deep Ecology, and its offshoots: Deep Green Theory, Left Biocentrism and the Earth Manifesto. Ecofeminism is also considered and attention is paid to the close relationship between ecocentrism and virtue ethics. Other chapters discuss green ethics as post-secular, moral pluralism and pragmatism, green citizenship, and human population in the light of ecological ethics. In this new edition, all these have been updated and joined by discussions of climate change, sustainable economies, education, and food from an ecocentric perspective.
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Invitation to Wonder: A Journey Through the Seasons
By Elizabeth Ayres
Veriditas Books, 2010
http://www.veriditasbooks.com/
Invitation to Wonder: A Journey Through the Seasons invokes an intimate communion with the natural world. Using poetic language to capture the insights of scientific research and personal observation, Elizabeth Ayres transports readers through the cycle of seasons to inspire a deep wonder about the world. Complementing this book are five spoken-word recordings in the Invitation to Wonder Audio Series, each of which is accompanied by short Listening Guides: "A Journey through the Seasons," "Celebrating the Journey," "A Journey into the Cosmos," "A Journey into Chesapeake Country," and "A Journey into Divine Presence." Thomas Berry called this book “Lovely. Shows amazing breadth of thought.”
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Indic Visions in an Age of Science
By V.V. Raman
Metanexus Institute, 2011
http://amzn.to/nCUwUd
Indic Visions in an Age of Science provides a detailed introduction to India’s religions with thoroughly contemporary interpretations thereof consistent with the insights of modern science. South Asia today is a nexus in a global civilization, its children and grandchildren having traveled to every corner of the world, frequently joining the educated elites abroad and making significant contributions to arts and letters, science and industry, politics and finance. The continued story of Indian civilization is now a global and cosmopolitan enterprise and can no longer be contained in geographically boundaries in one corner of the world. V.V. Raman is a gifted and gracious guide to the rich complexity of Indic civilization, always with a view to fostering peace and understanding amidst dangerous culture wars and clashing civilizations. In ten succinct chapters, V.V. Raman traces the development of Indian religion, philosophy, and science from the distant past to contemporary times.
6. “Religion and Environment” Review by Willis Jenkins and Christopher Key Chapple
“Religion and Environment”
By Willis Jenkins and Christopher Key Chapple
Annual Review of Environment and Resources
Vol. 36: 441-463 (Volume publication date November 2011)
First published online as a Review in Advance on August 1, 2011
Abstract:
Understanding the interaction of human and environmental systems requires understanding the religious dimensions to the integration of ecology and society. Research on the significance of religion to environmental problems and of ecological ideas to religion has emerged into a robust interdisciplinary field. One sign of its vitality lies in the methodological arguments over how to conceptualize and assess that significance. Another lies in the diversity of research projects, which appear within most religious traditions, from many geographical contexts, and in several different disciplines. This article introduces major approaches to the field and key questions raised, and then briefly assesses recent work in three broad areas of tradition.
To download the PDF file of this article, visit:
http://www.annualreviews.org/eprint/vDJcwJ5VmqQdkQhaFU2c/full/10.1146/annurev-environ-042610-103728
7. New Classroom Edition DVD & Study Guide: Shugendo Now
A new classroom edition DVD and study guide is available for the documentary Shugendo Now. It contains the following videos:
The Lotus Ascent, 42 minutes.
We accompany 120 male pilgrims from all walks of life on a twenty-six kilometer climb to the peak of Japan's Mt Omine. This sacred mountain, off limits to women, is regarded as the home of divinities and immortals as well as the mother's womb: a site of rebirth, catharsis, and healing. Returning with them to the sprawling metropolises they call home, we learn what motivates pilgrims and how they integrate lessons learned from Nature in daily life. Our guide Tanaka Riten, a seasoned ascetic with intellectual credentials, media savvy, and a keen sense of humor, has made the traditional practices more accessible to lay people, boosting participation considerably. Yet attendance by more experienced ascetics has dropped. Wagering that the only way for a religious tradition to survive is to have the broadest possible membership, Tanaka believes his efforts have not been unsuccessful.
The Forest of Mountain Learning, 48 minutes.
Struggling to stay human, wishing to live "smelling the earth," and choosing between accounting or the artist's life: these are some of the motivations that attract visitors to The Forest of Mountain Learning. Charismatic priest Tateishi Kosho has established this rustic temple and training site as a space for individuals at a crossroads in their lives to contemplate Nature and "know their heart-mind." Kosho's musical and culinary virtuosity, colorful background, and wisdom gained from ascetic practices in rugged mountains make him an appealing conversation partner. But his disciplined practice and protection of the natural world from illegal dumping and gravel production earn him the respect and admiration of a global cohort of pilgrims.
You are invited to visit our new classroom edition page with all relevant details:
http://shugendonow.com/Shugendo_Now/Classroom.html
A new companion study guide produced with financial assistance from the US-Japan Foundation and in partnership with the Asian Educational Media Services (AEMS) for their new on-line film database Digital Asia is also now available. There you will find contextual essays, glossary, maps, filmmaker statements, and other supplementary materials:
http://www.digitalasia.illinois.edu/video/?contentID=FIqA7gob2kCfBgmea-IfXw
Please let us know if you think you might wish to use the films and/or study guide in your classes.
Mark Patrick McGuire
Humanities / campus sustainability initiative
John Abbott College
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
8. Calls for Papers
“Creation, Creatureliness, and Creativity: The Human Place in the Natural World”
2012 Conference for the Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology (SCPT)
Loyola Marymount University
Los Angeles, CA, USA
April 20-22, 2012
Only complete papers with a maximum of 3,000 words will be accepted.
Submission deadline: January 15, 2012
http://www.scptonline.org
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“Christian Faith and the Earth: Respice et Prospice”
Sustainability Institute
Lynedoch, Stellenbosch
South Africa
August 6–10, 2012
Proposal Deadline: January 31, 2012
http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/item/christian-faith-and-the-earth-respice-et-prospice/
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“Religious Response to Ecological Challenges”
Nilackal St. Thomas Church Ecumenical Centre
Kerala, India
April 17-20, 2012
Proposal Deadline: January 30, 2012
Deadline for full manuscript: March 15, 2012
http://www.nilackaltrust.org/
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“Culture, Politics, and Climate Change”
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO, USA
September 13-15, 2012
Proposal Deadline: January 10, 2012
http://www.climateculturepolitics.org/
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“Metaphysical and Religious Naturalism”
Highlands Institute for American Religious and Philosophical Thought
Manitou Springs, CO, USA
June 11-14, 2012
Proposal Deadline: January 15, 2012
http://fore.research.yale.edu/files/CFP_HIARPT_2012.pdf
9. “Renewing the Face of the Earth: Lenten Reflections on Air”
It's not too early to imagine and plan for vibrant Lenten faith-sharing groups using material with an ecological twist. The following program developed by Terri MacKenzie, SHCJ can help materialize such groups.
“Renewing the Face of the Earth: Lenten Reflections on Air” incorporates scientific and theological knowledge about creation, God's presence therein, and our call to care for it. A five-session resource, “Renewing the Face of the Earth” can enhance group prayer and sharing, build community, deepen awareness of God's presence and action within creation, increase participants' understanding of air pollution and global warming, and motivate participants to action. This free resource is available now for perusal or downloading: http://www.shcj.org/amer/documents/2012LentReflectionBookAir_001.pdf
“Renewing the Face of the Earth” is part of a three-year Lenten trilogy that includes Soil, Water, and Air. For information about these, contact Terri MacKenzie, SHCJ, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
10. Community Solar Day: Occupy Rooftops (Nov. 20)
Interested in helping your local school or place of worship go solar? On November 20, Solar Mosaic and other organizations are partnering across the country to hold Community Solar Day, a day for people across the country to come together at a building they want to help go solar and start creating local jobs and clean energy through a community solar project. Sign up at www.solarmosaic.com/solarday to kick start a solar project in your community by taking a picture in front of the building where you’d like to go solar! We’ll provide you with all the tips and tools you need to get your project off the ground and starting building a more sustainable future from the roof up.
11. Christianity and Ecology Statements
"Healing a Broken World"
Promotio Iustitiae n° 106 (2011)
Report of the Task Force on Jesuit Mission and Ecology
http://www.sjweb.info/sjs/PJnew/
“Our Relationship with the Environment: The Need for Conversion”
Pastoral letter from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Commission for Social Affairs (2008)
http://www.cccb.ca/site/images/stories/pdf/enviro_eng.pdf
To read more statements regarding Christianity and Ecology, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/religion/christianity/statements/index.html
12. Message of Solidarity for Small-Scale Farmers
A message of solidarity will be sent to the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace partners who are working with organized groups of small-scale farmers in the Global South. It will help to strengthen their advocacy and education work with their governments and their communities. Please sign the following card:
We support small-scale farmers around the world who are working for sustainable small-scale agriculture, genuine land reform, and a change in production and consumption patterns.
We affirm our responsibility to future generations to seek genuine solutions to the problem of climate change that are viable, truly sustainable and do not sacrifice the poorest people on the planet.
By signing this card, you are expressing your solidarity with small-scale farmers who urgently request the promotion of agricultural models that will enable them to feed their communities, participate in the fight against climate change, and improve their living conditions.
http://support.devp.org/site/PageNavigator/Fall%20campaign%202011/ActionCard_survey_embed.html#action
13. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme. For more information, visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo
For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental ethics/philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html. If you know of a publication that needs to be added to this list, email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/index.html
By Tom Zeller, Jr.
Huffington Post
November 3, 2011
Though by no means a climate change denier, Richard Muller, a physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, whose work in nuclear and astrophysics is well known, had long been suspicious of some of the science underpinning the accepted catechism on global warming.
He wondered, for example, about the the potential for urban areas, which retain and generate inordinate amounts of heat, to distort data suggesting that things were getting warmer. He also questioned the reliability of surface temperature readings collected from aging and error-prone monitoring stations all over the planet.
Muller's desire to examine these issues -- along with a willingness to excoriate prominent climate scientists for what he considered bad behavior, and to cheer climate change skeptics for bucking received orthodoxies on the topic -- certainly made him something of an orphan in the ever-polarized climate wars. But to his mind, it didn't mean he rejected the basic mechanics of global warming.
Casual readers, perusing the headlines over the last two weeks, would be forgiven for thinking otherwise.
After Muller's two-year-old Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project began publishing its findings on these and other questions late last month, numerous news outlets have portrayed him as a former skeptic whose research has led him back to the global warming fold.
Those portrayals then generated a subsequent wave of opprobrium from the small but vocal community of skeptics and deniers who think, across the broadest spectrum, that global warming is nonsense, that humans aren't contributing to it, or some mixture of both. Efforts to disown him as part of Team Skeptic ensued.
"Richard Muller is not who he says he is. He is an advocate of the theory of man-made global warming," wrote a columnist in The Charleston Daily Mail. "The skeptic who claims to have debunked climate skepticism never was a skeptic," declared the folks at JunkScience.com.
Muller suggested the bluster on all sides was somewhat misplaced.
"It is ironic if some people treat me as a traitor, since I was never a skeptic -- only a scientific skeptic," he said in a recent email exchange with The Huffington Post. "Some people called me a skeptic because in my best-seller 'Physics for Future Presidents' I had drawn attention to the numerous scientific errors in the movie 'An Inconvenient Truth.' But I never felt that pointing out mistakes qualified me to be called a climate skeptic."
In a nutshell, Muller and his team at Berkeley, which includes his daughter, Elizabeth, merged and analyzed a staggering amount of data collected from temperature monitoring stations the world over in order to address several complaints about climate research thus far. Skeptics, for example, have long argued -- legitimately, in Muller's view -- that climate researchers have relied on too small or too selective a sample of station data to definitively conclude that temperatures are rising; that many of the stations offer unreliable data, or are skewed upward by proximity to urban "heat islands"; or that researchers have made inappropriate adjustments in data to compensate for changes in measuring equipment and other local variables that crop up over decades of pulse-taking.
None of these concerns proved significant. "Our analysis of the complete data set showed that none of these four major concerns of the skeptics had biased the answer," Muller said.
In fact, the results closely matched most previous analyses showing a clear up-tick in temperature -- roughly 1 degree Celsius -- over the last half-century. And their estimate even exceeded the conservative estimate of a 0.64 degree increase promulgated by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Asked whether his group's findings have been mischaracterized since publication, Muller -- who has been accused of mischaracterizations of his own -- was unequivocal. "By nearly every news, radio, and TV station that has reported on us," he said. "I have been misquoted more in the last two weeks than in the prior several decades of my professional life." Among other trouble spots, Muller said, was the headline put atop his own op-ed contribution to The Wall Street Journal, which described his findings as "The Case Against Global-Warming Skepticism."
Muller said he'd submitted a much more contemplative title for the piece -- "Cooling the Warming Debate."
"I certainly feel that there is lots of room for skepticism on the human component of warming," Muller said.
Indeed, if anything qualifies Muller as any sort of climate skeptic, it's on this point -- but only in the broadest sense. What role do humans play in all this warming? The BEST team didn't examine this question, but for most researchers, it's long been a bit of a no-brainer. Carbon dioxide, among other gases, acts like a great big blanket around the planet, trapping heat in the atmosphere and driving temperatures upward. As for where the carbon dioxide is coming from, if you drive a car, use electricity or otherwise live in the modern world, just look in the mirror.
For his part, Muller doesn't dispute that human activity plays a large role, but the scientist in him remains uncertain of just how to quantify that. "Although it is not a conclusion of the Berkeley Earth group, it is my personal opinion that greenhouse gas emissions from humans have contributed to the observed warming," Muller said. "The IPCC says that 'most' of the 0.6-degree Celsius warming of the past 50 years is anthropogenic. If 'most' means between 0.3- and 0.6-degrees Celsius, then that is certainly within the realm of possibility."
Muller added that the work done by his team does show that "variations in the temperature of the North Atlantic have a much larger effect on the global land temperature than had previously been recognized." Many researchers suspect that these North Atlantic variations are due to fluctuations in what's called the "thermohaline circulation" -- a slow and deep flow of ocean water around the planet.
"If that is the case," Muller said, "then part of the [temperature] rise observed may be due to such ocean variability, and that would imply that the human contribution is less."
That caveat notwithstanding, the Charles G. Koch Foundation, a philanthropy famous for underwriting climate denialism that provided $150,000 in funding for the BEST team's work, did feel compelled to cooly qualify Muller's research as still in need of peer review.
The foundation also noted that the BEST team had examined neither humanity's role in rising temperatures, nor whether ocean temperatures -- as opposed to land-based readings -- suggest that global warming is actually slowing, as some skeptics believe. Muller says further examination of those questions are on his to-do list.
"Scientists," he said, "have a professional responsibility to be skeptical."
Reporting for this article was contributed by Joanna Zelman.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/03/its-science-not-skepticis_n_1072419.html
New York Times
November 3, 2011
Richard Muller, a prominent American physicist, was so skeptical about data showing a gradual warming of the Earth’s surface that he decided to investigate for himself. The results of his two-year inquiry — partially bankrolled by the Charles Koch Foundation, whose founder is a prominent global-warming denier — are now in. And, voilà, the Earth is indeed warming, just as most scientists have been saying for years.
The main finding by Mr. Muller and his team at the University of California at Berkeley is that land temperatures have risen about 1 degree Celsius (or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) since 1950. This matches findings by the National Academy of Sciences, federal agencies and independent American and British researchers whose work has been repeatedly attacked by climate deniers and opponents of efforts to limit emissions of greenhouse gases.
Mr. Muller undertook the study partly because he distrusted the readings at temperature stations around the world, some of which he felt were more sophisticated than others, and partly because he feared that higher temperatures in the cities skewed the overall result. After taking 1.6 billion readings at 39,000 sites, he has toted up the results and declared: “Global warming is real.”
This may not be exactly the result the Koch foundation had in mind when it forked out one-quarter of the $600,000 it took to do the study. Charles Koch and his brother, David, are oil and gas billionaires who argue that warming is a hoax. They spent heavily to defeat California’s global warming initiative in a 2010 state referendum. Still, we should thank them for helping to change the mind of an influential scientist.
Mr. Muller says he doesn’t know how much of the warming is caused by humans, what its effects will be or what should be done about it. He shows little interest in entering the political fight. Still, his acceptance of the reality of warming may help move the conversation — once and for all — away from questions about whether it exists to smart strategies for addressing it.
By Jay Bookman
AJC
October 24, 2011
Richard Muller, a physics professor at Cal-Berkeley, has been a celebrated skeptic about the true extent of climate change.
Muller has questioned whether the data had been skewed by the “heat-island effect.” He has had his doubts about the so-called “hockey stick,” which shows global temperatures rising much faster since the early 19th century than at any point in the last thousand years. In the past, he has called the hockey stick “an incredible error” and “the artifact of poor mathematics.” And he has been quite harsh in his condemnation of fellow scientists involved in the s0-called ClimateGate scandal:
“I frankly as a scientist — I now have a list of people whose papers I’m won’t read anymore. You’re not allowed to do this in science. This is not up to our standards.”
So Muller, acting in the best traditions of science, decided to redo that work. He put together a top-notch team that included Saul Perlmutter, who just recently won the Nobel Prize in physics, and Judith Curry of Georgia Tech, another noted scientist who has been critical of some of the work of some of her peers. Their project — funded in part by a grant from the Charles M. Koch Foundation — just completed its two-year work.
Last week, Muller and the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature team released its findings (the results have yet to undergo peer review). As Muller described it:
Our biggest surprise was that the new results agreed so closely with the warming values published previously by other teams in the US and the UK. This confirms that these studies were done carefully and that potential biases identified by climate change skeptics did not seriously affect their conclusions.
As he wrote in the Wall Street Journal:
“When we began our study, we felt that skeptics had raised legitimate issues, and we didn’t know what we’d find. Our results turned out to be close to those published by prior groups. We think that means that those groups had truly been very careful in their work, despite their inability to convince some skeptics of that. They managed to avoid bias in their data selection, homogenization and other corrections.”
Here’s a chart produced by Muller’s team, documenting the findings of three other research teams as well as the BEST team. Note how closely the findings track each other.
This is how science works. It checks upon itself. And when the position that you had previously taken has been proved false, you do what Muller has done:
You change your position.
http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2011/10/24/climate-change-skeptic-you-should-not-be-a-skeptic/
A new analysis of the temperature record leaves little room for the doubters. The world is warming.
FOR those who question whether global warming is really happening, it is necessary to believe that the instrumental temperature record is wrong. That is a bit easier than you might think.
There are three compilations of mean global temperatures, each one based on readings from thousands of thermometers, kept in weather stations and aboard ships, going back over 150 years. Two are American, provided by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), one is a collaboration between Britain’s Met Office and the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (known as Hadley CRU). And all suggest a similar pattern of warming: amounting to about 0.9°C over land in the past half century.
To most scientists, that is consistent with the manifold other indicators of warming—rising sea-levels, melting glaciers, warmer ocean depths and so forth—and convincing. Yet the consistency among the three compilations masks large uncertainties in the raw data on which they are based. Hence the doubts, husbanded by many eager sceptics, about their accuracy. A new study, however, provides further evidence that the numbers are probably about right.
The uncertainty arises mainly because weather stations were never intended to provide a climatic record. The temperature series they give tend therefore to be patchy and even where the stations are relatively abundant, as in western Europe and America, they often contain inconsistencies. They may have gaps, or readings taken at different times of day, or with different kinds of thermometer. The local environment may have changed. Extrapolating a global average from such data involves an amount of tinkering—or homogenisation.
It might involve omitting especially awkward readings; or where, for example, a heat source like an airport has sprung up alongside a weather station, inputting a lower temperature than the data show. As such cases are mostly in the earlier portions of the records, this will exaggerate the long-term warming trend. That is at best imperfect. And for those—including Rick Perry, the Republican governor of Texas and would-be president —who claim to see global warming as a hoax by grant-hungry scientists, it may look like a smoking gun.
To build confidence in their methodologies, NASA and NOAA already publish their data and algorithms. Hadley CRU is now doing so. A grander solution, outlined in a forthcoming Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, would be to provide a single online databank of all temperature data and analysis. Part of the point would be to encourage more scientists and statisticians to test the existing analyses—and a group backed by Novim, a research outfit in Santa Barbara, California, has recently done just that.
Inconvenient data
Marshalled by an astrophysicist, Richard Muller, this group, which calls itself the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature, is notable in several ways. When embarking on the project 18 months ago, its members (including Saul Perlmutter, who won the Nobel prize for physics this month for his work on dark energy) were mostly new to climate science. And Dr Muller, for one, was mildly sceptical of its findings. This was partly, he says, because of “climategate”: the 2009 revelation of e-mails from scientists at CRU which suggested they had sometimes taken steps to disguise their adjustments of inconvenient palaeo-data. With this reputation, the Berkeley Earth team found it unusually easy to attract sponsors, including a donation of $150,000 from the Koch Foundation.
Yet Berkeley Earth’s results, as described in four papers currently undergoing peer review, but which were nonetheless released on October 20th, offer strong support to the existing temperature compilations. The group estimates that over the past 50 years the land surface warmed by 0.911°C: a mere 2% less than NOAA’s estimate. That is despite its use of a novel methodology—designed, at least in part, to address the concerns of what Dr Muller terms “legitimate sceptics”.
Most important, Berkeley Earth sought an alternative way to deal with awkward data. Its algorithm attaches an automatic weighting to every data point, according to its consistency with comparable readings. That should allow for the inclusion of outlandish readings without distorting the result. (Except where there seems to be straightforward confusion between Celsius and Fahrenheit, which is corrected.) By avoiding traditional procedures that require long, continuous data segments, the Berkeley Earth methodology can also accommodate unusually short sequences: for example, those provided by temporary weather stations. This is another innovation that allows it to work with both more and less data than the existing compilations, with varying degrees of certainty. It is therefore able to compile an earlier record than its predecessors, starting from 1800. (As there were only two weather stations in America, a handful in Europe and one in Asia for some of that time, it has a high degree of uncertainty.) To test the new technique, however, much of the analysis uses the same data as NOAA and NASA.
Heat maps
In another apparent innovation, the Berkeley team has written into its analysis a geospatial technique, known as kriging, which uses the basic spatial correlations in weather to estimate the temperature at points between weather stations. This promises to provide a more nuanced heat map than presented in the existing compilations, which either consign an average temperature to an area defined by a grid square or, in the case of NASA, attempt a less ambitious interpolation.
It will be interesting to see whether this makes it past the review process. Peter Thorne, a climatologist at the Co-operative Institute for Climate and Satellites, in North Carolina, describes it as “quite a hard sell in periods that are data sparse”. He adds: “That doesn’t mean you can’t do it. It means you’ve got to prove it works.”
Two of the Berkeley Earth papers address narrower concerns. One is the poor location of many weather stations. A crowd-sourcing campaign by a meteorologist and blogger, Anthony Watts, established that most of America’s stations are close enough to asphalt, buildings or other heat sources to give artificially high readings. The other is the additional warming seen in built-up areas, known as the “urban heat-island effect”. Many sceptics fear that, because roughly half of all weather stations are in built-up areas, this may have inflated estimates of a temperature rise.
The Berkeley Earth papers suggest their analysis is able to accommodate these biases. That is a notable, though not original, achievement. Previous peer-reviewed studies—including one on the location of weather stations co-authored by Mr Watts—have suggested the mean surface temperatures provided by NOAA, NASA and Hadley CRU are also not significantly affected by them.
Yet the Berkeley Earth study promises to be valuable. It is due to be published online with a vast trove of supporting data, merged from 15 separate sources, with duplications and other errors clearly signalled. At a time of exaggerated doubts about the instrumental temperature record, this should help promulgate its main conclusion: that the existing mean estimates are in the right ballpark. That means the world is warming fast.
http://www.economist.com/node/21533360
There were good reasons for doubt, until now.
By Richard A. Muller
Wall Street Journal
October 21, 2011
Are you a global warming skeptic? There are plenty of good reasons why you might be.
As many as 757 stations in the United States recorded net surface-temperature cooling over the past century. Many are concentrated in the southeast, where some people attribute tornadoes and hurricanes to warming.
The temperature-station quality is largely awful. The most important stations in the U.S. are included in the Department of Energy's Historical Climatology Network. A careful survey of these stations by a team led by meteorologist Anthony Watts showed that 70% of these stations have such poor siting that, by the U.S. government's own measure, they result in temperature uncertainties of between two and five degrees Celsius or more. We do not know how much worse are the stations in the developing world.
Using data from all these poor stations, the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates an average global 0.64ºC temperature rise in the past 50 years, "most" of which the IPCC says is due to humans. Yet the margin of error for the stations is at least three times larger than the estimated warming.
We know that cities show anomalous warming, caused by energy use and building materials; asphalt, for instance, absorbs more sunlight than do trees. Tokyo's temperature rose about 2ºC in the last 50 years. Could that rise, and increases in other urban areas, have been unreasonably included in the global estimates? That warming may be real, but it has nothing to do with the greenhouse effect and can't be addressed by carbon dioxide reduction.
Moreover, the three major temperature analysis groups (the U.S.'s NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.K.'s Met Office and Climatic Research Unit) analyze only a small fraction of the available data, primarily from stations that have long records. There's a logic to that practice, but it could lead to selection bias. For instance, older stations were often built outside of cities but today are surrounded by buildings. These groups today use data from about 2,000 stations, down from roughly 6,000 in 1970, raising even more questions about their selections.
On top of that, stations have moved, instruments have changed and local environments have evolved. Analysis groups try to compensate for all this by homogenizing the data, though there are plenty of arguments to be had over how best to homogenize long-running data taken from around the world in varying conditions. These adjustments often result in corrections of several tenths of one degree Celsius, significant fractions of the warming attributed to humans.
And that's just the surface-temperature record. What about the rest? The number of named hurricanes has been on the rise for years, but that's in part a result of better detection technologies (satellites and buoys) that find storms in remote regions. The number of hurricanes hitting the U.S., even more intense Category 4 and 5 storms, has been gradually decreasing since 1850. The number of detected tornadoes has been increasing, possibly because radar technology has improved, but the number that touch down and cause damage has been decreasing. Meanwhile, the short-term variability in U.S. surface temperatures has been decreasing since 1800, suggesting a more stable climate.
Without good answers to all these complaints, global-warming skepticism seems sensible. But now let me explain why you should not be a skeptic, at least not any longer.
Over the last two years, the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Project has looked deeply at all the issues raised above. I chaired our group, which just submitted four detailed papers on our results to peer-reviewed journals. We have now posted these papers online at http://www.BerkeleyEarth.org to solicit even more scrutiny.
Our work covers only land temperature—not the oceans—but that's where warming appears to be the greatest. Robert Rohde, our chief scientist, obtained more than 1.6 billion measurements from more than 39,000 temperature stations around the world. Many of the records were short in duration, and to use them Mr. Rohde and a team of esteemed scientists and statisticians developed a new analytical approach that let us incorporate fragments of records. By using data from virtually all the available stations, we avoided data-selection bias. Rather than try to correct for the discontinuities in the records, we simply sliced the records where the data cut off, thereby creating two records from one.
We discovered that about one-third of the world's temperature stations have recorded cooling temperatures, and about two-thirds have recorded warming. The two-to-one ratio reflects global warming. The changes at the locations that showed warming were typically between 1-2ºC, much greater than the IPCC's average of 0.64ºC.
To study urban-heating bias in temperature records, we used satellite determinations that subdivided the world into urban and rural areas. We then conducted a temperature analysis based solely on "very rural" locations, distant from urban ones. The result showed a temperature increase similar to that found by other groups. Only 0.5% of the globe is urbanized, so it makes sense that even a 2ºC rise in urban regions would contribute negligibly to the global average.
What about poor station quality? Again, our statistical methods allowed us to analyze the U.S. temperature record separately for stations with good or acceptable rankings, and those with poor rankings (the U.S. is the only place in the world that ranks its temperature stations). Remarkably, the poorly ranked stations showed no greater temperature increases than the better ones. The mostly likely explanation is that while low-quality stations may give incorrect absolute temperatures, they still accurately track temperature changes.
When we began our study, we felt that skeptics had raised legitimate issues, and we didn't know what we'd find. Our results turned out to be close to those published by prior groups. We think that means that those groups had truly been very careful in their work, despite their inability to convince some skeptics of that. They managed to avoid bias in their data selection, homogenization and other corrections.
Global warming is real. Perhaps our results will help cool this portion of the climate debate. How much of the warming is due to humans and what will be the likely effects? We made no independent assessment of that.
Mr. Muller is a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of "Physics for Future Presidents" (W.W. Norton & Co., 2008).
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204422404576594872796327348.html
The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
5.10 (October 2011)
Contents:
1. Editorial, by Elizabeth McAnally
2. Wangari Maathai (1940-2011)
3. Gordon Kaufman (1925-2011)
4. Journey of the Universe Film Screenings
5. Events
6. Forum Luncheon & Journey of the Universe Film Screening at the American Academy of Religion (November 18, 2011 in San Francisco, CA, USA)
7. Church Forest: a documentary film about the Church Forests of Ethiopia
8. Call for Papers: Minding Animals Conference 2012 (July 1-7, 2012 at Utrecht University, The Netherlands)
9. Call for Papers: 9th Annual Meeting for Environmental Philosophy (June 12-15, 2012 in Allenspark, CO, USA)
10. Call for Papers: “Towards Indian Ecocriticism” (December 2-3, 2011 at Central University of Tamil Nadu, India)
11. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
1. Editorial, by Elizabeth McAnally
Greetings,
Welcome to the October issue of the newsletter for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. I have much to share with you this month with regards to developments in the field of Religion and Ecology, including film screenings, conferences, events, calls for papers, and more.
I am excited to let you know that the Journey of the Universe project is thriving. The Journey film will be broadcast on national PBS in December. For the press release, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/storage/JOTU_PBS_Broadcast_PR.pdf
Many film screenings are scheduled for this month, which I have listed below. You can find the most up-to-date list of screenings, along with information on hosting a screening, on the Journey website: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/
Both the Journey film and book have both been released and are available to purchase at: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/buy/
A collaboration between Brian Thomas Swimme, Mary Evelyn Tucker, and John Grim, the Journey of the Universe project also includes a twenty-part educational series (available November 7, 2011). Inspired by the New Story described by Thomas Berry, the Journey of the Universe draws on the latest scientific knowledge to tell the story of cosmic and Earth evolution. It aims to inspire a new and closer relationship with Earth in a period of growing environmental and social crisis. The Journey project relies on your tax-deductible contributions. To help support this project, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/donate/
The Forum would like to bring your attention to the recent passing of two great figures, Wangari Maathai and Gordon Kaufman. As founder of the Greenbelt Movement and as an Earth Charter Commissioner, Wangari Maathai worked closely with thousands of people around the planet to create a world based on ecological integrity, social and economic justice, democracy, non-violence, and peace. Her vision, dedication, and courage were recognized when she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. She taught and lectured at many universities around the world, including the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale. Wangari participated in several of our Forum conferences on World Religions and Ecology. She spoke eloquently at Thomas Berry's memorial service in 2009 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, and she delivered an inspiring video message in 2005 at the UN at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Teilhard's death. Wangari published a number of books, including The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience (1985), The Canopy of Hope: My Life Campaigning for Africa, Women, and the Environment (2002), Unbowed: A Memoir (2006), Reclaiming Rights and Resources: Women, Poverty and Environment (2007), Rainwater Harvesting (2008), and The Challenge for Africa (2009). Below you will find links to various tributes to Wangari, along with an essay from her most recent book, Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World (2010).
The Forum also remembers eco-theologian, Gordon Kaufman, and his many contributions and insights to the field of Religion and Ecology. As a faculty member at Harvard's Divinity School, Gordon framed much of his thinking around issues of creativity in the cosmos. His theology oriented him towards constructive approaches to Religion and Ecology. Gordon was one of the first theologians to suggest that we need new images of God to respond to the ecological crisis. This perspective was important for Sally McFague, who was influenced by him. Gordon was an active participant at the series of conferences at Harvard on Religion and Ecology from 1995 to 1998. His many publications include Relativism, Knowledge and Faith (1960), Systematic Theology: A Historicist Perspective (1968) God the Problem (1972), Nonresistance and Responsibility, and Other Mennonite Essays (1979), In Face of Mystery: A Constructive Theology (1993), God-Mystery-Diversity: Christian Theology in a Pluralistic World (1996), In the Beginning…Creativity (2004), and Jesus and Creativity (2006). Below you will find links to tributes to Gordon.
Finally, I want to let you know that Sam Mickey, my close friend and colleague, is stepping down from his position as co-editor of the Forum newsletter and website. Sam has been working for the Forum for the past five years, and he is excited to continue working within the field of Religion and Ecology in other capacities as he teaches classes at the University of San Francisco and Pacifica Graduate Institute, edits a forthcoming anthology of essays on Integral Ecologies, and finishes his doctoral dissertation at the California Institute of Integral Studies. I’m extremely grateful for all of our collaboration throughout the years!
I hope this newsletter supports your own work and helps you further your own engagements with the field of Religion and Ecology.
Warm wishes,
Elizabeth McAnally
California Institute of Integral Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Website Manager & Newsletter Editor
http://www.yale.edu/religionandecology
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
2. Wangari Maathai (1940-2011)
UNEP Pays Tribute to Professor Wangari Maathai
United Nations Environment Programme
September 26, 2011
Nairobi - Professor Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, founder of Kenya's Green Belt Movement and patron of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Billion Tree Campaign, has died in Nairobi. She was 71 years old.
http://www.unep.org/newscentre/Default.aspx?DocumentID=2653&ArticleID=8873&l=en
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Wangari Maathai: The Tree that Became a Forest
Pambazuka News
Issue 550
September 29, 2011
A number of tributes to Wangari Maathai have been published in Pambazuka News, the authoritative electronic weekly newsletter and platform for social justice in Africa.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/550
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Spiritual Environmentalism: Healing Ourselves by Replenishing the Earth
By Wangari Maathai
Yes! Magazine
Posted: June 3, 2011
Updated: September 26, 2011
Editor's Note: Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan activist and 2004 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, passed away on September 25. In this essay from her book Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World, she describes what motivated her groundbreaking work.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/happiness/wangari-maathai-spiritual-environmentalism-healing-ourselves-by-replenishing-the-earth
3. Gordon Kaufman (1925-2011)
In Memoriam
American Academy of Religion (AAR)
July 2011
Gordon Kaufman, Harvard University and 1982 AAR President, passed away on July 22, 2011. A memorial article in honor of Dr. Kaufman will be in the October 2011 issue of Religious Studies News.
http://www.aarweb.org/Members/Member_Notes/listings.asp
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Gordon Kaufman, Leading Theologian, Dies
Harvard Divinity School Communications
July 28, 2011
Gordon Dester Kaufman, Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Professor of Divinity Emeritus at Harvard Divinity School, died on Friday, July 22, at age 86.
A member of the Faculty of Divinity since 1963, Kaufman was a renowned liberal theologian whose research, writing, and teachings had a profound influence on constructive and systematic theology.
http://www.hds.harvard.edu/news-events/articles/2011/07/28/gordon-kaufman-leading-theologian-dies
4. Journey of the Universe Film Screenings
Film Screening: Dorval, Quebec, Canada (October 6, 2011)
Sheraton Montreal Airport Hotel
12505 Côte de Liesse
Dorval, Quebec H9P
7pm
This screening is part of the CRC JPIC National Gathering: "Co-Creating with the Spirit on the Cutting Edge: Actualizing a Transformed Earth Community."
Film intro and conference keynote lecture by Mary Evelyn Tucker.
Contact: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Francophones) or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Anglophones)
http://www.crc-canada.org/en/node/450
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Film Screening: Montreal, QC, Canada (October 7, 2011)
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion
Maxwell Cummings Auditorium
1379 Sherbrooke Ouest
Montreal, QC, Canada
7:00-9:15pm
Mary Evelyn Tucker will introduce the film.
Reception after film showing.
Sponsored by the Thomas More Institute
Contact: Andrew Byers, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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Film Screening: Bioneers Conference, San Rafael, CA (October 16, 2011)
2011 Bioneers Conference
San Rafael, CA
2:45-4:15pm
Discussion afterwards with Brian Thomas Swimme, Mary Evelyn Tucker, and Carl Anthony
Contact: 1-877-BIONEERS
For ticket information, visit: http://www.bioneers.org/conference
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Film Screening: Pleasantville, NY (October 19, 2011)
Jacob Burns Film Center
364 Manville Road
Pleasantville, NY
7:30pm
Followed by discussion with Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim.
Purchase tickets here: http://www.burnsfilmcenter.org/films/film-series/detail/43757
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Film Screening: Chicago, IL (October 21, 2011)
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
1100 E. 55th St.
Chicago, IL 60615
4pm
“Sacred Soil, Living Water, Holy Air: Science, Spirituality, and the Elements of Earthly Life”
4th Annual Student Symposium on Science and Spirituality
Discussion with John Grim
Contact: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call 773-256-0670
http://www.zygoncenter.org/studentsymposium/
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Film Screening: Salt Lake City, UT (October 27, 2011)
Salt Lake City Public Library
210 East 400 South
Salt Lake City, UT
7pm
Free and open to the public
Followed by discussion with Mary Evelyn Tucker and Terry Tempest Williams
Contact: Geralyn Dreyfous, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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Film Screening & Conference: St. Paul, MN (November 4-5, 2011)
18th Annual Fall Soul Conference
“Religion and a New Environmental Ethic, with Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim”
Film - Nov. 4, 7-9pm
Jeanne d’Arc Auditorium, St. Catherine University, 2004 Randolph Ave, St. Paul, MN
Conference - Nov. 5, 9am-2pm
Carondelet Center, 1890 Randolph Ave., St. Paul, MN
Sponsored by Wisdom Ways Center for Spirituality and St. Catherine University MA in Theology Program
Contact: Rev. Barbara Lund, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
http://wisdomwayscenter.org/soulconference.html
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Film Screening: Louisville Science Center (November 6, 2011)
IMAX Theatre
Louisville Science Center
727 West Main Street
Louisville, KY 40202
5 PM
Discussion with Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim
Contact: Kathleen Lyons, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
http://www.louisvillescience.org/
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Film Screening: Louisville Collegiate School, KY (November 7, 2011)
Louisville Collegiate School
2427 Glenmary Avenue
Louisville, KY
10:30am
Discussion with Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim
Contact: Kathleen Lyons, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
http://www.louisvillescience.org/
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Film Screening: Bellarmine University, KY (November 7, 2011)
Bellarmine University
2001 Newburg Rd.
Louisville, KY
4pm
Discussion with Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim
Contact: Kathleen Lyons, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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For more events related to Journey of the Universe, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/upcoming-events/
5. Events
“The Wisdom of Thomas Berry”
Knox United Church, Calgary, AB, Canada
Tuesday evenings, 7-9pm
September 27 – November 22, 2011
www.knoxcentre.ca
http://fore.research.yale.edu/files/The_Wisdom_of_Thomas_Berry.pdf
“Energy Stewardship for Religious Facilities”
Free three-part webinar series sponsored by GreenFaith and US EPA’s Energy Star for Congregations Office
October 10, 17, and 24, 2011 at 8:30-9:30 pm ET
https://www.z2systems.com/np/clients/greenfaith/event.jsp?event=147
“Religion, Nature and Art”
Joint conference sponsored by the Ethnological Museum of the Vatican Museums and the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture
Vatican Museums, Roma, Italy
October 13-14, 2011
http://www.religionandnature.com/society/
“The Environmental Humanities: Cultural Perspectives on Nature and the Environment”
Stockholm, Sweden
October 14-15, 2011
http://www.kth.se/abe/nies
“Building Bridges to the Commons: New Foundations, New Cosmology, New Collaboration”
Conference featuring Miriam MacGillis
Hawthorne Valley School Hall, Ghent, NY, USA
October 15, 2011
http://hawthornevalleyassociation.org/event/building-bridges-commons-day-reflection
“The Earth Speaks: Water, a Sacred Gift of Life”
An Interfaith Conversation
Siena Retreat Center, Racine, WI, USA
October 16-17, 2011
http://www.wichurches.org/calendar/the-earth-speaks-water-a-sacred-gift-of-life-is-there-enough-for-all-of-us/
“Community of Christ 2011 Peace Colloquy & International Peace Award”
2011 Peace Colloquy, “Creating Hope, Healing Earth,” to Focus on Environmental Healing and Justice
2011 Community of Christ International Peace Award to be presented to Terry Tempest Williams
Community of Christ International Headquarters, Independence, MO, USA
October 21 - 23, 2011
http://www.cofchrist.org/peacecolloquy/
“Sacred Soil, Living Water, Holy Air: Science, Spirituality, and the Elements of Earthly Life”
4th Annual Student Symposium on Science and Spirituality
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, IL, USA
October 21, 2011
http://www.zygoncenter.org/studentsymposium/
“International Association for Environmental Philosophy (IAEP) Meeting”
Fifteenth Annual Meeting
Philadelphia, PA, USA
October 23-24, 2011
http://www.environmentalphilosophy.org/
Yale Screening of Green Fire, a new movie about Aldo Leopold
With reception and panel discussion on the "Land Ethic"
Kroon Hall, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, 195 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT
Free & open to the public
6-8:30pm
October 25, 2011
http://environment.yale.edu/leopold
“Rediscovering the Natural World”
St. Mary’s Sewanee Retreat Center, Sewanee, TN, USA
October 28-30, 2011
http://www.stmaryssewanee.org/programs/2011Oct28.shtml
“Sacred Land Celebration”
Assisi, Italy
October 31 - November 2, 2011
http://fore.research.yale.edu/news/item/green-pilgrimage-network-launch-in-assisi-end-october-2011/
For more events, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/
6. Forum Luncheon & Journey of the Universe Film Screening at the American Academy of Religion (November 18, 2011 in San Francisco, CA, USA)
We would like to invite you to the annual Forum on Religion and Ecology luncheon to be held in San Francisco on Friday November 18, before the American Academy of Religion (AAR) meetings begin. The luncheon will take place from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm at the Intercontinental Hotel, 888 Howard Street, in the Telegraph Hill Room.
Please RSVP for the luncheon to (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
If you have students or colleagues who may be interested in attending, feel free to pass the information along to them, but please ask them to RSVP as well, as we do need to know how many people will be in attendance.
We are also pleased to announce that the film Journey of the Universe will be shown that same evening, Friday November 18, 7:30pm at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, 555 Fourth Street ((Room: Marriott Marquis Golden Gate A). The film is a collaboration of Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker who will be present to discuss the film along with Barbara Holmes (Memphis Theological Seminary) and Heather Eaton (St. Paul University). Don’t miss this opportunity to view the film that Catherine Keller has described as "... stunning–visually mesmerizing, exquisitely situated, and persuasively narrated. It releases the quality of wonder that can change the world."
We look forward to seeing you in San Francisco!
7. Church Forest: a documentary film about the Church Forests of Ethiopia
Church Forest is a documentary film about the lush, wooded churchyards scattered across the otherwise arid landscape of Ethiopia. For 1500 years Ethiopian Orthodox Churches have protected the woodland surrounding them as recreations of the Garden of Eden, but today these forests are vanishing rapidly - with some estimates predicting their complete disappearance in the next 5 years. In January, an international team of scientists and conservationists will collaborate with the local priests and parishioners to create a truly sustainable approach to protecting these unique eco-systems forever. The film will explore the culture and beauty of the church forests, revealing that conservation is not a political luxury but rather a spiritual necessity deeply rooted in the history of Christianity.
For more information, contact: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or visit: www.churchforest.com
The Minding Animals Conference 2012 will be held at Utrecht University in the Netherlands on July 1-7, 2012. Abstracts are considered for the following six themes:
1. The Human-Animal Relationship (including animals in art, literature, religion; history of the human-animal relationship; animals in the history of philosophy; psychological approaches towards the human-animal relationship, cultural aspects of human-animal relationships).
2. Animal Capacities (including animal emotions; animal cognition; extrapolation of capacities from animals to humans and vice versa).
3. Animal Welfare (including animal welfare at the interface between science and society; approaches of positive welfare; welfare assessment in practice; animal slaughter).
4. Animal Ethics (including the foundation of duties towards animals; animal welfare; animal rights; animal liberation; the killing of animals; harm of death; vegetarianism and veganism; animal experimentation; animal husbandry; chimeras and hybrids; dignity; integrity)
5. Animals and Sustainability (including (public-) health aspects, social consequences, landscape, environmental effects, climate change)
6. Animals and Public Policy (including animals in the law; politics and stakeholders; the use of best practice guidance; national identity versus the level playing field; the role of ethics in politics; sustainability; current themes concerning the future of animal husbandry)
Deadline for abstracts: December 15, 2011
To submit an abstract, visit:
http://www.eventure-online.com/eventure/welcome.do?type=abstract&congress=66_811
For more information, visit:
http://mindinganimals.com/
http://www.uu.nl/faculty/humanities/EN/congres/mindinganimals/Pages/default.aspx
8. Call for Papers: Minding Animals Conference 2012 (July 1-7, 2012 at Utrecht University, The Netherlands)
The Minding Animals Conference 2012 will be held at Utrecht University in the Netherlands on July 1-7, 2012. Abstracts are considered for the following six themes:
1. The Human-Animal Relationship (including animals in art, literature, religion; history of the human-animal relationship; animals in the history of philosophy; psychological approaches towards the human-animal relationship, cultural aspects of human-animal relationships).
2. Animal Capacities (including animal emotions; animal cognition; extrapolation of capacities from animals to humans and vice versa).
3. Animal Welfare (including animal welfare at the interface between science and society; approaches of positive welfare; welfare assessment in practice; animal slaughter).
4. Animal Ethics (including the foundation of duties towards animals; animal welfare; animal rights; animal liberation; the killing of animals; harm of death; vegetarianism and veganism; animal experimentation; animal husbandry; chimeras and hybrids; dignity; integrity)
5. Animals and Sustainability (including (public-) health aspects, social consequences, landscape, environmental effects, climate change)
6. Animals and Public Policy (including animals in the law; politics and stakeholders; the use of best practice guidance; national identity versus the level playing field; the role of ethics in politics; sustainability; current themes concerning the future of animal husbandry)
Deadline for abstracts: December 15, 2011
To submit an abstract, visit:
http://www.eventure-online.com/eventure/welcome.do?type=abstract&congress=66_811
For more information, visit:
http://mindinganimals.com/
http://www.uu.nl/faculty/humanities/EN/congres/mindinganimals/Pages/default.aspx
9. Call for Papers: “Towards Indian Ecocriticism” (December 2-3, 2011 at Central University of Tamil Nadu, India)
The Central University of Tamil Nadu in South India is hosting the conference “Towards Indian Ecocriticism” on December 2-3, 2011.
Though papers on ecocritical readings of Indian texts (of the past or present) including texts in Indian languages (or translations of these into English) as well as Indian Writing in English, are welcome, the focus of the conference will be on the discussion of Indian ecocritical theories and concepts for critical purposes. Scholars are encouraged to explore the possibility of using folk/classical texts as well as past/contemporary cultural practices of the diverse and little known traditions of the country for ecocritical analysis. The purpose of the conference is to mobilise the ecocritical energies of Indian ecocritics working in different Indian traditions.
Abstracts not exceeding 300 words have to be submitted before November 4, 2011 for acceptance. The contributors will be informed of the acceptance by November 11, 2011. Full papers, not exceeding eight pages and typed in double space in A4 following MLA style sheet, have to be submitted by November 26. There is no fee charged for the registration.
For more information, contact Nirmal Selvamony and Rayson K. Alex at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
For the full call for papers, visit: http://www.cutn.ac.in/news-29-09-2011.php
10. Call for Papers: 9th Annual Meeting for Environmental Philosophy (June 12-15, 2012 in Allenspark, CO, USA)
The 9th Annual Meeting for Environmental Philosophy will be held on June 12-15, 2012 at the Highlands Center in Allenspark, CO. The meeting is sponsored by the International Society for Environmental Ethics, the International Association for Environmental Philosophy, and the Center for Environmental Philosophy.
Conference sessions will take a variety of forms. This call is for proposals of the following kinds:
1. Themed Sessions: Proposals for 2-hour themed sessions are encouraged, including author-meets-critics sessions, sessions emphasizing socially engaged philosophic activities, etc. Themes might include but are not limited to: animals; species; agricultural ethics and food ethics; ecosystem management; sustainability and the arts; ethics and technology.
*Abstracts for themed sessions should include names of participants, an outline of the theme and how the session will fit together, and a 150 word abstract for each paper.*
2. General session papers: Papers are welcomed from all philosophical traditions, and from environmental philosophy broadly conceived (not just environmental ethics). The format for full paper presentations at the conference will be a 15 minute summary of the paper by the author, followed by a 10 minute commentary.
*Abstracts of 300 words should be submitted for this category.*
Deadline for abstracts: December 9, 2011.
Abstracts should be prepared so that they may be blind-refereed by the conference committee. Acceptances will be announced by January 16th, 2012. Full papers must be available to be placed on the conference website by May 1, 2012. Send abstracts and proposals (in Word format), or expressions of your willingness to comment or chair, via email to Emily Brady at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
For more information, visit:
http://iseethics.org/2011/09/08/call-for-papers-ninth-annual-meeting-for-environmental-philosophy/
11. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme. For more information, visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo
For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental ethics/philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html. If you know of a publication that needs to be added to this list, email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/index.html
The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
5.9 (September 2011)
Contents:
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
2. Journey of the Universe Film Screenings
3. Tar Sands Climate Protests
4. Events
5. New Books
6. Forum Luncheon & Journey of the Universe Film Screening at the American Academy of Religion (November 18, 2011 in San Francisco, CA, USA)
7. St. Francis Pledge to Care for Creation and the Poor
8. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
Greetings,
Welcome to the September issue of the newsletter for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. We are happy to share some of the recent developments in the field of Religion and Ecology, including film screenings, books, conferences, events, and more.
We are very excited to let you know that the Journey of the Universe project is flourishing. Many film screenings are scheduled for this month, which we have listed below. You can find the most up-to-date list of screenings, along with information on hosting a screening, on the Journey website: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/
The Journey Facebook page is a great way to connect with others and show your support for the project. Come “Like” us on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=212293652138039#!/pages/Journey-of-the-Universe/179213572122084
Both the Journey film and book have both been released and are available to purchase. For ordering information, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/buy/
A collaboration of Brian Thomas Swimme, Mary Evelyn Tucker, and John Grim, the Journey of the Universe project also includes an educational series (available October 19, 2011). Inspired by the New Story described by Thomas Berry, Journey of the Universe draws on the latest scientific knowledge to tell the story of cosmic and Earth evolution. It aims to inspire a new and closer relationship with Earth in a period of growing environmental and social crisis. The Journey project relies on your tax-deductible contributions. To help support this project, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/donate/
Please save the date to participate in the annual Forum luncheon held this year in San Francisco before the American Academy of Religion meetings. The luncheon will take place on Friday, November 18 at 11:30am. Later that evening at 7:30pm, the Journey of the Universe film will be shown. See below for more information on these events.
We also want to give you an update about the tar sands climate protests. Environmentalists and eco-justice leaders from North America including Bill McKibben, Wendell Berry, Gus Speth, and Jim Hansen have been protesting for the last two weeks against the construction of a 1700 mile oil pipeline connecting the tar sands of Alberta, Canada to refineries in Texas near the Gulf of Mexico. Over 1200 people have been arrested during the protests in Washington D.C. See below for more information.
We hope this newsletter supports your own work and helps you further your own engagements with the field of Religion and Ecology.
Warm wishes,
Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
California Institute of Integral Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Web Content Managers & Newsletter Editors
http://www.yale.edu/religionandecology
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
2. Journey of the Universe Film Screenings
Film Screening: San Rafael, CA (September 7, 2011)
Dominican University of California
Angelico Hall
50 Acacia Avenue
San Rafael, CA, USA
7 pm
Free lecture (no RSVP, but limited seating)
Brian Thomas Swimme will answer questions after the screening.
Voices of Dominican Choices Fall 2011 Leadership Lecture Series
Presented in cooperation with Dominican’s First Year Experience Big History.
Contact: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), 415-485-3202
http://www.dominican.edu/academics/businesslead/leadership/publiceventssymp/upcoming-lectures.1.html
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Film Screening: River Forest, IL (September 17, 2011)
Priory Campus, Dominican University
7200 Division Street
River Forest, IL, USA
9:30am – 12:00pm
Discussion afterwards with Mary Evelyn Tucker
$5 free will offering requested
Sponsored by the St. Giles Family Mass Community, Oak Park, IL
Contact: Annette Hulefeld, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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Film Screening: Waterloo, IA (September 17, 2011)
First Presbyterian Church
505 Franklin St.
Waterloo, IA, USA
1:30pm-4:00pm
Sponsored by Central Iowa Presbyterian Association on Science Technology & Christian Faith
Contact: Pastor Harold P. Martin, 319-342-3771, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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Film Screening: Abingdon, VA (September 17, 2011)
Catholic Committee of Appalachia Annual Meeting
Sponsored by Appalachian Faith & Ecology Center
4H Center
Abingdon, VA, USA
Time TBA
Contact: Jaculyn Hanrahan, CND, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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Film Screening: New Rochelle, NY (September 21, 2011)
Iona College
Romita Auditorium of Ryan Library
715 North Avenue
New Rochelle, NY, USA
7:30 PM
Discussion with Mary Evelyn Tucker
Hosted by the Thomas Berry Forum for Ecological Dialogue at Iona College
Sponsored by the Iona Spirituality Institute
Contact Kathleen Deignan, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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Film Screening: Brisbane, Australia (September 23, 2011)
Sponsored by Sisters of Mercy Earth Link
All Hallows' School
547 Ann Street
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Time TBA
Contact: Mary Tinney, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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Film Screening & Conference: Ottawa, ON, Canada (September 23-24, 2011)
Saint Paul University
223 Main Street
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Screening – Sept. 24 - 7pm
Conference – Sept. 24 – 9am-4:30pm
Screening Intro & Conference Keynote Address by Mary Evelyn Tucker
http://www.ustpaul.ca/index.php?page=852
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Film Screening: Orlando, FL (September 28, 2011)
Orlando Science Center
777 East Princeton Street
Orlando, FL, USA
7pm screening followed by discussion with Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker
Reception and book signing following the screening
Organized by the Center for Earth Jurisprudence, Barry University School of Law
Contact: Patricia Siemen, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
http://earthjuris.org/2011/08/journey-of-the-universe/
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Film Screening: Seattle, WA (September 29, 2011)
Landmark Harvard Exit
807 E Roy St.
Seattle, WA, USA
7pm - reception
8pm - film screening
Brian Thomas Swimme, Mary Evelyn Tucker, and Patsy Northcutt will introduce the film.
Contact: Fritz Hull, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/188671
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Film Screening & Workshop: Langley, WA (October 1, 2011)
Clyde Theatre
Whidbey Island
Langley, WA, USA
9:00am - Film showing with intro by Brian Thomas Swimme & Mary Evelyn Tucker
10:30am-5:30pm - Daylong Workshop
6:00pm - Banquet Dinner and Fireside Chat with Brian and Mary Evelyn
Contact: Fritz Hull, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=997007
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For more events related to Journey of the Universe, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/upcoming-events/
3. Tar Sands Climate Protests
For the past two weeks in Washington DC religious leaders joined environmentalists and eco-justice leaders, to protest the proposed construction of a tar sands oil pipeline from Alberta Canada to oil refineries in Texas. The Alberta tar sands project, which has been called "the most destructive project on Earth," has decimated local ecosystems and directly affects the land and livelihood of first nation peoples in Canada. To extract oil from this once pristine boreal forest requires more water than a city of 2 million people and emits 36 million tons of carbon dioxide each day. For some articles on the tar sands and the pipeline protest, see the following:
Open letter drafted by Bill McKibben, Wendell Berry, Gus Speth, et al:
http://www.tarsandsaction.org/invitation/
Appeal from Bill McKibben regarding the protests:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/news/item/an-appeal-from-bill-mckibben/
Tar sands climate protest to be held in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on September 26, 2011:
http://ottawaaction.ca/join-us
“Decision on Canadian tar sands pipeline is chance for Obama to fulfill an environmental promise”
By Russell Powell
New Haven Register
September 1, 2011
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2011/09/01/opinion/doc4e5eade0afb86241943951.txt
“Sitting down, so Obama will stand up”
By Russ Powell
Yale Daily News
September 1, 2011
http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2011/sep/01/sitting-down-obama-stand-up/
“For Protesters, Keystone Pipeline Is Line In Tar Sand”
By Richard Harris
NPR: All Things Considered
September 1, 2011
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/01/140117187/for-protesters-keystone-pipeline-is-line-in-tar-sand
“Lessons From Central Cell Block”
By Bill McKibben
The Nation
August 29, 2011
http://www.thenation.com/article/163020/lessons-central-cell-block
“Green groups add to pressure on Obama”
By Ben Geman
The Hill
August 24, 2011
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/178079-big-green-groups-add-to-climate-pressure-on-obama
“Vermont Law School Professor and Middlebury Scholar Arrested at White House Protest”
By Kevin J. Kelley
Blurt: 7 Days Staff Blog
August 21, 2011
http://7d.blogs.com/blurt/2011/08/a-vermont-law-school-professor-and-a-middlebury-college-scholar-were-arrested-in-front-of-the-white-house-on-saturday-at-the.html
“Tar Sands and the Carbon Numbers”
New York Times
August 21, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/opinion/tar-sands-and-the-carbon-numbers.html?_r=1
4. Events
“Global Solutions to Global Challenges: Think, Unite, Act”
Rights and Humanity’s Global Leaders Congress 2011
September 11 – 14, 2011
Liverpool, UK
Under the Patronage of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and Mrs Cherie Blair
www.rightsandhumanityGLC.org
“Green Perceptions: Ecology and Texts”
St. Paul's College, Kalakassery, Kerala, India
September 15-16, 2011
http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/item/green-perceptions-ecology-and-texts/
“Living the New Story: Cosmology, Justice, Poetry and the Planet”
With Drew Dellinger
Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA, USA
September 23-25, 2011
http://webapp.esalen.org/workshops/9770
“Creativity and Harmony: The Way of Eco-Sophia for the Future of Civilization”
Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan
Herman Greene of the Center for Ecozoic Societies (CES) will be giving a plenary talk.
September 26-29, 2011
http://iwc8-japan.com/
“Tunza International Children & Youth Conference on the Environment”
Organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Government of Indonesia
Bandung, Indonesia
September 26-30, 2011
http://unep.org/tunza/
“The Wisdom of Thomas Berry”
Knox United Church, 506 4th Street SW, Calgary, AB, Canada
Tuesday evenings, 7:00-9:00PM
September 27 – November 22, 2011
www.knoxcentre.ca
http://fore.research.yale.edu/files/The_Wisdom_of_Thomas_Berry.pdf
“Big Society—Bigger Nature?”
The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, UK
October 1, 2011
http://religionandcivilsociety.com/big-society
For more events, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/
5. New Books
Confronting the Climate Crisis: Catholic Theological Perspectives
Edited by Jame Schaefer
Marquette University Press, 2011
http://www.marquette.edu/mupress/MST75Schaefer.shtml
Can theologians respond meaningfully to the overwhelming scientific evidence that human activities are accelerating the temperature of Earth and adversely affecting people, other species, ecological systems, and the biosphere? Members of the Catholic Theological Society of America’s Interest Group on Global Warming have dug deeply into the biblical to contemporary traditions, reflected systematically, and produced seventeen original essays that demonstrate fruitful ways in which to approach the climate crisis so that current and predicted effects may be mitigated. Framing these essays are an overview of basic scientific findings that compelled this group effort and statements by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and Pope Benedict XVI.
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Placing Nature on the Borders of Religion, Philosophy and Ethics
Edited by Forrest Clingerman and Mark H. Dixon
Published in the series "Transcending Boundaries in Philosophy and Theology"
Hardback and e-book
Ashgate Publishing, 2011
http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409420446
The natural world has been "humanized": even areas thought to be wilderness bear the marks of human impact. But this human impact is not simply physical. At the emergence of the environmental movement, the focus was on human effects on "nature." More recently, however, the complexity of the term "nature" has led to fruitful debates and the recognition of how human individuals and cultures interpret their environments.
This book furthers the dialogue on religion, ethics, and the environment by exploring three interrelated concepts: to recreate, to replace, and to restore. Through interdisciplinary dialogue the authors illuminate certain unique dimensions at the crossroads between finding value, creating value, and reflecting on one's place in the world. This book reflects on the intersections of environmental philosophy, environmental theology, and religion and ecology, stressing the importance of how place interprets us and how we interpret place. In addition to its contribution to environmental philosophy, this work is a unique volume in its serious engagement with theology and religious studies on the issues of ecological restoration and the meaning of place.
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Environmental Science and Theology in Dialogue
By Russell A. Butkus and Steven A. Kolmes
Theology in Dialogue Series
Orbis, 2011
http://www.maryknollsocietymall.org/description.cfm?ISBN=978-1-57075-912-3
https://published.up.edu/envscitheobook/
A compelling “sign of the times” is that our human experience today is defined in part by increasing ecological degradation. Given the complexity of these environmental issues, this book argues that creative and strategic collaboration between theology and environmental science is necessary to find and implement practical solutions.
The authors argue a solid grounding in environmental science creates an understanding of the major environmental problems we face: global climate change, ozone depletion, depletion of the earth’s resources, collapse of biodiversity, overpopulation and over-consumption, the presence of persistent toxins, and the challenges of achieving sustainability. With humankind contributing to the source of many of these problems, the book also explores the many contributions theology can make to the healing of the world—including an understanding of God as creator and the roles of nature, grace, sin, and revelation.
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Green Discipleship: Catholic Theological Ethics and the Environment
Edited by Tobias Winright
Anselm Academic, 2011
http://www.anselmacademic.org/ItemDetail.cfm?ItemNum=7027
From federal rebates for high-efficiency appliances to bottle deposits to “Meatless Mondays,” practices promoting sustainability are now incorporated into our daily lives. Due to the establishment of protection agencies and the efforts of activist groups, the wider public has become more conscious of the impact we humans make on the planet, and what we can do to preserve what we have.
Religious communities, long concerned with broad issues of social responsibility and justice, have naturally become full participants in this greening movement. In Green Discipleship: Catholic Theological Ethics, scholars from the fields of theology and the social and hard sciences discuss this development, and consider how a proactive approach to the earth’s welfare is, essentially, a moral obligation of Christians, and those of other faiths around the world.
Current and relevant, Green Discipleship will prompt students to think more widely about the earth, its stewardship, and how individual action is a fulfillment of duty.
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Cultivating Unity within the Biodiversity of God
By Anne Primavesi
Polebridge Press, 2011
http://www.westarinstitute.org/Polebridge/cultivatingunity.html
Scientific assertions about our shared origins with other species and shared dependence on global ecosystems are often resisted and even dismissed on the grounds that humans are different from all other beings in both degree and kind. We presume we are intellectually and morally superior to all other creatures. We might even be accused of worshipping humanity. Anne Primavesi looks at ways that the Christian inheritance has contributed to or limited respect for biodiversity and asks: How is our common perception of God at variance with Jesus own understanding of our Father’s kingdom? Would a better appreciation of the God of Jesus inspire us to cultivate unity through reverence for diversity? How do we respond to the fact that Jesus suffered a violent death but did not inflict violence on any living being?
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Living Authentically: Daoist Contributions to Modern Psychology
Edited by Livia Kohn
Three Pines Press, 2011
Available in paperback and PDF
http://www.threepinespress.com/
Living Authentically brings together classical scholars of Daoism, professors of psychology, practicing psychologists, medical doctors, and alternative practitioners (acupuncturists, qigong healers, pedagogues, and counselors) in an exciting new journey of discovery.
This fruitful venture, born during panels at several Daoist conferences, explores ways of living in the world, sustaining relationships, and educating children, in a stress-free, truly authentic way.
The book outlines different Daoist visions and concepts of the conscious and subconscious mind and its transformations; it correlates these to different schools of psychology today (psychoanalysis, cognitive therapy, humanistic psychology, positive psychology); and it explores options on how we can best become fully authentic, allowing the universal power of Dao to flow freely through all our attitudes and actions.
6. Forum Luncheon & Journey of the Universe Film Screening at the American Academy of Religion (November 18, 2011 in San Francisco, CA, USA)
We would like to invite you to the annual Forum on Religion and Ecology luncheon to be held in San Francisco on Friday November 18, before the American Academy of Religion (AAR) meetings begin. The luncheon will take place from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm at the Intercontinental Hotel, 888 Howard Street, in the Telegraph Hill Room.
Please RSVP for the luncheon to (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
If you have students or colleagues who may be interested in attending, feel free to pass the information along to them, but please ask them to RSVP as well, as we do need to know how many people will be in attendance.
We are also pleased to announce that the film Journey of the Universe will be shown that same evening, Friday November 18, 7:30pm at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, 555 Fourth Street ((Room: Marriott Marquis Golden Gate A). The film is a collaboration of Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker who will be present to discuss the film along with Barbara Holmes (Memphis Theological Seminary) and Heather Eaton (St. Paul University). Don’t miss this opportunity to view the film that Catherine Keller has described as "...stunning–visually mesmerizing, exquisitely situated, and persuasively narrated. It releases the quality of wonder that can change the world."
We look forward to seeing you in San Francisco!
7. St. Francis Pledge to Care for Creation and the Poor
All across our country, Catholics are taking the St. Francis Pledge to Care for Creation and the Poor and joining the Catholic Climate Covenant. The St. Francis Pledge is a promise and a commitment by Catholic individuals, families, parishes, organizations and institutions to live our faith by protecting God’s Creation and advocating on behalf of people in poverty who face the harshest impacts of global climate change. Celebrate the Feast of St. Francis (October 4) by taking the St. Francis Pledge.
For more information, visit:
http://catholicclimatecovenant.org/the-st-francis-pledge/
To find resources to promote the St. Francis Pledge, visit:
http://catholicclimatecovenant.org/resources/
8. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme. For more information, visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo
For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental ethics/philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html. If you know of a publication that needs to be added to this list, email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/index.html
The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
5.8 (August 2011)
Contents:
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
2. Journey of the Universe Film Screenings
3. Events
4. New Books
5. Rights and Humanity’s Global Leaders Congress 2011 (September 11 – 14, 2011 in Liverpool, UK)
6. “The Wisdom of Thomas Berry” (September 27 – November 22, 2011 in Calgary, AB, Canada)
7. World Council of Churches (WCC) Climate Change Update #52
8. New Issue of Eco Islam Magazine by Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IFEES)
9. Certificate in Yoga and Ecology at Loyola Marymount University
10. Interviews on Hinduism and Ecology with Pankaj Jain
11. Tar Sands Climate Protests
12. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
2. Journey of the Universe Film Screenings
Film Broadcasts: KQED (August 4-14, 2011)
KQED Pledge Drive with Journey of the Universe
Interview with Mary Evelyn Tucker
For the channels and airdates, visit:
http://www.kqed.org/tv/programs/index.jsp?pgmid=20036
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Film Screening: Austin, TX (August 8, 2011)
Ecological Society of America (ESA) Annual Meeting
Austin Convention Center (Room 14)
500 E Cesar Chavez St.
Austin, TX
6:30-8pm
Mary Evelyn Tucker will introduce the film.
Contact: Ellen Freiler, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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Film Screening: Blairstown, NJ (August 20, 2011)
Genesis Farm
41A Silver Lake Avenue
Blairstown, NJ
Film and discussion with Mary Evelyn Tucker at 2 pm
Benefit Reception at 6 pm
$10 for Film
$30 for Benefit Reception
To RSVP by August 15, visit:
http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/storage/JOTU_Genesis_Farm_RSVP.pdf
Contact: Genesis Farm, 908-362-6735
http://www.genesisfarm.org/program.taf?_function=pdetail&program_id=173&id=101&type&chron=chron&_UserReference=F411CE26D55F3E204E1DE593
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Film Screening: Pittsburgh, PA (August 23, 2011)
First United Methodist Church
5401 Centre Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15232
7:00 PM
This screening is part of Cosmology Movie Night.
Contact: Karen Bernard, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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For more events related to Journey of the Universe, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/upcoming-events/
3. Events
“The Future of Creation Order”
Christian Philosophy Conference
VU University Amsterdam
August 16-19, 2011
http://www.cpc2011.org
“Uncanny Homecomings: Narrative Structures, Existential Questions, Theological Visions”
2011 Religion, Literature and the Arts Conference
University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
August 26-28, 2011
http://rla2011.blogspot.com/
"God's Earth: Too Big to Fail? A Conversation Among Faith, Science & Culture"
Presbyterians for Earth Care National Conference
Highlands Presbyterian Camp and Retreat Center, Allenspark, CO, USA
August 31-September 3, 2011
http://www.presbyearthcare.org/
http://toobigtoofail.wordpress.com/
“Green Perceptions: Ecology and Texts”
St. Paul's College, Kalakassery, Kerala, India
September 15-16, 2011
http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/item/green-perceptions-ecology-and-texts/
"Implications of the Journey of the Universe"
Film Screening & Conference in Ottawa
Keynote Address: Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker
Saint Paul University, 223 Main Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
September 23-24, 2011
http://www.ustpaul.ca/index.php?page=852
"Living the New Story: Cosmology, Justice, Poetry and the Planet”
With Drew Dellinger
Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA, USA
September 23-25, 2011
http://webapp.esalen.org/workshops/9770
5. Rights and Humanity’s Global Leaders Congress 2011 (September 11 – 14, 2011 in Liverpool, UK)
“Global Solutions to Global Challenges: Think, Unite, Act”
Rights and Humanity’s Global Leaders Congress 2011
Under the Patronage of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and Mrs Cherie Blair
Liverpool, UK
September 11–14, 2011
www.rightsandhumanityGLC.org
The aim of the Global Leaders Congress is to identify solutions to critical existing and emerging concerns, share good practice and promising innovations and identify common strategies for health, peace and security and environmental sustainability. Participants at the Congress will develop an urgent Call For Action to promote global cooperation around solutions to the pressing global challenges of our time. The Congress will bring together a core group of thought leaders and innovators from all sectors, in recognition that new institutions and a reformed model critically depend on a strengthened relationship between government, business and civil society. The deliberations at the Congress will be shaped by the legal framework and moral compass of globally recognised human rights law and the values and responsibilities shared across faiths and cultures - our common humanity.
For more information and registration details, visit: www.rightsandhumanityGLC.org.
6. “The Wisdom of Thomas Berry” (September 27 – November 22, 2011 in Calgary, AB, Canada)
“The Wisdom of Thomas Berry”
Nine Tuesday evenings 7:00-9:00PM
Starts September 27th 2011
October 4, 11, 18, and 25
November 1, 8, 15, and 22
Suggested Fee: $50 or $10 per session
Knox United Church
506 4th Street SW
Calgary, AB, Canada
T2P 1S7
www.knoxcentre.ca
Our Gatherings this Fall will focus on the writings and teachings of Thomas Berry (1913-2009), a cultural historian, a Passionist priest, a professor at Fordham University, and a self-described “geologian.” His insights inspired an entire generation of teachers such as Brian Swimme and Matthew Fox.
In Fall 2011 each week we will focus on excerpts from one of Thomas Berry’s books: The Dream of the Earth, The Universe Story, The Great Work, Evening Thoughts, The Christian Future and Fate of the Earth, and The Sacred Universe, as well as video clips of Thomas. There will be plenty of time for discussion and contemplation as well.
To see the flyer, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/files/The_Wisdom_of_Thomas_Berry.pdf
7. World Council of Churches (WCC) Climate Change Update #52
WCC Climate Change Update #52
July 2011
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?id=8511
Topics in this update include:
- International Ecumenical Peace Convocation
- The meeting of the WCC Working Group on Climate Change
- Climate justice for sustainable peace in Africa
- UN climate change negotiating session in Bonn
- A new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
8. New Issue of Eco Islam Magazine by Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IFEES)
Please find the latest Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IFEES) Eco Islam magazine (Issue 8) ready to download at this link:
www.ifees.org.uk/ecoislam/newsletter_EcoIslam_Issue8.pdf
Articles in this edition include:
- Genetic modification and Islam
- Water ethics in Islam
- Green Islam in Algeria
- IFEES' Schools4Trees programme
- The Green Mosque Initiative
- IFEES' outreach in: Indonesia, Nigeria & Ghana
9. Certificate in Yoga and Ecology at Loyola Marymount University
Loyola Marymount University's Center for Religion and Spirituality, in conjunction with the Green Yoga Association, will conduct its fourth certificate training in Yoga and Ecology. The 50-hour certificate program begins September 12, 2011, at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center and will continue on weekends in Los Angeles and Santa Monica throughout the fall.
Courses include:
- Foundations of Yoga and Ecology
- Yoga and Permaculture
- Earth Verses: The Prthivi Sukta
- Yoga as Personal and Planetary Healing
- Green Yoga Sadhana
For further information, visit:
http://www.lmu.edu/academics/extension/crs/certificates/yoga_green.htm
10. Interviews on Hinduism and Ecology with Pankaj Jain
“Ecology and the Spirituality of Hinduism with Pankaj Jain”
The Godspeed Institute for Spiritual Learning
http://www.godspeedinstitute.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=111
“Hindu Organization of Long Island (HOLI) and Earth Day Celebration”
By Hindu Organization of Long Island (HOLI) at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Manhasset
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2A1eaMNyKA
11. Tar Sands Climate Protests
Together with North America's eminent environmentalists, agriculturalists, and other eco-justice leaders, people are invited to join the protest against the proposed construction of a tar sands oil pipeline from Alberta to various oil refineries in Texas. The Alberta tar sands project, which has been called "the most destructive project on Earth," has decimated local ecosystems and directly affects the land and livelihood of first nation peoples in Canada. Moreover, the construction of a pipeline to connect the tar sands to Texas has been called a "fifteen hundred mile fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the planet." From August 20th to September 3rd protests will be held in front of the White House lawn in order to demonstrate to the Obama administration and Congress that this pipeline is bad for the Earth, bad for all its people, and bad for America.
The "open letter" URL drafted by Bill McKibben, Wendell Berry, Gus Speth, et al can be found at:
http://www.tarsandsaction.org/invitation/
Further information about the Tar Sands, visit:
http://www.tarsandsaction.org/about/
12. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme. For more information, visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo
For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental ethics/philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html. If you know of a publication that needs to be added to this list, email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/index.html
The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
5.7 (July 2011)
Contents:
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
2. Journey of the Universe Film Showings
3. Events
4. New Books
5. Tar Sands Climate Protests
6. “A Call to Action on Climate Change,” by Jonathan Gorham
7. Earth Ministry’s 4th Annual St. Francis Creation Care Sermon Contest
8. Open Spaces Sacred Places National Awards Initiative
9. Call for Papers: "Religions, Science and Technology in Cultural Contexts: Dynamics of Change" (Conference of the International Association for the History of Religions, March 1-3, 2012 in Trondheim, Norway)
10. Call for Papers: "Green Perceptions: Ecology and Texts" (Conference on September 15-16, 2011 at St. Paul's College, Kerala, India)
11. Thinking Nature: A Journal on the Concept of Nature
12. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
Greetings,
Welcome to the July issue of the newsletter for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. We have much to share with you this month with regards to developments in the field of Religion and Ecology, including film screenings, books, conferences, events, calls for papers, and more.
We are excited to keep you informed about the Journey of the Universe project. The Journey of the Universe book has been released and is now available. To order the book from Yale University Press, visit: http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300171907
A collaboration of Brian Thomas Swimme, Mary Evelyn Tucker, and John Grim, the Journey of the Universe project also includes a film (available late July 2011) and an educational series (available October 12, 2011). Inspired by the New Story of Thomas Berry, the Journey of the Universe draws on the latest scientific knowledge to tell the story of cosmic and Earth evolution. It aims to inspire a new and closer relationship with Earth in a period of growing environmental and social crisis. For more information about the project, including the most up-to-date list of film screenings, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org
There are two news items related to climate change that might interest you. First, a collection of activists and eco-justice leaders from North America have released an open letter (drafted by Bill McKibben, Wendell Berry, Gus Speth, and others), which calls for people to join in protest against the construction of an oil pipeline connecting the tar sands of Alberta to refineries in Texas. The pipeline would have devastating effects for people and for the planet. To view the open letter, visit: http://www.tarsandsaction.org/invitation/
We also want to inform you about a call for religious responses to climate change. Jonathan Gorham, the President of Green Media Ventures, issued a call for religious thought leaders who would like to partner with his organization to disseminate educational resource materials regarding the science, politics, and solutions for climate change. See below for more information.
We also want to inform you about a new journal, Thinking Nature, which publishes essays that address various philosophical and ecological approaches to inquiring into concepts of nature. Edited by Timothy Morton and Ben Woodard, Thinking Nature is an Open Access journal, available for free online: http://thinkingnaturejournal.com
For a journal that brings together religious and cultural perspectives to explore ecological issues and concepts of nature, we recommend that you look at Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, which covers a range of disciplinary areas and addresses major world religious traditions and worldviews in relation to cultural and ecological systems. For more, please visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo. For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html.
We are happy to inform clergy and lay leaders with a passion for faith-based environmental stewardship that Earth Ministry is having its 4th annual St. Francis Creation Care Sermon Contest. Sermons on creation care are due by July 31, with winning sermons given on October first at Earth Ministry’s Celebration of St. Francis in Seattle, Washington. For more details, visit: http://earthministry.org/news/find-your-voice-1
We hope this newsletter supports your own work and helps you further your own engagements with the field of Religion and Ecology.
Warm wishes,
Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
California Institute of Integral Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Web Content Managers & Newsletter Editors
http://www.yale.edu/religionandecology
news@religionandecology.org
2. Journey of the Universe Film Showings
Film Screening: The Sophia Center (July 14, 2011)
Sophia Center Summer Institute 2011
"Living the New Story: Cosmology for a Mutually Enhancing World"
The Sophia Center
3500 Mountain Blvd.
Oakland, CA
7pm - Film Screening and Keynote Address by Brian Thomas Swimme
$15 admission fee
http://uniquewebdesignandprinting.com/sophia/summer2011.html
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Film Screening: Jackson Hole, WY (July 21, 2011)
Center Theater
Center for the Arts
240 S. Glenwood
Jackson Hole, WY
Discussion with Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim
7:00pm
Contact: Jennifer Simon, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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Film Screening: San Francisco, CA (July 22, 2011)
14th International Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) Conference
Westin San Francisco Market Street
50 Third St.
San Francisco, CA
8:30pm
Contact: Matthew Gilbert, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
http://www.noetic.org/conference/program/friday-evening/
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Film Screening: Austin, TX (August 8, 2011)
Ecological Society of America (ESA) Annual Meeting
Austin Convention Center (Room 14)
500 E Cesar Chavez St.
Austin, TX
6:30-8pm
Mary Evelyn Tucker will introduce the film.
Contact: Ellen Freiler, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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For more events related to Journey of the Universe, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/upcoming-events/
3. Events
“Living the New Story: Cosmology for a Mutually Enhancing World”
Sophia Center Summer Institute 2011
Oakland, CA, USA
July 14-17, 2011
http://uniquewebdesignandprinting.com/sophia/summer2011.html
“Cosmology for a Mutually Enhancing World”
Post-Institute Retreat of Sophia Center Summer Institute 2011
Oakland, CA, USA
July 17-19, 2011
http://uniquewebdesignandprinting.com/sophia/summer2011.html
“Global Climate Talks 2011 (COP17) in Durban – So What?”
Annual General Meeting of the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (SAFCEI)
Diakonia Centre , 20 Diakonia Avenue, Durban, South Africa
Light finger supper at 6pm
Meeting at 7pm
July 19, 2011
RSVP to: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 021-701-8145
“Water, Energy, Climate, and the Importance of Health and Culture”
16th Protecting Mother Earth Gathering
Four Bears Park/Little Shell Powwow Grounds
New Town, North Dakota
July 28-31, 2011
www.ienearth.org
“The Future of Creation Order”
Christian Philosophy Conference
VU University Amsterdam
August 16-19, 2011
http://www.cpc2011.org
“Uncanny Homecomings: Narrative Structures, Existential Questions, Theological Visions”
2011 Religion, Literature and the Arts Conference
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA, USA
August 26-28, 2011
http://rla2011.blogspot.com/
"God's Earth: Too Big to Fail? A Conversation Among Faith, Science & Culture"
Presbyterians for Earth Care National Conference
Highlands Presbyterian Camp and Retreat Center, Allenspark, CO, USA
August 31-September 3, 2011
http://www.presbyearthcare.org/
http://toobigtoofail.wordpress.com/
4. New Books
Religion and Ecology in the Public Sphere
Edited by Celia Deane-Drummond and Heinrich Bedford-Strohm
Continuum International Publishing Group, 2011
http://www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?BookId=157978&SubjectId=1080&Subject2Id=1036
This collection of essays brings to the surface vital dimensions in the in the engagement between religion and ecology. The authors are aware of both the political urgency, but also the need to delve into a variety of diverse traditions in order to resource such a task, namely, what might religious traditions contribute to ecological debates? A core issue addressed here is how contemporary theology might become public theology, one that is deeply relevant to the particular problems and issues of today. This then raises important theoretical questions about how theology might engage with politics. The diverse methodological approaches possible within Christian theology are represented in this collection, including those drawing on particular traditions such as Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Reformed theology, through to self consciously contextual approaches in liberation, African and Feminist discourse.
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Prophetic Activism: Progressive Religious Justice Movements in Contemporary America
By Helene Slessarev-Jamir
NYU Press, 2011
http://nyupress.org/books/book-details.aspx?bookId=5598
While the links between conservative Christians and politics have been drawn strongly in recent years, coming to embody what many think of as religious activism, the profoundly religious nature of community organizing and other more left-leaning justice work has been largely overlooked. Prophetic Activism is the first broad comparative examination of progressive religious activism in the United States. Set up as a counter-narrative to religious conservatism, the book offers readers a deeper understanding of the richness and diversity of contemporary religious activism.
Helene Slessarev-Jamir offers five case studies of major progressive religious justice movements that have their roots in liberative interpretations of Scripture: congregational community organizing; worker justice; immigrant rights work; peace-making and reconciliation; and global anti-poverty and debt relief. Drawing on intensive interviews with activists at all levels of this work—from pastors and congregational leaders to local organizers and the executive directors of the national networks—she uncovers the ways in which they construct an ethical framework for their work. In addition to looking at predominantly Christian organizations, the book also highlights the growth of progressive activism among Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists who are engaged in reinterpreting their religious texts to support new forms of activism.
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Climate Change and Society
By John Urry
Polity Books, 2011
http://politybooks.com/book.asp?ref=9780745650364
This book explores the significance of human behaviour to understanding the causes and impacts of changing climates and to assessing varied ways of responding to such changes. So far the discipline that has represented and modelled such human behaviour is economics.
By contrast Climate Change and Society tries to place the ‘social’ at the heart of both the analysis of climates and of the assessment of alternative futures. It demonstrates the importance of social practices organised into systems. In the fateful twentieth century various interlocking high carbon systems were established. This sedimented high carbon social practices, engendering huge population growth, increasing greenhouse gas emissions and the potentially declining availability of oil that made this world go round. Especially important in stabilising this pattern was the ‘carbon military-industrial complex’ around the world.
Climate Change and Society thus attempts to replace economics with sociology as the dominant discipline in climate change analysis. Sociology has spent much time examining the nature of modern societies, of modernity, but mostly failed to analyse the carbon resource base of such societies. This book seeks to remedy that failing. It should appeal to teachers and students in sociology, economics, environmental studies, geography, planning, politics and science studies, as well as to the public concerned with the long term future of carbon and society.
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Plants as Persons: A Philosophical Botany.
By Matthew Hall
SUNY Press, 2011
www.plantsaspersons.com
In this groundbreaking book, Matthew Hall surveys contrasting attitudes towards the plant kingdom across a range of different cultures. Drawing on Western philosophy, botanical history, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Pagan mythologies and Indigenous worldviews, Hall challenges readers to reconsider the moral standing of plants. In light of the global assault on our plant based ecosystems, Hall uses both religious and contemporary scientific thought to argue that plants are intelligent, relational beings who are the appropriate recipients of care and respect.
Matthew Hall is a research scientist at the Centre for Middle Eastern Plants, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
For more information, and to read sample chapters of Plants as Persons, please visit: www.plantsaspersons.com
Together with North America's eminent environmentalists, agricultural activists, and other eco-justice leaders, people are invited to join the protest against the proposed construction of a tar sands oil pipeline from Alberta to various oil refineries in Texas. The Alberta tar sands project, which has been called "the most destructive project on Earth," has decimated local ecosystems and directly affects the land and livelihood of first nation peoples in Canada. Moreover, the construction of a pipeline to connect the tar sands to Texas has been called a "fifteen hundred mile fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the planet." From August 20th to September 3rd protests will be held in front of the White House lawn in order to demonstrate to the Obama administration and Congress that this pipeline is bad for the Earth, bad for all its people, and bad for America.
The "open letter" URL drafted by Bill McKibben, Wendell Berry, Gus Speth, et al can be found at:
http://www.tarsandsaction.org/invitation/
Further information about the Tar Sands, visit:
http://www.tarsandsaction.org/about/
6. “A Call to Action on Climate Change,” by Jonathan Gorham
Quakers have been “waging peace” for centuries. In fact, social and political action is deeply engrained in Quaker traditions; fighting for the abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, nuclear non-proliferation, etc. And now climate change action. These have been epic and ongoing struggles that have drawn Quakers into the fray.
The theme for the New England Yearly Meeting in Rhode Island in August this year is: “350 Years of New England Friends: Called to Heal a Broken Earth” with the multiple sub-themes of celebrating over 350 years of Quaker activism and 350 Parts Per Million (PPM) - the Climate Crisis as defined by the world’s leading scientists. See: http://sessions.neym.org/theme
A further description of the program explains:
“Human-created climate change is an issue that demands our attention now – God’s earth is endangered. May we joyously celebrate our birthday, but do so by carrying forward this tradition of faithfulness to future generations. In doing so, we offer them stewardship of both the planet we love and the Light that has enlivened Friends in New England for 350 years.”
In addition to Quakers, other religious groups have recognized the urgency of this issue and are catalyzing education and political actions to motivate their congregants. For example, on May 2, 2011 the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences issued a working group paper calling for concrete steps to combat climate change. In addition, the Massachusetts Chapter of the United Church of Christ is collecting sermons on climate change to make them more widely available. It does so because UCC church leaders feel this repository of good ideas will make it easier to preach on the topic of climate change which it describes as a “crucial challenge and a moral imperative”.
So why has climate change bubbled to the surface, once again? You might think one has only to read the science and watch the news in order to connect the dots. Herein lies the dilemma, most people in the US do not understand that 97% of peer reviewed, published scientists agree that climate change is real and that it is being caused by human activity. Massive public education on the science, politics and solutions is needed. So how do we do this?
The Science:
In May of 2010 the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences published its two-year study on climate change entitled “Climate Change Choices”. That report it concluded that:
“Climate change is occurring, is very likely caused primarily by human activities, and poses significant risks to humans and the environment. These risks indicate a pressing need for substantial action to limit the magnitude of climate change and to prepare for adapting to its impacts.”
Ironically, the release of this report garnered almost no public media attention. Why? We were in the midst of monitoring the BP Gulf oil spill.
The Politics:
In the spring of 2011 the US House voted 240-184 to defeat a resolution saying simply “climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for public health and welfare.”
That defeat does not bode well for any meaningful climate legislation coming from Washington. Our best bet is to show political support for state and local officials who are making bold policy initiatives for sensible programs to promote a more sustainable lifestyle.
The Solutions:
There are two educational resources on climate change now available free of charge. One is a set of three monographs prepared by the environmental organization, 350.org. They are on the topics of: Science, Politics and Solutions. They may be downloaded here:
http://www.350.org/en/factsheets
A second FREE resource is also available, a template for an origami paper box. This is an engagement activity designed for teachers, religious educators, youth group leaders, and others wanting to draw people into a meaningful discussion on climate change.
To learn about this new “communications device” go to: www.yourbuzzbox.com/assembly. As the designer of this new medium, I have used these origami boxes successfully to raise awareness and funding for a variety of environmental causes, like getting townspeople to sign up for home energy audits, raising money for a local organic farm, and earning solar PV arrays for our local high school. We make the color templates available for an origami boxes promoting Bill McKibben’s upcoming global event, Moving-Planet – A Day to Move Beyond Fossil Fuels, September 24, 2011. These templates are free with access to the assembly video. See: www.Moving-Planet.org
We are looking for religious thought leaders who would like to partner with us to disseminate both sets of materials, 1) the 350.org sheets on Science, Politics and Solutions, and 2) the origami box as an engagement activity, memento, and conversation starter. If interested, please contact me at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Jonathan Gorham is President of Green Media Ventures a Woodbridge, CT-based business development, marketing and communications firm. He is a Quaker, teacher of Earth Care Witness at First Day School in New Haven, and Chairman of his town’s Clean Energy Task Force. In 2010 he was awarded by CT Governor Jodi Rell a CT Climate Change Leadership award. Gorham is the parent of two daughters who wonder what kind of a planet are we handing off to them.
7. Earth Ministry’s 4th Annual St. Francis Creation Care Sermon Contest
What sparks your passion for faith-based environmental stewardship? The sacredness of water? Christ’s call to speak for those without voice? The impact of climate change on impoverished communities? Seeking the reflection of the Creator in creation?
Share your message of faith, hope, or action for the Earth!
Who: All clergy and lay leaders
What: A creation care sermon
When:
* Submission Deadline: July 31, 2011
* 4 finalists announced August 12
* Sermons given on October 1 (Earth Ministry’s Celebration of St. Francis)
Where: Seattle, WA
Why: To inspire and mobilize other people of faith to care for God’s great gift of creation
For more details on contest rules, judging, and prizes, visit: http://earthministry.org/news/find-your-voice-1
For more information, contact Earth Ministry at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call (206) 632-2426.
8. Open Spaces Sacred Places National Awards Initiative
Open Spaces Sacred Places: The Healing Power of Nature
National Awards Initiative for Integrated Design and Research
In 2012, the TKF Foundation will begin the Open Spaces Sacred Places National Awards Initiative. This new award program will fund the creation of significant Open Spaces Sacred Places that are designed specifically with the intent to study and communicate the impact of a specific type of urban public greenspace on users. Grants will be awarded from a total funding pool of $5 million. Funding will be provided to cross-disciplinary teams that conceptualize, plan, design and implement a physical space, conduct associated research study(s) and disseminate findings. This Request for Proposal (RFP) launches the first phase of the national awards program and will provide funding for planning grants.
The funding will be enacted in two sequential phases. As an optional first step in the Open Spaces Sacred Places Awards process, applicants may apply for a planning grant; deadline for application is September 1, 2011. Following the planning phase, applicants may apply for Open Spaces Sacred Places Awards beginning February, 2012.
For more information and guidelines, please visit: http://www.opensacred.org/grants
To read the May 12, 2011 Press Release, “$5 Million in Grants to Study the Healing and Restorative Power of Nature: National Open Spaces Sacred Places Awards Initiative,” visit:
9. Call for Papers: “Religions, Science and Technology in Cultural Contexts: Dynamics of Change” (Conference of the International Association for the History of Religions, March 1-3, 2012 in Trondheim, Norway)
“Religions, Science and Technology in Cultural Contexts: Dynamics of Change”
International Association for the History of Religions Special Conference 2012
NTNU-The Norwegian University of Science and Technology
March 1-3, 2012
This conference seeks to explore how religions, science and technology interact and generate change (progressive, reactive, regressive), particularly in relation to such issues as the environment and climate change; the economy; welfare; life expectancy; popular representation; and sexual equality. Of particular interest are explorations of dynamic relationships between worldviews/cosmologies, socio-cultural practices and technologies; and of ‘the politics of change,’ i.e. how different actors seek to convince the public of the benefits of their own approaches or of the detriment of ‘the others’ approaches.
The conference is organized by the Department of Archaeology and Religious Studies of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.
Abstract of 200 words and affiliation details should be submitted by August 1, 2011. For submitting your abstracts and for any type of inquiries, you are welcome to contact the Conference secretary, Filip Ivanovic ((JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).
For the full call for papers, visit the conference website: http://www.ntnu.no/iar/konferanser/relsci
10. Call for Papers: "Green Perceptions: Ecology and Texts" (Conference on September 15-16, 2011 at St. Paul's College, Kerala, India)
"Green Perceptions: Ecology and Texts"
St. Paul's College, Kalakassery, Kerala, India
September 15-16, 2011
In Collaboration with Organisation for Studies in Literature and Environment-India (OSLE-India), St. Paul's College, Kalamassery, Kochi, Kerala State, is organizing a conference themed, "Green Perceptions: Ecology and Texts" on September 15-16, 2011 at St. Paul's College, Kalakassery, in Kerala, India.
The contemplation of landscape has always been the source of artistic inspiration. Today, however, the concern for human survival on the planet has made landscape a topic of socio-cultural-political debate. The theme of this seminar focuses on the role of landscape representation and perception in literature, art and other disciplines. The seminar will attempt to illustrate how literary, artistic and philosophical language can represent the close link between the human and the non-human, to provide a platform for academic interaction between scholars of literature and other relevant disciplines under the theme of ecology and to examine how scholars and students of literature and language can contribute to tracing relationships between literature and the environment.
Abstracts not exceeding 300 words have to be submitted before July 20. The contributors will be informed of acceptance by July 30. Full papers, not exceeding eight pages in MLA format have to be submitted by August 31 to (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
For the full call for papers, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/files/Green_Perceptions--Ecology_and_Texts.pdf
11. Thinking Nature: A Journal on the Concept of Nature
Thinking Nature publishes essays that address the larger problem of trying to think nature in philosophical and ecological means and display the need for further inquiry into the conceptual monstrousness of nature.
Editors: Timothy Morton and Ben Woodard
Thinking Nature is available free of charge as an Open Access journal on the Internet. Content is available online and in PDF format here:
http://thinkingnaturejournal.com/
To read the current issue (Volume 1 2011), visit:
http://thinkingnaturejournal.com/volume-1/
12. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme. For more information, visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo
For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental ethics/philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html. If you know of a publication that needs to be added to this list, email news@religionandecology.org.
For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/index.html
The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
5.6 (June 2011)
Contents:
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
2. Journey of the Universe Film Showings
3. Events
4. New Books
5. Webinar on Hinduism and the Environment with Pankaj Jain
6. The Sacred Door Trail
7. Call for Papers: “Transforming Feminisms: Religion, Women and Ecology” (Special Issue of the Journal for the Study of Religion)
8. Call for Papers: Eighth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability (January 10-12, 2012 in Vancouver, Canada)
9. Call for Nominations: “Tunza International Children & Youth Conference on the Environment” (September 26-30, 2011 in Bandung, Indonesia)
10. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
Greetings,
Welcome to the June issue of the newsletter for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. We have much to share with you this month with regards to developments in the field of Religion and Ecology, including film screenings, books, conferences, events, calls for papers, and more.
We are pleased to keep you informed about the Journey of the Universe project. This collaboration of Brian Swimme, Mary Evelyn Tucker, and John Grim includes a film and a book (available at the end of June 2011) and an educational DVD series (available July 20, 2011). Inspired by the New Story of Thomas Berry, the Journey of the Universe draws on the latest scientific knowledge to tell the story of cosmic and Earth evolution. It aims to inspire a new and closer relationship with Earth in a period of growing environmental and social crisis. For more information about the project, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org
To view the book flyer from Yale University Press, visit:
http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/storage/Swimme_and_Tucker--newssheet.pdf
To pre-order the book, visit:
http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300171907
There will be a special broadcast of the Journey of the Universe film on KQED, the San Francisco PBS station, for a membership pledge on June 11. See below for more information. A number of screenings of the film have been scheduled. A screening of the film will be held in Oakland on June 10, in Toronto June 15, in Sweden July 2, in Austin August 8, in Ottawa September 23, and in Seattle September 30. For the most up-to-date list of showings, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/upcoming-events/
If you are interested in scheduling a screening of the Journey of the Universe, please contact Sue Espinosa at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Along the same lines as the Journey of the Universe project, it is our aim to inspire you to deepen your relationship with the Earth community and to participate in many expressions of the story of the evolving universe. We hope this newsletter supports your own work and helps you further your own engagements with the field of Religion and Ecology.
Warm wishes,
Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
California Institute of Integral Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Web Content Managers & Newsletter Editors
http://www.yale.edu/religionandecology
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
2. Journey of the Universe Film Showings
Film Broadcast: KQED (June 11, 2011)
KQED Pledge Drive
5:30pm on KQED 9 and KQED Life
http://www.kqed.org/tv/programs/index.jsp?pgmid=20036
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Film Screening: Oakland, CA (June 10, 2011)
East Bay Church of Religious Science (EBCRS)
4130 Telegraph Ave.
Oakland, CA 94609
http://www.ebcrs.org
7:30pm
Discussion after the film with Brian Thomas Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker.
Contact: Belvie Rooks, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
For the flyer, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/storage/EBCRS_Flyer.pdf
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Film Screening: University of Toronto (June 15, 2011)
University of St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto
Muzzo Family Alumni Hall (Room 100)
121 St. Joseph Street
Toronto, ON Canada
7:30pm
Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim will introduce the film.
Contact: Dennis O'Hara, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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Film Screening: Sigtuna, Sweden (July 2, 2011)
Tallberg Forum
Sigtuna, Sweden
http://www.tallbergfoundation.org/
Location and Time TBA
Contact: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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For more events related to Journey of the Universe, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/upcoming-events/
3. Events
“Old World and New World Perspectives on Environmental Philosophy”
The Eighth Annual Meeting of the International Society for Environmental Ethics (ISEE)
Nijmegen, The Netherlands
June 14-17, 2011
http://www.cep.unt.edu/ISEE2/call-2011.pdf
“Living Sustainably as Spiritual Practice”
Creation Spirituality Communities Annual Event
Chicago, IL, USA
June 16-20, 2011
http://originalblessing.ning.com/
http://creationspirituality.info/CSC2011Event.pdf
“Sunrise Solstice”
Summer Solstice Celebration with the Paul Winter Consort
Cathedral of St. John the Divine
New York City, NY, USA
4:30 a.m.
June 18, 2011
www.solsticeconcert.com
“Doing Good, Doing Bad, Doing Nothing: Scientific and Religious Perspectives”
The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science
Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY, USA
June 18-25, 2011
http://www.iras.org/Site/Conference.html
“This Planet as Paradise: Beauty & Ecological Restoration”
4th in a Series of Earth-Honoring Faith
Ghost Ranch Abiquiu, NM, USA
June 20-26, 2011
http://www.ghostranch.org
http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/item/this-planet-as-paradise-beauty-ecological-restoration/
“Third Architecture, Culture and Spirituality Symposium”
Serenbe, GA, USA
June 29-July 1, 2011
http://www.acsforum.org/symposium2011/index.htm
“Knowledge and Value in a Globalising World: Disentangling Dichotomies, Querying Unities”
Conference of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES), the Australian Anthropological Society (AAS) and the Association of Social Anthropologists of Aotearoa / New Zealand (ASAANZ)
University of Western Australia
Perth, Western Australia
July 5-8, 2011
http://www.anthropologywa.org/iuaes_aas_asaanz_conference2011/0002.html
“Cultural Traditions and Sustainable Development”
Southeast Asian Biennial Conference
Hanoi, Vietnam
July 7-8, 2011
http://www.crvp.org/conf/2011/Hanoi-2011.htm
“Living the New Story: Cosmology for a Mutually Enhancing World”
Sophia Center Summer Institute 2011
Oakland, CA, USA
July 14-17, 2011
http://uniquewebdesignandprinting.com/sophia/summer2011.html
“Cosmology for a Mutually Enhancing World”
Post-Institute Retreat of Sophia Center Summer Institute 2011
Oakland, CA, USA
July 17-19, 2011
http://uniquewebdesignandprinting.com/sophia/summer2011.html
4. New Books
Relational Reality: New Discoveries of Interrelatedness That Are Transforming the Modern World
By Charlene Spretnak
Green Horizon Books, 2011
http://www.charlenespretnak.com/RelationalReality/index.html
Relational Reality reveals the coherence among numerous surprising discoveries of the interrelated nature of reality. These discoveries are part of a new perspective that has been emerging gradually for the past several decades but has gained momentum and is now transforming every mainstream field of human endeavor. All our basic assumptions (built on the old idea that everything in the physical world is essentially separate and functions mechanistically) are being reconsidered. No longer a marginal perspective, the Relational Shift is based on the realization that all entities in this world, including humans, are thoroughly relational beings of great complexity who are both composed of and nested within networks of creative, dynamic interrelationships. Nothing exists outside of those relationships. As we try to grasp the interrelated nature of reality, emergent relational approaches are already transforming the way we educate our children, attend to our health, green our communities, and rethink economic activity. New analyses of the crises of modernity and abundant new solutions are the result.
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Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating
By Norman Wirzba
Cambridge University Press, 2011
http://www.cambridge.org/us/knowledge/isbn/item6227681/?site_locale=en_US
This book provides a comprehensive theological framework for assessing eating's significance, employing a Trinitarian theological lens to evaluate food production and consumption practices as they are being worked out in today's industrial food systems. Norman Wirzba combines the tools of ecological, agrarian, cultural, biblical, and theological analyses to draw a picture of eating that cares for creatures and that honors God. Unlike books that focus on vegetarianism or food distribution as the key theological matters, this book broadens the scope to include discussions on the sacramental character of eating, eating's ecological and social contexts, the meaning of death and sacrifice as they relate to eating, the Eucharist as the place of inspiration and orientation, the importance of saying grace, and whether or not there will be eating in heaven. Food and Faith demonstrates that eating is of profound economic, moral, and theological significance.
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Christianity and Earthkeeping: In Search of an Inspiring Vision
By Ernst Conradie
SUN PReSS, 2011
www.sun-e-shop.co.za
Why should Christians engage in earthkeeping as Christians and from within Christian communities? What is the underlying theological rationale for that? Despite the wealth of literature that has emerged in the field of ecological theology over the last three decades, there remains a lack of clarity on this very basic question. In this book some 19 reasons why Christians may be encouraged to engage in earthkeeping are identified, juxtaposed and assessed in order to call for clarity, to invite discussion. The result may challenge the deepest convictions of some readers, but may also enrich the array of arguments available for persuading others of the need for Christian involvement in earthkeeping praxis. This book is part of the series Resources in Religion and Theology.
Prof Ernst M. Conradie teaches Systematic Theology and Ethics in the Department of Religion and Theology at the University of the Western Cape.
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Earthwise: A Guide to Hopeful Creation Care (3rd Edition)
By Calvin B. DeWitt
Faith Alive, 2011
http://www.faithaliveresources.org/Products/151167/earthwise.aspx
Earthwise is about living in harmony with the natural world around us—and sharing the joy of this living. Sadly, our ways of life in today's global economy have led to increasing land and habitat destruction, pollution, species extinction, buildup of "greenhouse gases," and other degradations of the earth. But rather than grovel and wring our hands in despair, lifelong creation care scientist Calvin B. DeWitt suggests we discover a joyful, positive attitude about working together for good in this world. Looking forward in hope, we can make changes and take positive, lasting action that is more in harmony with the way the world works and is meant to be. This book, now in its third edition, helps to provide us and our friends, neighbors, coworkers, and fellow citizens with practical information and ideas to become truly "earthwise."
Calvin B. DeWitt is a professor in the Nelson Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he serves on the graduate faculties of Environment and Resources, Water Resources Management, Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development, and Limnology and Marine Science.
To read a sample chapter of this book, visit:
http://www.faithaliveresources.org/Content/Site135/FilesSamples/80703151167pdf_00000008577.pdf
5. Webinar on Hinduism and the Environment with Pankaj Jain
On May 19th, 2011, GreenFaith's Hindu Scholar-in-Residence, Dr. Pankaj Jain, led an hour long webinar describing Hindu teachings on the environment.
To listen to this webinar, visit:
http://greenfaith.org/success-stories/hindu-teachings-webinar
6. The Sacred Door Trail
The Sacred Door Trail (SDT) is a 165-mile interfaith pilgrimage trail loop located in western Montana, dedicated to spiritual unity, peace, and our connection to Earth and each other. It is a compilation of pre-existing National Forest Service trails which make up a loop that explores some of the most beautiful mountains, valleys, rivers, and lakes in the United States. What is special about the trail is that it is a shared sacred path, shared by many people, faiths and indigenous cultures that care to support such a vision. The trail serves to reconnect people back to our original church, our original temple – Mother Earth.
The opening of the trail will occur in August of 2012. It will involve three days of dedication ceremonies and blessings for the land given by representatives of all the different faiths and indigenous cultures who support the project. The purpose of the blessings will be to establish the land and trail as a shared sacred space. Our current support for the project includes indigenous and faith-based leaders from around the world, as well as interfaith, environmental, and peace organizations that believe in such acts of unity.
In December, National Geographic devoted an entire special edition to pilgrimage trails and sacred sites around the world (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/sacred-journeys). However, not one was an interfaith trail or shared sacred site. This is the niche the SDT will fill not only in America but around the world.
How you can help: Join the Sacred Door Trail Alliance (SDTA).
The SDTA is a compilation of different faith based groups, indigenous groups, and interfaith groups, as well as social justice, peace, women's, artistic, and environmental organizations that believe in and support such acts of unity and Earth reconnection. We have been focusing locally in Montana and now are expanding our support to a national and international level. If your organization would like to add its name to our alliance list which will be able to be viewed soon on our website, please let us know.
To learn more about the SDT, visit: www.thesacreddoortrail.com
To watch a two minute video clip about the trail, visit: http://www.vimeo.com/20572547
In Gratitude,
Weston Pew
Director/Founder of the Sacred Door Trail
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
7. Call for Papers: “Transforming Feminisms: Religion, Women and Ecology” (Special Issue of the Journal for the Study of Religion)
Reflections on the relationship between humans and the natural world is a critical issue for many feminists within the Study of Religion. In particular, feminists address the connections between sexism and the exploitation of nature. A crucial focus in order to reconfigure these relationships is to challenge hierarchical structures and dualistic thinking. The study of religion, women and ecology has become a sub-field on its own, developed into vigorous interdisciplinary programs of research and teaching. This endeavor pays particular attention to intersecting locations of power, contextual dynamics, women’s subjectivities, and the creation of new epistemologies. Therefore this special issue addresses the ways in which emerging feminist discourses within the Study of Religion contributes to transforming feminisms by means of reconceptualizing the relationships between religions, humans and the environment.
We warmly invite submissions that focus on:
Editor:
Professor David Chidester, Department of Religious Studies, University of Cape Town
Guest Editors:
Dr. Nina Hoel, Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Religious Studies, University of Cape Town
Mrs. Elaine Nogueira-Godsey, PhD candidate, Department of Religious Studies, University of Cape Town
Deadline for Submissions: 15 July, 2011.
This special issue is slated for publication in October 2011.
Submissions, questions and queries can be directed to: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Journal for the Study of Religion is the premier journal in South Africa for research in the academic study of religion and religions. The journal is published twice a year by the professional society, the Association for the Study of Religion in Southern Africa (ASRSA), which is the South African affiliate of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR). Articles published are subject to a peer-review process by independent referees drawn from the International Editorial Advisory Board and the Editorial Consultants, or by other experts in the international and local academic community.
8. Call for Papers: Eighth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability (January 10-12, 2012 in Vancouver, Canada)
The Eighth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability will be held at the Robson Square, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada on January 10-12, 2011. The Conference will work in a multidisciplinary way across the various fields and perspectives through which we can address the fundamental and related questions of sustainability.
Participants are welcome to submit a proposal for a 30-minute paper, 60-minute workshop, or a jointly presented 90-minute colloquium session. Virtual participation is available.
Participants may choose to submit written papers before or after the Conference for possible publication in The International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability, a fully refereed academic Journal. All Conference participants receive an online subscription to the Journal for one year after the Conference.
The deadline for the Call for Papers is June 23, 2011.
For more information, visit: http://www.SustainabilityConference.com
9. Call for Nominations: “Tunza International Children & Youth Conference on the Environment” (September 26-30, 2011 in Bandung, Indonesia)
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in collaboration with the Government of Indonesia will be organizing its Tunza International Children & Youth Conference on the Environment, on September 26-30, 2011. Held in Bandung, Indonesia, it will bring together 1400 children and youth, to discuss their role and inputs to the upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development "Rio +20". Under the slogan “Reshaping Our future through A Green Economy and Sustainable Lifestyle.” The conference will also review the contribution of youth to the International Year of Forests and how they can adopt more environment-friendly lifestyles. The conference themes are Rio + 20 (Green Economy) / Green Lifestyles, Forests, Sustainable Consumption and State of the Global Environment from the youth perspective.
To submit a nomination from your organization, visit:
Children nominations: http://unep.org/tunza/children/events/icc2011
Youth nominations: http://unep.org/tunza/youth/conferences_events/tiyc2011
Nominations must be submitted to UNEP on or before June 30, 2011.
For further information on the conference, please contact:
The Children and Youth / Sport and the Environment Unit
Division of Communications and Public Information
Email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
10. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme. For more information, visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo
For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental ethics/philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html. If you know of a publication that needs to be added to this list, email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/index.html
By Justin Gills
New York Times
June 4, 2011
CIUDAD OBREGÓN, Mexico — The dun wheat field spreading out at Ravi P. Singh’s feet offered a possible clue to human destiny. Baked by a desert sun and deliberately starved of water, the plants were parched and nearly dead.
Dr. Singh, a wheat breeder, grabbed seed heads that should have been plump with the staff of life. His practiced fingers found empty husks.
“You’re not going to feed the people with that,” he said.
But then, over in Plot 88, his eyes settled on a healthier plant, one that had managed to thrive in spite of the drought, producing plump kernels of wheat. “This is beautiful!” he shouted as wheat beards rustled in the wind.
Hope in a stalk of grain: It is a hope the world needs these days, for the great agricultural system that feeds the human race is in trouble.
The rapid growth in farm output that defined the late 20th century has slowed to the point that it is failing to keep up with the demand for food, driven by population increases and rising affluence in once-poor countries.
Consumption of the four staples that supply most human calories — wheat, rice, corn and soybeans — has outstripped production for much of the past decade, drawing once-large stockpiles down to worrisome levels. The imbalance between supply and demand has resulted in two huge spikes in international grain prices since 2007, with some grains more than doubling in cost.
Those price jumps, though felt only moderately in the West, have worsened hunger for tens of millions of poor people, destabilizing politics in scores of countries, from Mexico to Uzbekistan to Yemen. The Haitian government was ousted in 2008 amid food riots, and anger over high prices has played a role in the recent Arab uprisings.
Now, the latest scientific research suggests that a previously discounted factor is helping to destabilize the food system: climate change.
Many of the failed harvests of the past decade were a consequence of weather disasters, like floods in the United States, drought in Australia and blistering heat waves in Europe and Russia. Scientists believe some, though not all, of those events were caused or worsened by human-induced global warming.
Temperatures are rising rapidly during the growing season in some of the most important agricultural countries, and a paper published several weeks ago found that this had shaved several percentage points off potential yields, adding to the price gyrations.
For nearly two decades, scientists had predicted that climate change would be relatively manageable for agriculture, suggesting that even under worst-case assumptions, it would probably take until 2080 for food prices to double.
In part, they were counting on a counterintuitive ace in the hole: that rising carbon dioxide levels, the primary contributor to global warming, would act as a powerful plant fertilizer and offset many of the ill effects of climate change.
Until a few years ago, these assumptions went largely unchallenged. But lately, the destabilization of the food system and the soaring prices have rattled many leading scientists.
“The success of agriculture has been astounding,” said Cynthia Rosenzweig, a researcher at NASA who helped pioneer the study of climate change and agriculture. “But I think there’s starting to be premonitions that it may not continue forever.”
A scramble is on to figure out whether climate science has been too sanguine about the risks. Some researchers, analyzing computer forecasts that are used to advise governments on future crop prospects, are pointing out what they consider to be gaping holes. These include a failure to consider the effects of extreme weather, like the floods and the heat waves that are increasing as the earth warms.
A rising unease about the future of the world’s food supply came through during interviews this year with more than 50 agricultural experts working in nine countries.
These experts say that in coming decades, farmers need to withstand whatever climate shocks come their way while roughly doubling the amount of food they produce to meet rising demand. And they need to do it while reducing the considerable environmental damage caused by the business of agriculture.
Agronomists emphasize that the situation is far from hopeless. Examples are already available, from the deserts of Mexico to the rice paddies of India, to show that it may be possible to make agriculture more productive and more resilient in the face of climate change. Farmers have achieved huge gains in output in the past, and rising prices are a powerful incentive to do so again.
But new crop varieties and new techniques are required, far beyond those available now, scientists said. Despite the urgent need, they added, promised financing has been slow to materialize, much of the necessary work has yet to begin and, once it does, it is likely to take decades to bear results.
“There’s just such a tremendous disconnect, with people not understanding the highly dangerous situation we are in,” said Marianne Bänziger, deputy chief of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, a leading research institute in Mexico.
A wheat physiologist at the center, Matthew Reynolds, fretted over the potential consequences of not attacking the problem vigorously.
“What a horrible world it will be if food really becomes short from one year to the next,” he said. “What will that do to society?”
‘The World Is Talking’
Sitting with a group of his fellow wheat farmers, Francisco Javier Ramos Bours voiced a suspicion. Water shortages had already arrived in recent years for growers in his region, the Yaqui Valley, which sits in the Sonoran Desert of northwestern Mexico. In his view, global climate change could well be responsible.
“All the world is talking about it,” Mr. Ramos said as the other farmers nodded.
Farmers everywhere face rising difficulties: water shortages as well as flash floods. Their crops are afflicted by emerging pests and diseases and by blasts of heat beyond anything they remember.
In a recent interview on the far side of the world, in northeastern India, a rice farmer named Ram Khatri Yadav offered his own complaint about the changing climate. “It will not rain in the rainy season, but it will rain in the nonrainy season,” he said. “The cold season is also shrinking.”
Decades ago, the wheat farmers in the Yaqui Valley of Mexico were the vanguard of a broad development in agriculture called the Green Revolution, which used improved crop varieties and more intensive farming methods to raise food production across much of the developing world.
When Norman E. Borlaug, a young American agronomist, began working here in the 1940s under the sponsorship of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Yaqui Valley farmers embraced him. His successes as a breeder helped farmers raise Mexico’s wheat output sixfold.
In the 1960s, Dr. Borlaug spread his approach to India and Pakistan, where mass starvation was feared. Output soared there, too.
Other countries joined the Green Revolution, and food production outstripped population growth through the latter half of the 20th century. Dr. Borlaug became the only agronomist ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1970, for helping to “provide bread for a hungry world.”
As he accepted the prize in Oslo, he issued a stern warning. “We may be at high tide now,” he said, “but ebb tide could soon set in if we become complacent and relax our efforts.”
As output rose, staple grains — which feed people directly or are used to produce meat, eggs, dairy products and farmed fish — became cheaper and cheaper. Poverty still prevented many people in poor countries from buying enough food, but over all, the percentage of hungry people in the world shrank.
By the late 1980s, food production seemed under control. Governments and foundations began to cut back on agricultural research, or to redirect money into the problems created by intensive farming, like environmental damage. Over a 20-year period, Western aid for agricultural development in poor countries fell by almost half, with some of the world’s most important research centers suffering mass layoffs.
Just as Dr. Borlaug had predicted, the consequences of this loss of focus began to show up in the world’s food system toward the end of the century. Output continued to rise, but because fewer innovations were reaching farmers, the growth rate slowed.
That lull occurred just as food and feed demand was starting to take off, thanks in part to rising affluence across much of Asia. Millions of people added meat and dairy products to their diets, requiring considerable grain to produce. Other factors contributed to demand, including a policy of converting much of the American corn crop into ethanol.
And erratic weather began eating into yields. A 2003 heat wave in Europe that some researchers believe was worsened by human-induced global warming slashed agricultural output in some countries by as much as 30 percent. A long drought in Australia, also possibly linked to climate change, cut wheat and rice production.
In 2007 and 2008, with grain stockpiles low, prices doubled and in some cases tripled. Whole countries began hoarding food, and panic buying ensued in some markets, notably for rice. Food riots broke out in more than 30 countries.
Farmers responded to the high prices by planting as much as possible, and healthy harvests in 2008 and 2009 helped rebuild stocks, to a degree. That factor, plus the global recession, drove prices down in 2009. But by last year, more weather-related harvest failures sent them soaring again. This year, rice supplies are adequate, but with bad weather threatening the wheat and corn crops in some areas, markets remain jittery.
Experts are starting to fear that the era of cheap food may be over. “Our mindset was surpluses,” said Dan Glickman, a former United States secretary of agriculture. “That has just changed overnight.”
Forty years ago, a third of the population in the developing world was undernourished. By the tail end of the Green Revolution, in the mid-1990s, the share had fallen below 20 percent, and the absolute number of hungry people dipped below 800 million for the first time in modern history.
But the recent price spikes have helped cause the largest increases in world hunger in decades. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimated the number of hungry people at 925 million last year, and the number is expected to be higher when a fresh estimate is completed this year. The World Bank says the figure could be as high as 940 million.
Dr. Borlaug’s latest successor at the corn and wheat institute, Hans-Joachim Braun, recently outlined the challenges facing the world’s farmers. On top of the weather disasters, he said, booming cities are chewing up agricultural land and competing with farmers for water. In some of the world’s breadbaskets, farmers have achieved high output only by pumping groundwater much faster than nature can replenish it.
“This is in no way sustainable,” Dr. Braun said.
The farmers of the Yaqui Valley grow their wheat in a near-desert, relying on irrigation. Their water comes by aqueduct from nearby mountains, but for parts of the past decade, rainfall was below normal. Scientists do not know if this has been a consequence of climate change, but Northern Mexico falls squarely within a global belt that is expected to dry further because of human emissions of greenhouse gases.
Dr. Braun is leading efforts to tackle problems of this sort with new wheat varieties that would be able to withstand many kinds of stress, including scant water. Descendants of the plant that one of his breeders, Dr. Singh, found in a wheat field one recent day might eventually wind up in farmers’ fields the world over.
But budgets for this kind of research remain exceedingly tight, frustrating agronomists who feel that the problems are growing more urgent by the year.
“There are biological limitations on how fast we can do this work,” Dr. Braun said. “If we don’t get started now, we are going to be in serious trouble.”
Shaken Assumptions
For decades, scientists believed that the human dependence on fossil fuels, for all the problems it was expected to cause, would offer one enormous benefit.
Carbon dioxide, the main gas released by combustion, is also the primary fuel for the growth of plants. They draw it out of the air and, using the energy from sunlight, convert the carbon into energy-dense compounds like glucose. All human and animal life runs on these compounds.
Humans have already raised the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 40 percent since the Industrial Revolution, and are on course to double or triple it over the coming century. Studies have long suggested that the extra gas would supercharge the world’s food crops, and might be especially helpful in years when the weather is difficult.
But many of those studies were done in artificial conditions, like greenhouses or special growth chambers. For the past decade, scientists at the University of Illinois have been putting the “CO2 fertilization effect” to a real-world test in the two most important crops grown in the United States.
They started by planting soybeans in a field, then sprayed extra carbon dioxide from a giant tank. Based on the earlier research, they hoped the gas might bump yields as much as 30 percent under optimal growing conditions.
But when they harvested their soybeans, they got a rude surprise: the bump was only half as large. “When we measured the yields, it was like, wait a minute — this is not what we expected,” said Elizabeth A. Ainsworth, a Department of Agriculture researcher who played a leading role in the work.
When they grew the soybeans in the sort of conditions expected to prevail in a future climate, with high temperatures or low water, the extra carbon dioxide could not fully offset the yield decline caused by those factors.
They also ran tests using corn, America’s single most valuable crop and the basis for its meat production and its biofuel industry. While that crop was already known to be less responsive to carbon dioxide, a yield bump was still expected — especially during droughts. The Illinois researchers got no bump.
Their work has contributed to a broader body of research suggesting that extra carbon dioxide does act as plant fertilizer, but that the benefits are less than previously believed — and probably less than needed to avert food shortages. “One of the things that we’re starting to believe is that the positives of CO2 are unlikely to outweigh the negatives of the other factors,” said Andrew D. B. Leakey, another of the Illinois researchers.
Other recent evidence suggests that longstanding assumptions about food production on a warming planet may have been too optimistic.
Two economists, Wolfram Schlenker of Columbia University and Michael J. Roberts of North Carolina State University, have pioneered ways to compare crop yields and natural temperature variability at a fine scale. Their work shows that when crops are subjected to temperatures above a certain threshold — about 84 degrees for corn and 86 degrees for soybeans — yields fall sharply.
This line of research suggests that in the type of climate predicted for the United States by the end of the century, with more scorching days in the growing season, yields of today’s crop varieties could fall by 30 percent or more.
Though it has not yet happened in the United States, many important agricultural countries are already warming rapidly in the growing season, with average increases of several degrees. A few weeks ago, David B. Lobell of Stanford University published a paper with Dr. Schlenker suggesting that temperature increases in France, Russia, China and other countries were suppressing crop yields, adding to the pressures on the food system.
“I think there’s been an under-recognition of just how sensitive crops are to heat, and how fast heat exposure is increasing,” Dr. Lobell said.
Such research has provoked controversy. The findings go somewhat beyond those of a 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations body that episodically reviews climate science and advises governments.
That report found that while climate change was likely to pose severe challenges for agriculture in the tropics, it would probably be beneficial in some of the chillier regions of the Northern Hemisphere, and that the carbon dioxide effect should offset many problems.
In an interview at the University of Illinois, one of the leading scientists behind the work there, Stephen P. Long, sharply criticized the 2007 report, saying it had failed to sound a sufficient alarm. “I felt it needed to be much more honest in saying this is our best guess at the moment, but there are probably huge errors in there,” Dr. Long said. “We’re talking about the future food supply of the world.”
William E. Easterling, dean of earth sciences at Pennsylvania State University and a primary author of the 2007 report, said in an interview that the recent research had slightly altered his perspective. “We have probably to some extent overestimated” the benefits of carbon dioxide in computerized crop forecasts, he said. But he added that applying a “correction factor” would probably take care of the problem, and he doubted that the estimates in the report would change drastically as a result.
The 2007 report did point out a hole in the existing body of research: most forecasts had failed to consider several factors that could conceivably produce nasty surprises, like a projected rise in extreme weather events. No sooner had the report been published than food prices began rising, partly because of crop failures caused by just such extremes.
Oxfam, the international relief group, projected recently that food prices would more than double by 2030 from today’s high levels, with climate change responsible for perhaps half the increase. As worries like that proliferate, some scientists are ready to go back to the drawing board regarding agriculture and climate change.
Dr. Rosenzweig, the NASA climate scientist, played a leading role in forming the old consensus. But in an interview at her office in Manhattan, she ticked off recent stresses on the food system and said they had led her to take a fresh look.
She is pulling together a global consortium of researchers whose goal will be to produce more detailed and realistic computer forecasts; she won high-level endorsement for the project at a recent meeting between British and United States officials. “We absolutely have to get the science lined up to provide these answers,” Dr. Rosenzweig said.
Promises Unkept
At the end of a dirt road in northeastern India, nestled between two streams, lies the remote village of Samhauta. Anand Kumar Singh, a farmer there, recently related a story that he could scarcely believe himself.
Last June, he planted 10 acres of a new variety of rice. On Aug. 23, the area was struck by a severe flood that submerged his field for 10 days. In years past, such a flood would have destroyed his crop. But the new variety sprang back to life, yielding a robust harvest.
“That was a miracle,” Mr. Singh said.
The miracle was the product not of divine intervention but of technology — an illustration of how far scientists may be able to go in helping farmers adapt to the problems that bedevil them.
“It’s the best example in agriculture,” said Julia Bailey-Serres, a researcher at the University of California, Riverside, who has done genetic work on the rice variety that Mr. Singh used. “The submergence-tolerant rice essentially sits and waits out the flood.”
In the heyday of the Green Revolution, the 1960s, leaders like Dr. Borlaug founded an international network of research centers to focus on the world’s major crops. The corn and wheat center in Mexico is one. The new rice variety that is exciting farmers in India is the product of another, the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.
Leading researchers say it is possible to create crop varieties that are more resistant to drought and flooding and that respond especially well to rising carbon dioxide. The scientists are less certain that crops can be made to withstand withering heat, though genetic engineering may eventually do the trick.
The flood-tolerant rice was created from an old strain grown in a small area of India, but decades of work were required to improve it. Money was so tight that even after the rice had been proven to survive floods for twice as long as previous varieties, distribution to farmers was not assured. Then an American charity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, stepped in with a $20 million grant to finance final development and distribution of the rice in India and other countries. It may get into a million farmers’ hands this year.
The Gateses, widely known for their work in public health, have also become leading backers of agricultural projects in recent years. “I’m an optimist,” Mr. Gates said in an interview. “I think we can get crops that will mitigate many of our problems.”
The Gates Foundation has awarded $1.7 billion for agricultural projects since 2006, but even a charity as large as it is cannot solve humanity’s food problems on its own. Governments have recognized that far more effort is needed on their part, but they have been slow to deliver.
In 2008 and 2009, in the midst of the political crises set off by food prices, the world’s governments outbid one another to offer support. At a conference in L’Aquila, Italy, they pledged about $22 billion for agricultural development.
It later turned out, however, that no more than half of that was new money not previously committed to agriculture, and two years later, the extra financing has not fully materialized. “It’s a disappointment,” Mr. Gates said.
The Obama administration has won high marks from antihunger advocates for focusing on the issue. President Obama pledged $3.5 billion at L’Aquila, more than any other country, and the United States has begun an ambitious initiative called Feed the Future to support agricultural development in 20 of the neediest countries.
So far, the administration has won $1.9 billion from Congress. Amid the budget struggles in Washington, it remains to be seen whether the United States will fully honor its pledge.
Perhaps the most hopeful sign nowadays is that poor countries themselves are starting to invest in agriculture in a serious way, as many did not do in the years when food was cheap.
In Africa, largely bypassed by the Green Revolution but with enormous potential, a dozen countries are on the verge of fulfilling a promise to devote 10 percent of their budgets to farm development, up from 5 percent or less.
“In my country, every penny counts,” Agnes Kalibata, the agriculture minister of Rwanda, said in an interview. With difficulty, Rwanda has met the 10 percent pledge, and she cited a terracing project in the country’s highlands that has raised potato yields by 600 percent for some farmers.
Yet the leading agricultural experts say that poor countries cannot solve the problems by themselves. The United Nations recently projected that global population would hit 10 billion by the end of the century, 3 billion more than today. Coupled with the demand for diets richer in protein, the projections mean that food production may need to double by later in the century.
Unlike in the past, that demand must somehow be met on a planet where little new land is available for farming, where water supplies are tightening, where the temperature is rising, where the weather has become erratic and where the food system is already showing serious signs of instability.
“We’ve doubled the world’s food production several times before in history, and now we have to do it one more time,” said Jonathan A. Foley, a researcher at the University of Minnesota. “The last doubling is the hardest. It is possible, but it’s not going to be easy.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/science/earth/05harvest.html?_r=1
Science is recognising humans as a geological force to be reckoned with
The Economist
May 26, 2011
THE here and now are defined by astronomy and geology. Astronomy takes care of the here: a planet orbiting a yellow star embedded in one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way, a galaxy that is itself part of the Virgo supercluster, one of millions of similarly vast entities dotted through the sky. Geology deals with the now: the 10,000-year-old Holocene epoch, a peculiarly stable and clement part of the Quaternary period, a time distinguished by regular shifts into and out of ice ages. The Quaternary forms part of the 65m-year Cenozoic era, distinguished by the opening of the North Atlantic, the rise of the Himalayas, and the widespread presence of mammals and flowering plants. This era in turn marks the most recent part of the Phanerozoic aeon, the 540m-year chunk of the Earth’s history wherein rocks with fossils of complex organisms can be found. The regularity of celestial clockwork and the solid probity of rock give these co-ordinates a reassuring constancy.
Now there is a movement afoot to change humanity’s co-ordinates. In 2000 Paul Crutzen, an eminent atmospheric chemist, realised he no longer believed he was living in the Holocene. He was living in some other age, one shaped primarily by people. From their trawlers scraping the floors of the seas to their dams impounding sediment by the gigatonne, from their stripping of forests to their irrigation of farms, from their mile-deep mines to their melting of glaciers, humans were bringing about an age of planetary change. With a colleague, Eugene Stoermer, Dr Crutzen suggested this age be called the Anthropocene—“the recent age of man”.
The term has slowly picked up steam, both within the sciences (the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ultimate adjudicator of the geological time scale, is taking a formal interest) and beyond. This May statements on the environment by concerned Nobel laureates and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences both made prominent use of the term, capitalising on the way in which it dramatises the sheer scale of human activity.
The advent of the Anthropocene promises more, though, than a scientific nicety or a new way of grabbing the eco-jaded public’s attention. The term “paradigm shift” is bandied around with promiscuous ease. But for the natural sciences to make human activity central to its conception of the world, rather than a distraction, would mark such a shift for real. For centuries, science has progressed by making people peripheral. In the 16th century Nicolaus Copernicus moved the Earth from its privileged position at the centre of the universe. In the 18th James Hutton opened up depths of geological time that dwarf the narrow now. In the 19th Charles Darwin fitted humans onto a single twig of the evolving tree of life. As Simon Lewis, an ecologist at the University of Leeds, points out, embracing the Anthropocene as an idea means reversing this trend. It means treating humans not as insignificant observers of the natural world but as central to its workings, elemental in their force.
Sous la plage, les pavés
The most common way of distinguishing periods of geological time is by means of the fossils they contain. On this basis picking out the Anthropocene in the rocks of days to come will be pretty easy. Cities will make particularly distinctive fossils. A city on a fast-sinking river delta (and fast-sinking deltas, undermined by the pumping of groundwater and starved of sediment by dams upstream, are common Anthropocene environments) could spend millions of years buried and still, when eventually uncovered, reveal through its crushed structures and weird mixtures of materials that it is unlike anything else in the geological record.
The fossils of living creatures will be distinctive, too. Geologists define periods through assemblages of fossil life reliably found together. One of the characteristic markers of the Anthropocene will be the widespread remains of organisms that humans use, or that have adapted to life in a human-dominated world. According to studies by Erle Ellis, an ecologist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, the vast majority of ecosystems on the planet now reflect the presence of people. There are, for instance, more trees on farms than in wild forests. And these anthropogenic biomes are spread about the planet in a way that the ecological arrangements of the prehuman world were not. The fossil record of the Anthropocene will thus show a planetary ecosystem homogenised through domestication.
More sinisterly, there are the fossils that will not be found. Although it is not yet inevitable, scientists warn that if current trends of habitat loss continue, exacerbated by the effects of climate change, there could be an imminent and dramatic number of extinctions before long.
All these things would show future geologists that humans had been present. But though they might be diagnostic of the time in which humans lived, they would not necessarily show that those humans shaped their time in the way that people pushing the idea of the Anthropocene want to argue. The strong claim of those announcing the recent dawning of the age of man is that humans are not just spreading over the planet, but are changing the way it works.
Such workings are the province of Earth-system science, which sees the planet not just as a set of places, or as the subject of a history, but also as a system of forces, flows and feedbacks that act upon each other. This system can behave in distinctive and counterintuitive ways, including sometimes flipping suddenly from one state to another. To an Earth-system scientist the difference between the Quaternary period (which includes the Holocene) and the Neogene, which came before it, is not just what was living where, or what the sea level was; it is that in the Neogene the climate stayed stable whereas in the Quaternary it swung in and out of a series of ice ages. The Earth worked differently in the two periods.
The clearest evidence for the system working differently in the Anthropocene comes from the recycling systems on which life depends for various crucial elements. In the past couple of centuries people have released quantities of fossil carbon that the planet took hundreds of millions of years to store away. This has given them a commanding role in the planet’s carbon cycle.
Although the natural fluxes of carbon dioxide into and out of the atmosphere are still more than ten times larger than the amount that humans put in every year by burning fossil fuels, the human addition matters disproportionately because it unbalances those natural flows. As Mr Micawber wisely pointed out, a small change in income can, in the absence of a compensating change in outlays, have a disastrous effect. The result of putting more carbon into the atmosphere than can be taken out of it is a warmer climate, a melting Arctic, higher sea levels, improvements in the photosynthetic efficiency of many plants, an intensification of the hydrologic cycle of evaporation and precipitation, and new ocean chemistry.
All of these have knock-on effects both on people and on the processes of the planet. More rain means more weathering of mountains. More efficient photosynthesis means less evaporation from croplands. And the changes in ocean chemistry are the sort of thing that can be expected to have a direct effect on the geological record if carbon levels rise far enough.
At a recent meeting of the Geological Society of London that was devoted to thinking about the Anthropocene and its geological record, Toby Tyrrell of the University of Southampton pointed out that pale carbonate sediments—limestones, chalks and the like—cannot be laid down below what is called a “carbonate compensation depth”. And changes in chemistry brought about by the fossil-fuel carbon now accumulating in the ocean will raise the carbonate compensation depth, rather as a warmer atmosphere raises the snowline on mountains. Some ocean floors which are shallow enough for carbonates to precipitate out as sediment in current conditions will be out of the game when the compensation depth has risen, like ski resorts too low on a warming alp. New carbonates will no longer be laid down. Old ones will dissolve. This change in patterns of deep-ocean sedimentation will result in a curious, dark band of carbonate-free rock—rather like that which is seen in sediments from the Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum, an episode of severe greenhouse warming brought on by the release of pent-up carbon 56m years ago.
The fix is in
No Dickensian insights are necessary to appreciate the scale of human intervention in the nitrogen cycle. One crucial part of this cycle—the fixing of pure nitrogen from the atmosphere into useful nitrogen-containing chemicals—depends more or less entirely on living things (lightning helps a bit). And the living things doing most of that work are now people (see chart). By adding industrial clout to the efforts of the microbes that used to do the job single-handed, humans have increased the annual amount of nitrogen fixed on land by more than 150%. Some of this is accidental. Burning fossil fuels tends to oxidise nitrogen at the same time. The majority is done on purpose, mostly to make fertilisers. This has a variety of unwholesome consequences, most importantly the increasing number of coastal “dead zones” caused by algal blooms feeding on fertiliser-rich run-off waters.
Industrial nitrogen’s greatest environmental impact, though, is to increase the number of people. Although nitrogen fixation is not just a gift of life—it has been estimated that 100m people were killed by explosives made with industrially fixed nitrogen in the 20th century’s wars—its net effect has been to allow a huge growth in population. About 40% of the nitrogen in the protein that humans eat today got into that food by way of artificial fertiliser. There would be nowhere near as many people doing all sorts of other things to the planet if humans had not sped the nitrogen cycle up.
It is also worth noting that unlike many of humanity’s other effects on the planet, the remaking of the nitrogen cycle was deliberate. In the late 19th century scientists diagnosed a shortage of nitrogen as a planet-wide problem. Knowing that natural processes would not improve the supply, they invented an artificial one, the Haber process, that could make up the difference. It was, says Mark Sutton of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Edinburgh, the first serious human attempt at geoengineering the planet to bring about a desired goal. The scale of its success outstripped the imaginings of its instigators. So did the scale of its unintended consequences.
For many of those promoting the idea of the Anthropocene, further geoengineering may now be in order, this time on the carbon front. Left to themselves, carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere are expected to remain high for 1,000 years—more, if emissions continue to go up through this century. It is increasingly common to hear climate scientists arguing that this means things should not be left to themselves—that the goal of the 21st century should be not just to stop the amount of carbon in the atmosphere increasing, but to start actively decreasing it. This might be done in part by growing forests (see article) and enriching soils, but it might also need more high-tech interventions, such as burning newly grown plant matter in power stations and pumping the resulting carbon dioxide into aquifers below the surface, or scrubbing the air with newly contrived chemical-engineering plants, or intervening in ocean chemistry in ways that would increase the sea’s appetite for the air’s carbon.
To think of deliberately interfering in the Earth system will undoubtedly be alarming to some. But so will an Anthropocene deprived of such deliberation. A way to try and split the difference has been propounded by a group of Earth-system scientists inspired by (and including) Dr Crutzen under the banner of “planetary boundaries”. The planetary-boundaries group, which published a sort of manifesto in 2009, argues for increased restraint and, where necessary, direct intervention aimed at bringing all sorts of things in the Earth system, from the alkalinity of the oceans to the rate of phosphate run-off from the land, close to the conditions pertaining in the Holocene. Carbon-dioxide levels, the researchers recommend, should be brought back from whatever they peak at to a level a little higher than the Holocene’s and a little lower than today’s.
The idea behind this precautionary approach is not simply that things were good the way they were. It is that the further the Earth system gets from the stable conditions of the Holocene, the more likely it is to slip into a whole new state and change itself yet further.
The Earth’s history shows that the planet can indeed tip from one state to another, amplifying the sometimes modest changes which trigger the transition. The nightmare would be a flip to some permanently altered state much further from the Holocene than things are today: a hotter world with much less productive oceans, for example. Such things cannot be ruled out. On the other hand, the invocation of poorly defined tipping points is a well worn rhetorical trick for stirring the fears of people unperturbed by current, relatively modest, changes.
In general, the goal of staying at or returning close to Holocene conditions seems judicious. It remains to be seen if it is practical. The Holocene never supported a civilisation of 10 billion reasonably rich people, as the Anthropocene must seek to do, and there is no proof that such a population can fit into a planetary pot so circumscribed. So it may be that a “good Anthropocene”, stable and productive for humans and other species they rely on, is one in which some aspects of the Earth system’s behaviour are lastingly changed. For example, the Holocene would, without human intervention, have eventually come to an end in a new ice age. Keeping the Anthropocene free of ice ages will probably strike most people as a good idea.
Dreams of a smart planet
That is an extreme example, though. No new ice age is due for some millennia to come. Nevertheless, to see the Anthropocene as a blip that can be minimised, and from which the planet, and its people, can simply revert to the status quo, may be to underestimate the sheer scale of what is going on.
Take energy. At the moment the amount of energy people use is part of what makes the Anthropocene problematic, because of the carbon dioxide given off. That problem will not be solved soon enough to avert significant climate change unless the Earth system is a lot less prone to climate change than most scientists think. But that does not mean it will not be solved at all. And some of the zero-carbon energy systems that solve it—continent- scale electric grids distributing solar energy collected in deserts, perhaps, or advanced nuclear power of some sort—could, in time, be scaled up to provide much more energy than today’s power systems do. As much as 100 clean terawatts, compared to today’s dirty 15TW, is not inconceivable for the 22nd century. That would mean humanity was producing roughly as much useful energy as all the world’s photosynthesis combined.
In a fascinating recent book, “Revolutions that Made the Earth”, Timothy Lenton and Andrew Watson, Earth-system scientists at the universities of Exeter and East Anglia respectively, argue that large changes in the amount of energy available to the biosphere have, in the past, always marked large transitions in the way the world works. They have a particular interest in the jumps in the level of atmospheric oxygen seen about 2.4 billion years ago and 600m years ago. Because oxygen is a particularly good way of getting energy out of organic matter (if it weren’t, there would be no point in breathing) these shifts increased sharply the amount of energy available to the Earth’s living things. That may well be why both of those jumps seem to be associated with subsequent evolutionary leaps—the advent of complex cells, in the first place, and of large animals, in the second. Though the details of those links are hazy, there is no doubt that in their aftermath the rules by which the Earth system operated had changed.
The growing availability of solar or nuclear energy over the coming centuries could mark the greatest new energy resource since the second of those planetary oxidations, 600m years ago—a change in the same class as the greatest the Earth system has ever seen. Dr Lenton (who is also one of the creators of the planetary-boundaries concept) and Dr Watson suggest that energy might be used to change the hydrologic cycle with massive desalination equipment, or to speed up the carbon cycle by drawing down atmospheric carbon dioxide, or to drive new recycling systems devoted to tin and copper and the many other metals as vital to industrial life as carbon and nitrogen are to living tissue. Better to embrace the Anthropocene’s potential as a revolution in the way the Earth system works, they argue, than to try to retreat onto a low-impact path that runs the risk of global immiseration.
Such a choice is possible because of the most fundamental change in Earth history that the Anthropocene marks: the emergence of a form of intelligence that allows new ways of being to be imagined and, through co-operation and innovation, to be achieved. The lessons of science, from Copernicus to Darwin, encourage people to dismiss such special pleading. So do all manner of cultural warnings, from the hubris around which Greek tragedies are built to the lamentation of King David’s preacher: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity…the Earth abideth for ever…and there is no new thing under the sun.” But the lamentation of vanity can be false modesty. On a planetary scale, intelligence is something genuinely new and powerful. Through the domestication of plants and animals intelligence has remade the living environment. Through industry it has disrupted the key biogeochemical cycles. For good or ill, it will do yet more.
It may seem nonsense to think of the (probably sceptical) intelligence with which you interpret these words as something on a par with plate tectonics or photosynthesis. But dam by dam, mine by mine, farm by farm and city by city it is remaking the Earth before your eyes.
http://www.economist.com/node/18741749?story_id=18741749&fsrc=rss
The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
5.5 (May 2011)
Contents:
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
2. Journey of the Universe Film Showings
3. Events
4. New Books
5. New Videos
6. The Franciscan Special Issue on Climate Change
7. Pope at Easter: Without Attention to All of Creation, Salvation History is Too Small
8. Philippine Bishop Calls for ‘Green’ Trash-free Holy Week
9. Call for Papers: “Sacred Soil, Living Water, Holy Air: Science, Spirituality, and the Elements of Earthly Life” (October 21, 2011 in Chicago, IL, USA)
10. Call for Papers: “Uncanny Homecomings: Narrative Structures, Existential Questions, Theological Visions” (August 26-28, 2011 in Iowa City, IA, USA)
11. “The Culture of Contemporary Spirituality and its Potentials and Pitfalls for Sustainable Development,” by Annick Hedlund-de Witt
12. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
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1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
Greetings,
Welcome to the May issue of the newsletter for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. We have much to share with you this month with regards to developments in the field of Religion and Ecology, including film showings, books, conferences, events, calls for papers, and more.
It is our pleasure to let you know that the Journey of the Universe film will be shown for World Environment Day at the United Nations in New York City on June 2, 2011 at 6:30pm. This showing is hosted by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). See below for more information. Other showings of the film will be held in Chicago May 21, in Toronto June 15, in Austin August 8, in Ottawa September 23, and in Seattle September 30. For the most up-to-date list of showings, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/upcoming-events/
The Journey of the Universe project is a collaboration of Brian Swimme, Mary Evelyn Tucker, and John Grim. This project includes a film and a book (available in June 2011), and an educational DVD series (available in July 2011). Inspired by the New Story of Thomas Berry, the Journey of the Universe draws on the latest scientific knowledge to tell the story of cosmic and Earth evolution. It aims to inspire a new and closer relationship with Earth in a period of growing environmental and social crisis. For more information about the project, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org
If you are interested in scheduling a screening of the Journey of the Universe, please visit the Journey Screening page (http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/screening/). On this page, you can review the Screening Technical Instructions and complete the Screening Request Form, which is to be emailed to Sue Espinosa at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
We are happy to inform you that the papers from the Journey of the Universe Conference at Yale University on March 24-26, 2011 are now available online. This conference surrounded the World Premiere of the film and brought together some 35 scientists and humanists to discuss the implications of Journey of the Universe for teaching, research, and creative outreach. To read these conference papers, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/conference-at-yale/
We are also excited to let you know that Orion Magazine has published interviews with three of the participants of the Journey of the Universe Conference at Yale. On April 29, Orion interviewed Scott Sampson, a Canadian paleontologist and science communicator who is the on-air host of the PBS children’s series Dinosaur Train, and author of Dinosaur Odyssey: Fossil Threads in the Web of Life. On April 21, Orion interviewed Tom Lovejoy, the first recipient of the Heinz Center Biodiversity Chair in August 2008. Before coming to The Heinz Center, he was the chief biodiversity advisor to the World Bank, science advisor to the secretary of the interior, and executive vice president of the World Wildlife Fund. On April 15, Orion interviewed Kathleen Dean Moore, coeditor of Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril and Distinguished Profes sor of Philosophy at Oregon State University. To read these interviews, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/news-articles/
We hope that this newsletter supports your own work and helps you further your own engagements with the field of Religion and Ecology.
Warm wishes,
Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
California Institute of Integral Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Web Content Managers & Newsletter Editors
http://www.yale.edu/religionandecology
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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2. Journey of the Universe Film Showings
Film Showing at United Nations for World Environment Day (June 2, 2011)
Hosted by United Nations Environment Programme
6:30pm
United Nations
North Lawn Building
Conference Rm 3
New York, NY
Entrance:
UN Public Entrance
1st Avenue between 45th and 46th street
This event is free and open to the public.
Registration is required.
Please send your name and affiliation to: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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Cary Institute of Ecosystems Studies (May 10, 2011)
Millbrook, NY
7:00pm
This film showing is part of the conference “Linking Ecology and Ethics for a Changing World: Values, Philosophy, and Action.”
Showing is open to conference participants.
http://www.ecostudies.org/cary_conferences.html
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Midwest Premiere: Chicago (May 21, 2011)
The Well
1515 W. Ogden
LaGrange Park, Il. 60526
7-9PM
http://www.csjthewell.org
Contact: Bridget Sperduto, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
708-482-5039
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For more events related to Journey of the Universe, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/upcoming-events/
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3. Events
“Consecration of Srī Somesvara Temple”
North Carolina
May 12-16, 2011
This May 12-16, an authentic Vedic Shiva temple will be consecrated in the mountains of North Carolina. Sri Somesvara Temple, built of ancient granite carved in India, will resonate with the deepest values of Nature feeding the very source of life itself. By addressing the most fundamental level of existence, Sri Somesvara Temple will help give rise to the consciousness needed to heal the world and environment.
A five day consecration will be held at Mount Soma in Clyde, North Carolina on May 12-16, 2011. You are welcome to attend any or all of the five-day ceremony.
For more information and to RSVP, visit:
http://www.srisomesvara.org/Events
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American Teilhard Association Annual Meeting
"Darwin, Teilhard, and the Drama of Life"
Speaker: John Haught
Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY, USA
May 14, 2011
http://www.teilharddechardin.org/events.html#annual_meeting
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“Susquehanna River Blessings”
May 15, 2011
Dawn to Noon
The Susquehanna River and its watershed are being severely stressed by drilling for natural gas in the region. Inspired by the Thai monks ordaining the old-growth trees in Thailand so as to have them spared we are calling for ceremonies of Blessings along the Susquehanna River on Sunday, May 15th, between dawn and noon. Those who understand that rivers sustain us throughout the world, please bring your families, friends, your communities, to the water's edge, each of us blessing it with the laying on of two flowers. The first flower offered is to thank the water. The second is our pledge to take good care of the water.
Visit the Flowers on the Water Facebook page to send news of your location and group, and share photos and videos: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Art-and-Awareness/128245477241414
Visit http://www.artandawareness.com/ for more resources.
For information, contact: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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“Animals as Religious Subjects: A Transdisciplinary Conference”
Hosted by the European Forum for the Study of Religion and Environment
University of Chester, UK
May 21-24, 2011
http://www.chester.ac.uk/trs/animals-as-religous-subjects
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“Technology and Security”
17th International Conference of the Society for Philosophy and Technology (SPT)
University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA
May 26-29, 2011
https://spt2011.unt.edu/
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“Evensong and Ecology: Food, Farms, Faith”
Cathedral of Saint John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Avenue
New York City, NY, USA
Music by Theodicy Jazz Collective
Reflections by Mary Evelyn Tucker
This event is free and open to the public.
May 29, 2011
4:00 pm
Honoring those who plant and harvest, this Rogation Sunday evensong calls our attention to the critical issues of food and water security around the world. How will we feed 9 billion people in a warmer world, and how can faithful people live rightly with creation? The Theodicy Jazz Collective joins Mary Evelyn Tucker of Yale's Forum on Religion and Ecology for an evening of music, prophecy, and action. All are welcome.
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4. New Books
Dharma and Ecology of Hindu Communities: Sustenance and Sustainability
By Pankaj Jain
Ashgate Publishing, 2011
http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calctitle=1&pageSubject=425&title_id=9948&edition_id=13134&lang=cy-gb
In Indic religious traditions, a number of rituals and myths exist in which the environment is revered. Despite this nature worship in India, its natural resources are under heavy pressure with its growing economy and exploding population. This has led several scholars to raise questions about the role religious communities can play in environmentalism. Does nature worship inspire Hindus to act in an environmentally conscious way? This book explores the above questions with three communities, the Swadhyaya movement, the Bishnoi, and the Bhil communities. Presenting the texts of Bishnois, their environmental history, and their contemporary activism; investigating the Swadhyaya movement from an ecological perspective; and exploring the Bhil communities and their Sacred Groves, this book applies a non-Western hermeneutical model to interpret the religious traditions of Indic communities. With a foreword by Roger S Gottlieb.
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No Ordinary Time: The Rise of Spiritual Intelligence and Evolutionary Creativity
By Jan Phillips
Livingkindness Foundation, 2011
http://www.livingkindness.org/Livingkindness/Publications.html
http://www.janphillips.com
No Ordinary Time: The Rise of Spiritual Intelligence and Evolutionary Creativity is a call to mindfulness, a reminder that evolutionary action begins in stillness, as visionary ideas evolve from spiritual practice. It is a book for people conscious of their power and ready to co-create new sacraments and ceremonies that celebrate the Divine dwelling within us. It is a handbook for people committed to justice, peacemaking and spiritual integrity who are eager to evolve themselves spiritually and creatively. It bridges the One and the many, East and West, darkness and light through an array of stories, poems, prayers and songs.
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Ecotheology and the Practice of Hope
By Anne Marie Dalton and Henry C. Simmons
State University of New York Press, 2010
http://www.sunypress.edu/p-5052-ecotheology-and-the-practice-of.aspx
Is there any hope for a more sustainable world? Can we reimagine a way of living in which the nonhuman world matters? Anne Marie Dalton and Henry C. Simmons claim that the ecotheology that arose during the mid-twentieth century gives us reason for hope. While ecotheologians acknowledge that Christianity played a significant role in creating societies in which the nonhuman world counted for very little, these thinkers have refocused religion to include the natural world. To borrow philosopher Charles Taylor's concept, they have created a new "social imaginary," reimagining a better world and a different sense of what is and what should be. A new mindset is emerging, inspired by ecotheological texts and evident in the many diverse movements and activities that operate as if the hope imparted by ecotheology has already been realized. While making this powerful argument, Dalton and Simmons also provide an essential overview of key ecotheological thinkers and texts.
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5. New Videos
Pete and Duane’s Window is a program that explores our world in transition including topics such as consciousness, world trends, sustainability, spirituality, and our collective future. The show’s hosts, Peter Russell and Duane Elgin, are internationally recognized visionaries who have known one another for decades, and share an interest in awakening consciousness, both personal and global. As “evolutionary elders,” they see this time as pivotal for our species.
In collaboration with Coleen LeDrew Elgin, they co-created Pete and Duane’s Window—a view of the world’s dynamics and trends, the potential for conscious evolution, and the opportunity to live sustainably and compassionately. They hope this program will generate deeper inquiry and conversation about our common future. With Coleen’s help, they utilized the Marin Community Media Center and a team of volunteers to create the current series.
Pete and Duane's Window explores topics such as:
• Science and Spirituality
• Our World in Transition
• The Roots of Our Crisis
• Take Back the Airwaves
• The Mind of the Dolphin
• Be Love Now
The shows are available for free viewing and download and are approximately 28 minutes in length. To view the shows, visit:
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6. The Franciscan Special Issue on Climate Change
The May 2011 issue of The Franciscan focuses on climate change. The journal is published by the First Order of the Society of St. Francis (Anglican Communion).
To read the issue, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/files/The_Franciscan_May2011.pdf
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7. Pope at Easter: Without Attention to All of Creation, Salvation History is Too Small
As the Church celebrated this most holy of days, Pope Benedict XVI offered a beautiful reflection on Creation during the Easter Vigil:
Our profession of faith begins with the words: “We believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth”. If we omit the beginning of the Credo, the whole history of salvation becomes too limited and too small. The Church is not some kind of association that concerns itself with man’s religious needs but is limited to that objective. No, she brings man into contact with God and thus with the source of all things. Therefore we relate to God as Creator, and so we have a responsibility for creation. Our responsibility extends as far as creation because it comes from the Creator.
Read the Easter Vigil homily in its entirety here:
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8. Philippine Bishop Calls for ‘Green’ Trash-free Holy Week
Last week, Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez, head of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Permanent Committee on Public Affairs, invited Catholics to commemorate Holy Week by taking steps to more fully care for God’s good gift of Creation. Said the bishop:
A green Holy Week is a timely call in response to the wastefulness and greed that is blatantly trashing our fragile environment …I encourage everyone to plan for an earth-friendly and spiritually nourishing week.
For the full story, visit:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20110411-330618/Bishop-calls-for-green-trash-free-Holy-Week
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9. Call for Papers: “Sacred Soil, Living Water, Holy Air: Science, Spirituality, and the Elements of Earthly Life” (October 21, 2011 in Chicago, IL, USA)
4th Annual Student Symposium on Science and Spirituality
October 21, 2011
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
Chicago, IL, USA
http://www.zygoncenter.org/studentsymposium/
Held on Friday, October 21, 2011 at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, the fourth annual Student Symposium on Science and Spirituality is a one-day conference designed to provide an interdisciplinary and interfaith forum for graduate, professional, and ministry students to engage in collaborative conversations and professional networking with faculty mentors. Cash prizes will be awarded for the best student papers as judged by a faculty committee, and papers will be published on the Zygon Center's website and recommended for publication in journals such as Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science.
Greek philosophers and Hebrew prophets, indigenous peoples and immigrants, earth scientists and environmental advocates: from ancient to modern, we have long recognized soil, water, and air as essential elements of earthly life. Much more than simple chemical elements, they are complex substances in dynamic interaction with living organisms—including humans. Finite and often fragile, they are both precious gifts and contested resources.
Deadline for Proposals: June 15, 2011
For the full call for papers, visit:
www.zygoncenter.org/studentsymposium/
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10. Call for Papers: “Uncanny Homecomings: Narrative Structures, Existential Questions, Theological Visions” (August 26-28, 2011 in Iowa City, IA, USA)
2011 Religion, Literature and the Arts Conference
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA, USA
August 26-28, 2011
http://rla2011.blogspot.com/
The 2011 Religion, Literature and the Arts conference encourages participants to investigate the subject of home and homecoming. Poets and philosophers have long identified the human yearning to find a geographic and emotional environment that allows for a feeling of integration, where we understand our place in the greater whole. If we linger with this notion, however, the paradoxical nature of our desire for homecoming emerges: the home that we remember from our past is not the place that we are ever able to find in our present, and the places that we find or create in our present that have an aura of “home” are frequently disconcerting in their ability to provide comfort. There is something unheimlich in returning home, a lesson learned by individuals from Odysseus or the Prodigal Son in the Western tradition to those facing crises of homecoming in 21st century Palestine or Algeria.
Deadline for proposals: May 20, 2011
For the full call for papers, visit:
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11. “The Culture of Contemporary Spirituality and its Potentials and Pitfalls for Sustainable Development,” by Annick Hedlund-de Witt
Recently, the leading environmental journal Ecological Economics published an article in which the phenomenon of contemporary spirituality, or so-called "New Age" religion, was explored from an explicitly environmental perspective. That is, the author, Annick Hedlund-de Witt, attempted to clarify whether, to what extent and in what ways this (sub)culture is or may be of support to the issues, goals and agendas of sustainable development. According to Hedlund-de Witt this is highly relevant, as several social scientists claim that the rise of the culture of contemporary spirituality is a pivotal part of the gradual but profound change taking place in the Western worldview—both reflecting the larger cultural development, as well as giving shape and direction to it. Its emergence is therefore not to be neglected in attempts to create a more sustainable society. However, till this date, this theme appears to be remarkably absent from mainstream discourses on sustainable development.
The aim of the study was to generate insight into the culture and worldview of contemporary spirituality and explore its potentials and pitfalls for sustainable development. An investigation of the sociological literature on the phenomenon resulted in a delineation and overview of these and showed that this culture is both a potentially promising force, as well as a phenomenon posing specific risks. A structural-developmental understanding was then introduced in order to be able to distinguish between regressive and progressive tendencies in this culture, and comprehend the deeper logic behind the observed potentials and pitfalls. An example of a potential of the culture of contemporary spirituality for sustainable development is what British sociologist Colin Campbell has called the rehabilitation of nature, which comes to expression in a preference for organic food and vegetarian diets, natural products and conscious consumerism. These lifestyle changes have a double effect: not only do they result in less environmental pollution and resource depletion through the greening of individual lifestyles, but they also support and stimulate (the transition to) a green economy, as they serve as an impetus for companies aiming to win these markets, and a discouragement or even a pounding for companies which are not taking up the environmental challenge.
This emerging worldview therefore appears to play an important role in influencing attitudes, behaviors and political and consumer choices towards the environment. In that way it can be seen as a driver in consumer trends and economic spending patterns, of influence on policy opinion and policy support, as well as a co-shaper of cultural-societal transitions. The emerging spiritual worldview can thus not, as the author demonstrates, be discarded as pre-rational and irrelevant, but must be differentiated, investigated, and integrated with rational scientific understandings of sustainable development. That may then serve to facilitate the actualization of the culture’s potentials while mitigating its pitfalls, and in that way contribute to the timely challenge of creating a more sustainable society.
See: Hedlund-de Witt, A., 2011. The rising culture and worldview of contemporary spirituality: a sociological study of potentials and pitfalls for sustainable development. Ecological Economics, 70, 1057-1065.
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12. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme. For more information, visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo
For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental ethics/philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html. If you know of a publication that needs to be added to this list, email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/index.html
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end
The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
5.4 (April 2011)
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
2. Journey of the Universe Premieres and other Showings
3. Events
4. New Books
5. Call for Papers: Society for Ecofeminism, Environmental Justice, and Social Ecology
(October 24, 2011 in Philadelphia, PA, USA)
6. Call for Papers: “Doing Good, Doing Bad, Doing Nothing: Scientific and Religious Perspectives on Human Behavior” (June 18-25, 2011 in Chautauqua, NY, USA)
7. Call for Papers: “Religion, Nature and Art” (October 13-14, 2011 in Roma, Italy)
8. Call for Papers: “The Environmental Humanities: Cultural Perspectives on Nature and the Environment” (October 14-15, 2011 in Stockholm, Sweden)
9. Oil and Our Lifestyles: A Month of Action
10. “(Un)Sacred Pollution: Restoring the Jordan River to Its Glory,” by Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME)
11. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
Greetings,
Welcome to the April issue of the newsletter for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. We have much to share with you this month with regards to developments in the field of Religion and Ecology, including film premieres, books, conferences, events, calls for papers, and more.
We are delighted to inform you that the World Premiere of the Journey of the Universe film at Yale University on March 25-26 was a huge success. There were 5 screenings with nearly 1000 people seeing the film in total. At the first showing, introduced by the Dean Peter Crane of Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, there was a spontaneous standing ovation at the conclusion. The panel and discussion that followed was lively.
The premiere was surrounded by a two day conference at Yale with some 35 scientists and humanists focused on exploring the implications of Journey of the Universe for teaching, research, and creative outreach. The conference concluded with a celebratory dinner on Saturday evening in the Hall of the Dinosaurs in Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History, where Paul Winter played his saxophone and the distinguished scientist, Tom Lovejoy, spoke.
The film was shown Sunday evening in DC at the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capitol during which 150 films were shown. The Journey film concluded the festival with a packed audience of 400 people at the Carnegie Institution for Science and a line around the block of some 150 people unable to get in. Tom Lovejoy introduced the film by saying, “This is one of the most remarkable films I have ever seen.” The audience was captivated with the magnificent HD images and beautifully composed music. An excellent discussion followed with the authors, Brian Thomas Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker. The film will be shown again in DC on April 17th where the best films of the two week festival will be highlighted.
Other premieres of the film will be held in New York on April 21, in San Francisco April 30, in Chicago May 21, in Toronto June 14, at Genesis Farm August 20, and in Seattle September 30.
The Journey of the Universe project is a collaboration of Brian Thomas Swimme, Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, and an extraordinary team of film makers and advisors. It is directed and produced by Patsy Northcutt and David Kennard and co-produced by Catherine Butler. This project includes a film, a book, and an educational DVD series, all of which will be available in June 2011. Inspired by the "New Story" of Thomas Berry, the Journey of the Universe draws on the latest scientific knowledge to tell the story of cosmic and Earth evolution. It aims to inspire a new and closer relationship with Earth in a period of growing environmental and social crisis.
For more information about the project, the screenings, and pre-ordering the book and film, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org
We also wanted to let you know that an important book has just been published titled Ecological Awareness: Exploring Religion, Ethics and Aesthetics, edited by Sigurd Bergmann and Heather Eaton. Sigurd Bergmann is professor in the Department of Archaeology and Religious Studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, and he’s the founder of the European Forum for the Study of Religion and the Environment. Heather Eaton is professor of theology at St. Paul’s University in Ottawa and the founder of the Canadian Forum on Religion and Ecology. Seventeen authors from the fields of theology, religious studies, biology, sociology and philosophy explore how religious practitioners have become increasingly aware of ecological challenges.
We hope that this newsletter supports your own work and helps you further your own engagements with the field of Religion and Ecology.
Warm wishes,
Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
California Institute of Integral Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Web Content Managers & Newsletter Editors
http://www.yale.edu/religionandecology
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
2. Journey of the Universe Premieres and other Showings
Film Showing: New York University, NYC (April 21, 2011)
Kimmel Center
Room 914, Silver Board Room
New York University
60 Washington Square South
New York, New York 10012
Film: 5:30-6:30pm
Talk/Discussion: 6:30-7:30pm
This event is free and open to the public.
RSVP is required.
http://www.nyu.edu/rsvp/event.php?e_id=3490
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West Coast Premiere: San Francisco (April 30, 2011)
Victoria Theatre
2961 16th Street
San Francisco, CA
5pm - Film showing (sold out)
8:30pm - Film showing
For ticket information, visit:
http://www.ciis.edu/x2977.xml
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Midwest Premiere: Chicago (May 21, 2011)
The Well
1515 W. Ogden
LaGrange Park, Il. 60526
7-9PM
http://www.csjthewell.org
Contact: Bridget Sperduto
email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
708-482-5039
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For more events related to Journey of the Universe, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/upcoming-events/
3. Events
“Consecration of Srī Somesvara Temple”
North Carolina
May 12-16, 2011
The Srī Somesvara Temple will be consecrated in the mountains of North Carolina on May 12-16, 2011. Srī Somesvara Temple, built of ancient granite carved in India, will resonate with the deepest values of Nature feeding the very source of life itself. By addressing the most fundamental level of existence, Srī Somesvara Temple will help give rise to the consciousness needed to heal the world and environment. Sri Somesvara Temple will radiate the Divine Source of all life and existence. For more information, visit: http://www.srisomesvara.org/Events
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“New Directions in Environmental Law: A Climate of Possibility
Yale Law School”
One workshop may be of particular interest to the Forum community:
“Indigenous Peoples, International Human Rights, Law, and the Environment”
4:45-5:45 pm
April 2, 2011
http://www.law.yale.edu/news/envirolawconference.htm
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“Inward and Outward Nature: An Islamic Portrayal of the Spirituality-Environment Nexus”
The Tenth Annual Critical Islamic Reflections Conference
Yale University
New Haven, CT, USA
April 9, 2011
http://www.yale.edu/cir/
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American Teilhard Association Annual Meeting
"Darwin, Teilhard, and the Drama of Life"
Speaker: John Haught
Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY, USA
May 14, 2011
http://www.teilharddechardin.org/events.html#annual_meeting
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“Animals as Religious Subjects: A Transdisciplinary Conference”
Hosted by the European Forum for the Study of Religion and Environment
University of Chester, UK
May 21-24, 2011
http://www.chester.ac.uk/trs/animals-as-religous-subjects
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“Technology and Security”
17th International Conference of the Society for Philosophy and Technology (SPT)
University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA
May 26-29, 2011
https://spt2011.unt.edu/
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“Sustaining Earth, Sustaining Soul”
With Jeffrey Kiehl, Ph.D., M.A., LPC, Jungian Analyst
Esalen Institute
Big Sur, CA
June 3-5, 2011
http://webapp.esalen.org/workshops/9375
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For more events, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/
4. New Books
Ecological Awareness: Exploring Religion, Ethics and Aesthetics
Edited by Sigurd Bergmann and Heather Eaton
Studies in Religion and the Environment / Studien zur Religion und Umwelt, Bd. 3
LIT Verlag, 2011
http://www.lit-verlag.de/isbn/3-8258-1950-7
The past years have seen an ecological development in religions that is staggering. These efforts are responses to difficult local and global ecological problems, with an increased awareness that religions need to be alert, engaged and active partners in the work for a sustainable future. Ecological Awareness – with 17 authors from theology, religious studies, biology, sociology and philosophy – explores how religious practitioners have become increasingly aware of ecological challenges. The book considers aspects of ecological awareness: personal, social, political, religious and ecological. It sheds new light on an essential function of belief systems, which function not only as cognitive and moral systems, but emerge from and affect our human body and its mode of perceiving our milieu and ourselves within it. The book contributes to an increasing awareness of our embeddedness in larger life processes, as well as the awareness of life as a gift.
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Judgment Day: The Struggle for Life on Earth
By Paul Collins
UNSW Press, 2010 / Orbis Books, 2011
https://www.unswpress.com.au/isbn/9781742231563.htm http://www.maryknollsocietymall.org/description.cfm?ISBN=978-1-57075-920-8
Judgment Day: The Struggle for Life on Earth is a powerful warning of the perils of global warming and a mobilization of the Christian conscience to change our thinking, our ways of acting, and so to save our planet.
The recent Gulf oil spill is just the latest depredation against the planet. From every direction come signs of global warming and other forms of ecological disaster that threaten the future of all living beings. In this sobering assessment of our condition, Paul Collins examines the nature of this crisis and how we got here including a review of the mental habits of thought, including religious worldviews, that have contributed to our dilemma and continue to inhibit effective action.
As Collins shows, if religious ideas have contributed to the problem, there are also powerful resources within the Christian tradition that can help us both in scripture, and in the work of prophetic geologians like Thomas Berry and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Drawing on these resources, Collins lays out the elements of a theology aimed at saving the earth and ourselves.
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Perspectives on the Ideas of Gregory Bateson, Ecological Intelligence, and Educational Reforms
By Chet Bowers
Eco-Justice Press and Aurora Books, 2011
www.ecojusticepress.com
Chet Bowers’ new book, Perspectives on the Ideas of Gregory Bateson, Ecological Intelligence, and Educational Reforms, will be particularly important to religious groups concerned with promoting eco-justice thinking and social reforms, as it presents Bateson’s core ideas on the sources of double bind thinking that now dominates our thinking about educational reforms and social policy issues. Particularly important to understanding the cultural roots of the ecological crisis is Bateson’s explanation of how the deep cultural assumptions, which are derived from earlier eras when there was no awareness of environmental limits, continue to be promoted in publics schools and universities. He also provides an understanding of how the metaphorical nature of language carries forward the misconceptions and silences of earlier eras. Bowers builds upon Bateson’s ideas in explaining the issues that now have to be reconceptualized in the areas of social justice, understanding the metaphorical roots of our moral values, and the nature of educational reforms that will foster the transition to exercising ecological intelligence and to revitalizing the local cultural commons that have a smaller ecological footprint. In effect, the book is a primer for people working to achieve eco-justice in their local communities and globally, as it brings into focus the language/culture/consciousness connections that are so critical to avoiding Albert Einstein’s warning about relying upon the same mind-set that created the problems to correct them.
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The Eleventh Commandment: Caring for Creation - Words of Wisdom from the World's Great Faith Traditions
By Christine Williams
CreateSpace, 2011
http://www.amazon.com/Eleventh-Commandment-Caring-Creation-Traditions/dp/1456307371/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1300074716&sr=1-1
For all people, and particularly for people of faith, the time is NOW to speak out for the preservation of this beautiful and fragile planet. People of all faith traditions are beginning to hear the call to take better care of the earth, and we must begin to answer with our actions as well as our prayers. This book contains masterful sermons and essays from nationally known and highly respected religious leaders, writers, and scholars. These writings will challenge our denial, complacency, and outright hopelessness (to borrow a theme from Chapter One by Dr. John B. Cobb, Jr.), and ignite the transformational fire within, moving us closer to living in accordance with the values of our professed faith. The reader will make the discovery that the major world religions share common ground in the mandate of our respective scriptures to be faithful stewards of the earth. "The Eleventh Commandment" contains the promise of a new beginning for people of all faith traditions to become a part of the global movement that integrates faith with environmental stewardship.
5. Call for Papers: Society for Ecofeminism, Environmental Justice, and Social Ecology (October 24, 2011 in Philadelphia, PA, USA)
In conjunction with the International Association for Environmental Philosophy (IAEP), the Society for Ecofeminism, Environmental Justice, and Social Ecology (SEEJSE) invites paper proposals for its seventh annual meeting, to be held in Philadelphia, PA, October 24, 2011, immediately after the main IAEP program. (IAEP website: www.environmentalphilosophy.org)
Please send 1-2 page (single-spaced) proposals in Word format to SEEJSE co-Chair, Keith Peterson, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Proposals should also indicate any special audio-visual or equipment needs.
The deadline for receipt of proposals is April 15, 2011.
The meeting provides a forum for writers in the transdisciplinary domains of Ecofeminism, Environmental Justice, and Social or Political Ecology to connect issues traditionally treated in environmental philosophy, such as human relations with non-human others, wilderness, and the value of nature, to issues of social justice. These discourses emphasize that environmental problems resulting from human-nature relations are closely interconnected with problems in human-to-human relations. SEEJSE seeks to encourage the connection of abstract philosophical analysis with empirical data on human lived experience. It aims proactively to expand the perspectives and concerns of environmental philosophers to be inclusive of perspectives traditionally marginalized in philosophy in general and environmental philosophy in particular, especially issues of concern to women, people of color, indigenous peoples, and people living in developing nations. Paper proposals on any of these topics are welcome.
Trish Glazebrook, University of North Texas, SEEJSE Co-chair
Keith Peterson, Colby College, SEEJSE Co-chair
6. Call for Papers: “Doing Good, Doing Bad, Doing Nothing: Scientific and Religious Perspectives on Human Behavior” (June 18-25, 2011 in Chautauqua, NY, USA)
The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS) will present its 57th annual conference, “Doing Good, Doing Bad, Doing Nothing: Scientific and Religious Perspectives on Human Behavior.” It will be held at Chautauqua, New York, June 18 - 25, 2011.
Open to the general public as well as professionals, topics will include questions such as: What causes people to behave in ways that harm others? Benefit others? Why do some stand by and watch while others are hurt? And why do some step in to help, even at risk to themselves? In response to these questions, the conference will seek to integrate recent understandings of behavior from the evolutionary, genetic, developmental, neural, and psychological sciences with teachings of the world’s philosophies and religions, in order to better understand how we can become more “humane” humans.
Proposals are being sought for workshops and poster sessions, especially from students and younger scholars. Information is on the website under “Conference” and “Poster Sessions.”
The deadline for applications is April 18, 2011.
For more information please visit the IRAS website: www.iras.org.
Karl Peters,(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Barbara Whittaker-Johns, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
7. Call for Papers: “Religion, Nature and Art” (October 13-14, 2011 in Roma, Italy)
This joint conference, sponsored by the Ethnological Museum of the Vatican Museums, headed by prof. Nicola Mapelli, and the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, seeks to examine the complex intersections of religion, nature and art. Sessions will focus on broad cultural and geographic areas: “Asian Religions, Nature and Art,” “Renaissance Art, Religion and Nature,” “Indigenous Religions, Nature and Art,” “Spirituality-based Environmental Activism, Nature and Art”. Some general areas of presentation could include: art symbolizing religious aspects of nature, nature itself as religious art, nature-themed religious art, art that expresses religious-based resistance to environmental destruction.
The conference will also include two unique opportunities to view art in the Vatican Museums. We will visit the exhibit “Rituals of Life: the culture and spirituality of aboriginal Australians” with the curator, prof. Nicola Mapelli (conference co-director), and co-curator, Katherine Aigner, and on the concluding night we will tour the Vatican Museums (one family member is invited to this tour as well). The two-day conference offers the opportunity, either preceding or following the conference, to collaborate with other scholars in this area or to engage in research (pre-arranged individually) at the Vatican. In addition each conference registrant will receive a copy of Katherine Aigner’s acclaimed documentary “Australian Atomic Confessions.”
Proposals should be submitted to fr. Nicola Mapelli, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for review, and cc to Katherine Aigner, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Proposals should be no more than 250 words in length and should indicate directly how they relate to the theme.
Proposals are due by June 1, 2011.
Anticipated registration fee is 100 euro, 50 euro for students and others demonstrating financial need. For more information contact fr. Mapelli or conference co-coordinator Dr. Laura Hobgood-Oster, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
For regular updates regarding the preparation of the conference, please see the website of the ISSRNC at www.religionandnature.com/society.
8. Call for Papers: “The Environmental Humanities: Cultural Perspectives on Nature and the Environment” (October 14-15, 2011 in Stockholm, Sweden)
Environmental studies have traditionally been considered the province of the natural sciences, in the first place, and perhaps of the social sciences in the second place. What perspectives can literary scholars, historians, religious studies researchers, ethicists, human/cultural geographers, architects, cultural studies theorists and art historians bring to the fore that may help to shed new light on the environmental turn in contemporary human consciousness?
To address this issue, “The Environmental Humanities: Cultural Perspectives on Nature and the Environment” will be held in Stockholm, Sweden on October 14-15, 2011. The symposium is being organized by the Nordic Network for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies (NIES) in cooperation with the Division for the History of Science and Technology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and both CEMUS and the Department of English at Uppsala University.
The papers we seek above all are empirically based contributions from the current field of environmentally oriented research that are capable of showcasing some of the theoretical and methodological advantages of a humanistically framed approach to the study of nature, culture and environment.
A selection of papers from the symposium will appear in an anthology edited by Steven Hartman, Anna Storm and Sverker Sörlin, to be published by a leading Swedish publisher.
You are invited to submit your abstract (no more than 250 words) and a short CV to Susanna Lidström, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), no later than May 2, 2011. If you have any questions, please contact Steven Hartman, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
For the full Call for Papers, visit:
http://www.kth.se/abe/nies
9. “(Un)Sacred Pollution: Restoring the Jordan River to Its Glory,” by Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME)
The Jordan River is a historical, cultural, and religious site with great significance for the four regions that share its banks and tributaries. Revered in the holy books of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the Jordan River has been a sacred place for the world’s major religions. References are made associating the river to the prophets Moses and Elijah, and four of the companions to the prophet Mohammed are buried on the eastern banks of the river. For Christians, the Jordan River is one of the religion's most venerated holy sites, following the baptism of Jesus in the area of Qasr el Yehud.
The river is also ecologically significant with a historic flow of 1.3 billion cubic meters (bcm), and notably high biodiversity, from lush wetlands to diverse flora and fauna. Sadly, today the Lower Jordan River has been greatly altered with approximately 98% of the natural flow removed resulting in a loss of over 50% of the River's biodiversity. Furthermore, residents and visitors alike are unaware that the Jordan is drying up due to the fact that most of the river is a closed military zone and off limits to the public.
EcoPeace/Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) is an environmental peacemaking organization that promotes transboundary collaboration among Palestinian, Jordanian, and Israeli environmentalists. A unique organization, FoEME tackles common ecological issues by creating a space for dialogue and action for communities in all three regions vis-à-vis cooperative efforts. One such program dedicated to protecting the region’s shared environmental heritage is the Jordan River Rehabilitation Project, which focuses on bringing back the Lower Jordan River (from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea) to that of a healthy ecosystem. For more info, visit: http://foeme.org/www/?module=projects&record_id=153
Overdevelopment and intensive agriculture led to divergence of over 98% of the water to the surrounding regions. Additionally, rampant pollution and sewage dumping led to dramatic reductions in biodiversity. The high levels of pollution in the river have dire consequences for the many cultural and natural heritage sites located along the river's banks including the historical baptism site of Qasr el Yehud where high levels of pollution endanger the health of visiting pilgrims who wish to be baptized in the river's waters.
FoEME’s Jordan River Rehabilitation Project recently published an extensive environmental flows report in 2010 in which experts from Jordan, Palestine and Israel identified the conditions necessary to rehabilitate the Lower Jordan River (LJR). A complementary economic study was published which analyzed a range of policy opportunities that would enable the river's rehabilitation.
Some of FoEME’s recommendations include the development of a master plan for the LJR from the Jordanian and Palestinian government authorities, fairer allocation of the river’s water resources to Palestinians, regular testing of the river – particularly at sites of visitation such as the baptism site, and an experimental flood to flush the pollutants from the river. The return of a healthy ecosystem would benefit nature and society alike. Cooperation among Palestinians, Jordanians, and Israelis shows the shared significance of this water source, and how joint efforts toward water management can lead to monumental transformation. More than just a river, the Jordan continues to be a site of great religious, historical, and cultural importance. The Jordan River Rehabilitation Project demonstrates how shared efforts toward ecological rehabilitation can lead to peaceful interaction by working to resto re the Jordan to its former glory.
For more information about FoEME please visit our website at www.foeme.org. For recent highlights of our activities, sign up for our monthly environmental peacemaking newsletter (available at http://www.foeme.org/peace.php) or follow us at Facebook, Twitter, and blog (http://foeme.wordpress.com/).
10. Oil and Our Lifestyles: A Month of Action
April 20th marks the one-year anniversary of the Gulf Coast oil spill, with Earth Day following two days later. In honor, the Northwest Earth Institute invites you and your network to participate in Oil and Our Lifestyles: A Month of Action. http://nwei.org/oil-and-our-lifestyles-a-month-of-action
As part of this month-long commitment to dialogue and action, we are excited to offer our newest one-session discussion guide, Just Below the Surface: Perspectives on the Gulf Coast Oil Spill.
http://nwei.org/just-below-the-surface
Join with others to identify steps each of us can take to reduce fossil fuel use and to move from reaction to thoughtful and constructive action.
Yes, the spill is over, but the implications of the spill have not ended. As you may recall, the 1969 oil spill off the coast of California resulted in the first Earth Day. One year after the Deepwater Horizon spill, some guiding questions for us to consider are: How have we changed or failed to change? How are we shifting our own lifestyles and perspectives? And, how should we as citizens of Earth respond to the challenges of oil dependence?
If you’re interested in participating in Just Below the Surface as part of Oil and Our Lifestyles: A Month of Action, please contact NWEI at (503) 227-2807 to order the guide ($5) or to find out more. You can also order online using our online order form at http://nwei.org/order-form.
11. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme. For more information, visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo
For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental ethics/philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html. If you know of a publication that needs to be added to this list, email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/index.html
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The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
5.3 (March 2011)
Contents:
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
2. Journey of the Universe Film Showings
3. Events
4. New Books
5. Global Oneness Project Study Guide
6. 2011 Eco-Stewards Program and Summer Internships
7. Call for Papers: "Animals and Process Thought" (Special Issue of Process Studies)
8. USAID White Paper: “From Practice to Policy to Practice: Connecting Faith and Conservation in Africa”
9. "Japan’s 'Ama' Free Divers Keep their Traditions," By Anne McDonald
10. Survey for The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change
11. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
Greetings,
Welcome to the March issue of the newsletter for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. We have much to share with you this month with regards to developments in the field of Religion and Ecology, including film premieres, books, conferences, events, calls for papers, and more.
We are excited to let you know that the Journey of the Universe film will have its premiere at Yale on March 26. Along with this premiere on the East Coast, there will also be premieres in San Francisco on April 30, in Chicago May 21, and in Seattle September 30. The film will also be shown at the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital on March 27.
The Journey of the Universe project is a collaboration of Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker. This project includes a film, a book, and an educational DVD series, which will be available in June 2011. Inspired by the New Story of Thomas Berry, a cultural historian who wrote The Universe Story with Swimme, the Journey of the Universe draws on the latest scientific knowledge to tell the story of cosmic and Earth evolution. It aims to inspire a new and closer relationship with Earth in a period of growing environmental and social crisis. For more information about the project, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org
We are pleased to announce the launching of a new website for the work of John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker. This includes their work on the Journey of the Universe project, the Forum on Religion and Ecology, and the Earth Charter. It brings together these three areas of rapidly growing interest: the need for a large scale story of the universe and Earth community; the growing alliance of religion and ecology as a field in academia and as a force in society; the comprehensive ethical framework of cosmology, ecology, justice, and peace in the Earth Charter. For further information see: www.emergingearthcommunity.org
We want to direct your attention to The Global Oneness Project, which produces films, media, and education materials to question the current paradigm of globalization and facilitate greater interconnectedness and wholeness amidst the complexity of contemporary civilization. The Global Oneness Project has recently completed a comprehensive study guide to accompany their films. For more information, visit: http://www.globalonenessproject.org/education.
We are happy to inform you about a call for papers issues by the journal Process Studies, which is seeking submissions for a Special Focus Section on “Animals and Process Thought.” See below for more information.
In an effort to better engage faith communities in conservation in sub-Saharan Africa, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has released a White Paper, “From Practice to Policy to Practice: Connecting Faith and Conservation in Africa.” You can read the Paper here: http://frameweb.org/CommunityBrowser.aspx?id=6823&lang=en-US.
Finally, we would like to invite you to take a survey for the International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP) on Global Environmental Change (GEC), which is working in partnership with the International Social Science Council (ISSC) and UNESCO. To participate in this survey, visit: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/IHDPSurveyLink.
We hope that this newsletter supports your own work and helps you further your own engagements with the field of Religion and Ecology.
Warm wishes,
Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
California Institute of Integral Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Web Content Managers & Newsletter Editors
http://www.yale.edu/religionandecology
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
2. Journey of the Universe Film Showings
East Coast Premiere: Yale University (March 26, 2011)
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Yale University
Peabody Museum
170 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT
1pm - Showing
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Yale University
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Kroon Hall
195 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT
5:30pm - Showing
The Yale screenings are free and open to the public, but you must RSVP by email to Tara Trapani at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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Environmental Film Festival: Washington, DC (March 27, 2011)
Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital
Carnegie Institution for Science
1530 P St. NW
Washington, DC
7pm
http://www.dcenvironmentalfilmfest.org/films/show/705
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Film Showing: New York University (April 21, 2011)
Kimmel Center
Room 914, Silver Board Room
New York University
60 Washington Square South
New York, New York 10012
Film: 5:30-6:30pm
Talk/Discussion: 6:30-7:30pm
Stay tuned at www.nyu.edu/sustainability for RSVP (required) and details of the event before April 1.
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West Coast Premiere: San Francisco (April 30, 2011)
Victoria Theatre
2961 16th Street
San Francisco, CA
5pm - Film showing (sold out)
8:30pm - Film showing
For ticket information, visit:
http://www.ciis.edu/x2977.xml
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For more events related to Journey of the Universe, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/upcoming-events/
3. Events
"Service-Learning for Sustainability and Social Justice"
Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX, USA
March 31-April 1, 2011
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=181159
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“Inward and Outward Nature: An Islamic Portrayal of the Spirituality-Environment Nexus”
The Tenth Annual Critical Islamic Reflections Conference
Yale University
New Haven, CT, USA
Saturday, April 9, 2011
http://www.yale.edu/cir/
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American Teilhard Association Annual Meeting
"Darwin, Teilhard, and the Drama of Life"
Speaker: John Haught
Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY, USA
May 14, 2011
http://www.teilharddechardin.org/events.html#annual_meeting
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“Animals as Religious Subjects: A Transdisciplinary Conference”
Hosted by the European Forum for the Study of Religion and Environment
University of Chester, UK
May 21-24, 2011
http://www.chester.ac.uk/trs/animals-as-religous-subjects
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“Technology and Security”
17th International Conference of the Society for Philosophy and Technology (SPT)
University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA
May 26-29, 2011
https://spt2011.unt.edu/
4. New Books
Thomas Berry, Dreamer of the Earth: The Spiritual Ecology of the Father of Environmentalism
Edited by Ervin Laszlo and Allan Combs
Inner Traditions Bear Company, 2011
http://store.innertraditions.com/isbn/978-1-59477-395-2
A tribute to the visionary contributions and prophetic writings of Thomas Berry, spiritual ecologist and father of environmentalism
• Contains 10 essays by eminent philosophers, thinkers, and scientists in the field of ecology and sustainability, including Matthew Fox, Joanna Macy, Duane Elgin, Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, Ervin Laszlo, and Allan Combs
When cultural historian and spiritual ecologist Thomas Berry, described by Newsweek magazine as “the most provocative figure among the new breed of eco-theologians,” passed away in 2009 at age 94, he left behind a dream of healing the “Earth community.” In his numerous lectures, books, and essays, Berry proclaimed himself a scholar of the earth, a “geologian,” and diligently advocated for a return to Earth-based spirituality.
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Engaging Voices: Tales of Morality and Meaning in an Age of Global Warming
By Roger S. Gottlieb
Baylor University Press
http://www.baylorpress.com/Book/249/Engaging_Voices.html
Our ecological dilemmas provoke powerful emotions and deeply contested views. How should we think about them? And how can we live together, or even talk together, when we cannot listen to people who think differently?
In a lively and at times very funny book, Roger S. Gottlieb (A Greener Faith, This Sacred Earth, A Spirituality of Resistance) explores these questions in a collection of distinct but related philosophical short stories. Fictional characters with personalities, individual histories, and strong opinions wrestle with the meaning of life, the value of nature, animal rights, the roles of science and religion in environmentalism, and political choices facing environmental activists—as well as their own anger, fear, despair, and close-mindedness.
Encountering forcefully articulated positions and engaging characters, readers will be moved to reconsider their own beliefs—and to examine personal barriers to truly listening to those “on the other side.”
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Cosmosophia: Cosmology, Mysticism, and the Birth of a New Myth
By Theodore Richards
Hiraeth Press, 2011
http://hiraethpress.com/cosmosophia/
www.cosmosophia.org
Cosmosophia: Cosmology, Mysticism and the Birth of a New Myth takes the reader on an extensive historical journey through the ideas and worldviews that have shaped the West, as well as a journey around the world to explore the various mystical traditions that could provide alternatives to the Western worldview.
Ultimately, it is argued that the unique challenges of today’s world cannot be solved through a return to the ideas of the past—or even through mere ideas at all—but by a deep mystical re-connection to our world and the creative, imaginative process of telling a new myth that integrates our mystical traditions and modern science.
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Small Farmers Secure Food: Survival Food Security, the World's Kitchen & the Critical Role of Small Farmers
By Lindsay Falvey
Thaksin University Press & Institute for International Development, 2010
http://www.iid.org/publications/SmallFarmers2010.pdf
Prof. Lindsay Falvey's most recent book deals, somewhat polemically, with issues of real food security in disadvantaged countries and the huge contribution made by small farmers in those countries. Critical of international institutional approaches, the book calls for an objective approach to national food security and social equity. Published by Thaksin University Press in Thailand in association with the Institute for International Development in Australia, the book is available from either publisher. You can download it free at http://www.iid.org/publications/SmallFarmers2010.pdf.
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The Promise of Religious Naturalism
Michael S. Hogue
Rowman and Littlefield, 2010
http://www.amazon.com/Promise-Religious-Naturalism-Michael-Hogue/dp/0742562611
The Promise of Religious Naturalism explores religious naturalism as a distinctly promising form of contemporary religious ethics. Examining how religious naturalism responds to the challenges of recent religious transformations and ecological peril worldwide, author Michael Hogue argues that religious naturalism is emerging as an increasingly plausible and potentially rewarding form of religious moral life. Beginning with an introduction of religious naturalism in the larger context of religious and ethical theories, the book undertakes the first extended study of the works of religious naturalists Loyal Rue, Donald Crosby, Jerome Stone, and Ursula Goodenough. Hogue pays particular attention to the ethical components of religious naturalism in relation to religious pluralism and ecological issues.
Michael S. Hogue is associate professor of theology at Meadville Lombard Theological Seminary. He is the winner of the 2008 Templeton Award for Theological Promise.
5. Global Oneness Project Study Guide
Dear Friends,
We are writing to let you know about an important project that has been close to our hearts for a number of years. The Global Oneness Project. This group of young filmmakers has been traveling around the world filming and gathering stories from some amazing people from varied sectors of society. These individuals question our current global paradigm and thus work in original and compassionate ways to reveal our greater human potential. You will see on their site interviews with many friends you might recognize. We have found their work of great value to our own mission and often share their films at gatherings.
Global Oneness Project has recently completed a comprehensive study guide that accompanies their films. We encourage you to take the time to look and share this further with your networks who might have an interest. It is particularly helpful to learning institutions, educators, environmentalists, faith communities and NGO’s who are working to better our world community.
http://www.globalonenessproject.org/education
With thanks and warmest wishes,
Marianne Marstrand
The Global Peace Initiative of Women
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
www.gpiw.org
www.youtube.com/GPIWomen
6. 2011 Eco-Stewards Program and Summer Internships
“Living with and from the Land on the Crow Reservation in Montana:
Sustainability and Reconciliation through Agriculture, Health and Green Building”
2011 Eco-Stewards Program for Young Adults
Hardin, Montana
June 2-9, 2011
More information and applications: http://ecostewardsprogram.wordpress.com/2011-program/
Deadline for applications: March 20, 2011
Are you a young adult (age 20 to 30) searching for a way to connect your faith and environmental calling? Join us June 2-9 for the 2011 Eco-Stewards Program, as we delve into the complex environmental issues surrounding land use, poverty, agriculture, and sustainability in a cross-cultural context on the Crow Reservation in southeastern Montana. We will consider how these issues invite us to deepen our relationship with God and with each other — to live more simply, to consume less, and to join in a dynamic Christian movement to care for the earth.
Participants may choose to follow up the week-long program with a paid summer internship at one of several sites, including: Greenwood Farm in Montana; one of several Presbyterian churches in West Virginia; or one of several Presbyterian Church (USA) camps around the country. These Eco-Stewards Interns will put their skills into action through a variety of projects such as planting organic gardens, building green structures, designing and implementing “greening” plans for camps, or creating an eco-stewardship curriculum for campers.
Among others, the program’s leadership will include: Rev. Rob Mark of Harvard University’s Memorial Church and First Presbyterian Church of Waltham, Massachusetts; Dr. David Mark, MD of Crow/Northern Cheyenne IHS Hospital and Bighorn Valley Health Center; Katie Holmes, Associate for the Environmental Ministries Office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A); and Becky W. Evans, a freelance environmental journalist and communication professor at Boston University and Lasell College.
The deadline for applications is March 20, 2011.
To apply, download application at http://ecostewardsprogram.wordpress.com/2011-program/
If you have additional questions, please email Rev. Rob Mark at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
7. Call for Papers: "Animals and Process Thought" (Special Issue of Process Studies)
The journal Process Studies is seeking submissions for a Special Focus Section on "Animals and Process Thought."
Process thought presumes a relationality that ascribes value and agency to all creatures, including those we call animal. But despite being seen as ecological partners, or even co-creators of the future, "animals" are often rendered faceless, obscured through generalizations, and are not given due ethical weight or consideration in our daily lives. An adequate treatment must instead address the singularity of every creature (and that of every "animal") with its particular location, aims, interpretation, and ceaseless becoming. Each creature remains irreducible to existing philosophical, ethical, theological, linguistic, biological, socio-political, and economic presentations. Despite its commitment to non-foundationalist ontology, process perspectives have not seriously destabilized the foundations of "the animal," therefore contributing to ongoing discursive and physical entrapment. If process thought seeks novel rationality, how can it be utilized to reimagine both itself and the creatures it claims to affirm?
We thus invite submissions that reimagine the animal and challenge, develop, and expand existing frameworks of relationality. Themes might include but are not limited to: the formulation of animals as objects or events; unlearning or unknowing "the animal"; new perspectives on rights, responsibility, and subjectivity; the limitations of stewardship and rescue paradigms; the construction of identities and bodies; analyses of mourning, loss, and recognition; the production of the animal through consumption patterns and economic policies; and the implications for metaphysics given a reoriented understanding of animals.
We also encourage entries that initiate dialogue with other theoretical positions, such as race and feminist theories, post-structuralism, and eco-criticism. Additionally, we invite reflections on the underexplored relations between creaturely life and disciplines such as ethics, religion, education, theology, art, psychology, philosophy, and politics.
Entries should be between 6,000 to 8,000 words and should be submitted to the editor of this Special Focus Section, Zandra Wagoner, at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) no later than July 1, 2011.
See the latest issue of Process Studies regarding style and format, or visit http://www.ctr4process.org/publications/ProcessStudies/styleguide.shtml.
Process Studies is a scholarly peer-reviewed, and refereed academic, journal of the Center for Process Studies, located at the Claremont School of Theology in Claremont CA.
8. USAID White Paper: “From Practice to Policy to Practice: Connecting Faith and Conservation in Africa”
Dear Faith & Conservation Colleagues,
I am pleased to announce that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has released a White Paper, “From Practice to Policy to Practice: Connecting Faith and Conservation in Africa.” In an effort to better engage faith communities in conservation in sub-Saharan Africa, the Paper explores the current practices of connecting faith and conservation, provides information on the faith groups doing conservation work, and presents several examples on faith-based conservation.
The White Paper is a means to stimulate interest in engaging faith communities in biodiversity conservation programs and connecting conservation programs with faith communities in Africa. Next steps involve learning more about other U.S. Government Agency involvement with faith communities, publicizing the connections between faith and biodiversity conservation, and establishing partnerships with faith communities. USAID will reach out to its missions, faith communities, and other conservation practitioners to gather information about additional faith-based connections and possibilities for new partnerships.
We hope that wider distribution of this White Paper will stimulate interest in faith and conservation of natural resources in Africa. We have also posted it on the African Biodiversity Collaborative Group’s (ABCG) new Faith & Conservation in Africa website at
http://frameweb.org/CommunityBrowser.aspx?id=6823&lang=en-US and on USAID’s Resource Management Portal at
http://www.rmportal.net/library/content/from-practice-to-policy-to-practice-connecting-faith-and-conservation-in-africa/.
Please pass the document on to your colleagues. We look forward to learning about any programs not mentioned here so we can publicize case studies in the future. Please post your comments, ideas, and information about additional programs here or send them directly to me at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Thank you,
Amy Gambrill
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
9. “Japan’s ‘Ama’ Free Divers Keep their Traditions,” By Anne McDonald
By Anne McDonald
OurWorld 2.0
May 7, 2010
Ama, the legendary women divers of Japan have been practicing sustainable fishing for hundreds of years, but climate change coupled with overfishing, is bringing them face to face with an uncertain future.
To watch an 11 minute video and read the full article, visit:
http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/japans-ama-free-divers-keep-their-traditions/
10. Survey for The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change
The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), in partnership with the International Social Science Council (ISSC) and UNESCO, have developed a survey to understand how better to engage the social sciences and humanities community in research about Global Environmental Change (GEC). The survey includes questions about your work and research methods, priority research themes and incentives for participation in the social/human dimensions of GEC research.
To participate in this survey, visit:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/IHDPSurveyLink
11. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme. For more information, visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo
For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental ethics/philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html. If you know of a publication that needs to be added to this list, email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/index.html
Yale University
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
March 24-26, 2011
Ecosystems Management: Alignment and Ethics
Discussion Leaders:
Oswald Schmitz, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Willis Jenkins, Yale Divinity School
Respondents:
Brendan Mackey, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University
J. Baird Callicott, University of North Texas
Earth History: Interaction of Matter and Life
Jeffrey Park, Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies
Craig Kochel, Bucknell University
Leo Hickey, Peabody Museum, Yale University
Education: Teaching the Epic of Evolution
Eric Chaisson, Tufts University & Harvard University
Ursula Goodenough, Washington University
Scott Sampson, University of Utah
Education: Teaching the Epic of Evolution
Peter Brown, McGill University
Can the Journey of the Universe Worldview Guide Us in the Anthropocene?
Syllabus: Civilization and Environment
Cynthia Brown, Dominican University
Language of Participation
Indigenous traditions: John Grim, Yale University
Eco-feminism: Heather Eaton, St. Paul University
Metaphor and Analogy: Kathleen Dean Moore, Oregon State University
The Power of Story
Scott Russell Sanders, Indiana University Emeritus, Author of Hunting for Hope
Terry Tempest Williams, Author of Refuge and Finding Beauty in a Broken World
The Challenges to Telling the Darwinian Story
John Haught, Georgetown University
Ann Berry Somers, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Dan Spencer, University of Montana
Earth Charter: Global Ethics & Cosmology
Steven Rockefeller, Middlebury College Emeritus
Earth Charter Ethics and Finding Meaning in an Evolving Universe
A Short History of the Earth Charter Initiative
Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale University
Christianity, Ecology, and the Universe Story
Ann Marie Dalton, St. Mary’s University
Larry Rasmussen, Union Theological Seminary, emeritus
Fred Simmons, Yale Divinity School
World Religions, Ecology, and the Universe Story
Christopher Chapple, Loyola Marymount University
Jainism, Life, and Environmental Ethics
Religious Narratives, Scientific Narrative, and Environmental Awareness
David Haberman, Indiana University
Reflections by Tom Lovejoy at the Peabody Museum
Comments from Panelists at World Premiere of Journey of the Universe at Yale
Ecosystems Management: Alignment and Ethics
Discussion Leaders:
Oswald Schmitz, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Willis Jenkins, Yale Divinity School
Respondents:
Brendan Mackey, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University
J. Baird Callicott, University of North Texas
Earth History: Interaction of Matter and Life
Jeffrey Park, Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies
Craig Kochel, Bucknell University
Leo Hickey, Peabody Museum, Yale University
Education: Teaching the Epic of Evolution
Eric Chaisson, Tufts University & Harvard University
Ursula Goodenough, Washington University
Scott Sampson, University of Utah
Education: Teaching the Epic of Evolution
Peter Brown, McGill University
Cynthia Brown, Dominican University
Larry Edwards, Genesis Farm
Language of Participation
Indigenous traditions: John Grim, Yale University
Eco-feminism: Heather Eaton, St. Paul University
Metaphor and Analogy: Kathleen Dean Moore, Oregon State University
The Power of Story
Scott Russell Sanders, Indiana University Emeritus, Author of Hunting for Hope
Terry Tempest Williams, Author of Refuge and Finding Beauty in a Broken World
The Challenges to Telling the Darwinian Story
John Haught, Georgetown University
Ann Berry Somers, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Dan Spencer, University of Montana
Earth Charter: Global Ethics & Cosmology
Steven Rockefeller, Middlebury College Emeritus
Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale University
Christianity, Ecology, and the Universe Story
Ann Marie Dalton, St. Mary’s University
Larry Rasmussen, Union Theological Seminary, emeritus
Fred Simmons, Yale Divinity School
World Religions, Ecology, and the Universe Story
Christopher Chapple, Loyola Marymount University
David Haberman, Indiana University
The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
5.2 (February 2011)
Contents:
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
2. East Coast Premiere of Journey of the Universe at Yale University (March 25-26, 2011)
3. "$3 million gift pledged in support of endowed chair in religion and environmental stewardship" (Yale Divinity School - Notes from the Quad)
4. Call for Papers for the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (November 19-22, 2011 in San Francisco, CA, USA)
5. Events
6. New Books
7. National Preach-in on Global Warming (February 11-13, 2011)
8. Environmental Retreat: “Beauty by Design” (March 4-6, 2011 at St. Mary’s Sewanee, TN, USA)
9. Call for Papers: "Ecospirit: Religion and the Environment" (Special Issue of Ecozon@)
10. Call for Papers: “The Future of Creation Order” (Conference at VU University Amsterdam, August 16-19, 2011)
11. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
Greetings,
Welcome to the February issue of the newsletter for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. We have much to share with you this month with regards to developments in the field of Religion and Ecology, including books, conferences, events, calls for papers, and more.
On January 3-5, several members of the Forum community participated in an international workshop in India on “Yamuna River: A Confluence of Waters, A Crisis of Need.” This workshop was organized by the Forum on Religion and Ecology and sponsored by Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and TERI University, Delhi. The first part of the workshop was held at TERI University in Delhi, and the second part was held at Radha Raman Temple in Vrindaban, India. This interdisciplinary event gathered together specialists in science, public policy, and civil society, as well as ethics and religious studies, with the aim of addressing the condition of the Yamuna River, a river that is a goddess to millions of Hindus and is also the most polluted in India. For more information, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/information/Yamuna_River_Conference.html.
We are happy to let you know that the Journey of the Universe film will have its premiere at Yale on March 25 and 26. See below for more information. Along with this premiere on the East Coast, there will also be premieres on the West Coast, the Midwest, and the Northwest of the United States this coming spring and fall. Furthermore, the conclusion of the upcoming Environmental Film Festival in Washington, DC will feature a premiere of the film on March 27 at the Carnegie Institution for Science. For more information about premieres, please visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/.
The Journey of the Universe project is a collaboration of Mary Evelyn Tucker and Brian Swimme. This project includes a film, a book, and an educational DVD series, which will be available in June 2011. Inspired by the New Story of Thomas Berry, a cultural historian who wrote The Universe Story with Swimme, the Journey of the Universe draws on the latest scientific knowledge to tell the story of cosmic and Earth evolution. It aims to inspire a new and closer relationship with Earth in a period of growing environmental and social crisis. For more information about the project, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org.
Thomas Berry is the focus of the recent issue of Teilhard Studies by the American Teilhard Association. Written by John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker, Teilhard Studies #61 is titled "Thomas Berry: Reflections on His Life and Thought." This issue is available for $4 plus postage from Tara Trapani at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). To purchase this issue, as well as to read a selection of this piece, visit: http://www.teilharddechardin.org/studies.html.
We are excited to inform you about a new endowed chair at Yale, which has been instituted to enhance the interdisciplinary study of theology and the environment. A gift from the Porter Foundation, this endowment will further collaboration between Yale Divinity School and the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. This endowed chair indicates the importance of responding to environmental challenges not only with science, technology, and policy, but also in light of issues involving values and morals. Mary Evelyn Tucker said, "The field of religion and ecology is growing at a rapid rate. The Porter Chair is a sign of this growth and will be the first such chair in the United States. It is an historic moment and a great contribution, not only to Yale Divinity School but to seminary education across the country and beyond. We are all deeply grateful and energized by this path-breaking news." For full story, visit: http://www.yale.edu/divinity/notes/101201/gift.shtml
We want to direct your attention to many calls for papers that have been recently issued. The annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) is taking place in San Francisco, California, November 19-22 (http://www.aarweb.org). At the AAR, there are numerous opportunities to present papers related to the intersection of religious and ecological perspectives. In particular, many of those opportunities are sponsored by the Religion and Ecology Group and the Animals and Religion Consultation, whose respective calls for papers can be found below. We hope to see you there.
There are two other calls for papers we want to mention. First, a special issue of the peer-reviewed, online journal Ecozon@ will focus on “Ecospirit: Religion and the Environment” (www.ecozona.eu). This multilingual journal of ecocriticism is looking for scholarly articles and creative contributions that highlight interconnections between religion and environmentalism from European perspectives. See below for more information. Second, a call for papers has been issued for “The Future of Creation Order,” a Christian philosophy conference taking place at VU University Amsterdam, August 16-19, 2011 (http://www.cpc2011.org). This is an ecumenical, interdisciplinary, and international conference that aims to explore different philosophical and scientific concepts of creation order and related themes (e.g., law, structure, necessity, chance, change and emergence). See below for more information.
We hope that this newsletter supports your own work and helps you further your own engagements with the field of Religion and Ecology.
Warm wishes,
Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
California Institute of Integral Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Web Content Managers & Newsletter Editors
http://www.yale.edu/religionandecology
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
2. East Coast Premiere of Journey of the Universe at Yale University (March 25-26, 2011)
The Yale screenings listed below are free and open to the public, but because space is VERY limited, we ask that you send an email response to Tara Trapani at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) so we can keep track of numbers.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Yale University
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Kroon Hall
195 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT
7pm - Showing
8pm - Panel discussion
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Yale University
Peabody Museum
170 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT
1pm - Showing
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Yale University
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Kroon Hall
195 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT
5:30pm - Showing
For more information, visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org
3. "$3 million gift pledged in support of endowed chair in religion and environmental stewardship" (Yale Divinity School – Notes from the Quad)
A gift pledge of $3 million will endow a joint senior faculty appointment between Yale Divinity School/Berkeley Divinity School and the School of Forestry and Environmental studies in honor of H. Boone Porter ’45 B.A., ’50 S.T.B., ’96 M.E.S., ’97 D.D. and his wife, Violet M. Porter.
The endowment promises to substantially enhance the interdisciplinary study of theology and the environment that has taken hold at Yale in recent years, culminating in the establishment of a joint degree program. The gift, finalized on Nov. 29, comes from the children of the Porters through the Porter Foundation. Boone Porter, who died in 1999, was a scholar, priest, writer, and environmentalist, and both he and his wife had a particularly significant impact on the life of the Episcopal Church. […]
Yale Divinity School Dean Harold Attridge said, “This gift from the Porter Foundation will ensure that the collaboration that has developed in recent years between Yale Divinity School and the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies will continue and expand into an even more fruitful partnership. The environmental challenges that we face involve not only scientific and technical issues, but also issues of fundamental values and moral commitments.”
Peter Crane, dean of the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, said, “We are delighted and humbled by the commitment of the Porter family and truly excited by the new opportunity to further develop the already-strong connections between religion and environmental stewardship at Yale.”
For full story, visit:
http://www.yale.edu/divinity/notes/101201/gift.shtml
4. Call for Papers for the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (November 19-22, 2011 in San Francisco, CA, USA)
Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion
November 19-22, 2011
San Francisco, CA, USA
http://www.aarweb.org/
The deadline for proposals for the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion is March 1, 2011. While there are many opportunities to present material about the intersection of religion and ecology, we would like to direct your attention to two opportunities in particular: 1) the Religion and Ecology Group and 2) the Animals and Religion Consultation.
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Religion and Ecology Group
This Group seeks papers on the following topics:
* Religious environmental imaginations, histories, and movements relating to San Francisco and California such as radical environmentalism in the West (e.g., Edward Abbey and Earth First!), bioregionalism, eco-utopias, revisiting John Muir’s religiosity, queer ecologies, and ecology and disaster
* The ecological in-between — exploring our relationships with everyday technology, exploring the ambiguous ethical stance of living toward a different ecological future from within consumer worlds, exploring the concept of “saving nature” while recognizing that nature is always in transformation, and exploring pets, working animals, gardens, and other nonhuman identities “in between” domestic/cultivated and wild
* Ecological hermeneutics, ecosemiotics, and ecocriticism (for a possible cosponsored session with the SBL Ecological Hermeneutics Section) — multireligious, critical reflection on the ecohermeneutics of religious texts (such as the ecobible series); race, gender, and the hermeneutics of “nature”; and the “environmental movement”
Mission: This Group critically and constructively explores how human–Earth relations are shaped by religions, cultures, and understandings of nature and the environment. We are self-consciously inter- and multidisciplinary and include methods such as those found in the work of theologians, philosophers, religionists, ethicists, scientists, and anthropologists, among others.
Proposals are anonymous to Chairs and Steering Committee Members during review, but visible to Chairs prior to final acceptance or rejection.
Method of Submission: OP3: http://op3.aarweb.org/
Deadline: March 1, 2011
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AAR Animals & Religion Consultation
The Animals & Religion Consultation welcomes paper or panel proposals on all topics related to animals and religion. We especially seek proposals on the following topics:
-- The significance of Donna Haraway's critical thinking about animals, science, and technology for religious studies (for a possible cosponsored session with the Science, Technology, and Religion Group); if you are interested in proposing a paper on this topic, please contact Laura Hobgood-Oster at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
-- Animals beyond sacrifice in Hindu and/or Jewish traditions (for a possible cosponsored session with the Comparative Studies in Hinduisms and Judaisms Group)
-- Womanist approaches to animals and religion
-- Animals in classical traditions
-- Animals, religion, and literature
-- Animal-assisted therapy and religion
-- Martha Nussbaum's capabilities approach to animals
-- Critical theory and pragmatic engagement with animals
-- Death and dying, animals, and religion
-- How attention to animals can address environmental crises
Method of Submission: OP3: http://op3.aarweb.org/
Deadline: March 1, 2011
If you have any questions, please contact one or both of the Animals & Religion Consultation co-chairs:
Dave Aftandilian
Texas Christian University
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Aaron Gross
University of San Diego
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
5. Events
“Dimensions of Political Ecology: Conference on Nature-Society”
Keynote Speaker: Paul Robbins
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
February 18-19, 2011
http://www.uky.edu/AS/Geography/PEWG/
“International Conference on the Impact of Climate Change on Food Security”
Mavelikara, Kerala, India
March 3-5, 2011
http://greenenvironment2011.com/
“Valuing Lives: A Conference on Ethics in Health and the Environment”
New York University
New York, NY, USA
March 5, 2011
http://bioethics.as.nyu.edu/object/bioethics.events.20110305.valuinglives
“The Culture of Climate Change”
The 10th Annual Nature Ecology Society Colloquium at the CUNY Graduate Center
New York, NY, USA
March 10-11, 2011
http://opencuny.org/nature/
"Service-Learning for Sustainability and Social Justice"
Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX, USA
March 31-April 1, 2011
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=181159
American Teilhard Association Annual Meeting
"Darwin, Teilhard, and the Drama of Life"
Speaker: John Haught
Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY, USA
May 14, 2011
http://www.teilharddechardin.org/events.html#annual_meeting
“Animals as Religious Subjects: A Transdisciplinary Conference”
Hosted by the European Forum for the Study of Religion and Environment
University of Chester, UK
May 21-24, 2011
http://www.chester.ac.uk/trs/animals-as-religous-subjects
“Technology and Security”
17th International Conference of the Society for Philosophy and Technology (SPT)
University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA
May 26-29, 2011
https://spt2011.unt.edu/
6. New Books
Climate, Culture, Change: Inuit and Western Dialogues with a Warming North
By Timothy Leduc
University of Ottawa Press, 2011
http://www.press.uottawa.ca/book/climate-culture-change
In his new book Climate, Culture, Change, Timothy Leduc seeks to understand the Inuit experience of climate change by stepping outside of the current scientific and political debates about global warming. What he finds is that today’s climate changes are affecting not just our environments, but also our cultures. He feels that the current discussion of climate change must embrace an intercultural dialogue that includes Inuit and Western perspectives. His detailed research effectively highlights the challenges facing Western climate research, Canadian politics and traditional Inuit knowledge.
Climate, Culture, Change sheds light on the cultural challenges posed by northern warming and proposes an intercultural response that is demonstrated by the blending of Inuit and Western perspectives.
Timothy B. Leduc is assistant professor of the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University.
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Tryst with Trees: Punjab’s Sacred Heritage
By D.S. Jaspal
Thomson Press, 2010
http://www.trystwithtrees.com/
Sikhism is the only religion which has over 58 sacred and historical shrines that are named after 19 species of trees.
Tryst with Trees is a pictorial documentation of 58 sacred Sikh shrines named after 19 species of trees. Through some very striking pictures, this book brings out the sanctity in which devotees hold trees and the central role of nature in religious preaching and practices.
Tryst with Trees includes a description of the botanical features of the tree with its health status as well as the relationship between the tree and the historical and religious background of the shrine. In a larger context, the book explores the profound impact of nature and the environment on the spiritual, social and cultural evolution of Sikhism
This book has been compiled after personal visits by D.S. Jaspal to every Sikh shrine named after species of trees. It took nearly 3 years to cover more than 58 shrines, mostly in Punjab, but also in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Leh, Orissa and across the border in Pakistan.
Though the naming of sacred shrines after species of trees is unique to the Sikh religion, the relevance of this message is not specific or limited to Sikhism as love and respect for nature are common to every religious faith.
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Down to Earth: Religious Paths toward Custodianship of Nature
By Clifford Chalmers Cain
University Press of America, 2009
http://www.univpress.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=0761846867
Down to Earth scientifically describes the multitude of environmental problems besetting planet earth and indicates why these environmental problems are, at their root, a spiritual or religious challenge. Simply learning about the scientific description of these environmental threats will not be sufficient to solve them, the author argues, for attitudes must be changed and behavioral patterns must be altered. This need for change invariably confronts the core values that we hold and the routine actions that we undertake. Through an examination of the worldviews and sacred texts of eight spiritual traditions, we learn of the common insights and powerful resources that these world religions can offer. The author believes that it is necessary to join an ecological conscience to an ecological consciousness for humans to exercise custodianship of nature both responsibly and sustainably.
Clifford Chalmers Cain is professor of philosophy and religion at Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana. Cain holds two doctoral degrees and has written books and scholarly articles in the fields of contemporary theology, ecology, religion, and science.
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An Ecological Theology: Reunderstanding Our Relation to Nature
By Clifford Chalmers Cain
Edwin Mellen Press, 2009
http://www.mellenpress.com/mellenpress.cfm?bookid=7695&pc=9
This study examines the historical roots of “hierarchical dualism,” the dominant attitude characterizing the Western approach toward nature which both separates humans from, and elevates them above, nature, allowing for exploitation of resources. This work advocates a new approach in which humans view the natural world as a community entrusted to humanity by God.
7. National Preach-in on Global Warming (February 11-13, 2011)
Interfaith Power & Light is inviting faith leaders to give sermons and reflections on global warming the weekend of February 11-13, 2011. Registration is now open. Upon completion of the registration process, multiple resources are made available. These resources include:
* Lectionary guides for the Jewish Torah cycle and many Christian lectionaries
* Multi-faith devotional and reflection guides
* Scripture study guides
* Bulletin inserts
* Activities for children and youth.
In addition to sermons, or as an alternative, we are encouraging congregations to screen films and host discussions on putting faith into action. Resources are available to those who register, including a film, fact sheets on current legislation, and discussion guides.
http://interfaithpowerandlight.org/2010/10/national-preach-in-on-global-warming-2011/
8. Environmental Retreat: “Beauty by Design” (March 4-6, 2011 at St. Mary’s Sewanee, TN, USA)
This retreat is presented by St. Mary’s Sewanee & the Center for Religion and Environment Sewanee: The University of the South. The retreat will be held at St. Mary’s Sewanee Retreat Center and led by Center staff Robin Gottfried and Sr. Madeleine Mary.
Have you ever experienced a moment when a mountain vista or brook spoke to your soul, or when a piece of music or painting called out to you? This retreat explores the theology of Beauty and its implications for ethics, for how we live our daily lives and structure our society. Everything we do alters the world about us. What sort of world do we build? What are the implications of Beauty and our response to it for salvation? for spreading the Good News? for how we make things and get to work? for our spiritual life? To address these questions the retreat will offer presentations, small group discussions, and focused times of individual prayer and reflection. Come prepared to spend some time outside.
For more information, visit: http://www.stmaryssewanee.org/programs/2011Mar4.shtml
9. Call for Papers: "Ecospirit: Religion and the Environment" (Special Issue of Ecozon@)
As Guest-Editor for the Autumn 2011 issue of Ecozon@, I am currently putting together a Special Focus Section devoted to the topic of "Ecospirit: Religion and the Environment." Ecozon@ is the peer-reviewed, online journal of the multilingual EASCLE or European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture and the Environment (the European hub of the ecocritical community).
We are still welcoming original submissions in English, French, and German, most especially submissions highlighting the interconnection between religion and environmentalism from a European perspective.
Submissions should be peer-review-ready in the form of academic papers with a limit of 6,000 words, together with a 300 word (maximum) abstract both in Spanish and English. Besides scholarly papers, publication of a limited number of creative contributions is also planned.
Contributions must be submitted online for peer review, following the submission guidelines from the website: www.ecozona.eu.
The deadline for submission of articles is March 15, 2011.
Interested scholars are also welcome to write in the first instance to me as Guest-Editor at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), enclosing a short preliminary abstract.
In the hope that this CFP will be of interest to those of you working at the intersections between ecocriticism and religious studies, I also seize this opportunity to send you all my very best wishes for 2011.
Dr. Franca Bellarsi
Université Libre de Bruxelles
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
10. Call for Papers: “The Future of Creation Order” (Conference at VU University Amsterdam, August 16-19, 2011)
“The Future of Creation Order”
Christian Philosophy Conference
VU University Amsterdam
August 16-19, 2011
http://www.cpc2011.org
People of all times have experienced the world of nature as expressing an overwhelming beauty, coherence and order. In the great monotheistic traditions this beauty, coherence and order have been related to the will or nature of a Creator. This idea has come under considerable pressure from different directions: evolutionary theory with its emphasis on the deep contingency of the living world, social science and in particular historicist and postmodernist strands in it, and philosophical critiques inspired by Marxism, Nietzschean perspectivism, existentialism, critical theory, social constructivism, and postmodernism have all served to subvert traditional conceptions of order.
The challenge for this ecumenical, interdisciplinary, and international conference is to explore whether there is room, still, for a distinction between something like an ontological affirmation of pre-given norms and ordering principles in various domains, while also acknowledging the particularity and ‘locatedness’ of our access to those norms and principles. Key ideas in this dialogue will be order, law, structure, principle, system, necessity, chance, change and emergence. The goal of the conference is to delve deeper into the current condition of the philosophical concept of (creation) order, and to assess its future trajectories and prospects.
We cordially invite thinkers from all different philosophical and scientific traditions to submit a 500 word abstract on any topic relevant to the conference theme. Please prepare your abstract for anonymous review. Abstracts may be submitted by e-mail (as plain text, MS Word, Pages, or pdf files) to (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or by regular mail (consult http://www.cpc2011.org for the address).
Abstracts should be submitted to the conference organizers by March 1, 2011.
11. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme. For more information, visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo
For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental ethics/philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html. If you know of a publication that needs to be added to this list, email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/index.html
Two dramatically different conclusions can be reached on the outcome of the December 2010 UN climate change negotiations in Cancun, Mexico:
This post looks at these conflicting conclusions through an ethical lens and explains that, although some hope for a global solution to climate change is still alive, one must see Cancun in the context of a 20-year failed attempt to prevent dangerous climate change and as another troubling ethical failure of those most responsible for climate change.
The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
5.1 (January 2011)
Contents:
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
2. Events
3. Interdisciplinary Conference in India: "Yamuna River: A Confluence of Waters, A Crisis of Need"
4. Online Conference: "Healing Ecology"
5. New Books
6. Call for Translations: Sacred Natural Sites
7. Call for Papers: "Religion and Climate Change" (Special Issue of Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature & Culture)
8. Call for Papers: "On the Socioeconomic and Political Outcomes of Global Climate Change" (Special Issue of Sustainability)
9. Summer Institute: "Rethinking the Land Ethic: Sustainability and the Humanities" (June 20 - July 15, 2011 in Flagstaff, AZ, USA)
10. Holmes Rolston III Early Career Essay Prize in Environmental Philosophy
11. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
Greetings,
Welcome to the January issue of the newsletter for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. We have much to share with you this month with regards to developments in the field of religion and ecology, including books, DVDs, conferences, events, calls for papers, and more.
An important conference is currently taking place in Delhi, India, January 3-5, “Yamuna River: A Confluence of Waters, A Crisis of Need.” Organized by the Forum on Religion and Ecologya and sponsored by Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and TERI University, Delhi, this interdisciplinary conference is bringing together a group of specialists in science, public policy and civil society, as well as ethics and religious studies, with the aim of addressing the condition of the Yamuna River, a river that is a goddess to millions of Hindus and is also the most polluted in India. See below for more information, or visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/information/Yamuna_River_Conference.html.
We are happy to let you know current information about The Journey of the Universe project (http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org), which is a collaboration of Mary Evelyn Tucker and Brian Swimme. The project involves a film, a book, and an educational DVD series, which will be available in 2011. The film was inspired by the New Story of Thomas Berry, a cultural historian who wrote The Universe Story with Swimme. Drawing on the latest scientific knowledge to tell the story of cosmic and Earth evolution, the Journey of the Universe aims to inspire a new and closer relationship with Earth in a period of growing environmental and social crisis.
There will be premieres of the film on the east and west coasts of the United States this coming spring, and later the film will be broadcast on the PBS station in San Francisco (KQED). The east coast premiere will take place at Yale on March 25 and the west coast premiere in San Francisco on April 30. Furthermore, to conclude the upcoming Environmental Film Festival in Washington, DC, there will also be a premiere of the film on March 27 at the Carnegie Institution for Science. We will continue to give you updated information about this project as it unfolds. For a trailer of the film, news about the premieres, and more information about the book and educational series, please visit: http://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org . More information about the book can also be found at the website of the publisher, Yale University Press: http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300171907.
We are always working to bring you the latest calls for papers related to the field of religion and ecology. This month, we have many calls for papers to share, including a call for translations. The call for translations is part of an effort to facilitate the conservation of Sacred Natural Sites (SNS), particularly in relationship to an edited volume on Sacred Natural Sites: Conserving Nature and Culture (Earthscan, 2010). The call has been issued in collaboration with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), specifically the IUCN’s Specialist Group on Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas (CSVPA). To help raise awareness and promote the conservation of SNS, CSVPA is asking for volunteers to translate three short documents into different language. For more information, please visit:
http://www.terralingua.org/bcdconservation/?page_id=1291
We have two calls for papers to share with you on topics of social and religious perspectives on climate change. First, a call for papers has been released for a special issue of the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature & Culture (JSRNC) on “Religion and Climate Change.” In particular, the issue is seeking papers that draw on case studies or other social scientific methodologies to examine issues related to the intersection of religion and climate change, ranging from the global to the local and including multiple geographical and religious backgrounds. More information is available at:
http://www.religionandnature.com/journal/pdf/climate_change_cfp.pdf
A call for papers has also been announced for a special issue of Sustainability, focusing “On the Socioeconomic and Political Outcomes of Global Climate Change”: http://www.mdpi.com/si/sustainability/climate_change. The journal is seeking full research papers and comprehensive review articles. Instructions for submissions can be found here: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/instructions/.
An invitation for papers has also been issued by the International Society for Environmental Ethics (ISEE), which is inaugurating an annual essay prize to mark its 20th anniversary. The prize is named in honor of the environmental philosopher Holmes Rolston, III. ISEE is inviting papers from scholars in the early stages of their career on any aspects of environmental philosophy or theoretical inquiries into environmental issues. The winning essay will be awarded $500 and will be published in the journal, Environmental Ethics. See below for more information.
We hope that this newsletter supports your own work and helps you further your own engagements with the field of religion and ecology.
Warm wishes,
Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
California Institute of Integral Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Web Content Managers & Newsletter Editors
http://www.yale.edu/religionandecology
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
"Food and Faith II"
Unitarian Society of New Haven
700 Hartford Turnpike, Hamden , CT , USA
January 17, 2011
http://www.irejn.org
Presentation to Saybrook College Fellows
By Mary Evelyn Tucker
195 Prospect, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
January 27, 2011
“Dimensions of Political Ecology: Conference on Nature-Society”
Keynote Speaker: Paul Robbins
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
February 18-19, 2011
http://www.uky.edu/AS/Geography/PEWG/
“American Teilhard Association Annual Meeting”
Speaker: John Haught
Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY, USA
May 14, 2011
http://www.teilharddechardin.org/events.html#annual_meeting
“Animals as Religious Subjects: A Transdisciplinary Conference”
Hosted by the European Forum for the Study of Religion and Environment
University of Chester, UK
May 21-24, 2011
http://www.chester.ac.uk/trs/animals-as-religous-subjects
“Technology and Security”
17th International Conference of the Society for Philosophy and Technology (SPT)
University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA
May 26-29, 2011
https://spt2011.unt.edu/
“Old World and New World Perspectives on Environmental Philosophy”
The Eighth Annual Meeting of the International Society for Environmental Ethics (ISEE)
June 14-17, 2011
Nijmegen, The Netherlands
http://www.cep.unt.edu/ISEE2/call-2011.pdf
“Doing Good, Doing Bad, Doing Nothing: Scientific and Religious Perspectives”
The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science
Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, New York (USA)
June 18-25, 2011
http://www.iras.org/Site/Conference.html
“This Planet as Paradise: Beauty & Ecological Restoration”
4th in a Series of Earth-Honoring Faith
Instructors: Rita Naskashima Brock, Marty Haugen, Janet Parker, Larry Rasmussen, Barbara Rossing, Daniel Spencer
Ghost Ranch Abiquiu, NM, USA
June 20-26, 2011
http://www.ghostranch.org
“Minding Animals Conference 2012”
Utrecht University, the Netherlands
July 1-7, 2012
http://mindinganimals.com/
http://www.uu.nl/faculty/humanities/EN/congres/mindinganimals/Pages/default.aspx
3. Interdisciplinary Conference in India: “Yamuna River: A Confluence of Waters, A Crisis of Need”
“Yamuna River: A Confluence of Waters, A Crisis of Need”
Sponsored by:Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and TERI University, Delhi
Organized by the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
January 3-5, 2011
In terms of economy and ecology, the Yamuna River is one of the most important waterways of India. From its source in the Himalayas, it flows in southeast across north India through Delhi and Agra to its confluence with the Ganges at Allahabad. Nearly 60 million people depend upon the waters of the Yamuna for their survival, yet it is now heavily polluted with industrial and human waste.
From the traditional perspective of Hinduism, the Yamuna is a mother that nurtures, purifies, and sustains. She is a goddess, identified as Lord Krishna’s supreme lover. Yet, the Yamuna River as it appears today presents a challenging paradox. A river that is a goddess to millions of people is also the most polluted in India. It is the irony of a river at once deified and defiled. This conference will convene scientists and religious leaders to address the condition of the river.
We will bring together a group of specialists in science (toxicology, hydrology, ecology), public policy and civil society, as well as ethics and religious studies. This will be designed to provide a forum for communication across these various fields. With a deeper understanding of the important role of values and behavior some long term policy plans may be implemented based on the best of current science. For more information, visit:
http://fore.research.yale.edu/information/Yamuna_River_Conference.html
4. Online Conference: "Healing Ecology"
At the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion, which took place in Atlanta in November, the Buddhist Critical-Constructive Reflection Group co-sponsored with the Ethics Section a session that focused on issues of Buddhism and ecology in David Loy's essay, "Healing Ecology," and included responses from Stephanie Kaza (professor of environmental studies at the University of Vermont) and Grace Kao (an ethicist at the Claremont School of Theology).
To continue the discussion that started in that session, Loy’s piece and Kao’s response have been uploaded to the website for the Journal of Buddhist Ethics, and an online conference has begun. To read and post comments about the pieces and the issues they raise for Buddhism and ecology, please visit: http://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethics
5. New Books
Natural Saints: How People of Faith are Working to Save God's Earth
By Mallory McDuff
Oxford, 2010
http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/ReligionTheology/American/?view=usa&ci=9780195379570
At La Capilla de Santa Maria, parishioners weatherized their church in an effort to decrease the utility bills that took up a fifth of the annual budget. At Jubilee Community Church, parents and the education coordinator revised the Sunday School curriculum to integrate care of creation for all age levels. And at All People's Church in Milwaukee, the sanctuary became a free farmer's market on Sundays with produce grown by youth.
Natural Saints shares the stories and strategies of contemporary church leaders, parishioners, and religious environmentalists working to define a new environmental movement, where justice as a priority for the church means a clean and safe environment for all. Mallory McDuff shows that a focus on God's earth is transforming both people and congregations, creating more relevant and powerful ministries. As a result, people of faith are forming a new environmental movement with a moral mandate to care for God's earth.
McDuff highlights eight key ministries: protecting human dignity, feeding the hungry, creating sacred spaces, responding to natural disasters, promoting justice, making a pilgrimage, educating youth, and bearing witness. With two daughters in tow, she traveled across the country to document environmental actions grounded in faith. This journey transformed the author's own faith and hope for a sustainable future. Congregations and individuals seeking to integrate care of creation into their faith community will find inspiration and concrete advice in the lives of these natural saints.
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Green Church: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rejoice!
By Rebekah Simon-Peter
Abingdon Press, 2010
http://www.abingdonpress.com/forms/ProductDetail.aspx?pid=5449
Integrating scripture with scientific research, this book is designed as a six-week study (one chapter per week) to help Christians learn about current environmental issues and learn what they can do to make a positive difference. Each chapter includes sidebars with helpful facts and tips and concludes with a prayer, activities, and online resources. This book can be accompanied by the short book (app. 80 pages) by the same author, Seven Simple Steps to Green Your Church [Abingdon Press, 2010]. The companion book is a guide from greening your church over the course of a year, with a specific task to do each month (e.g., lighting, recycling, heating/cooling, etc.).
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Anti-Human Theology: Nature, Technology and the Postnatural
By Peter Manley Scott
SCM Press, 2010
http://www.scmpress.co.uk/bookdetails.asp?ISBN=9780334043546
Peter Manley Scott offers a theological and ethical reading of our present situation. Due to the vigour of its re-engineering of the world by its technologies, western society has entered into a postnatural condition in which standard divisions between the natural and the artificial are no longer convincing.
This postnatural development is liberating – both theologically and politically. Scott develops an ‘anthropology’ that does not repeat Christianity’s history of anthropocentrism but instead criticises it by exploring the mutual entanglement of animals, humans and other creatures.
Deeply disrespectful of traditional centres of power, his ethical critiques of ‘pioneering’ technologies expose their anti-social and anti-ecological tendencies and identify possible paths of oppositional political action.
This is ethical theology at its best: deeply informed by theological tradition, immersed in contemporary political-technological problematics in radically oppositional ways, and yet fiercely hopeful of a good outcome for animals—human and non-human—and other life in history.
6. Call for Translations: Sacred Natural Sites
Sacred Natural Sites: Conserving Nature and Culture
Edited by Bas Verschuuren, Robert Wild, Jeffrey McNeely and Gonzalo Oviedo
Earthscan, 2010
http://www.earthscan.co.uk/?tabid=102379&v=201
Sacred Natural Sites are the world's oldest protected places. This book focuses on a wide spread of both iconic and lesser known examples such as sacred groves of the Western Ghats (India), Sagarmatha /Chomolongma (Mt Everest, Nepal, Tibet - and China), the Golden Mountains of Altai (Russia), Holy Island of Lindisfarne (UK) and the sacred lakes of the Niger Delta (Nigeria).
The book illustrates that sacred natural sites, although often under threat, exist within and outside formally recognised protected areas, heritage sites. Sacred natural sites may well be some of the last strongholds for building resilient networks of connected landscapes. They also form important nodes for maintaining a dynamic socio-cultural fabric in the face of global change. The diverse authors bridge the gap between approaches to the conservation of cultural and biological diversity by taking into account cultural and spiritual values together with the socio-economic interests of the custodian communities and other relevant stakeholders.
Translate for Sacred Nature and earn a book about Sacred Natural Sites.
Please help protect sacred natural sites and their custodians by volunteering to translate three short documents into different languages.
We are collaborating with IUCN’s Specialist Group on Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas (CSVPA), chaired by Rob Wild and co-chaired by Bas Verschuuren, to disseminate a call for translations relevant to the conservation of Sacred Natural Sites (SNS). SNS are biocultural areas: features of the landscape that are revered and protected for cultural and spiritual reasons, which results in the conservation of their biodiversity. But SNS are also biocultural areas at risk, threatened by development and inappropriate management practices by outsiders. The documents to be translated into as many languages as possible are part of a campaign to raise awareness and increase protection of SNS. Please help this campaign by volunteering to translate for CSVPA!
For more information about this translation project, visit:
http://www.terralingua.org/bcdconservation/?page_id=1291
7. Call for Papers: “Religion and Climate Change” (Special Issue of Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature & Culture)
Papers are requested for a special issue of the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature & Culture (JSRNC) on “Religion and Climate Change” and a possible book. Anthropogenic climate change is among the most significant and far-reaching social issues of our time. Although climate scientists are near unanimous about potentially catastrophic consequences, mobilizing a meaningful response has proven to be a real challenge. Numerous statements on climate change by faith-based actors and institutionalized religious groups have occurred in recent years. However, far less research has been published about actually existing faith-shaped action by religious institutions, groups and individuals.
Papers that draw on case studies or other social scientific methodologies to examine the intersection of religion and climate change are sought for the special issue of the journal. Depending on the response, we may also pursue book publication. Papers may address the topic on scales ranging from global to local, and from any social science discipline, including but not limited to sociology, geography, history, cultural studies, native studies, anthropology, political science, and religious studies. The special issue also aims for geographical and religious diversity. See the detailed description at http://www.religionandnature.com/journal/pdf/climate_change_cfp.pdf
Interested scholars should send a 200-500 word prospectus for a paper contribution, along with a short biography up to 150 words (may include a website link if available) to the editors listed below. Please send expressions of interest by February 15, 2011. In paper proposals please describe the methodological approach you would expect to take and the argument(s) likely to be advanced. Potential authors will be contacted by the end of February. Accepted papers will be due July 2011.
Editors:
Randolph Haluza-DeLay, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Andrew Szasz, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Robin Globus, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
8. Call for Papers: “On the Socioeconomic and Political Outcomes of Global Climate Change” (Special Issue of Sustainability)
The following Special Issue will be published in Sustainability (http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/), and is now open to receive submissions of full research papers and comprehensive review articles for peer-review and possible publication:
Special Issue: “On the Socioeconomic and Political Outcomes of Global Climate Change”
Website: http://www.mdpi.com/si/sustainability/climate_change/
Guest Editor: Prof. Dr. Rafael Reuveny
Deadline for manuscript submissions: February 28, 2011
Submitted papers should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere. We also encourage authors to send us their tentative title and short abstract by e-mail for approval to the editorial office at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
This Special Issue will be fully open access (unlimited and free access by readers).
Article Processing Charges (APC) are 500 CHF per paper. An additional fee of 250 CHF may apply if English editing or extensive revisions must be undertaken by the Editorial Office. For more information please refer to: http://www.mdpi.com/about/apc/.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors before submitting a manuscript: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/instructions/.
Manuscripts should be submitted through the online manuscript submission and editorial system at http://www.mdpi.com/user/manuscripts/upload/.
In case of questions, please contact the Editorial Office at: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
9. Summer Institute: “Rethinking the Land Ethic: Sustainability and the Humanities” (June 20 – July 15, 2011 in Flagstaff, AZ, USA)
“Rethinking the Land Ethic: Sustainability and the Humanities,” the 2011 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) summer institute for college and university faculty, will be held June 20 – July 15, 2011. Bryan Norton and Bron Taylor will be among the core faculty in this exciting, four week long summer institute led by faculty at Arizona State University. It will be held in Flagstaff, Arizona and have field trips in the region, including to Sedona and the Grand Canyon. Participants receive a $3,300 stipend and will include three graduate students. The deadline for applicants is March 1, 2010. Further information can be found at http://leopold.asu.edu/sustainability/welcome
10. Holmes Rolston III Early Career Essay Prize in Environmental Philosophy
To mark the 20th anniversary of the International Society for Environmental Ethics (ISEE), the ISEE and the Center for Environmental Philosophy are inaugurating an annual essay prize for scholars in the early stages of their career. The prize is named in honour of Professor Holmes Rolston III, for his pioneering work in the field of environmental philosophy.
Papers are invited on all aspects of environmental philosophy or environmental affairs (with a strong theoretical component). A prize of $500 will be awarded to the winning essay.
All submitted papers that qualify (see conditions) will be reviewed by an Essay Prize Committee in consultation with the Editorial Board of Environmental Ethics. The winning essay will be published in the journal, Environmental Ethics.
Submission Guidelines:
* Scholars who have earned their doctorate no more than five years prior to submission are invited to submit an essay. Submissions must be accompanied by a one-page CV to provide evidence of early career status.
* Closing date for submissions: June 1st, 2011.
* Word limit: 60,000 characters (including spaces), including notes and references. An abstract of 100-150 words should also be included.
* Style: consult the Chicago Manual of Style or any recent issue of Environmental Ethics.
* Essays must be prepared for blind review (cover page with contact information and email on a separate page).
* Submissions should be emailed to: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Please put ‘Essay Prize’ in the subject line of the email submission.
* The essay should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere, and should not be submitted to any other journal until the outcome of the competition is announced.
* The decision of the committee will be final. There is only one prize per year and the committee reserves the right not to award the prize if submissions are not of an appropriate standard.
Dr. Emily Brady
President, International Society for Environmental Ethics
University of Edinburgh, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Dr. Eugene C. Hargrove
Center for Environmental Philosophy
University of North Texas, (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
11. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme. For more information, visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo
For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental ethics/philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html. If you know of a publication that needs to be added to this list, email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/index.html
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Yale - TERI Workshop on the Yamuna River January 3-5, 2011 |
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Workshop Proposal Workshop Participants “Dwindling groundwater resources in northern India, from satellite gravity observations”
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| Alliance of Religions and Conservation | |
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Abstract
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The Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) is a secular body that helps the world’s major religions develop their own environmental programs based on their core teachings, beliefs, and practices. ARC links religions with key environmental organizations, creating powerful alliances between religious communities and conservation groups. The Alliance works with eleven major religions (Baha’ism, Buddhism, Christianity, Daoism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shintoism, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism) as well as the key traditions or denominations within each. ARC recognizes the crucial role that the world’s religions have to play in addressing the environmental crisis: the eleven religions participating in the Alliance own seven percent of the habitable surface of the planet; if they invested together, they would be the world’s third largest identifiable block of holders of stocks and shares. Combined, these religions reach out to every village and town, have the trust of more people than any other national or international group, and their followers constitute at least two-thirds of the world’s population. By drawing on holy books, sacred sites, traditional farming, education networks, media, and the assets of the religions, ARC helps create environmental projects such as forest management, organic farming, alternative energy, socially responsible investing, educational projects, sacred nature reserves, urban planning, and professional development. Major current ARC projects include founding an International Interfaith Investment Group (3iG) with the intention of working with the investment arms of religions to create models for positive investment. The aim of this project is for each religion to assess its portfolios with due regard to its beliefs, values, the environment, and human rights “so that all life on Earth can benefit.” Another major initiative, the Asian-Buddhist Network, enables Buddhists from all corners of Asia to share their experiences with environmental projects within their communities. |
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Religion
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Inter-religious: Shinto |
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Geographic Location
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International |
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Duration of Project
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1986–Present |
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History
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The idea behind ARC emerged in 1986, when the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-International was celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary. Its President at the time, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, suggested marking the occasion by inviting representatives of five major religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism) to the event, which was held in Assisi, home of St Francis, the Catholic patron saint of the environment. Prince Philip realized that WWF needed to connect with people who live in areas of greatest risk and where the potential for biological diversity is highest. Realizing that local religious leaders are often active and influential within their communities, he concluded that helping local religious leaders appreciate their responsibility for the environment and explain that responsibility to the people in their communities would raise environmental awareness around the globe. Following the 1986 Assisi event, WWF International established a program with the main religions to develop thousands of religion-based environmental programs. In 1992, Prince Philip was awarded the UN prize for ecology for the success of this work. Prince Philip founded ARC as a separate not-for-profit organization in 1995. Since then, it has worked on hundreds of projects in sixty-eight countries. These include reviving sacred mountains in Mongolia, protecting sacred forests in Lebanon, working with the Swedish Church on sustainable forest policies for its extensive landholdings, supporting the Zoroastrian community in Mumbai on vulture breeding programs, helping United Kingdom (UK) churches make their graveyards sanctuaries for rare flora and fauna, and helping Sheikhs in Zanzibar persuade local fishermen refrain from utilizing explosives as a fishing practice on the grounds that it is against Islamic law. |
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Partner Organizations
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ARC’s primary aim is to assist and enable the religions of the world to respond to the environmental challenges of the Twenty-First Century. |
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Mission Statement
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ARC usually works with local partners on a project-by-project basis. It also works with various religious and environmental organizations such as: The China Taoist Association Zoroastrian Alliance of Religions and Conservation WWF International The World Bank Mlup Baitong in Cambodia The Noah Project in the UK The Association for Forestry Development and Conservation (AFDC) Lebanon Conservation Foundation UK The United Nations Environmental Program |
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Long-Term Goals
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None Listed |
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Bibliography
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None Listed |
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Additional Research Resources
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None Listed |
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Contact Information
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ARC |
| United Religions Initiative | |
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Abstract
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The United Religions Initiative (URI) is a growing global community of individuals, organizations, and associations working to build cultures of peace and justice for the benefit of the entire Earth Community. Care for the Earth is central to URI’s vision and values, which are clearly expressed in its Charter, the foundation and guide for all URI activities. Among other stated commitments to diversity, inclusivity, and nonviolence are the following: “We unite to heal and protect the earth” (Preamble); “The purpose of [URI] is . . . to create cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings” (Purpose); and “We act from sound ecological practices to protect and preserve the Earth for both present and future generations” (Principles). Members from different traditions and locations around the world are continuously creating the URI through their shared vision, partnerships, and projects. Although its global coordinating office is located in San Francisco, URI is a decentralized, non-hierarchical, and inclusive organization with regional staffing in seven geographic areas (Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, North America, and the Pacific). Self-organizing Cooperation Circles, which operate locally and are connected globally, form the core of URI. To qualify as a Cooperation Circle, a group must have at least seven members from at least three different religious, spiritual, or indigenous traditions. Through locally initiated actions, people from diverse religious and spiritual backgrounds draw upon their resourcefulness, creativity, and religious values to deepen their understanding of other faiths and contribute to positive change in their communities. Circles take on cooperative projects of various kinds, some of which focus specifically on environmental concerns. In India, for example, Cooperation Circle initiatives include tree planting, water and waste management, environmental programs for youth, and restoration of cremation grounds. Circles in the United States, such as Spiritual Alliance for the Earth (SAFE) in the San Francisco Bay Area and Faith in Place in Chicago, also focus on environmental issues. In addition to the Cooperation Circles, which form the heart of the Initiative, URI is supported by its Affiliates: individuals and organizations that share its values and participate in some of its global projects. At present, there are more than 200 Cooperation Circles with more than 15,000 members in fourty-seven different countries. Together, they represent more than eighty-eight religious, spiritual, and indigenous traditions and consist of women and men, elders, youth, and people from different cultures and nations who share a common vision and commitment to the URI Charter. |
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Religion
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Inter-religious: Buddhism |
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Geographic Location
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International |
| Duration of Project | 1993–Present |
| History | The origins of the United Religions Initiative date back to an inter-religious service commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations in San Francisco held in 1995. When first asked to host the event in 1993, Bishop William Swing of the Episcopal Diocese of California decided to launch a worldwide initiative to build an enduring global organization dedicated to creating cultures of peace and justice for the entire Earth Community. URI held the first of five Global Summits in 1996, the last of which was the URI Charter Signing in 2000. In addition to its global summits, URI has sponsored numerous regional summits and gatherings around the world. Since its founding, more than a million people have participated in URI events. The Initiative has organized inter-religious projects in more than sixty countries and generated a global, inter-religious community of Cooperation Circles and Affiliates. |
| Mission Statement | “The purpose of the United Religions Initiative is to promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence and to create cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings.” |
| Partner Organizations | The Chaordic Alliance Council for the Parliament of the World’s Religions Habitat for Humanity International Interfaith Organization Social Innovations in Global Management United Nations World Peace Prayer Society |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | None Listed |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | The United Religions Initiative P.O. Box 29242 San Francisco, CA 94129 Ph: 415.561.2300 Fax: 415.561.2313 Email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) |
| The Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF) | |
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Abstract
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The Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to socially engaged Buddhism and progressive social change. Combining meditation and social action, BPF is committed to nonviolence, Buddhist ecumenism, and participatory decision-making. Through its publications, events, and programs, BPF works for a sustainable environment, economic justice, social equity, and human rights. It seeks to recognize the interdependence of all beings and to meet suffering with compassion. Contending that social change must begin at the grassroots level, BPF supports Buddhist-inspired work in local communities through its chapter affiliates and volunteers in the United States (US) and abroad. BPF has thirty-five chapters in the US as well as international chapters and affiliates in Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, Spain, Thailand, and the United Kingdom (UK). Among its long-standing work on human rights, peace, and social justice, BPF has recently launched a new initiative aimed at reforming US energy policies. The Buddhist Energy Reform (BER) initiative seeks to create nonviolent alternatives to the current national energy policy by providing resources, discussion forums, and an activity calendar for engaged Buddhists interested in energy reform. The BER initiative aims to promote renewable energy at the municipal level; increase car mileage standards at the state level; and lobby corporations, public utilities, and government bodies to provide greater subsidies for consumer conservation and renewable energy investments such as solar panels and energy efficient appliances. In addition to its programs and campaigns, BPF publishes a quarterly magazine, Turning Wheel, and welcomes Buddhists from all traditions. The BPF currently has 4,500 members. |
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Religion
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Buddhism |
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Geographic Location
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International |
| Duration of Project | 1978–Present |
| History |
Founded at the Maui Zendo in 1978 by Nelson Foster, Robert and Anne Aitken, and several Zen friends, BPF was the first socially engaged Buddhist organization in the West. Soon after its founding, Gary Snyder, Joanna Macy, Jack Kornfield, Al Bloom, and others joined the Fellowship. BPF began as a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an ecumenical Christian organization dedicated to nonviolent social change. During the initial years, emphasis was placed on constructing a doctrinal and historical basis for engaged Buddhism by drawing on the Theravada, Tibetan, Zen, and Pure Land traditions. Within a year of its founding there were fifty members, primarily consisting of Euro-American Zen practitioners in Hawaii and the San Francisco Bay Area. By the early 1980s, BPF had blossomed to include several hundred members, its first local chapters, a new headquarters in Berkeley, California, and a part-time coordinator. Since the beginning, BPF has worked for social and environmental awareness in the US as well as nuclear disarmament, democracy, and human rights in Tibet, Burma, and elsewhere. In 2002, BPF launched its new Buddhist Energy Reform initiative to engage American Buddhists in finding alternatives to the nation’s energy policy. |
| Mission Statement | “The mission of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF), founded in 1978, is to serve as a catalyst and agent for socially engaged Buddhism. Our aim is to help beings liberate themselves from the suffering that manifests in individuals, relationships, institutions, and social systems. BPF’s programs, publications, and practice groups link Buddhist teachings of wisdom and compassion with progressive social change.” |
| Partner Organizations | Dharma Gaia Trust International Network of Engaged Buddhists |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | None Listed |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF) P.O. Box 3470 Berkeley, CA 94703 Ph: 510.655.6169 Fax: 510.655.1369 Email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) |
| Alliance of Religion and Conservation (ARC) | |
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Abstract
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The Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) is a secular group that helps the world’s major religions develop their own environmental programs based on their core teachings, beliefs, and practices. ARC links religions with key environmental organizations, creating powerful alliances between religious communities and conservation groups. The Alliance works with eleven major religions (Baha’i, Buddhism, Christianity, Daoism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism) as well as the key traditions or denominations within each tradition. ARC recognizes the crucial role that the world’s religions play in addressing the environmental crisis: the eleven religions participating in the Alliance own seven percent of the habitable surface of the planet; if they invested together, they would be the world’s third largest identifiable block of holders of stocks and shares. Combined, these religions reach out to every village and town, have the trust of more people than any other national or international group, and their followers constitute at least two-thirds of the world’s population. By drawing on holy books, sacred sites, traditional farming, education networks, media, and the assets of the religions, ARC helps create environmental projects such as forest management, organic farming, alternative energy, socially responsible investing, educational projects, sacred nature reserves, urban planning, and professional development. Current ARC projects include the founding of an International Interfaith Investment Group (3iG) with the intention of working with the investment arms of religions to create models for positive investment. The aim of this project is for each religion to assess its portfolios with due regard to its beliefs, values, the environment, and human rights “so that all life on Earth can benefit.” Another major initiative, the Asian-Buddhist Network, enables Buddhists from all corners of Asia to share their experiences with environmental projects within their communities. |
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Religion
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Inter-religious: Buddhism |
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Geographic Location
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International |
| Duration of Project | 1986–Present |
| History |
The idea behind ARC emerged in 1986, when World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-International was celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary. Its President at the time, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, suggested marking the occasion by inviting representatives of five major religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism) to the event, which was held in Assisi, home of St Francis, the Catholic patron saint of the environment. Prince Philip realized that WWF needed to connect with people who live in areas of greatest risk and where the potential for biological diversity is highest. Realizing that local religious leaders are often active and influential within their communities, he concluded that helping local religious leaders appreciate their responsibility for the environment and explain that responsibility to the people in their communities would raise environmental awareness around the world. Following the 1986 Assisi event, WWF International established a program with the main religions to develop thousands of religion-based environmental programs. In 1992, Prince Philip was awarded the United Nations (UN) prize for ecology. Prince Philip founded ARC as a separate not-for-profit organization in 1995. Since then, it has worked on hundreds of projects in sixty-eight countries. These include: reviving sacred mountains in Mongolia, protecting sacred forests in Lebanon, working with the Swedish Church on sustainable forest policies for its extensive landholdings, supporting the Zoroastrian community in Mumbai on vulture breeding programs, helping churches in the United Kingdom (UK) make their graveyards sanctuaries for rare flora and fauna, and helping Sheikhs in Zanzibar persuade local fishermen not to use explosives as a fishing technique because such behavior goes against Islamic law. |
| Mission Statement | ARC’s primary aim is to assist and enable the religions of the world to respond to the environmental challenges of the Twenty-First Century. |
| Partner Organizations |
ARC usually works with local partners on a project-by-project basis. It works with many religious and environmental groups such as: The China Taoist Association |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | None Listed |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | ARC 3 Wynnstay Grove Fallowfield Manchester M14 6XG United Kingdom Ph: +44.0.16. 248.5731 Fax: +44.0.161.248.5736 Email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) |
| Zen Mountain Center | |
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Abstract
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Located in the San Jacinto Mountains in Southern California, Zen Mountain Center sits at the head of Apple Canyon, on 160 acres of diverse and relatively wild land. Religious and ecological practice reinforce each other at Zen Mountain Center as the traditional Zen Buddhist emphasis on limiting harm fosters environmental land-use practices, and the relatively undisturbed natural setting of Apple Canyon is conducive to meditation practice. Reflecting a traditional Buddhist appreciation for both temple and mountain as sacred space, Zen Mountain Center generates a reverence for natural surroundings in its practitioners and this translates into concrete environmental practices. One of the main goals of the Center is to limit anthropogenic disturbances in the life-webs of its land base through environmental impact assessments, restricted development and fire prevention measures, and ecological land management practices. As part of its “greening” process, the Center has undertaken various environmental initiatives, including a revised mission statement, a six-year land stewardship plan, and an environmental education program. The Center’s newly devised educational program aims to bring together religion—particularly Buddhism—and ecology through retreats, workshops, special events, publications, and outreach. |
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Religion
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Buddhism |
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Geographic Location
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United States of America (Southern California) |
| Duration of Project | 1979–Present |
| History | Land for Zen Mountain Center was purchased in 1979 and intensive practice began in 1982 with the Center’s first extended meditation retreat. Although development has been minimal (approximately ninety-eight percent of the Center’s property is undeveloped), a number of buildings have been constructed over the years, including a meditation hall, residence structures, a workshop area, and a bathhouse. In 1994, a biological impact report and species inventory was conducted and a corresponding six-year land stewardship plan was submitted the following year. In 1996, Zen Mountain Center’s mission statement was revised in order to reflect the Center’s commitment to ecological principles and environmental education. |
| Mission Statement | None Listed |
| Partner Organizations | None Listed |
| Long-Term Goals | To integrate ecological principles into the mission, development, and practice at Zen Mountain Center through a variety of land stewardship and environmental education programs, wilderness retreats, environmental awareness workshops, and sustainability practices. |
| Bibliography | Jeff Yamauchi, “The Greening of Zen Mountain Center: A Case Study” in Buddhism and Ecology: The Interconnection of Dharma and Deeds, ed. Mary Evelyn Tucker and Duncan Ryuken Williams (Cambridge, Mass.: Center for the Study of World Religions; Harvard University Press, 1997) 249–65. |
| Additional Research Resources | Consult bibliography in "The Greening of Zen Mountain Center" article listed above. |
| Contact Information | Zen Mountain Center P.O. Box 43 Mountain Center, CA 92561 Ph: 909.659.5272 Fax: 909.659.3275 |
| The Whidbey Institute | |
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Abstract
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The Whidbey Institute for Earth, Spirit, and the Human Future is an inter-religious organization and a distinctive learning and retreat center committed to providing diverse educational offerings that contribute to positive spiritual, ecological, and cultural transformation. It is located on Whidbey Island in the Pacific Northwest bioregion on seventy acres of evergreen forest and meadow-land known as Chinook, with administrative offices in the nearby town of Clinton. The Center features a restored 1900 era farmhouse, the new Thomas Berry Hall, a meditation sanctuary, labyrinth, medicine wheel, ropes course, retreat house, several rustic cabins, and an expansive network of nature trails. Seeking to bring together individuals with common concerns and commitments, the Institute welcomes people of all religious traditions and spiritual paths to participate in its events and programs. The Institute has many year-round programs. Our Way Forward is a growing community of people dedicated to the vision of the Earth Charter who meet on the first Sunday of each month to foster collaborate efforts and support creative action strategies throughout the Northwest. Beginning its sixth year in January 2004, Spirited Work is a dynamic, co-creative, self-organizing learning community composed mainly of professionals from the Northwest and beyond. Using open space technology and the seasonal archetypes of cultural anthropologist Angeles Arien, Spirited Work inspires and supports the vision of a more just, sustainable, and hopeful future. The Leadership for the New Commons program gathers a diverse group of professionals four times a year to collectively develop a new vision of bioregional leadership capable of working for a sustainable future within an interdependent and increasingly complex world. The Seasons Program for Women As Leaders brings together women from diverse professions, communities, and backgrounds four times a year to foster the experiences, talents, and insights of women as agents of change and healing and to support women’s work on behalf of the Earth community. Through the Bountiful Table program, people gather to discuss social and environmental concerns particularly around issues of food security, heath, and sustainability. Annual Iona Retreats and Conferences bring groups to the ancient Island of Iona in Scotland to draw wisdom and inspiration from the Celtic tradition for the renewal of spiritual life in the context of a religiously-diverse, interdependent earth community. In conjunction with Schumacher College in England, annual summer courses are led by a faculty of leading thinkers and innovators on such issues as ecology, economics, holistic science, spirituality, and philosophy. In collaboration with the Forum on Religion and Ecology, the Whidbey Institute also offers Religion and the New Cosmology Thomas Berry Seminars on a nearly annual basis. |
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Religion
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Inter-religious: Buddhism |
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Geographic Location
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North America (Pacific Northwest Bioregion) |
| Duration of Project | 1993–Present |
| History | Built on the foundation of its predecessor organization, the Chinook Learning Center, which was founded in 1972, the Whidbey Institute was established in 1993. Along with the restored original farmhouse and outbuildings of a nineteenth century Finnish homestead, the new Thomas Berry Hall and mediation sanctuary link the legacy of the past with commitment to the future. Since its founding, numerous programs, conferences, and retreats have been offered throughout the year on Whidbey Island and in Seattle. In addition to continuing its current programs, the Institute is developing new program areas for 2004. |
| Mission Statement | The Whidbey Institute, an educational center, learning community, and unique meeting place, offers programs dedicated to connecting one’s inner life to service and work in the world on behalf of Earth, Spirit, and the Human Future. |
| Partner Organizations | The Whidbey Institute works informally with various groups and organizations in the Northwest region and nationally. |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | None Listed |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | Whidbey Institute P.O. Box 57 Clinton, WA 98236 Ph: 360.341.1884 Fax: 360.341.1899 Email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) |
| Zen Environmental Studies Institute, Ltd. | |
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Abstract
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The Zen Environmental Studies Institute (ZESI) is a religious nonprofit corporation of the Mountains and Rivers Order, located at the Zen Mountain Monastery on Tremper Mountain in upstate New York. Applying the Buddhist precepts to our relationship with the natural world, ZESI is dedicated to cultivating love and concern for the environment by recognizing the wisdom of the insentient and wild. Through workshops, retreats, courses, and research projects, ZESI promotes spiritually-grounded nature study and environmental advocacy. ZESI programs are conducted at training sites, wilderness camps, and retreat centers located within the Zen Mountain Monastery Nature Sanctuary, the Catskill Mountains Forest Preserve, and the Adirondack Mountains Forest Preserve. In addition to wilderness skills training, ZESI offers nature meditation retreats and programs grounded in Zen Buddhist meditation practices on a wide range of topics including: natural history, nature arts, and environmental ethics. In cooperation with the Zen Center of New York City, ZESI sponsors urban environmental programs in Brooklyn to encourage nature appreciation and environmental advocacy in urban settings. The Green Dragon Society, ZESI’s environmental advocacy team, includes environmental scientists, lawyers, river engineers, bioethicists, and media representatives. ZESI has recently launched an Environmental Monitoring Program in the Adirondack and Catskill mountains to monitor water, air, and soil quality as well as a wetland Breeding Bird Census. ZESI membership includes a subscription to the quarterly newsletter, The Green Dragon Howl, and discounts on ZESI programs. |
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Religion
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Buddhism |
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Geographic Location
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United States of America (New York) |
| Duration of Project | 2001–Present |
| History |
The origins of the Zen Environmental Studies Institute can be traced back to 1980 when the Zen Mountain Monastery, home of the Mountains and River Order, was founded at Tremper Mountain. At this time, the Abbot and Board of Directors designated eighty percent of the Monastery’s 250-acres as a permanent nature sanctuary in order to manifest the community’s commitment to include all insentient beings on the property as members of the sangha. During the 1980s, wilderness appreciation and exploration became a central theme of the Monastery’s retreats and training sessions. In 1991, the “Born as the Earth” program was launched to integrate meditation practice with nature appreciation. The Green Dragon Council was formed in 1992 in order to protect the wetlands of the Esopus River and soon turned its attention to other vulnerable or threatened natural sites and entities. The Zen Environmental Studies Institute was established in 2001 in order to promote the development of green Buddhism through expanded programs in the Catskills, Adirondacks, and New York City. Since its founding, ZESI has developed a broad range of workshops, retreats, courses, and research programs focused on integrating Buddhist practice with nature study, wilderness skills, and environmental advocacy. |
| Mission Statement | “The Zen Environmental Studies Institute is part of the Mountains and Rivers Order of Zen Buddhism and is a nonprofit religious corporation that exists to provide training, education, and practice of Zen Buddhism and its relationship to the environment. It sponsors and conducts workshops, training, and research on the environment and the teachings of the insentient. It provides space, facilities, and opportunities for teachers, students, and researchers in environmental work and ecology to interface and practice meditation, study nature, and to study the teachings of the insentient in relationship to the teachings of Buddhism. The direction of Zen Environmental Studies Institute programs arises from a trust in the inherent intelligence of wildness. For almost four billion years, our Earth has been functioning as an intelligent self-organizing, self-maintaining organism that supports life-sustaining relationships. If left undisturbed, this web-of-life ultimately creates an ecological balance for life processes. It provides diversity and balance without producing non-degradable waste nor contemporary society’s abusiveness and exploitation of people and places.” |
| Partner Organizations | Zen Center of New York City Society of Mountains and Rivers |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | None Listed |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | Zen Environmental Studies Institute, Ltd. P.O. Box 24 Mt. Tremper, NY 12456 Ph: 845.688.7993 Fax: 845.688.7995 Email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) |
| Spirit Rock Meditation Center | |
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Abstract
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Offering residential and nonresidential meditation retreats, Spirit Rock Meditation Center sits on a four hundred-acre plot of land in the San Geronimo Valley, north of San Francisco. A great deal of the land surrounding the Center is privately owned, sparsely populated, and largely undeveloped. Based on its vision of serving as a “living mandala,” Spirit Rock Meditation Center has continued to expand the ideals of “right relationship” and “service” to include all Earth-beings. Building on ancient Buddhist traditions from Southeast Asia, teachings and practices at Spirit Rock incorporate ecological appreciation and land stewardship in various ways. Gratitude for the land is expressed through attentiveness to practice and a meditation of loving kindness. Ecological awareness is cultivated through outdoor walking meditations and pilgrimages, while dharma teachings include the plants, animals, and topographical features of the wider land community. The ideals of simplicity and low-impact living are borne out in the Center’s commitment to vegetarianism, hermitage principles, and ecologically sensitive land development, use, and management. |
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Religion
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Buddhism |
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Geographic Location
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United States of America (Marin County, California) |
| Duration of Project | Mid-1980s–Present |
| History | As a result of growing interest in Vipassana meditation in the United States (US) in the 1970s and the establishment of Insight Meditation centers in Boulder, Colorado and Barre, Massachusetts, a group of Californian practitioners founded the West coast based Spirit Rock Meditation Center in the San Geronimo Valley in 1986. The land was largely undeveloped when purchased, and building the Center has been a gradual process, requiring fundraising, careful planning, negotiations with local groups and regulatory agencies, and ongoing labor efforts. In 1990, trailers were brought in to serve as temporary meditation and office space areas, and in 1995 a dining hall was constructed. The following year Spirit Rock received official approval of a design plan for various residence structures, a meditation hall, parking facilities, a Council House, and a hermitage. Expansion efforts currently under consideration require careful planning and focus on impact monitoring reports and additional habitat assessment projects. |
| Mission Statement |
Spirit Rock Meditation Center is a spiritual education and training institution whose purpose is to: |
| Partner Organizations | San Geronimo Valley Planning Group |
| Long-Term Goals | To carry out design and development plans in an ecologically responsible fashion in order to establish Spirit Rock as a residential retreat center that fosters interconnectedness through retreats, right relationship, hermitage, daily life practice, service, and study. |
| Bibliography | Kaza, Stephanie. “American Buddhist Responses to the Land: Ecological Practice at Two West Coast Retreat Centers.” In Buddhism and Ecology: The Interconnection of Dharma and Deeds, eds. Mary Evelyn Tucker and Duncan Ryuken Williams, 219–48. Cambridge, Mass.: Center for the Study of World Religions, 1997. Distributed by Harvard University Press. |
| Additional Research Resources | Spirit Rock Meditation Center Newsletter |
| Contact Information | Spirit Rock Meditation Center P. O. Box 169 Woodacre, CA 94973 Ph: 415.488.0164 Fax: 415.488.0170 |
| Spiritual Alliance for Earth (SAFE) | |
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Abstract
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A Cooperation Circle of United Religions Initiative, Spiritual Alliance for Earth (SAFE) is an inter-religious network of individuals and organizations who share a common cause of caring for creation. Through letter writing campaigns, educational events, and annual Earth Day celebrations, SAFE seeks to build bridges between diverse spiritual traditions and communities, raise awareness about environmental issues, and support environmental activism. Representing a wide variety of religious traditions, SAFE participants include: Buddhists, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Native Americans and Pagans. |
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Religion
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Inter-religious: Buddhism |
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Geographic Location
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United States of America (San Francisco Bay Area, California) |
| Duration of Project | None Listed |
| History | SAFE grew out of an initiative by Cindy Spring, the coordinator of the 2000 Bay Area Earth Day, to bring a spiritual dimension to Earth Day. With Jim Conlon and Bill Sadler of Holy Names College, Paul Burks and Lauren DeBoer of EarthLight Magazine, and others, an inter-religious group sponsored an Earth Day celebration that represented twelve different spiritual traditions. Afterwards, the planners of the event decided to form an on-going group dedicated to making connections between spirituality and ecology. Sadler gathered a dozen founders to become a Cooperation Circle of United Religions Initiative (URI) in the Fall of 2000. SAFE was then organized as a nonprofit organization under URI and was successful in receiving grants from several small foundations. SAFE developed a schedule of events and a business plan and began to sponsor inter-religious environmental celebrations and educational events. In 2001, SAFE celebrated Earth Day by organizing a multicultural Environmental Fair with thirty sponsors and an inter-religious liturgy at Grace Cathedral. This event attracted more than 1,300 people. In 2002, SAFE held its third annual Earth Day celebration at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley and organized an educational program entitled “EARTH: Commodity or Community” at Holy Names College in Oakland. SAFE’s fourth Earth Day celebration was held outdoors in PortView Park in the Port of Oakland in 2003 and included an Environmental Fair and a dramatic and creative inter-religious liturgy. |
| Mission Statement | Seeking to promote a SAFE future for the planet and all life, the Alliance helps to establish communication and cooperation between environmental groups and faith communities through advocacy, education and celebration. Recognizing the spiritual dimension of environmental activism, SAFE maintains that caring for creation is central to what it means to be both fully human and fully spiritual. |
| Partner Organizations | United Religions Initiative Sophia Center of Holy Names College EarthLight Magazine California Interfaith Power & Light Interfaith Chapel at the Presidio Various local congregations and environmental groups |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | None Listed |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | Spiritual Alliance for Earth Bill Sadler, Chair 9377 Skyline Blvd Oakland, CA 94611 Ph: 510.531.7090 Email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) |
| Ordinary Dharma and Manzanita Village | |
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Abstract
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Ordinary Dharma is a Buddhist Community rooted in the meditation traditions of Vipassana and Zen and committed to the teachings of Deep Ecology, Nonviolence, Engaged Buddhism, and movements for social justice. Based in Southern California, Ordinary Dharma offers meditation instruction, workshops and trainings, retreats, tapes and CDs, Aikido and Iaido training, Hypnotherapy, and Counseling. Retreats and workshops are held at Ordinary Dharma’s rural retreat center, Manzanita Village, in Warner Springs, as well as in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and various other North American locations. Manzanita Village is located on nineteen acres of land west of the Anza Borrego desert in San Diego County. Surrounded by National forest and public land, Manzanita Village offers a remote and wild setting for retreats, and the resident teachers—Caitriona Reed and Michele Benzamin-Miki—consider the land itself to be a teacher. The teaching and practice at Manzanita Village are rooted in the belief that spiritual practice is inextricably related to issues of social, economic and environmental justice. Workshops and retreats integrate traditional Buddhist teachings and mindfulness practice with deep ecology, social justice, nonviolence, peace-making, and the creative arts. As well as traditional approaches to Buddhist Meditation, other practices geared towards awakening a sense of connectedness with the earth include: contemplative bowing called “touching the earth,” earth-centered Gathas (short poems to support mindfulness) for walking meditation, and deep ecology process work. The retreat center has a strawbale hermitage for personal retreats as well as room for approximately thirty-five formal retreat participants and serves organic, vegetarian, and non-genetically modified food. |
|
Religion
|
Buddhism |
|
Geographic Location
|
United States of America (Southern California) |
| Duration of Project | 1983–Present |
| History | Ordinary Dharma began as a Vipassana Buddhist meditation group in Venice, California in 1983, but gradually opened to other spiritual traditions including: Zen, deep ecology, and Engaged Buddhism through teachers such as Thich Nhat Hanh and Joanna Macy. Ordinary Dharma coordinated the Los Angeles chapter of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship from 1987–1992. In 1993, Manzanita Village was established in Warner Springs as the rural retreat center of Ordinary Dharma with Caitriona Reed and Michele Benzamin-Miki as the resident teachers. In 2002, the Five Changes Foundation was formed as a nonprofit, educational foundation dedicated to non-violence and community renewal with a special emphasis on youth empowerment. A forty day winter retreat was reinstated at Manzanita Village in 2003 and program planning continues apace with the newly formed Five Changes Foundation. |
| Mission Statement | None Listed |
| Partner Organizations | Ordinary Dharma works closely with the Five Changes Foundation, a collective of activists working for social justice within different spiritual/artistic contexts, providing training and workshops in various areas for children, youth, and adults. Offerings include workshops for unlearning racism; workshops to develop mindfulness in the workplace; retreats in deep ecology, systems theory, and related subjects for youth activists; and retreats for homeless gay and transgendered youth. |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | None Listed |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | Ordinary Dharma-Manzanita Village P.O. Box 67 Warner Springs, CA 92086 Ph: 760.782.9223 VM: 310.470.8443 Fax: 760.782.0655 |
| Spirit in Nature Interfaith Path Sanctuary (SpIN) | |
|
Abstract
|
Spirit in Nature (SpIN) Interfaith Path Sanctuary is a non-profit organization that brings together people of diverse religious traditions to promote reverence and care for the earth. Through education, dialogue, and spiritual reflection in nature, SpIN seeks to awaken people to environmental problems, promote environmental action that is spiritually or religiously rooted, and provide a replicable model for engaging diverse religious traditions in caring for the earth. Seeking to create an opportunity for people of diverse traditions to meet, meditate, walk and worship in a setting that is conducive to spiritual reflection on nature, SpIN established a network of eleven “faith paths” in the foothills of the Green Mountains, near Ripton, Vermont. Nine of the paths represent different religions (Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, Quaker, and Unitarian Universalist), while the other two, including the children’s path, are inter-religious. The paths meet at a sacred circle, highlighting the interconnections between different religious traditions and between humans and the environment. SpIN encourages reflective walking along the paths, which are marked with “nature notes” indicating special points of interest in the natural surroundings. The paths have benches and quotes from each religious tradition about connecting with the earth. Located on seventy acres of land, the Vermont path center now has six to eight miles of paths with more than 6,000 feet of river and brook frontage. In addition to maintaining the paths, SpIN sponsors public events geared toward stimulating dialogue and action on behalf of the Earth, such as its Bread and Soup Speaker Series, Earth Day Fair, discussion groups, guided walks, and experiential activities at the path center.Each year SpIN publicly recognizes a person who has contributed to the connection of religion and ecology with its annual Eco-Spirit Award. “Spreading the Seeds” workshops are available for people interested in starting SpIN path centers at other locations, and the quarterly Spirit in Nature newsletter keeps readers informed about events, activities, and political issues related to religion and the environment. The Spirit in Nature Handbook, which contains information about SpIN and the Vermont path center, is available in print and on-line. At present, SpIN has more than 270 members nationwide, about one third of whom are not affiliated with any particular religious organization. New SpIN groups are forming in Boston and western Massachusetts; Norwich, Vermont; and Saratoga Springs, New York. |
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Religion
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Inter-religious: Buddhism |
|
Geographic Location
|
United States of America (Northeast) |
| Duration of Project | 1998–Present |
| History |
Spirit in Nature was founded in the beginning of 1998 by a religiously-diverse group of local environmentalists and naturalists in Vermont who came up with the idea of forming both a community-based, inter-religious, environmental group and an inter-religious, environmental “path center” in the Green Mountains. SpIN leases its seventy acres of land from Middlebury College and attained its 501(c)3 status in 1999. SpIN honored Bill McKibbon, John Elder, and Stephanie Kaza with the Eco-Spirit Awards in 2001, 2002, and 2003 respectively. There are thirteen members on the Board of Trustrees, representing six different religious traditions. Five of the Trustees are Middlebury College students. In 2002, the Board of Trustees joined with the Middlebury Area Clergy to endorse the Global Warming Action Coalition’s program to reduce fossil fuel consumption locally by ten percent within five years. In October of 2002, Skidmore College opened a Spirit in Nature Sanctuary on its campus in Saratoga Springs, New York. At present, a path center is being developed in East Hampton, Massachusetts. SpIN is also affiliated with other nature centers in Ipswich and Plainville, Massachusetts and Norwich, Vermont. Spirit in Nature intends to expand the activities at the Ripton, Vermont path center with the aim of creating a “total creation and earth connecting learning center” and to facilitate the establishment and expansion of other SpIN path centers as well. |
| Mission Statement | SpIN provides “[a] place of interconnecting paths where people of diverse spiritual traditions may walk, worship, meet, meditate, and promote education and action toward better stewardship of this sacred earth.” |
| Partner Organizations | Crystal Spring Center for Earth Literacy Fieldstone Foundation In the Alley Bookstore Jefferson Legacy Foundation Mailboxes Etc. Middlebury Area Clergy Middlebury College Moser Foundation New England Grassroots Environment Fund New Road Map Foundation Cuvilly Arts and Earth Center Skidmore College St. Stephen’s Church Vermont Community Foundation |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | None Listed |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | Spirit in Nature Reverend Paul Bortz P.O. Box 253 464 E. Main Street East Middlebury, VT 05740 Ph: 802.388.7244 Email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) |
| Faith in Place | |
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Abstract
|
A project of The Center for Neighborhood Technology, a nonprofit organization working to create sustainable cities, Faith in Place aims to mobilize the diverse religious community of the Chicago region around environmental issues. Through its seven local Sustainability Circles and other projects, Faith in Place seeks to build relationships between different religious congregations around the shared aspiration to become better stewards of creation. Sustainability Circles have formed in Austin, County Line, Evanston, Humboldt Park, Hyde Park, Naperville, and Oak Park, each with a somewhat different focus. Projects run by the Circles include a neighborhood food cooperative linking local organic farmers with underserved African Americans on Chicago’s west side; an urban agriculture program; a butterfly garden; Voluntary Simplicity courses; ecologically responsible landscaping; energy-efficient and star-friendly outdoor night lighting; sustainable energy use; and public transportation expansion. In addition to the various projects initiated by the Sustainability Circles, Faith in Place currently runs three general programs for congregations in the wider metropolitan area: The Light Bulb Project, which provides participating congregations with compact fluorescent light bulbs for eco-friendly fundraising efforts; Eco-Halal, which seeks to involve the Muslim community and local organic farmers in producing zabeeha meat that has been organically and humanely raised under fair labor conditions; and Twenty Percent for Creation, a clean energy project in which participating congregations help subsidize the first wind energy facility in the state through the purchase of “green tags.” Faith in Place publishes a quarterly newsletter, One Creation, and holds annual celebratory gatherings for all of its program participants and Sustainability Circle members. At present, Faith in Place is run by Circle volunteers and five paid staff members, works with seventy-five congregations representing fourteen different religious traditions, and has approximately 150 regular, active participants. |
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Religion
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Inter-religious: Budhism |
|
Geographic Location
|
United States of America (Chicago, Illinois) |
| Duration of Project | 1999–Present |
| History |
Faith in Place was founded in 1999 by Steve Perkins (current Co-Director) and Clare Butterfield (current Director) out of the idea that religious organizing around environmental issues should foster transformation on both personal and collective levels. The Evanston Circle was formed as the pilot Sustainability Circle for Faith in Place, with Perkins serving as Director and Butterfield as Project Organizer. The other six Circles formed between May and December of 1999, and in 2001, when Butterfield became Director of Faith in Place. In 2002, Faith in Place decided to initiate over-arching, non-geographical projects, such as Eco-Halal, in order to expand and complement the efforts of the individual Circles. Faith in Place’s newest project, Twenty Percent for Creation, began in 2003. At present, Faith in Place is seeking to expand its work in the area of sustainable food systems through a new project called Food of Faith, a project that aims to produce food in a manner that adheres to the dietary requirements of religious groups while supporting local, organic farmers and promoting just and equitable employment opportunities. |
| Mission Statement |
“There are two great responsibilities common to all faiths: to love one another and to care for Creation. Faith in Place cultivates hopeful and welcoming spaces for people of all faiths to fulfill these two responsibilities as we:
|
| Partner Organizations | The Chicago Community Trust The Ford Foundation Heifer International The Institute for Community Resource Development T he International Dark Skies Association The Nathan Cummings Foundation T he Northwest Earth Institute The U.S. Department of Agriculture |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | None Listed |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | Rev. Clare Butterfield, Director Faith in Place Center for Neighborhood Technology 2125 W. North Ave. Chicago, IL 60647 Ph: 773.278.4800 ext. 125 Email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) |
| Green Gulch Zen Center | |
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Abstract
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Located on the coast north of San Francisco and surrounded by protected lands belonging to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Mount Tamalpais State Park, and Marin County Water District, Green Gulch Zen Center is a residential Buddhist retreat center that combines spiritual practice with land stewardship. In addition to environmental awareness and education, Green Gulch is cultivating an ecological ethic of institutional responsibility. This ethic encompasses various kinds of practices (e.g., tree planting, composting, organic farming, organic gardening, water conservation, and waste recycling) and ritual celebrations (e.g., ceremonies of gratitude for the earth and its many gifts). In addition, traditional elements of Zen Buddhism, such as work-practice and an aesthetic of simplicity, help to foster ecologically sensitive attitudes and behaviors in a rural setting conducive to spiritual practice. |
|
Religion
|
Buddhism |
|
Geographic Location
|
United States of America ( Marin County, California) |
| Duration of Project | 1972–Present |
| History |
On the suggestion of Suzuki Roshi, Green Gulch Farm was purchased from a local rancher by the San Francisco Zen Center in 1972 for use as a rural retreat center or farm practice site. Students of the newly purchased farm, renamed the Green Dragon Temple, sought to restore and protect land that had suffered from various forms degradation. In an effort to restore the land, Zen Center residents designated twenty one acres to organic farming and gardening, reintroduced various native plant species, created a buffer zone of trees to protect the fields from the ocean winds, and transformed the barn and other farm buildings into a meditation hall and a retreat center. Suggestions for further restoration initiatives were made in a preliminary Green Gulch landscape ecology report in 1991. The Center has sponsored many events since 1975, including the annual Arbor Day tree planting. In the past decade, special classes, walks, lectures, and practice periods have been added to address a range of issues pertaining to natural history, land use, and the link between ecology and meditation practice. |
| Mission Statement | None Listed |
| Partner Organizations | San Francisco Zen Center California Organic Farming Association Golden Gate National Recreation Area Various community farms and garden including: The Hunter’s Point Jail Project Schoolyard Garden in Berkeley, California |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | Stephanie Kaza, “American Buddhist Responses to the Land: Ecological Practice at Two West Coast Retreat Centers” in Buddhism and Ecology: The Interconnection of Dharma and Deeds, eds. Mary Evelyn Tucker and Duncan Ryuken Williams (Cambridge, Mass.: Center for the Study of World Religions; Harvard University Press, 1997) 219–48. |
| Additional Research Resources | Consult bibliography in "American Buddhist Responses to the Land" article listed above. |
| Contact Information | Green Gulch Farm Zen Center 1601 Shoreline Highway Sausalito, CA 94965 Ph: 415.383.3134 Fax: 415.383.3128 |
| Earth Sangha | |
|
Abstract
|
The Earth Sangha is a nonprofit Buddhist environmental organization located in the Washington D.C. area. Informed by the Buddhist principles of nonviolence, tolerance, self-awareness, and compassion, the Earth Sangha promotes care and respect for the environment through meditation and practical action. Based on the belief that Buddhist practice is enhanced by practical action in the world on behalf of other beings, the Earth Sangha encourages its members to see the connections between their practice and the well-being of life on earth. The philosophy behind the Earth Sangha suggests that the integration of Buddhist practice and hands-on environmentalism promotes health, concentration, ethics, compassion, and wisdom. Earth Sangha models environmental stewardship through its Potomac Native Forests Project, a conservation project designed to promote biodiversity, a cleaner environment, and community involvement in environmental restoration. The project involves propagating native plant species for use in restoring degraded natural areas, revegetating stream banks, and replacing turf and asphalt with native trees, shrubs, and herbs. At present, the Earth Sangha has approximately fifty native forest species growing in its nursery—all of them derived from local wild plant populations through the Project’s own seed collection effort. By spring 2003, the nursery stock had grown to the point at which planting into restoration sites could begin. The first such site for the project is Wilburdale Park, which lies along the headwaters of Backlick Run, a badly degraded suburban stream. The Earth Sangha has a contract with Fairfax County to manage Wilburdale Park; plans for the park include a botanical survey, control of invasive non-native plants, and restoration of native flora. The Acorn, the Earth Sangha’s newsletter, keeps members informed about current projects and events. At present, the Earth Sangha has approximately 100 formal members and welcomes people of any, or no, religious affiliation to join them for meditation practice, membership, or hands-on conservation work through the Potomac Native Forests Project. |
|
Religion
|
Buddhism |
|
Geographic Location
|
United States of America (Washington D.C.) |
| Duration of Project | 1997–Present |
| History |
The Earth Sangha was incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1997 by Chris and Lisa Bright, long-time Buddhist practitioners and environmentalists who sought a means for getting American Buddhists to bring their meditation practice into the world. Drawing on Lisa’s background as an ordained Dharma teacher in the Chogye Order of Korean Zen Buddhism and Chris’s work as an environmental researcher, the couple formed a sangha that would combine traditional meditation practice with ecological restoration in the Washington D.C. area. After regular sitting meditation sessions were established, the first stage of the Potomac Native Forests Project was initiated: in 1999, the first nursery began as a pilot project. In 2000, seed collection started in earnest. The present nursery facilities were established in 2001; since then, over fourty volunteers have worked annually in the seed collection and propagation effort. In April of 2002, the Sangha adopted Wilburdale Park and began the first step towards restoring Backlick Run: conducting a botanical survey. In July, ten members went on the first Sangha wilderness retreat in the Shenandoah mountains, which combined hiking and meditation in the forested hills of Northern Virginia. 2003 Earth Sangha activities include transplanting plants from the nursery into various locations in the D.C. area (residential yards, school grounds, stream banks, and parks); launching a native landscaping initiative in suburban areas; and continuing restoration work in Wilburdale Park. In addition to launching a native landscaping initiative in the Washington D.C. area at the end of 2003, the Earth Sangha is seeking to expand its restoration work to Northeastern Brazil and Cambodia: the Sangha is developing plans to help save a degraded forest fragment in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, one of the world’s most diverse and endangered bioregions, and hopes to organize a reforestation project on the shores of the Tonle Sap lake in Cambodia. |
| Mission Statement | “The mission of the Earth Sangha is to practice Buddhism in ways that help people become better stewards of the planet, and to do the practical environmental work that good stewardship demands.” |
| Partner Organizations | Fairfax County Park Authority, New Hampshire Charitable Trust, Shared Earth Foundation, Spring Creek Foundation, and the Buddhist Fellowship of the Arlington Unitarian Universalist Church |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | None Listed |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | Earth Sangha 10123 Commonwealth Blvd. Fairfax, VA 22032–2707 Ph: 703.764.4830 Email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) |
| The Conservation Foundation | |
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Abstract
|
The Conservation Foundation, a secular environmental organization in the United Kingdom (UK), began working with the Church of England in 1998, when it created the Yews for the Millennium project. The Foundation has been campaigning since 1987 to protect ancient yew trees, many of which are found in Britain’s churchyards. Since some of these trees are estimated to be over 2000 years old, and therefore living at the time of Christ, the Foundation decided to propagate from some of them and offer the cuttings to parishes. As a result, over 12,000 Millennium Yews were distributed at special services throughout England and Wales in 1999 and 2000. Most of these trees have since been planted in churchyards. While a major percentage of requests for trees were from Church of England parishes, trees were also requested by Roman Catholics, Quakers, and Buddhists. Assuming that many of the people requesting a Millennium Yew had some interest in the environment, the Foundation invited them to serve as links with the Conservation Foundation by becoming Parish Pumps. The name “Parish Pump” was chosen because of its historical associations around the world as a gathering place where information is exchanged within a community. The Foundation’s Parish Pumps receive environmental news and information about initiatives, award and grant schemes, and publications to pass on to their congregations and local communities. As a result of this program, the Foundation now has a national network of Parish Pumps in both rural and urban parishes. With financial help from other trusts and foundations, the Conservation Foundation also provides Parish Pump Priming Awards. Although involving relatively small amounts of money, these awards are intended to turn ideas for local environmental projects into action by providing some initial funding. The awards are often presented by Bishops or clergy to highlight the Church’s increasing level of environmental awareness and concern. In association with the Church of England, the Conservation Foundation is currently developing a national program of workshops that are being organized in collaboration with the local diocese and hosted by a local Bishop, often in a cathedral or church. Each workshop has its own agenda linking it to the 2002 Anglican Communion's Caring for Creation Congress, which the Foundation also helped organize. The Caring for Creation Congress is part of the Anglican Communion’s World Summit on Sustainable Development program. In another church-related initiative, the Foundation is helping to regenerate an eleven-acre site beside Liverpool's Anglican cathedral. Previously a cemetery, the site had fallen into disrepair and was avoided by local people and tourists alike. As a result of meetings held in the Cathedral, local people have gathered to form The Friends of St James' Garden. Along with the local council, they are working to restore the site in time for the Cathedral's centenary in 2004. |
|
Religion
|
The Conservation Foundation is a secular organization working with the Church of England. |
|
Geographic Location
|
United Kingdom |
| Duration of Project | 1998–Present |
| History |
David Bellamy and David Shreeve founded the Conservation Foundation in 1982 to help people in public, private, and non-profit sectors work together on environmental issues. Since its founding, the Conservation Foundation has organized many environmental initiatives—including educational programs and public events, consulting services, field studies, media work, and award schemes—and has forged alliances all over the world with various environmental experts. To promote the protection of Britain’s ancient Yew trees, the Foundation initiated its Yew Tree Campaign in 1987. It began working with the Church of England in 1998, when it launched its Yews for the Millennium Campaign. The St. James’ Cemetery Regeneration Project was started in Liverpool in 2001, and the Scottish Yew Tree Campaign was launched in 2002. |
| Mission Statement | The Conservation Foundation is a non-profit organization with charitable status that creates and manages initiatives to promote positive environmental news, awareness, and action. |
| Partner Organizations | Church of England. |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | None Listed |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | David Shreeve, Executive Director The Conservation Foundation 1 Kensington Gore London SW7 2AR England, UK Ph: +44.20.7591.3111 Fax: +44.20.7591.3110 Email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) |
| Wat Plak Mai Lai Forest Monastery | |
|
Abstract
|
Wat Plak Mai Lai is a densely-wooded forest monastery outside of Bangkok in Thailand. Thanks to Abbot Phra Acharn Somneuk Natho’s “non-interventionist” approach to forest management, Wat Plak Mai Lai is the last remaining natural forest in Thailand’s Nakhon Pathom Province. In contrast to the Thai Forestry Department, which contends that for-profit tree plantations are the best solution to deforestation, Phra Acharn Somneuk believes in letting nature restore itself. At Wat Plak Mai Lai, Phra Acharn Somneuk has demonstrated that his hands-off approach to reforestation works. The temple site, once stripped of its natural forest cover, is now thickly wooded, providing a stark contrast to the cash crops that surround the monastery. The forest at Wat Plak Mai Lai demonstrates the recuperative powers of nature, thus challenging the for-profit forestry policies of the government. As a result of the abbot’s approach to reforestation and his efforts to include local villagers, the burning and clearing of trees around the temple has ceased. In addition to serving as a reforestation demonstration site, the monastery provides an environment conducive to meditation. According to Phra Acharn Somneuk, the forest transmits the dhamma: when one refrains from greed, grasping, and intervention, balance is naturally restored. |
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Religion
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Buddhism |
|
Geographic Location
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Thailand |
| Duration of Project | 1937–Present |
| History | When the land was donated by a Chinese merchant in 1937 to become a temple site, it was desiccated and infertile after serving as a tobacco plantation. Although the first abbot let the trees grow back naturally, the second and third abbots cleared the forest for fuel. The fourth abbot let nature take its course again but left the monastery after a few years. Phra Acharn Somneuk became abbot in the mid 1980s, when the land around the monastery was sparsely wooded. After planting a variety of tree saplings, the young abbot concluded that the forest would recover best if left alone. In contrast to governmental reforestation policies, Phra Acharn Somneuk believed that community involvement and minimal intervention was the best approach to reforestation. Local villagers were invited to share their knowledge about medicinal herbs and participate in workshops at the monastery. Eventually, the villagers stopped clear-cutting and the land recovered its dense forest cover. |
| Mission Statement | None Listed |
| Partner Organizations | None Listed |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | Sanitsuda Ekachai, “Allowing Trees to Grow” in Seeds of Hope: Local Initiatives in Thailand (Bangkok: Thai Development Support Committee, 1994) 124–29. |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | None Listed |
| Thai Ecology Monks | |
|
Abstract
|
Particularly over the course of the 1990s, monks in Thailand have started to take an active role in protecting the environment. Known informally as environmentalist, or ecology monks (phra nak anuraksa), this small but visible percentage of Thai Buddhist monastics feel compelled to address environmental issues as part of their religious duty to help relieve suffering. Seeing a direct connection between the root causes of suffering (greed, ignorance, and hatred) and environmental destruction, ecology monks consider environmental activism to be well within their purview as Buddhist monastics. Drawing on Buddhist principles and practices, ecology monks have adapted traditional rituals and ceremonies to draw attention to environmental problems, raise awareness about the value of nature, and inspire people to take part in conservation efforts. Ceremonies such as tree ordination rituals (buat ton mai), in which trees are blessed and wrapped in saffron robes to signify their sacred status, are part of a larger effort to foster a conservation ethic rooted in Buddhist principles and bolstered by Buddhist practices. Monks such as Phrakhru Pitak Nanthakun, Phrakhru Manas Natheepitak, and Phrakhru Prajak Kuttajitto have organized a wide variety of grassroots conservation initiatives, including tree ordinations and planting ceremonies, the creation of wildlife preserves and sacred community gardens, long-life ceremonies for ecologically threatened sites or natural entities, and initiatives in sustainable community development and natural farming. Ecology monks have taken stands against deforestation, shrimp farming, dam and pipeline construction, and the cultivation of cash-crops. Phrakhru Pitak, one of the most active ecology monks, has formed an umbrella non-governmental organization called Hag Muang Nan Group (Love Nan Group) to coordinate the environmental activities of local village groups, government agencies, and other NGOs in his home province of Nan. As respected leaders of Thai society, monks have a crucial role to play in transforming environmentally destructive attitudes and policies. Similarly, the centrality of the temple in Thai village life makes the conservation efforts of rural monks especially effective; thanks to ecologically-minded abbots, forest monasteries in Thailand harbor some of the last remaining natural forests. |
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Religion
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Buddhism |
|
Geographic Location
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Thailand |
| Duration of Project | Late 1980s–Present |
| History | Although evidence of environmental activism on the part of individual monks can be traced back to at least 1975 when Phrakhru Pitak Nanthakun began to promote forest protection in his home village of Kew Muang in the northern Thai province of Nan, the phenomenon of "ecology monks" seems to have emerged most clearly in the late 1980s. In 1988, Phrakhru Pitak formed the Kew Muang Conservation Club in his home village and soon broadened his conservation efforts to other villages as well. In 1989, he coordinated environmental trainings and forest treks for more than 200 novice monks. Phrakhru Manas Natheepitak, the abbot of Wat Bodharma, adapted the traditional monk ordination ritual to sanctify trees in the late 1980s as part of a successful effort to halt logging near his forest temple in northern Thailand. With the success of Phrakhru Manas’s forest protection campaign, the practice of ordaining trees has spread. In 1989, Phrakhru Prajak Kuttajitto began ordaining trees in the Dongyai Forest of northeastern Thailand. In 1991, a large gathering of monks and laypeople ordained trees in the southern province of Surat Thani to prevent the decimation of a rainforest. Later that year, Phrakhru Pitak performed his first tree ordination ceremony in Kew Muang, along with an adaptation of the phaa paa ceremony in which lay people accrued merit by offering tree seedlings to the monks instead of the traditional offerings of money or goods. That same year, Phrakhru Pitak formed the Hag Muang Nan Group. In 1993, he helped organize a ritual blessing of the Nan River, which led to the creation of a fish sanctuary in a certain segment of the river. Since then, other ecology monks have performed similar rituals and created at least nine more fish sanctuaries along the river. |
| Mission Statement | None Listed |
| Partner Organizations | None Listed |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | Susan Darlington, “Not Only Preaching—The Work of the Ecology Monk Phrakhru Nantakhun of Thailand” in Forest, Trees and People Newsletter 34 (1997): 17–20. _____. “Tree Ordination in Thailand” in Dharma Rain: Sources of Buddhist Environmentalism, eds. Stephanie Kaza and Kenneth Kraft (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2000): 198–205. Sanitsuda Ekachai, People and Forests” in Seeds of Hope: Local Initiatives in Thailand (Bangkok: Thai Development Support Committee, 1994) 72–83. Pipob Udomittipong, “Thailand’s Ecology Monks” in Dharma Rain: Sources of Buddhist Environmentalism, eds. Stephanie Kaza and Kenneth Kraft (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2000) 191–97. |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | None Listed |
| Mlup Baitong Buddhism and Environment Program | |
|
Abstract
|
Mlup Baitong is a non-governmental (NGO) environmental organization in Cambodia seeking to conserve natural resources and foster sustainable development. Mlup Baitong promotes environmental awareness and community-based natural resource management through environmental education, training, and advocacy. Through its Buddhism Environment Program, Mlup Baitong has established a network of several hundred monks and fifteen pagodas in the Cambodian provinces of Kompong Speu and Kompong Thom. Rooted in a Buddhist environmental ethic, this program is designed to promote environmental awareness and ecological practices at the grassroots level by providing monks with training in Buddhism and Ecology and by supporting conservation and sustainability initiatives at pagodas. Such initiatives include seedling germination, tree planting, and water and wood management. The Buddhism Environment Program is one of many programs offered by Mlup Baitong. Others include: Women and Environment Program, School Environmental Education Program, National Park Assistance Program, Community Forestry Program, Community-based Ecotourism Program, Radio and Environmental Advocacy Program, and Environmental Education Resource Center Program. Mlup Baitong programs are run by its twenty-five local staff members and numerous volunteers. |
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Religion
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Buddhism |
|
Geographic Location
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Cambodia |
| Duration of Project | 1998–Present |
| History |
In the face of widespread and rapid deforestation in Cambodia, Mlup Baitong was established to promote environmental awareness and education at the grassroots level. It received its NGO status in 1998. Since its founding, Mlup Baitong has grown to address a variety of environmental issues, including wildlife conservation and habitat protection, environmental education curriculums, and community-based natural resource management. In Cambodia, the pagoda is the physical and spiritual center of most rural villages and the Buddhist philosophy supports the conservation of resources and the idea of living in harmony with nature. The Buddhism and Environment Program developed as a result of links with a pagoda in Kompong Thom that was playing an active role in outreach to the local community. The Head monk of this pagoda, Venerable Ly Kom, was responsible for germinating and providing hundreds of tree seedlings to local villagers each year in order to improve their livelihood. Mlup Baitong started by supporting this pagoda and helping Venerable Ly Kom share his ideas with monks in other areas. This was the beginning of the Buddhism and Environment network. |
| Mission Statement | "Mlup Baitong seeks to increase conservation and environmental awareness through education, training, advocacy, and other environmental services to support the sustainable and equitable use of natural resources for the benefit of Cambodia." |
| Partner Organizations | Alliance for Religions and Conservation (UK) Oxfam Great Britain IUCN-Netherlands Government of Finland |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography: | None Listed |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | Mlup Baitong P.O. Box 2510 Phnom Penh 3 Cambodia Ph: ++855.23.214.409 Fax: ++855.23.220.243 Email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) |
| Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC) | |
|
Abstract
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The Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC) is a multi-faith organisation which aims to support faith communities to take action on climate change, through their spiritual practice, through education, practical projects and campaigning. ARRCC has a shared sense of moral purpose. In the face of ecological damage and social injustices, ARRCC affirms a love for this planet and its inhabitants and a deep reverence for life. ARRCC joins together in being a part of the change we wish to see. ARRCC makes available theological and spiritual resources to communities, and seeks to inspire and resource practical action such improving energy efficiency and switching to government-accredited Green Power. ARRCC has an arrangement with Jackgreen whereby communities can fund-raise through their member households switching to Green Power. Furthermore, ARRCC believes that the transformation of society involves engagement in the political process. Through campaigning as an organisation, facilitating letters from religious leaders and empowering grassroots lobbying ARRCC promotes Australia’s stronger reliance on renewable energy sources, setting emissions reduction targets which are globally responsible, and responding compassionately to climate-affected peoples. |
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Religion
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Inter-religious: Buddhism |
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Geographic Location
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Australia, with an office in Sydney |
| Duration of Project | 2007-Present |
| History |
ARRCC was formed after a visit in 2007 by Rev Dr Sally Bingham of the Interfaith Power and Light movement in the USA. This, like other interfaith movements responding to climate change, includes people from most faith traditions. Sally Bingham’s visit was hosted by the non-profit research organisation, The Climate Institute (TCI), based in Sydney. TCI was then inspired to employ someone to start a similar faith-based initiative in Australia. Currently, this person is Dr Miriam Pepper, who spent 2008 networking among the various faith communities, establishing a website, getting ARRCC incorporated and developing some sense of common purpose among stake-holders. Formally, ARRCC was launched in November 2008. ARRCC is keenly aware of other faith-based initiatives such as Greenfaith Australia, the Faith Ecology Network and various ecumenical working groups. ARRCC plans to complement rather than duplicate what these organizations and groups are doing. Through a website and e-newsletters, ARRCC intends to publicise the events and actions of other similar groups as well as its own. In 2009 ARRCC plans to hold multi-faith vigils in various capital cities during Earth Hour, offer more resources on their website, lobby the Government, participate in the Parliament of World Religions and in various ways inspire faith communities to take action on climate change. |
| Mission Statement |
ARRCC’s objectives are: |
| Partner Organizations |
Faith Ecology Network |
| Long-Term Goals | To lower Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions through sound Government policy and ethically-inspired choices by individuals and communities. |
| Bibliography | Common Belief, Sydney, 2006, published by The Climate Institute. |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information |
Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC) |
| Alliance of Religion and Conservation | |
| Abstract | The Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) is a secular body that helps the world’s major religions develop their own environmental programs based on their core teachings, beliefs, and practices. ARC links religions with key environmental organizations, creating powerful alliances between religious communities and conservation groups. The Alliance works with eleven major religions (Baha’ism, Buddhism, Christianity, Daoism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shintoism, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism) as well as the key traditions or denominations within each. ARC recognizes the crucial role that the world’s religions play in addressing the environmental crisis: the eleven religions participating in the Alliance own seven percent of the habitable surface of the planet; if they invested together, they would be the world’s third largest identifiable block of holders of stocks and shares. Combined, these religions reach out to every village and town, have the trust of more people than any other national or international group, and their followers constitute at least two-thirds of the world’s population. By drawing on holy books, sacred sites, traditional farming, education networks, media, and the assets of the religions, ARC helps create environmental projects such as forest management, organic farming, alternative energy, socially responsible investing, educational projects, sacred nature reserves, urban planning, and professional development. Current ARC projects include: founding an International Interfaith Investment Group (3iG) with the intention of working with the investment arms of religions to create models for positive investment. The aim of this project is for each religion to assess its portfolios with due regard to its beliefs, values, the environment, and human rights “so that all life on Earth can benefit.” Another major initiative, the Asian-Buddhist Network, enables Buddhists from all corners of Asia to share their experiences with environmental projects within their communities. |
| Religion | Inter-religious: Hinduism |
| Geographic Location | International |
| Duration of Project | 1986–Present |
| History | The idea behind ARC emerged in 1986, when World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-International was celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary. Its President at the time, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, suggested marking the occasion by inviting representatives of five major religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism) to the event, which was held in Assisi, home of St Francis, the Catholic patron saint of the environment. Prince Philip realized that WWF needed to connect with people who live in areas of greatest risk and where the potential for biological diversity is highest. Realizing that local religious leaders are often active and influential within their communities, he concluded that helping local religious leaders appreciate their responsibility for the environment and explain that responsibility to the people in their communities would raise environmental awareness around the globe. Following the 1986 Assisi event, WWF-International established a program with the main religions to develop thousands of religion-based environmental programs. In 1992, Prince Philip was awarded the United Nations (UN) prize for ecology for the success of this work. Prince Philip founded ARC as a separate not-for-profit organization in 1995. Since then, it has worked on hundreds of projects in sixty-eight countries. These include reviving sacred mountains in Mongolia, protecting sacred forests in Lebanon, working with the Swedish Church on sustainable forest policies for its extensive landholdings, supporting the Zoroastrian community in Mumbai on vulture breeding programs, helping churches in the United Kingdom (UK) make their graveyards sanctuaries for rare flora and fauna, and helping Sheikhs in Zanzibar persuade local fishermen not to use explosives as a fishing technique because it is against Islamic law. |
| Mission Statement | ARC’s primary aim is to assist and enable the religions of the world to respond to the environmental challenges of the Twenty-First Century. |
| Partner Organizations |
ARC usually works with local partners on a project-by-project basis. It also works with many religious and environmental organizations such as: The China Taoist Association |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | None Listed |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | ARC 3 Wynnstay Grove Fallowfield Manchester M14 6XG United Kingdom Ph: +44.0.16. 248.5731 Fax: +44.0.161.248.5736 Email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) |
| Whidbey Institute | |
| Abstract |
The Whidbey Institute for Earth, Spirit, and the Human Future is an inter-religious organization and a distinctive learning and retreat center committed to providing diverse educational offerings that contribute to positive spiritual, ecological, and cultural transformation. It is located on Whidbey Island in the Pacific Northwest bioregion on seventy acres of evergreen forest and meadow-land known as Chinook, with administrative offices in the nearby town of Clinton. The Center features a restored 1900 era farmhouse, the new Thomas Berry Hall, a meditation sanctuary, labyrinth, medicine wheel, ropes course, retreat house, several rustic cabins, and an expansive network of nature trails. Seeking to bring together individuals with common concerns and commitments, the Institute welcomes people of all religious traditions and spiritual paths to participate in its events and programs. The Institute has many year-round programs. Our Way Forward is a growing community of people dedicated to the vision of the Earth Charter who meet on the first Sunday of each month to foster collaborate efforts and support creative action strategies throughout the Northwest. Beginning its sixth year in January 2004, Spirited Work is a dynamic, co-creative, self-organizing learning community composed mainly of professionals from the Northwest and beyond. Using open space technology and the seasonal archetypes of cultural anthropologist Angeles Arien, Spirited Work inspires and supports the vision of a more just, sustainable, and hopeful future. The Leadership for the New Commons program gathers a diverse group of professionals four times a year to collectively develop a new vision of bioregional leadership capable of working for a sustainable future within an interdependent and increasingly complex world. The Seasons Program for Women As Leaders brings together women from diverse professions, communities, and backgrounds four times a year to foster the experiences, talents, and insights of women as agents of change and healing and to support women’s work on behalf of the earth community. Through the Bountiful Table program, people gather to discuss social and environmental concerns particularly around issues of food security, heath, and sustainability. Annual Iona Retreats and Conferences bring groups to the ancient Island of Iona in Scotland to draw wisdom and inspiration from the Celtic tradition for the renewal of spiritual life in the context of a religiously-diverse, interdependent Earth community. In conjunction with Schumacher College in England, annual summer courses are led by a faculty of leading thinkers and innovators on such issues as ecology, economics, holistic science, spirituality, and philosophy. In collaboration with the Forum on Religion and Ecology, the Whidbey Institute also offers Religion and the New Cosmology Thomas Berry Seminars on a nearly annual basis. |
| Religion | Inter-religious: Hinduism |
| Geographic Location | North America (Pacific Northwest Bioregion) |
| Duration of Project | 1993–Present |
| History | Built on the foundation of its predecessor organization, the Chinook Learning Center, which was founded in 1972, the Whidbey Institute was established in 1993. Along with the restored original farmhouse and outbuildings of a nineteenth- century Finnish homestead, the new Thomas Berry Hall and mediation sanctuary link the legacy of the past with commitment to the future. Since its founding, numerous programs, conferences, and retreats have been offered throughout the year on Whidbey Island and in Seattle. In addition to continuing its current programs, the Institute is developing new program areas for 2004. |
| Mission Statement | The Whidbey Institute, an educational center, learning community, and unique meeting place, offers programs dedicated to connecting one’s inner life to service and work in the world on behalf of Earth, Spirit, and the Human Future. |
| Partner Organizations | The Whidbey Institute works informally with various groups and organizations in the Northwest region and nationally. |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | None Listed |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | Whidbey Institute P.O. Box 57 Clinton, WA 98236 Ph: 360.341.1884 Fax: 360.341.1899 Email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) |
| Spiritual Alliance for Earth | |
| Abstract | A Cooperation Circle of United Religions Initiative, Spiritual Alliance for Earth (SAFE) is an inter-religious network of individuals and organizations who share a common cause of caring for creation. Through letter writing campaigns, educational events, and annual Earth Day celebrations, SAFE seeks to build bridges between diverse spiritual traditions and communities, raise awareness about environmental issues, and support environmental activism. Representing a wide variety of religious traditions, SAFE participants include a variety of religious traditions: Buddhists, Christian, Jewish, Islam, Native American, and Pagan. |
| Religion | Inter-religious: Hinduism |
| Geographic Location | United States of America (San Francisco Bay Area, California) |
| Duration of Project | None Listed |
| History | SAFE grew out of an initiative by Cindy Spring, the coordinator of the 2000 Bay Area Earth Day, to bring a spiritual dimension to Earth Day. With Jim Conlon and Bill Sadler of Holy Names College, Paul Burks and Lauren DeBoer of EarthLight Magazine, and others, an inter-religious group sponsored an Earth Day celebration that represented twelve different spiritual traditions. Afterwards, the planners of the event decided to form an on-going group dedicated to making connections between spirituality and ecology. Sadler gathered a dozen founders to become a Cooperation Circle of United Religions Initiative (URI) in the Fall of 2000. SAFE was then organized as a nonprofit organization under URI and was successful in receiving grants from several small foundations. SAFE developed a schedule of events and a business plan and began to sponsor inter-religious environmental celebrations and educational events. In 2001, SAFE celebrated Earth Day by organizing a multicultural Environmental Fair with thirty sponsors and an inter-religious liturgy at Grace Cathedral. This event attracted more than 1,300 people. In 2002, SAFE held its third annual Earth Day celebration at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley and organized an educational program entitled “EARTH: Commodity or Community” at Holy Names College in Oakland. SAFE’s fourth Earth Day celebration was held outdoors in PortView Park in the Port of Oakland in 2003 and included an Environmental Fair and a dramatic and creative inter-religious liturgy. |
| Mission Statement | Seeking to promote a SAFE future for the planet and all life, the Alliance helps to establish communication and cooperation between environmental groups and faith communities through advocacy, education, and celebration. Recognizing the spiritual dimension of environmental activism, SAFE maintains that caring for creation is central to what it means to be both fully human and spiritual. |
| Partner Organizations | United Religions Initiative (URI) Sophia Center of Holy Names College EarthLight Magazine California Interfaith Power and Light Interfaith Chapel at the Presidio Various local congregations and environmental groups |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | None Listed |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | Spiritual Alliance for Earth Bill Sadler, Chair 9377 Skyline Blvd Oakland, CA 94611 Ph: 510.531.7090 Email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) |
| United Religions Initiative (URI) | |
| Abstract | The United Religions Initiative (URI) is a growing global community of individuals, organizations, and associations working to build cultures of peace and justice for the benefit of the entire Earth Community. Care for the Earth is central to URI’s vision and values, which are clearly expressed in its Charter, the foundation and guide for all URI activities. Among other stated commitments to diversity, inclusivity, and nonviolence are the following: “We unite to heal and protect the earth” (Preamble); “The purpose of [URI] is . . . to create cultures of peace, justice, and healing for the Earth and all living beings” (Purpose); and “We act from sound ecological practices to protect and preserve the Earth for both present and future generations” (Principles). Members from different traditions and locations around the world are continuously creating the URI through their shared vision, partnerships, and projects. Although its global coordinating office is located in San Francisco, URI is a decentralized, non-hierarchical, and inclusive organization with regional staffing in seven geographic areas (Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, North America, and the Pacific). Self-organizing Cooperation Circles, which operate locally and are connected globally, form the core of URI. To qualify as a Cooperation Circle, a group must have at least seven members from at least three different religious, spiritual, or indigenous traditions. Through locally initiated actions, people from diverse religious and spiritual backgrounds draw upon their resourcefulness, creativity, and religious values to deepen their understanding of other faiths and contribute to positive change in their communities. Circles take on cooperative projects of various kinds, some of which focus specifically on environmental concerns. In India, for example, Cooperation Circle initiatives include: tree planting, water and waste management, environmental programs for youth, and restoration of cremation grounds. Circles in the United States, such as Spiritual Alliance for the Earth (SAFE) in the San Francisco Bay Area and Faith in Place in Chicago, also focus on environmental issues. In addition to the Cooperation Circles, which form the heart of the Initiative, URI is supported by its Affiliates: individuals and organizations that share its values and participate in some of its global projects. At present, there are more than 200 Cooperation Circles with more than 15,000 members in fourty-seven different countries. Together, they represent more than eighty-eight religious, spiritual, and indigenous traditions and consist of women and men, elders and youth, and people from different cultures and nations who share a common vision and commitment to the URI Charter. |
| Religion | Inter-religious: Hinduism |
| Geographic Location | International |
| Duration of Project | 1993–Present |
| History | The origins of the United Religions Initiative (URI) date back to an inter-religious service commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations in San Francisco held in 1995. When first asked to host the event in 1993, Bishop William Swing of the Episcopal Diocese of California decided to launch a worldwide initiative to build an enduring global organization dedicated to creating cultures of peace and justice for the entire Earth Community. URI held the first of five Global Summits in 1996, the last of which was the URI Charter Signing in 2000. In addition to its global summits, URI has sponsored numerous regional summits and gatherings around the world. Since its founding, over a million people have participated in URI events. The Initiative has organized inter-religious projects in more than sixty countries and generated a global, inter-religious community of Cooperation Circles and Affiliates. |
| Mission Statement | “The purpose of the United Religions Initiative is to promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence and to create cultures of peace, justice, and healing for the Earth and all living beings.” |
| Partner Organizations | The Chaordic Alliance Council for the Parliament of the World’s Religions Habitat for Humanity International Interfaith Organization Social Innovations in Global Management United Nations World Peace Prayer Society |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | None Listed |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | The United Religions Initiative P.O. Box 29242 San Francisco, CA 94129 Ph: 415.561.2300 Fax: 415.561.2313 Email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) |
| Spirit in Nature (SpIN) Interfaith Path Sanctuary | |
| Abstract | Spirit in Nature (SpIN) Interfaith Path Sanctuary is a non-profit organization that brings together people of diverse religious traditions to promote reverence and care for the earth. Through education, dialogue, and spiritual reflection in nature, SpIN seeks to awaken people to environmental problems, promote environmental action that is spiritually or religiously rooted, and provide a replicable model for engaging diverse religious traditions in caring for the Earth. Seeking to create an opportunity for people of diverse traditions to meet, meditate, walk, and worship in a setting that is conducive to spiritual reflection on nature, SpIN established a network of eleven “faith paths” in the foothills of the Green Mountains, near Ripton, Vermont. Nine of the paths represent different religions (Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, Quaker, and Unitarian Universalist), while the other two, including the children’s path, are inter-religious. The paths meet at a sacred circle, highlighting the interconnections between different religious traditions and between humans and the environment. SpIN encourages reflective walking along the paths, which are marked with “nature notes” indicating special points of interest in the natural surroundings. The paths have benches and quotes from each religious tradition about connecting with the earth. Located on seventy acres of land, the Vermont path center now has six to eight miles of paths with more than 6,000 feet of river and brook frontage. In addition to maintaining the paths, SpIN sponsors public events geared toward stimulating dialogue and action on behalf of the earth, such as its Bread and Soup Speaker Series, Earth Day Fair, discussion groups, guided walks and experiential activities at the path center. Each year SpIN publicly recognizes a person who has contributed to the connection of religion and ecology with its annual Eco-Spirit Award. “Spreading the Seeds” workshops are available for people interested in starting SpIN path centers at other locations, and the quarterly Spirit in Nature newsletter keeps readers informed about events, activities, and political issues related to religion and the environment. The Spirit in Nature Handbook, which contains information about SpIN and the Vermont path center, is available in print and on-line. At present, SpIN has more than 270 members nationwide, about one third of whom are not affiliated with any particular religious organization. New SpIN groups are forming in Boston and western Massachusetts; Norwich, Vermont; and Saratoga Springs, New York. |
| Religion | Inter-religious: Hinduism |
| Geographic Location | United States of America (Northeast Bioregion) |
| Duration of Project | 1998–Present |
| History | Spirit in Nature was founded in the beginning of 1998 by a religiously-diverse group of local environmentalists and naturalists in Vermont, who came up with the idea of forming both a community-based, inter-religious, environmental group and an inter-religious, environmental “path center” in the Green Mountains. SpIN leases its seventy acres of land from Middlebury College, and attained its 501(c)3 status in 1999. SpIN honored Bill McKibbon, John Elder, and Stephanie Kaza with Eco-Spirit Awards in 2001, 2002, and 2003 respectively. There are thirteen members on the Board of Trustrees, representing six different religious traditions. Five of the Trustees are Middlebury College students. In 2002, the Board of Trustees joined with the Middlebury Area Clergy to endorse the Global Warming Action Coalition’s program to reduce fossil fuel consumption locally by ten percent within five years. In October, 2002, Skidmore College opened a Spirit in Nature Sanctuary on its campus in Saratoga Springs, New York. At present, a path center is being developed in East Hampton, Massachusetts. SpIN is also affiliated with other nature centers in Ipswich and Plainville, Massachusetts, and Norwich, Vermont. Spirit in Nature intends to expand the activities at the Ripton, Vermont path center with the aim of creating a “total creation and earth connecting learning center” and to facilitate the establishment and expansion of other SpIN path centers as well. |
| Mission Statement | “A place of interconnecting paths where people of diverse spiritual traditions may walk, worship, meet, meditate, and promote education and action toward better stewardship of this sacred earth.” |
| Partner Organizations | Crystal Spring Center for Earth Literacy Fieldstone Foundation In the Alley Bookstore Jefferson Legacy Foundation Mailboxes Etc. Middlebury Area Clergy Middlebury College Moser Foundation New England Grassroots Environment Fund New Road Map Foundation Cuvilly Arts and Earth Center Skidmore College St. Stephen’s Church Vermont Community Foundation |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | None Listed |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | Spirit in Nature Reverend Paul Bortz P.O. Box 253 464 E. Main Street East Middlebury, VT 05740 Ph: 802.388.7244 Email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) |
| Faith in Place | |
| Abstract | A project of The Center for Neighborhood Technology, a nonprofit organization working to create sustainable cities, Faith in Place aims to mobilize the diverse religious community of the Chicago region around environmental issues. Through its seven local Sustainability Circles and other projects, Faith in Place seeks to build relationships between different religious congregations around the shared aspiration to become better stewards of creation. Sustainability Circles have formed in Austin, County Line, Evanston, Humboldt Park, Hyde Park, Naperville, and Oak Park, each with a somewhat different focus. Projects run by the Circles include: a neighborhood food cooperative linking local organic farmers with underserved African Americans on Chicago’s west side; an urban agriculture program; a butterfly garden; Voluntary Simplicity courses; ecologically responsible landscaping; energy-efficient and star-friendly outdoor night lighting; sustainable energy use; and public transportation expansion. In addition to the various projects initiated by the Sustainability Circles, Faith in Place currently runs three general programs for congregations in the wider metropolitan area: The Light Bulb Project, which provides participating congregations with compact fluorescent light bulbs for eco-friendly fundraising efforts; Eco-Halal, which seeks to involve the Muslim community and local organic farmers in producing zabeeha meat that has been organically and humanely raised under fair labor conditions; and Twenty Percent for Creation, a clean energy project in which participating congregations help subsidize the first wind energy facility in the state through the purchase of “green tags”. Faith in Place publishes a quarterly newsletter called One Creation and holds annual celebratory gatherings for all of its program participants and Sustainability Circle members. At present, Faith in Place is run by Circle volunteers and five paid staff members, works with seventy-five congregations representing fourteen different religious traditions, and has approximately 150 regular, active participants. |
| Religion | Inter-religious: Hinduism |
| Geographic Location | United States of America (Chicago, Illinois) |
| Duration of Project | 1999–Present |
| History |
Faith in Place was founded in 1999 by Steve Perkins (current Co-Director) and Clare Butterfield (current Director) out of the idea that religious organizing around environmental issues should foster transformation on both personal and collective levels. The Evanston Circle was formed as the pilot Sustainability Circle for Faith in Place, with Perkins serving as Director and Butterfield as Project Organizer. The other six Circles formed between May and December of 1999, and in 2001, Butterfield became Director of Faith in Place. In 2002, Faith in Place decided to initiate over-arching, non-geographical projects, such as Eco-Halal, in order to expand and complement the efforts of the individual Circles. Faith in Place’s newest project, Twenty Percent for Creation, was started in 2003. At present, Faith in Place is seeking to expand its work in the area of sustainable food systems through a new project called Food of Faith, which aims to produce food in a manner that adheres to the dietary requirements of religious groups while supporting local, organic farmers and promoting just and equitable employment opportunities. |
| Mission Statement |
“There are two great responsibilities common to all faiths: to love one another and to care for Creation. Faith in Place cultivates hopeful and welcoming spaces for people of all faiths to fulfill these two responsibilities as we:
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| Partner Organizations | The Chicago Community Trust The Ford Foundation Heifer International The Institute for Community Resource Development The International Dark Skies Association The Nathan Cummings Foundation The Northwest Earth Institute The United States Department of Agriculture |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | None Listed |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | Rev. Clare Butterfield, Director Faith in Place Center for Neighborhood Technology 2125 W. North Ave. Chicago, IL 60647 Ph: 773.278.4800 ext. 125 Email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) |
| Sankat Mochan Foundation (SMF) | |
| Abstract | The Sankat Mochan (“removal of suffering”) Foundation (SMF) is a secular non-profit organization dedicated to restoring the River Ganga (Ganges) and its immediate environs from industrial and domestic pollution. Simultaneously one of the most sacred and most polluted rivers in the world, the Ganges is revered by Hindus as Mother Ganga, source of purity and eternal life. At Varanasi, one of India’s holiest cities, approximately 60,000 pilgrims a day dip themselves in Ganga’s sacred water. SMF was founded in Varanasi by Dr. Veer Bhadra Mishra, Head of the Department of Civil Engineering at Banaras Hindu University and Head Priest of the Sankat Mochan Temple. Motivated by devotion to Mother Ganga as well as environmental and public health concerns, Mishra established the Foundation to pursue the goal of attaining a clean and healthy Ganga through education, non-polluting drainage and waste treatment technology, political advocacy, and scientific research. Drawing on science, technology and religion to restore and protect the Ganga from chemical pollution, sewage, and other forms of waste, SMF reflects Mishra’s dual role as civil engineer and priest by balancing scientific and technological approaches to pollution control and prevention with respect for religious beliefs about the purifying power of Mother Ganga. Through its Swatcha Ganga (Clean Ganga) Campaign, the SMF has launched a number of pollution prevention initiatives since 1983. As a result of SMF’s efforts, the Indian government initiated the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) in 1985 with the stated goal of cleaning up the river by 1993. When it became clear that that GAP Phase I was failing due to inappropriate and poorly designed sewage treatment plants, SMF began focusing its efforts on implementing alternative sewage technologies. At present, major SMF programs and initiatives include the Swatcha Ganga Research Laboratory for monitoring the river’s water quality; Swatcha Ganga Environmental Education Centre, which seeks to combine ecological education with traditional beliefs and practices; the School Program for raising the issue of pollution in Varanasi Schools; the Village Program to help villagers attain clean water and protect the health of their communities; and the Ghat Program, which promotes care for the Ganga among the countless boatmen, Ghat priests, and washer-people that work along and in the river. |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Geographic Location | India (Varanasi) |
| Duration of Project | 1982–Present |
| History |
Founded by Dr. Veer Bhadra Mishra and a group of citizens and engineers from Varanasi, the Sankat Mochan Foundation was registered as a non-profit organization in 1982. SMF launched its Swatcha Ganga (Clean Gages) campaign the following year. In 1986, the Indian Government implemented Phase I of the Ganga Action Plan (GAP): construction of three sewage treatment plants, pumping stations and electric crematoriums at Varanasi. In 1992, SMF and its United States (US) partner, Friends of the Ganges (FOG), sponsored an international conference entitled, “Pollution Control in River Cities of India: A Case Study of Ganga at Varanasi.” That same year, Misha was placed on the United Nations Environmental Program’s Global 500 Roll of Honour at United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The following year, SMF and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, established The Swatcha Ganga Research Laboratory to document problems with GAP Phase I. In 1997, SMF and Oswald-Green LLC submitted a detailed report to the Indian government concerning GAP Phase II. In 1998, SMF, Ozwald-Green, and FOG opened the Swatcha Ganga Environmental Center at Tulsi Ghat. |
| Mission Statement | In working toward its goal of a clean and healthy Ganga, the Sankat Mochan Foundation aims to: �restore and preserve the Ganga by alleviating its fast deteriorating environmental condition; promote education and health care programs for the less privileged members of society; maintain and encourage the age-old cultural traditions of the ancient city of Varanasi; and propagate the literature of Swami Tulsidas Ji.� |
| Partner Organizations | Friends of the Ganges Ozwald-Green of Australia Swedish Society for Nature Conservation |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography | None Listed |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | Sankat Mochan Foundation 15 Tulsi Ghat Varanasi 221 001 India Ph/Fax: +91 542 231 4278 Email: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) |
| Gram Vikas Nav Yuvak Mandal (GVNYM) | |
| Abstract | Gram Vikas Nav Yuvak Mandal (GVNYM), or the “New Youth Village Welfare Association,” is a youth-led, volunteer association and non-governmental organization (NGO) based in the village of Laporiya, in the Dudu block of the Jaipur district of Rajasthan in northern India. Founded by Laxman Singh to help the Laporiya community revive their desiccated soils, barren pastures, and dying livestock, GVNYM enlists village youth to work on water conservation, agriculture, and health issues. Since GVNYM’s founding in 1990, Singh has implemented an indigenous method of rainwater harvesting in Laporiya that has notably transformed the degraded, barren ecosystem into a lush and abundant one. Drawing on traditional cultural values as well as the religious beliefs and practices of Laporiya villagers, Singh and GVNYM work to raise awareness about water scarcity and water conservation in this arid region of India. Using traditional water harvesting and management techniques, such as tapping water from every path it takes within its natural watershed, building earthen percolation tanks and water storage units, and diverting stored water to garden plots and pastures through canals and aqueducts, GVNYM has succeeded in solving many of Laporiya’s serious ecological problems. To bolster and sustain these traditional systems, Singh and GVNYM have revived local customs and rituals that foster environmental responsibility, water conservation, and reverence for nature among the villagers. Small shrines dedicated to Hindu deities and local guardians of water preserves accompany the village’s many small tanks and wells. Certain trees and plants (such as Tulsi and Peepal) are worshipped regularly on household altars; seasonal and family celebrations often begin and end by honoring nature deities; and daily water drawing entails ritual blessings of the Hindu deity, Shiva, at well shrines. In addition, adaptations of traditional rituals, such as the festival of Raksha Bandhan in which “the protective tie of brotherhood” is applied to trees to symbolize the villagers commitment to protect trees as kin, have helped to forge a conservation ethic in Laporiya. Through these measures, GVNYM has succeeded in raising the water table in Lapoira from sixty feet below the surface in 1991 to merely fifteen feet below in 2002. Because of its success, Singh’s indigenous approach to ecological restoration in Laporiya has spread to some 200 neighboring villages. |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Geographic Location | India (Rajasthan) |
| Duration of Project | 1990–Present |
| History |
GVNYM was founded in 1990 by Laxman Singh, a post-graduate in social work from Rajasthan University, who sought to alleviate the severe water shortage afflicting the village of Laporiya by reviving its water harvesting systems. In 1991, Singh began digging fifty new wells, three natural water tanks, and a water collection system composed of dykes. That same year, Singh notified villagers that any person to cut down a tree would have to submit a written apology, pay a small fine of rice, and plant another tree in its place. In 1994, GVNYM began work on fifty hectares of pastureland and helped Laporiya residents restore their old water tank, the Anna Sagar (“Ocean of Grain”). In 2001, Laporiya made the news as the sole village in the drought-prone district of Jaipur that did not require assistance in the form of water tankers. |
| Mission Statement | "GVNYM seeks to mobilize villagers to restore their local ecosystems and conserve natural resources by reviving traditional resource management systems and a deep reverence for nature." |
| Partner Organizations | None Listed |
| Long-Term Goals | None Listed |
| Bibliography |
Pritha Sen, “Respect for Water Reaps Plenty,” The Changemakers Review, vol. 4, no. 2 (December 2002): 22–28. |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | Laxman Singh Gram Vikas Nav Yuvak Mandal Laporiya Dudu Jaipur 303 008 Rajasthan, India Ph: +91 01428 24486 |
| Abstract |
Adhering to the tradition of satyagraha, or nonviolent protest for the sake of truth and purity, the Chipko movement in the Indian Himalayas is a predominately female peasant movement dedicated to ecological protection, especially forest preservation. Named for the practice of “hugging” trees in order to protect them from loggers, this grassroots movement protests land use and development schemes that are socially and environmentally destructive. Chipko participants express a reverence for nature and a perception of trees as sacred that testifies to the religious dimension of the movement. Leaders in the movement also utilize other religious techniques and practices such as the recitation of Hindu religious writings and the performance of rituals during protests. Scholars such as Vandana Shiva argue that the gendered nature of Chipko as a women’s movement testifies to its religious base through the longstanding association of nature and “the feminine principle” in Indian religious traditions. |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Geographic Location | The Indian Himalayas |
| Duration of Project | 1973–Present |
| History | None Listed |
| Mission Statement | None Listed |
| Partner Organizations | None Listed |
| Long-Term Goals | To protect local forests and the people that dwell in them from contract logging, abusive resin-tapping, and other destructive land-use practices or development projects through nonviolent resistance efforts. |
| Bibliography | George A. James, “Ethical and Religious Dimensions of Chipko Resistance” in Hinduism and Ecology: The Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water, eds. Christopher Key Chapple and Mary Evelyn Tucker (Cambridge, Mass.: Center for the Study of World Religions; Harvard University Press, 2000) 499–530. |
| Additional Research Resources | None Listed |
| Contact Information | Sunderlal Bahuguna Chipko Information Centre P.O. Silyara via Ghansali Tehri-Garhwal,U.P., 249155 India Fax #1: Delhi 91 11 4364914 Fax #2: 4360784 Tehri 91 1376 84566 For additional information see the following websites: We the People: 50 Communities American University Case Study on the Chipko Movement |
| General Hinduism Links |
| Hindu Resources On-Line Hindu Web Ring Hinduism On-Line Pluralism Project The Bhagvat Gita |
| Engaged projects in religion and ecology refers to the activities of community organizations and religious institutions that are inspiring and grounding environmental concerns in practical programs, outreach, and education. These projects generally incorporate religious traditions as part of their environmental philosophy drawing on particular scriptures, symbols, and rituals. Engaged projects range from Learning Centers and Retreat Centers to Organic Farms and Alternative Energy Communities. |
| Engaged Projects in India |
| The Chipko Movement |
| Gram Vikas Nav Yuvak Mandal |
| Sankat Mochan Foundation |
| Engaged Projects in the United States of America |
| Faith in Place |
| Spirit in Nature |
| Spiritual Alliance for Earth |
| United Religions Initiative |
| Whidbey Institute |
| International Engaged Projects |
| Alliance of Religion and Conservation |
Essay by Dr. Karan Singh
Declaration on Nature, The Hindu Viewpoint
Statement edited by Ranchor Prime
Hindu Faith Statement on the Ecology
Hinduism and Ecology Bibliography
Christopher Key Chapple
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Hinduism, Jainism, and Ecology
Christopher Key Chapple
Loyola Marymount University
Introduction
The religious traditions of India are rich and various, offering diverse theological and practical perspectives on the human condition. During the course of the Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) series of conferences on “Religions of the World and Ecology,” three major traditions originating from India were explored: Buddhism (the topic of a separate summary), Hinduism, and Jainism. Other traditions found in India could also have been explored, including Sikhism and Zoroastrianism, which have dual roots in the Middle East and India. We look forward to seeing future reflections from scholars and practitioners of these religions on the topic of ecology. Another prominent religion in South Asia, Islam, has been examined in light of ecology in another essay on this website.
Hinduism and Jainism comprise the oldest continually observed religious traditions of the Indian subcontinent. Both have spread beyond the subcontinent to virtually all parts of the globe, though most adherents to these faiths claim Indian ancestry. In the two conferences devoted to these traditions, scholars and religious leaders explored Hindu and Jaina literature, history, sociology, ritual, and asceticism in light of the current ecological crisis.
Hinduism and Ecology
The Vedic traditions of Hinduism offer imagery that values the power of the natural world. Scholars of the Vedas have held forth various texts and rituals that extol the earth (bhu), the atmosphere (bhuvah), and sky (sva), as well as the goddess associated with the earth (Prthivi), and the gods associated with water (Ap), with fire and heat (Agni), and the wind (Vayu). They have noted that the centrality of these gods and goddesses suggests an underlying ecological sensitivity within the Hindu tradition. In later Indian thought, these Vedic concepts become formalized into the Samkhya denotation of five great elements (mahabhuta): earth (prthivi), water (jal), fire (tejas), air (vayu), and space (akasa). The meditative and ritual processes of Hinduism entail awareness of these constituents of materiality. Daily worship (puja) employs and evokes these five powers.
Hinduism has long revered the tree. Early seals from the Indus Valley cities (ca. 3000 BCE) depict the tree as a powerful symbol of abundance. References to India’s trees can be found in a wide range of literature, particularly in epic and poetic texts. India has a long history of forest protection, from the edicts of Asoka, to the individual work of various Rajas, to the modern Chipko movement, wherein women have staved off forest destruction by surrounding trees with their own bodies.
Rivers have been and continue to be an integral part of Hindu religious practice. More than fifty Vedic hymns praise the Sarasvati, a river (now dry) associated with the goddess of learning and culture. The Ganges River which flows through northern India likewise is referred to as a goddess originating from the top of Siva’s head in the Himalaya Mountains, giving sustenance to hundreds of millions of modern Indians. Traditionally, the rivers of India have always been considered pure. Modern industrial contaminants and human wastes have fouled the rivers, though Ganges water still plays an important role in India’s ritual life.
Hinduism offers a variety of cosmological views that may or may not situate the human in the natural world in an ecologically friendly manner. On the one hand, the agrarian and often near-wilderness images of India found in the Vedas, Upanisads, and epic texts present a style of life seemingly in tune with the elements. The Samkhya and Tantra traditions affirm the reality and efficacy of the physical world. On the other hand, the Advaita Vedanta tradition, while adopting the basic principles of Samkhya cosmology, asserts that the highest truth involves a vision of oneness that transcends nature and, in a sense, dismisses the significance of the material world by referring to it as illusion or maya.
One model of Hindu spirituality encourages physicality through yoga practices that enhance the health of the body and the vitality of the senses. Other spiritual paths advocate renunciation of all sensual attachments to the world. However, even within the paths that relegate worldly concerns to a status of secondary importance, the doctrine of Dharma emphasizes a need to act “for the sake of the good of the world.” Particularly in regard to such issues as the building of dams in the Narmada River Valley, this requires taking into account social ecology or the need to integrate environmental policy with the daily needs of tribal and other marginalized peoples.
The current worldwide ecological crisis has only emerged during the past four decades and its effects have been felt within South Asia more recently. As the region copes with decreasing air quality in its cities and degraded water in various regions, religious thinkers and activists have begun to reflect on how the broader values of Hindu tradition might contribute to fostering greater care for the earth. Gandhi’s advocacy of simple living through the principles of nonviolence (ahimsa) and holding to truthfulness (satyagraha) could give some Hindus pause as they consider the lifestyle changes engendered by contemporary consumerism. Most of the Hindu population lives within villages that, barring natural disasters such as flood or drought, are self-sustaining and use resources sparingly. However, as the population of South Asia increases, and as the modern lifestyle continues to demand consumer goods, the balance of sustainability can shatter. With appreciation and acknowledgment of the five great elements, with a new interpretation of social duty (dharma) expanded to include the ecological community, and with remembrance of its ethic of abstemiousness, the Hindu tradition can develop new modalities for caring for the earth.
Jainism and Ecology
The Jaina tradition has existed in tandem with Hinduism in India since at least 800 BCE. Whereas the Hindu faith looks to the Vedas for texts and rituals and to the Brahman caste for religious leadership, the Jainas developed their own sacred texts (including the Acaranga Sutra, ca. 300 BCE) and follow the authority of itinerant monks and nuns who wander throughout India preaching the essential principles and practices of the faith. As indicated above, Hinduism includes both monistic and dualistic theologies, with several variations of each. Jainas ascribe to the belief in plural lifeforms populating a storied universe with hell beings at the base, humans and animals in the middle region, with gods and goddesses in the upper or heavenly domains. The goal within Jainism is to ascend to the Siddha Loka, a world beyond heaven and earth, where all the liberated souls dwell eternally in a state of energy, consciousness, and bliss. Although this goal utterly removes one from all worldly entanglements, the path to reach this highest attainment entails great care in regard to how one lives in relationship to all the other living beings that surround one in the earthly realm. Hence, from the aspect of practice, Jainism holds some interesting potential for ecological thinking, though its final goal transcends earthly (or earthy) concerns.
At the core of Jaina faith lies five vows that dictate the daily life of Jaina laypersons, monks, and nuns. These five vows, which inspired and influenced Mahatma Gandhi, are nonviolence (ahimsa), truthfulness (satya), not stealing (asteya), sexual restraint (brahmacarya), and nonpossession (aparigraha). One adheres to these vows in order to minimize harm to all possible life-forms. In Jainism, life is arranged hierarchically according to the number of senses a particular form possesses. For instance, life particles (jiva) in earth, water, fire, air, microorganisms, and plants each experience the world through the sense of touch. Worms add the sense of taste. Crawling bugs can feel, taste, and smell. Flying insects add seeing. Higher level animals, including fish and mammals, can feel, taste, smell, see, hear, and think. For observant Jainas, to hurt any being results in the thickening of one’s karma, obstructing advancement toward liberation. To reduce karma and prevent its further accrual, Jainas avoid activities associated with violence and follow a vegetarian diet. The advanced monks and nuns will sweep their path to avoid harming insects and also work at not harming even one sensed beings such as bacteria and water.
The worldview of the Jainas might be characterized as a biocosmology. Due to their perception of the “livingness” of the world, Jainas hold an affinity for the ideals of the environmental movement. The Jaina vows can easily be reinterpreted in an ecological fashion. The practice of nonviolence in the Jaina context fosters an attitude of respect for all life-forms. The observance of truthfulness prompts an investigation of the interrelatedness of things; a truthful person cannot easily dismiss the suffering caused by uncontrolled waste. The vow of not stealing can be used to reflect on the world’s limited resources and prompt one to think of the needs of future generations. Sexual restraint might help minimize population growth. The discipline of nonpossession gives one pause to think twice before indulging in the acquisition of material goods, one of the root causes of current ecological concerns. The monks and nuns, due to the heightened nature of their daily spiritual practice, leave little or no imprint on the broader ecological system. Jaina laypeople, due to their care and attention to what in other philosophical traditions is none other than inert materiality, can use their experiences of applying nonviolent principles with a new, ecological intention in mind.
The Jainas are particularly well-suited to reconsider their tradition in an ecological light, particularly because of their history of advocacy against meat eating and animal sacrifice, as well as their success at developing business areas that avoid overt violence. However, some challenges remain. One expression of environmentalism involves tree planting projects. Though Jaina laypeople might participate in such activities, their nuns and monks most likely would not plant trees because of the harm caused to the earth in the digging process. Another expression of environmentalism in India has been to establish forest preserves on property surrounding Jaina temple sites. However, this generally requires blocking access to prevent collection of fodder, resulting in a further impoverishment of struggling peasants. In addition to these questions of organic and social life, the extensive involvement of Jainas in heavy industries in India raises issues of appropriate economic activity and environmental health. These instances demonstrate the complexity of effectively applying ecological principles in a religious context.
Conclusion
Hinduism and Jainism offer unique resources for the creation of an earth ethic. The variegated theologies of Hinduism suggest that the earth can be seen as a manifestation of the goddess (Devi) and that she must be treated with respect; that the five elements hold great power; that simple living might serve as a model for the development of sustainable economies; and that the concept of Dharma can be reinterpreted from an earth-friendly perspective. The biocosmology of Jainism presents a worldview that stresses the interrelatedness of life-forms. Its attendant nonviolent ethic might easily be extended to embrace an earth ethics. Both traditions include a strong emphasis on asceticism that might discourage some adherents from placing too much value on earthly concerns, but, as we have seen, Hinduism and Jainism both contain concepts that can lead to the enhancement of core human-earth relations.
About this Author
Christopher Key Chapple is Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology at Loyola Marymount University . He has published several books including: Karma and Creativity (Albany N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1986); Nonviolence to Animals, Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1993); a co-translation of Patanjali’s, Yoga Sutra (Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1990) , Reconciling Yogas: Haribhadra's Array of Views on Yoga (SUNY 2003) and several edited collections of essays, including, Ecological Prospects: Scientific, Aesthetic, and Religious Perspectives (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1993) , Hinduism and Ecology: Intersections of Earth, Sky, and Water (Harvard series on Religion and Ecology, 2000), and Jainism and Ecology: Nonviolence in the Web of Life (Harvard Series on Religion and Ecology, 2002), as well as the forthcoming Yoga and the Luminous (SUNY). For a complete bio, visit: http://myweb.lmu.edu/cchapple.
This article was originally published in Earth Ethics 10, no.1 (Fall 1998).
Copyright © 1998 Center for Respect of Life and Environment.
Reprinted with permission.
| Engaged projects in religion and ecology refers to the activities of community organizations and religious institutions that are inspiring and grounding environmental concerns in practical programs, outreach, and education. These projects generally incorporate religious traditions as part of their environmental philosophy drawing on particular scriptures, symbols, and rituals. Engaged projects range from Learning Centers and Retreat Centers to Organic Farms and Alternative Energy Communities. |
| Engaged Projects in Australia |
| Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC) |
| Engaged Projects in Cambodia |
| Mlup Baitong, Buddhism and Environment Program |
| Engaged Projects in Thailand |
| Thai Ecology Monks |
| Wat Paa Sukhato Forest Monastery |
| Wat Plak Mai Lai Forest Monastery |
| Engaged Projects in the United Kingdom |
| The Conservation Foundation |
| Engaged Projects in the United States of America |
| Earth Sangha |
| Faith in Place |
| Green Gulch Zen Center |
| Ordinary Dharma and Manzanita Village |
| Spirit in Nature Interfaith Path Sanctuary |
| Spirit Rock Meditation Center |
| Spiritual Alliance for the Earth |
| Whidbey Institute |
| Zen Environmental Studies Institute |
| Zen Mountain Center |
| International Engaged Projects |
| Alliance of Religion and Conservation |
| Buddhist Peace Fellowship |
| Dharma Gaia Trust |
| United Religions Initiative |
Duncan Ryuken Williams
Trinity College
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Statement Prepared by Kevin Fossey
Buddhism Faith Statement on Ecology
Mary Barber is Director of the Ecological Society of America’s (ESA) Sustainable Biosphere Initiative (SBI) Project Office. She received her B.A. from Vassar College and her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Johns Hopkins University. Previous to her current position she was a Senior Environmental Scientist with Science and Policy Associates, Inc. During that time she also held positions with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Oceanic Society, and the National Science Foundation (NSF). She is actively involved in a number of organizations which support women and minorities in science including: Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), Association of Women in Science (AWIS), and Women’s Aquatic Network (WAN).
Rosemarie Bernard is an anthropologist teaching at Waseda University in Tokyo. She has been a memeber in the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. Her research focuses on Shinto ritual, specifically on the rites of renewal at the Grand Shrines of Ise, and on Japanese imperial ritual. From April 1993 to March 1994 she was an information officer in the Public Relations Section of Jingu Shicho (the bureaucracy that manages The Grand Shrines of Ise).
Thomas Berry received his Ph.D. from The Catholic University of America in European intellectual history. Widely read in Western history and theology, he spent many years studying and teaching the cultures and religions of Asia. He served as founder and director (1970–1995) of the Riverdale Center for Religious Research along the Hudson River and as Professor of Religion at Fordham University where he founded and directed a graduate program in the History of World Religions. He has also taught and traveled extensively in China and Asia. His published works include: Religions of India: Hinduism, Yoga, and Buddhism (Columbia University Press, 1996, c1971), Buddhism (Columbia University Press, 1967), and a number of books regarding environmental issues, including: The Great Work: Our Way into the Third Millennium (Belltower/Random House, 1999), The Dream of the Earth (Sierra Club Books, 1988), and, with Brian Swimme, The Universe Story (HarperSanFrancisco, 1992). He is currently working on a manuscript entitled, A World of Wonder.
John Berthrong is Associate Dean for Academic and Administrative Affairs, Associate Professor of Comparative Theology, and Director of the Institute for Dialogue among Religious Traditions at the Boston University School of Theology. Educated in sinology at the University of Chicago, Berthrong has been active in interfaith dialogue projects and programs for many years. His teaching and research interests include: interreligious dialogue, Chinese religions, and comparative philosophy and theology. His most recent publications include: The Divine Deli: Religious Identity in the North American Cultural Mosaic (Orbis Books, 1999), The Transformations of the Confucian Way (Westview Press, 1998), Concerning Creativity: A Comparison of Chu Hsi, Whitehead, and Neville (State University of New York Press, 1998), All Under Heaven: Transforming Paradigms in Confucian-Christian Dialogue (State University of New York, 1994), a collaboration with Evelyn Nagai Berthrong on Confucianism: A Short Introduction (OneWorld, 2000), and a co-edited volume with Mary Evelyn Tucker entitled, Confucianism and Ecology: The Interrelation of Heaven, Earth, and Humans (Center for the Study of World Religions, 1998).
Joanne Birdwhistell is Professor of Philosophy and Asian Civilization Emerita at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. She received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. Her published works include: Transition to Neo-Confucianism: Shao Yung on Knowledge and Symbols of Reality (Stanford University Press, 1989); Li Yong (1627–1705) and Epistemological Dimensions of Confucian Philosophy (Stanford University Press, 1996); and Mencius and Masculinities: Dynamics of Power, Morality, and Maternal Thinking (SUNY Press, 2007). Her research interests currently focus on the intersection of gender, environmental, and religious issues; and the application of Chinese philosophical thinking to contemporary global issues.
Donald Brown is Senior Counsel for Sustainable Development at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA EPA). Brown holds a B.S. in Commerce and Engineering Sciences from Drexel University, an M.A. in Philosophy and Art from the New School for Social Research, and a J.D. from Seton Hall University of Law. He has served as Program Manager for United Nations Organizations in the Office of International Environmental Policy at the United States Environmental Protection Agency, as Assistant Attorney General, as Director of the Bureau of Hazardous Sites and Superfund Enforcement, as Litigation Chief with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and as the Director of the Office of Regulation and Enforcement with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. The most recent of his numerous publications include a volume he co-edited with John Lemmons entitled, Sustainable Development: Science, Ethics, and Public Policy (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1995).
J. Baird Callicott is Regents Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion Studies at the University of North Texas and formerly President of the International Society for Environmental Ethics (ISEE). He is the author of many books including: In Defense of the Land Ethic: Essays in Environmental Philosophy (SUNY, 1989); Beyond the Land Ethic: More Essays in Environmental Philosophy (SUNY, 1999); Earth’s Insights: A Survey of Ecological Ethics from the Mediterranean Basin to the Australian Outback (University of California Press, 1994), and more than a hundred book chapters, journal articles, and book reviews on environmental philosophy. His collaborative efforts include: as co-author with Thomas W. Overholt, Clothed-in-Fur and Other Tales: An Introduction to an Ojibwa World View (University Press of America, 1982); Companion to a Sand County Almanac: Interpretive and Critical Essays (University of Wisconsin Press, 1987); with Roger T. Ames, Nature in Asian Traditions of Thought: Essays in Environmental Philosophy (SUNY, 1989); with Susan L. Flader, The River of the Mother of God and Other Essays by Aldo Leopold (University of Wisconsin Press, 1991); with Fernando J. R. da Rocha, Earth Summit Ethics: Toward a Postmodern Philosophy of Environmental Education (SUNY, 1996); and with Michael P. Nelson, The Great New Wilderness Debate and The Wilderness Debate Rages On (University of Georgia Press, 1998, 2008). With Clare Palmer he edited the five-volume set of classic and important papers in environmental ethics, Environmental Philosophy: Critical Concepts (Routledge, 2005), and with Robert Frodeman he is editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy (MacMillan, 2009).
Christopher Key Chapple is Professor of Theological Studies and Associate Academic Vice President of Loyola Marymount University (LMU) Extension School where he teaches religions of India and comparative theology. Chapple received his undergraduate degree in Comparative Literature and Religious Studies from the State University of New York (Stony Brook) and his PhD in the history of religions through the Theology Department at Fordham University. He has served as Assistant Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies of World Religions and taught Sanskrit, Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism for five years at the State University of New York (Stony Brook) before joining the faculty at LMU. His published works include: Reconciling Yogas: Haribhadra’s Collection of Views on Yoga (State University of New York, 2003), Nonviolence to Animals: Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions (State University of New York, 1993), Karma and Creativity (State University of New York, 1986), a co-translation with Yogi Anand Viraj of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali entitled, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: An Analysis of the Sanscrit with Accompanying English Translation Hinduism and Ecology (Sri Satguru Publications, 1991), and, several edited collections of essays including: Jainism and Ecology: Nonviolence in the Web of Life (State University of New York, 2002) and Ecological Prospects: Scientific, and Religious, Aesthetic Perspectives (State University of New York, 1993).
John Chryssavgis was born in Australia, where he matriculated from The Scots College (1975). He received his degree in Theology from the University of Athens (1980), a diploma in Byzantine Music from the Greek Conservatory of Music (1979), and was awarded a research scholarship to St. Vladimir's Theological Seminary (1982). He completed his doctoral studies in Patristics at the University of Oxford (1983). He was co-founder of St. Andrew's Theological College in Sydney (1985), where he taught Patristics and Church History (1986-1995) and served as sub-dean. He was also Lecturer in the Divinity School (1986-1990) and the School of Studies in Religion (1990-1995) at the University of Sydney. Since 1995, he has taught as Professor of Theology at Holy Cross School of Theology, where he has also directed the Religious Studies Program at Hellenic College. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on Orthodox theology and spirituality including, Fire and Light (Light and Life Communications, 1987), Repentance and Confession in the Orthodox Church (Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 1990), Ascent to Heaven (Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 1989), The Desert is Alive (Joint Board of Christian Education, 1991), and Love, Sexuality, and the Sacrament of Marriage (Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 1996). He has recently published, Beyond the Shattered Image (Light and Life Communications, 1999), a book on Orthodox perspectives of the environment.
Richard Clugston is the Executive Director of the Center for Respect of Life and Environment (CRLE is an affiliate of The Humane Society of the United States), Publisher and Editor of Earth Ethics, and Director of the Secretariat of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future. He received his doctorate in Higher Education from the University of Minnesota and his masters in Human Development from the University of Chicago. Clugston has also served as a faculty member and strategic planner in academic affairs in the College of Human Ecology at the University of Minnesota. His recent publications include: “Transforming Higher Education to Care for Creation,” in a volume edited by R. Peterson and D. Conroy entitled, Creation as Beloved by God, and “Sustainability and Rural Revitalization: Two Alternative Visions,” in a volume edited by I. Audirac entitled, Rural Sustainable Development in America (John Wiley and Sons, 1997).
John B. Cobb, Jr., is Professor Emeritus at the Claremont School of Theology and an active participant at the Center for Process Studies. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School. Since his retirement, he co-organized, with George Regas, a group entitled, Progressive Christians Uniting, that seeks to provide a progressive Christian voice throughout southern California. He also recently helped to organize the International Process Network. He organized two major conferences on “The Theology of Survival” (1969) and “Alternatives to Catastrophe” (1969), and, with David Griffin, he organized the Center for Process Studies, a center that promotes the thought of Alfred North Whitehead, a viewpoint that Cobb believes necessary to counter the dominant thought patterns of modernity. His published works include: Is It Too Late: A Theology of Ecology (Environmental Ethics, 1995), Sustainability: Economics, Ecology, and Justice (Orbis Books, 1992); Sustaining the Common Good: A Christian Perspective on the Global Economy (Pilgrim Press, 1994); The Earthist Challenge to Economism: A Theological Critique of the World Bank (Palgrave Macmillan, 1999); and edited works with Charles Birch, The Liberation of Life: From the Cell to the Community (Cambridge University Press, 1981), and Herman Daly, For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and Sustainable Future (Beacon, 1994).
Anthony Cortese, Sc.D., is President of Second Nature, a nonprofit organization with a mission to catalyze a worldwide effort to make environmentally just and sustainable action a foundation of learning and practice at all educational levels. He is also a co-founder of the Education for Sustainability Western Network. Cortese was formerly the Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MEPA). He was the first Dean of Environmental Programs at Tufts University and, in that position he spear-headed the award-winning Tufts Environmental Institute (1989) and the internationally acclaimed Talloires Declaration of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future (1990). Cortese is a founding member, and currently the Chair of, The Natural Step US, and a founding member of the US Board of Councilors for the China—US Center for Sustainable Development. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He has served on numerous boards, has been a consultant to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), and is a member of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board, and the President’s Council on Sustainable Development’s Education Task Force. He has been the recipient of many awards including the Christopher Columbus Celebrate Discovery Legacy Award (2002).
Chris Cuomo is Associator of Philosophy and a member of the Women’s Studies Program at the University of Cincinnati. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research and teaching areas include: ethics, political theory, environmental philosophy, critical race studies, and sex and gender studies. She has served as a Rockefeller Fellow in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University, and as a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Science and Technology Policy Studies at Murdoch University, Australia. Her books include: Feminism and Ecological Communities: An Ethic of Flourishing (Routledge, 1998) and Whiteness: Feminist Philosophical Reflections (Rowman and Littlefield, 1999), co-edited with Kim Hall. She is currently exploring the usefulness of conceptions of sacredness in environmental and social ethics, and her forthcoming book, The Philosopher Queen and Other Essays (Rowman and Littlefield), will be published in the spring of 2002.
Herman E. Daly is a professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Affairs and the Co-Founder and Associate Editor of the journal, Ecological Economics. He received his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University and his B.A. from Rice University. He has also held positions as Senior Economist in the Environment Department of the World Bank (1988-1994) and as Alumni Professor of Economics at Louisiana State University. Daly served as Ford Foundation Visiting Professor at the University of Cear� (Brazil), as a Research Associate at Yale University, as a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University, and as a Senior Fulbright Lecturer in Brazil. He has also served on the board of directors of numerous environmental organizations including the Beijer Ecological Economics Institute of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences and WorldWatch Institute. He is a member of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Scientific Advisory Board Subcommittee on Environmental Economics. His research interests in economic development, population, resources, and the environment have resulted in numerous books and articles including: Toward a Steady-State Economy (W. H. Freeman, 1973), Steady-State Economics (Island Press, 1991, c1977), Valuing the Earth (MIT Press, 1993), Beyond Growth (Beacon, 1996), and Ecological Economics and the Ecology of Economics (Elgar, 1999). He is coauthor, with theologian John B. Cobb, Jr., of For the Common Good (Beacon, 1994, c1989), a book that received the 1991 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas for Improving World Order. He has numerous additional awards including: the Sophie Prize (Norway) for contributions in the area of Environment and Development (1999), the Honorary Right Livelihood Award (Sweden's, ’alternative Nobel Prize,“ 1996), and the Heineken Prize for Environmental Science awarded by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (1996).
Wm. Theodore de Bary is John Mitchell Mason Professor Emeritus and Provost Emeritus at Columbia University and Founder of the Heyman Center for the Humanities. He is the author or editor of more than two dozen works on Asian civilizations including: Waiting for the Dawn (Columbia University Press, 1993), The Trouble with Confucianism (Harvard University Press, 1991), Confucianism and Human Rights (Columbia University Press, 1998), Asian Values and Human Rights (Harvard University Press, 1998), The Sources of Chinese Tradition (Columbia University Press, 2000), and The Sources of East Asian Tradition (Columbia University Press, 2008).
Frederick Mathewson Denny is Professor Emeritus of Islamic Studies and the History of Religions at the University of Colorado at Boulder. An alumnus of the College of William and Mary and Andover Newton Theological School, he holds the M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and has previously held teaching appointments at Yale College and the University of Virginia. He has conducted field research on Qur’anic recitation, Muslim popular ritual, and the characteristics of contemporary Muslim societies in Egypt, Indonesia, and Malaysia. His current research interests include Muslim human rights discourses, as well as Islamic law and Muslim practices relating to contemporary water stewardship. He has served on the editorial boards of the journals Teaching Theology and Religion, The Muslim World, Studies in Contemporary Islam, The Journal of Islamic Law and Culture and the Journal of Ritual Studies. In addition to many scholarly articles and book chapters on Islam-related topics, his major publications include a widely utilized college level textbook, An Introduction to Islam (3rd ed. Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005) and several edited volumes. He is founding editor, since 1985, of the scholarly book series “Studies in Comparative Religion” at the University of South Carolina Press with more than fifty titles to date. He was lead editor for the second edition of Atlas of the World’s Religions (Oxford University Press, 2007), succeeding the late Ninian Smart, who edited the first edition (1999). Denny served for eleven years on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Religion.
Stephen Dunn is the Director of the Centre for Ecology and Spirituality (Toronto). He is the founding Director (Emeritus) of the Elliot Allen Institute for Theology and Ecology, sponsored by the Theology Faculty of the University of St. Michael’s College, at the University of Toronto, Canada. The Institute provides graduate students with an opportunity to specialize in the area of theology and ecology and offers public lectures that bring developments in ecological theology to the attention of a wider audience.
Niles Eldredge has been on the curatorial staff of the American Museum of Natural History and is Curator-in-Chief of the 11,000 sq. foot permanent exhibition “Hall of Biodiversity” which opened in May 1998 at the American Museum of Natural History. A paleontologist by trade, Eldredge has devoted his career to the analysis of evolutionary patterns preserved in the fossil record and their implications for understanding the evolutionary process. He has confronted the contemporary mass species extinction issue in several books including: Life in the Balance: Humanity and the Biodiversity Crisis (Princeton University Press, 1998).
Richard Foltz holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University and is Associate Professor of Religion at Concordia University, Montréal. An historian of comparative religious traditions with a special focus on the Muslim world, his books L'Iran creuset de religions (Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 2007) and Religions of the Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century (St. Martin's Press, 1999) propose historical models for considering the emergence, development and transmission of the world's major religious traditions. In the area of Religion and Ecology, he has edited a widely-used course text titled Worldviews, Religion and the Environment: A Global Anthology (Wadsworth Thomson, 2002) and two seminal volumes exploring environmental values among Muslims, Islam and Ecology: A Bestowed Trust (Harvard, 2003) and Environmentalism in the Muslim World (Nova Science, 2005). His book Animals in Islamic Tradition and Muslim Cultures (Oneworld, 2006) is the first scholarly survey of how Muslims have viewed the importance of non-human animals. Dr. Foltz's most recent journal articles are "The Religion of the Market: Reflections on a Decade of Discussion," in Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion 11/2 (2007), "Is Zoroastrianism an Ecological Religion?" in the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture 1/4 (2007), and "Muslim 'Orientalism' in Medieval Travelogues of India," in Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 37/1 (2008). In all Dr. Foltz has authored or edited eight books and some seventy journal articles and other scholarly publications. His work has appeared in French, Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Japanese, Indonesian, Urdu, German, Bosnian, Spanish, and Russian.
James Gillespie is Chief Financial Officer at The Hitachi Foundation in Washington, D.C., an independent philanthropic institution dedicated to promoting corporate citizenship. The Foundation encourages business to assume a broader role in improving the well being of underserved people. He has previously served as the Vice President for Operations at the Worldwatch Institute, as Organization Director of Greenpeace International (Amsterdam), as Executive Vice President of The Wilderness Society (Washington, D.C.), and as an instructor at Bucknell University.
Norman Girardot is Professor of the Comparative History of Religions at Lehigh University. His research interests include: Daoism, Chinese mythology, and the history of the study of Chinese religions, as well as American visionary “folk” or “outsider” art and popular religious movements in the United States (e.g., the Elvis “cult” phenomenon). His published works include: Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism (University of California Press, 1983) and The Whole Duty of Man: James Legge (1815-1897) and the Victorian Translation of China. 19th-century Transformations of Missionary History, Sinological Orientalism, and the Comparative Science of Religion (University of California, 2001).
Ann Grodzins Gold is Professor of Religion and Anthropology at Syracuse University. She holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago. Her research in North India has included studies of pilgrimage, world-renunciation, women’s expressive traditions, the transmission of ecological knowledge, and memories of environmental change. She is co-editor, with Philip Arnold, of Sacred Landscapes and Cultural Politics: Planting a Tree (Ashgate, 2001). Additional publications include articles on sacred groves, children’s environmental perceptions, moral interpretations of climate change, and several books, the most recent of which is a co-authored volume with Bhoju Ram Gujar entitled, In the Time of Trees and Sorrows: Nature, Power, and Memory in Rajasthan (Duke University Press, 2002).
Ursula Goodenough is Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis. She holds a Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard University. She has served as President of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science, has taught an undergraduate courses in cell biology, and has written a textbook on genetics. Her research interests include: molecular evolution of sex-related genes and issues regarding the science/religion dialogue. Her most recent book, The Sacred Depths of Nature (Oxford University Press, 1998), explores religious responses to our scientific understanding of nature and suggests that these responses have the potential to serve as an underpinning for a planetary consensus on global ecology.
John Grim is currently Senior Lecturer and Senior Scholar at Yale University where he has appointments in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies as well as the Divinity School and the Department of Religious Studies. With Mary Evelyn Tucker he is Coordinator of the Forum on Religion and Ecology and series editor of "World Religions and Ecology," from Harvard Divinity School's Center for the Study of World Religions. In that series he edited Indigenous Traditions and Ecology: The Interbeing of Cosmology and Community (Harvard, 2001). He has been a Professor of Religion at Bucknell University, and at Sarah Lawrence College where he taught courses in Native American and Indigenous religions, World Religions, and Religion and Ecology. His published works include: The Shaman: Patterns of Religious Healing Among the Ojibway Indians (University of Oklahoma Press, 1983); a co-edited volume with Mary Evelyn Tucker entitled Worldviews and Ecology (Orbis, 1994, 5th printing 2000); and a co-edited Daedalus volume (2001) entitled, Religion and Ecology: Can the Climate Change? John is also President of the American Teilhard Association.
David Haberman is Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University. He received his Ph.D. in the History of Religions from the University of Chicago. His current research interests focus on Hinduism and ecology and Deep Ecology. His most recent project, a book entitled, Yamuna: River of Love in an Age of Pollution (forthcoming), examines the theology and religious practices associated with the river goddesses of northern India, the manner in which the religious culture connected with rivers changes when a river becomes severely polluted, and the responses to resist river pollution being generated by religious communities involved in river worship.
Safei-Eldin Hamed is a scholar of environmental planning, an educator of landscape architecture, and a consultant of international development. He practices primarily in the United States and the Middle East. Currently, he is an associate professor of architecture and planning at Texas Tech University.
Dr. Hamed has taught at the University of Guelph and The University of Nova Scotia in Canada; King Faisal University in Saudi Arabia; and the University of Georgia, Virginia Tech, and the University of Maryland in the United States. He has been invited to lecture in different universities around the world including: Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, DePaul, Cairo, Kuwait, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. He worked also as an environmental assessment specialist at the World Bank in Washington, DC between 1994 and 1997.
He has served as a consultant for several organizations including: the State Department, the United States Environmental Protection Agecy (EPA), the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Agency for International Development (USAID), the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, the Smithsonian Institute, the Aga Khan Award for Architectur, the Arab Development Institute, Parks Canada, Yemen Ministry of Environmental Affairs, and the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism.
Dr. Hamed has authored or co-authored six books and more than fifty chapters, articles, papers, and special reports on various topics including: environmentally and socially sustainable development, environmental strategies and management of the arid lands, Islamic gardens and architecture, environmental ethics in Islam, and Arab-Muslim cross cultural issues. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Planning from Virginia Tech, a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Georgia, and a Bachelor of Architecture from Cairo University.
S. Nomanul Haq is currently on the faculty of Rutgers University and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also served as Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Brown University. He has published widely in the areas of his research interests (Islamic intellectual history, religion, and Sufism).
Dieter Hessel is a member of the Center of Theological Inquiry (Princeton, New Jersey), Director of the Ecumenical Program on Ecology, Justice, and Faith, Co-Director of Theological Education to Meet the Environmental Challenge (TEMEC), and has served as the Social Education Coordinator and Social Policy Director of the Presbyterian Church (USA). He holds a Ph.D. in Social Ethics. His published works include: Theology for Earth Community: A Field Guide (Orbis, 1996); The Church’s Public Role Retrospect and Prospect (Eerdmans, 1993); After Nature’s Revolt: Eco-Justice and Theology (Fortress, 1992); Social Ministry (Westminster/John Knox, 1992); and two co-edited volumes, one with Larry Rasmussen entitled, Earth Habitat: Eco-Injustice and the Church's Response (Fortress, 2001) and one with Rosemary Radford Ruether entitled, Christianity and Ecology: Seeking the Well-Being of Earth and Humans (Center for the Study of World Religions, 2000).
Mark X. Jacobs served as the Executive Director for the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) from 1995 to 2003. A long time environmental activist, Jacobs obtained a B.A. in Sociology at the University of California (Santa Cruz) and studied at various yeshivot in Israel during a year abroad at Hebrew University. Mark has worked to organize and nourish a vibrant, diverse, and growing Jewish environmental movement supported by a strong network of regional affiliates, a well-connected national office, and an effective presence in Washington, D.C. Jacobs has staffed the environmental policy work of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and played a leadership role in developing the Interfaith Energy and Climate Change Campaigns. His articles on Judaism and the environment are published in several anthologies, Jewish journals, and Jewish newspapers.
Ogbu Kalu holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Toronto, a D.D. from McGill University, and an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. Kalu has served as Head of the Department of Religion, Dean of the Faculty of the Social Sciences, as Director of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Nigeria (Nsukka) and as a Harvard University Fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions.
Tazim Kassam is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies and South Asian Religions at Syracuse University and co-chair of the Study of Islam section of the American Academy of Religion. She received her Ph.D. in the History of Religions from McGill University with a specialization in Islamic and Hindu traditions. She has served as a Lilly Teaching Scholar and has been a recipient of an National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) fellowship for college professors. Her interests include: gender and development issues, computer-based learning technologies, and community service. Her book, Songs of Wisdom and Circles of Dance (SUNY, 1995), offers a critical historical introduction to a major scholarly translation of the devotional hymns of Ismaili Muslims in the Indian subcontinent.
Gordon Kaufman is Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Professor of Divinity, Emeritus, at Harvard Divinity School. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University (1955), and he taught at Pomona College in Claremont and at Vanderbilt Divinity School before coming to Harvard University. He has published several books including: God—Mystery—Diversity: Christian Theology in a Pluralistic World (Fortress, 1996) and In Face of Mystery: A Constructive Theology (Harvard University Press, 1993).
Stephanie Kaza is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont where she teaches religion and ecology, ecofeminism, environmental philosophy, and unlearning consumerism. She is a long-time Soto Zen practitioner affiliated with San Francisco Zen Center. Kaza is the author of: The Attentive Heart: Conversations with Trees (Ballantine, 1993), co-editor, with Kenneth Kraft, of Dharma Rain: Sources of Buddhist Environmentalism (Shambhala, 2000), and editor of Hooked! Buddhist Writings on Greed, Desire, and the Urge to Consume (forthcoming).
Fazlun Khalid has established for himself a world wide reputation as an indefatigable advocate of environmental protection rooted in Islam and is now recognised as one of fifteen leading eco theologians in the world alongside the Dalai Lama and the Pope.
He also has a deep commitment to work with other faiths and as an example of this he chaired a major gathering in Japan in 1995 and produced the Ohito Declaration for Religion, Land and Conservation which pledged all the major faiths to work together in addressing environmental problems. Subsequently as Director of Training for the Alliance of Religions and Conservation he tirelessly promoted this declaration world-wide from 1995 to 2000.
Since the mid 1980s he has devoted his energies to promoting Islamic environmentalism in both its theological and practical manifestations. His writing output has been described by an influential academic as being “among the most important, insightful, relevant and reliable” in this area of concern. His work in the field is of even greater significance where through the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences which he founded and now directs, he attempts to establish pioneering projects based on Islamic principles.
His work displays a sustained effort at spreading the environmental message across the Muslim world and also a deep commitment to the cause of environmental justice for the poor in developing countries.
Kenneth Kraft, Professor of Religious Studies at Lehigh University, is a scholar of Japanese Zen and socially engaged Buddhism. He received his B.A. from Harvard University, his M.A. from the University of Michigan, and his Ph.D. from Princeton University. At Lehigh he has served as chair of the Religious Studies department and director of the College Seminar Program. In 2005, he received a Lindback Foundation Award for distinguished teaching by a senior member of the faculty. Kraft has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, and the Stanford University Japan Center in Kyoto.
Kraft’s book Eloquent Zen: Daito and Early Japanese Zen was selected as an “Outstanding Academic Book” by Choice magazine. His anthology of present-day Zen masters and scholars, Zen: Tradition and Transition, is widely used in college courses. The Wheel of Engaged Buddhism: A New Map of the Path explores spiritually based responses to social and environmental issues. Dharma Rain: Sources of Buddhist Environmentalism, coedited with Stephanie Kaza, brings together ancient and contemporary Buddhist teachings about human/nature relations.
Satish Kumar is Director of Programme at Schumacher College, editor of Resurgence, and founder of the Small School Hartland. At the age of nine he became a Jain monk, at eighteen he joined the Gandhian Movement, and later in his life he walked more than 8,000 miles from India to the United States in order to propagate peace and non-violence. His published works include: You Are Therefore I Am (Green Books, 2002) and No Destination (Green Books, 1992).
Robert Lange is President of the ICSEE with projects in Zanzibar, Grenada, Eritrea, and urban United States. He has studied at the California Institute of Technology and has received a doctorate in theoretical physics from Harvard University (1963). After a period at Oxford he joined the faculty of Brandeis University. He has taught physics in Tanzania, attended the 1997 symposium on the Black Sea in Crisis, convened by the Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch, worked for opportunities in science for those traditionally excluded, and has developed activities that place religious and scientific leaders together with students and teachers.
Liu Xiaogan received his Ph.D. from Peking (Beijing) University (1985) and has taught and conducted research at Peking University, Harvard University, Princeton University, and the National University of Singapore. He has also served as a visiting professor at the Pacific School of Religion (Berkeley) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In addition to many Chinese books and papers, his English publications include Classifying the Zhuangzi Chapters (Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1994). He is currently conducting comparative research of varied versions of the Tao-te-ching or Laozi, in light of the newly discovered bamboo slips, silk manuscripts, and received manuscript versions.
John Daido Loori, Roshi is one of the West’s leading Zen Masters. A successor to Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi, he is the founder and spiritual leader of the Mountains and Rivers Order of Zen Buddhism, an organization of associated Zen Buddhist temples, practice centers, and sitting groups in the United States and abroad. He is also abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery in Mt. Tremper, New York. Under his direction, the monastery has grown to be one of the leading Zen training centers in America, serving over 600 formal students. It is now a home for some 35 to 40 male and female monastics and lay residents, and a retreat centre for the 5,000 annual visitors who visit to practice the arts, Buddhist studies, ecology, and other areas related to Zen training.
Daido Loori, a former physical chemist, is also an active environmentalist and educator. As part of the Mountains and Rivers Order, he established the Zen Environmental Studies Institute —a not-for-profit religious corporation that exists to provide training, education and practice of Zen Buddhism and its relationship to the environment. ZESI provides space, facilities and opportunity for teachers, students and researchers in environmental work and ecology to interface and practice meditation, study nature and the teachings of the insentient in relation to the teachings of Buddhism.
Daido Loori is an award-winning photographer and videographer of nature and the insentient. His work has been screened and exhibited in over 30 one person shows and some 50 group shows throughout America and abroad over the past thirty years. His photography has been featured in leading photography magazines and publications such as Aperture and Time Life.
Since the early seventies, Daido Loori has been teaching an innovative approach to the creative process in photography and the visual arts. Based on the traditional Zen Arts and the Zen aesthetic, his teachings have been presented at colleges, universities and retreat centers in week-long and month-long workshops. His nature and wildlife photography form the core of an imaginative total immersion, wilderness training programs designed to cultivate an experiential appreciation of the relationship of Zen spirituality to our natural environment, and to creative expression.
Daido Loori is an author of many books, and has contributed widely to a broad range of anthologies and journals. Newsweek and ABC nightly news have featured his work in Buddhism, as have numerous other magazines, publications and television networks, including Japanese, Korean, and Russian national television, the History Channel with Mike Wallace, and CNN.
All of Daido Loori’s endeavors are characterized by a unique adaptation of traditional Asian Buddhism into the modern American cultural context. His teachings skillfully maintain the religious integrity of Zen and at once inform the arts, environment, science, social action and indeed daily life itself.
Jane Lubchenco is Distinguished Professor of Zoology and Valley Professor of Marine Biology at Oregon State University, a scientific advisor to Religion, Science, and the Environment; a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, and a member of the board for several organizations including: Environmental Defense, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Beijer Institute for Ecological Economics, SeaWeb, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. She also served as the a former President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), as a former President of the Ecological Society of America (ESA), and as President of the International Council for Science. Lubchenco received her Ph.D. in Ecology from Harvard University. She is a MacArthur Fellow, a Pew Fellow, and winner of the 2002 Heinz Award in the Environment. She was also nominated by President Clinton and confirmed by the Senate to serve on the National Science Board.
Oren Lyons is Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, Onondaga Nation, Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy) and Associate Professor in the American Studies Program at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Oren has been active in international indigenous rights and sovereignty issues at the United Nations and other international forums for more than three decades. His published works include the national Indian newsmagazine, Daybreak.
Mary MacDonald is an Australian who worked for eight years as a teacher and researcher in Papua New Guinea. Currently she is O’Connell Professor in the Humanities at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York. Her research focuses on Melanesian styles of Christianity and ecological understandings of religion. Her published works include Mararoko: A Study in Melanesian Religion (Peter Lang, 1991), articles on indigenous religions and Christianity, three chapters in Introduction to the Study of Religion (Orbis, 1998), and an edited volume, Experiences of Place (Center for the Study of World Religions, 2003). She was an area editor for, and contributor to, the Encyclopedia of Religion, second edition (Macmillan Reference USA, 2005).
Daniel Maguire is Professor of Religious Ethics at Marquette University and President of The Religious Consultation on Population, Reproductive Health, and Ethics. He is a former president of The Society of Christian Ethics. His published works include: Sacred Choices: The Right to Contraception and Abortion in Ten World Religions (Fortress, 2001), The Moral Core of Judaism and Christianity (Fortress, 1993), The New Subversives: Anti-Americanism of the Religious Right (Continuum, 1982), A New American Justice: Ending the White Male Monopolies (Doubleday, 1980), Death By Choice (Doubleday, 1974), The Moral Revolution (HarperSanFrancisco, 1986), and, as editor, Sacred Rights: The Case for Contraception and Abortion in World Religions (Oxford University Press, 2003).
Robert Massie is the Executive Director of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) and an ordained Episcopal minister. He has been working on issues of corporate governance and responsibility for more than two decades. Massie received his master’s degree in social and theological ethics from Yale Divinity School and his doctorate in business policy from Harvard Business School (1989). He has taught at Harvard Divinity School where he ran the Project on Business, Values, and the Economy and has served as a commissioner for the World Council of Churches and an elected democratic primary nominee for the position of Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. His published works include: Loosing the Bonds: The United States and South Africa in the Apartheid Years (Doubleday, 1997).
Jay McDaniel is the Director of the Steel Center for the Study of Religion and a philosophy professor at Hendrix College. He also serves on the board of directors of the Center for Respect of Life and Environment and (CRLE) is active in the Earth Charter initiative. His published works include: Of God and Pelicans (Westminster/John Knox, 1989), Earth, Sky, Gods, and Mortals (Twenty-Third Publications, 1990), With Roots and Wings (Orbis, 1995), and Living from the Center: Spirituality in the Age of Consumerism (Chalice Press, 2000). Influenced by process theology, he has attempted to develop a process theology of ecology in dialogue with other world religions, particularly Buddhism. His interests also include concerns for animal welfare within the larger horizons of ecological thinking.
Michael McElroy is Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies at Harvard University. He received his elementary and graduate education from Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland and spent a postdoctoral year in the Chemistry Department at the University of Wisconsin. He was Director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment (2001–2004) where he lead an interdisciplinary study on the implications of China’s rapid industrial development for the local, regional, and global environment; Chairman of the University Committee on Environment at Harvard (1991–2001); Chairman of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (1986–2000); Director of the Center for Earth and Planetary Physics (1975); named Abbott Lawrence Rotch Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Harvard University (1970); and appointed staff scientist at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Arizona (1963). He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Academy of Aeronautics, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Queen’s University of Belfast honored him with the award of an honorary degree of Doctor of Science in 1991. In 1989 he was awarded the George Ledlie Prize at Harvard University for the person who “since the last award of said prize, has by research, discovery, or otherwise made the most valuable contribution to science, or in any way for the benefit of mankind,” he received the Research and Development Award from the National Energy Resources Organization, and was the recipient of the Eire Society Gold Medal in 1987, the NASA Public Service Medal in 1978, and the Macelwane Award of the American Geophysical Union in 1968.
McElroy’s research interests range from studies on the origin and evolution of the planets to, more recently, an emphasis on effects of human activity on the global environment of the Earth. He is the author of more than 200 technical papers contributing to our understanding of human induced changes in stratospheric ozone and to the potential for serious disruptions to global and regional climate due to anthropogenically related emissions of greenhouse gases.
Sallie McFague is Distinguished Theologian in Residence at the Vancouver School of Theology in Vancouver, British Columbia, and professor emerita at Vanderbilt University, where she taught for thirty years. McFague holds a Ph.D. and M.Div. from Yale University and a B.A. from Smith College. Her published works reflect her interests in religious language and ecological theology. They include: Metaphorical Theology (Fortress, 1982), Models of God (Fortress, 1987), The Body of God (Fortress, 1993), Life Abundant: Rethinking Theology and Economy for a Planet in Peril (Fortress, 2001), and A New Climate for Theology: God, the World, and Global Warming (Fortress, 2008).
Don Melnick is Executive Director of the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC), a professor in the Departments of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology at Columbia University, and head of the Laboratory of Genetic Investigation and Conservation (LoGIC). He received his B.A. in history and anthropology from New York University and his Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology from Yale University. His research includes population genetics, molecular systematics, and their uses in evolutionary and biodiversity conservation studies. His work has principally focused on non-human primates, but has more recently been extended to other vertebrates from toads to elephants. Melnick and his research group are currently working on ways to use genetic diversity across many different species occupying the same geographic area for purposes of conservation planning. They are also committed to creating an international cadre of conservation geneticists through training and research, which, to date has involved scientists and students from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Switzerland, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, United States, and Viet Nam. Melnick’s work has been published in a variety of journals including: Nature, Evolution, and Conservation Biology. His work has also been extensively reported by the popular media (e.g., The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, and the Discovery Channel).
James E. Miller is Assistant Professor of East Asian traditions at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. He is the author of Daoism: A Short Introduction (Oneworld, 2003), co-editor, with N. J. Girardot and Xiaogan Liu, of Daoism and Ecology: Ways Within A Cosmic Landscape (Center for the Study of World Religions, 2001), and editor of http://www.daoiststudies.org. His current research projects include: The Way of Highest Clarity, a study of a medieval Daoist religious movement, and The Economy of Cosmic Power, an ecological theory of religion.
Patricia Mishe is Professor of Peace Studies at Antioch and President of Global Education Associates, a network of men and women in 90 countries engaged in research, education, and action to advance global systems that will secure ecological integrity, peace, social justice, and democratic participation for present and future generations. Mische also teaches graduate courses on ecology and peace in the Columbia University Peace Education Program and is assisting with the advancement of the Earth Charter as a supplement to the current United Nations Charter. In 1988, Mische initiated the first citizens’ treaty on global ecological security, The Earth Covenant. She has conducted extensive research on environmental causes of conflict and war and has authored numerous articles and books including: Ecological Security and the United Nations System (Global Education Associates, 1997).
Victor Montejo is Assistant Professor of Native American Studies at the University of California. A former instructor at Bucknell University, Montejo is a Jakaltekan-Mayan anthropologist active in issues of human rights and local resettlement of Guatemalan Mayan peoples.
William Moomaw is Professor of International Environmental Policy, Director of the International Environment and Resource Policy Program at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and Co-Director of the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University. Moomaw received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has served as Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Williams College, the Director of the Climate, Energy, and Pollution Program at the World Resources Institute, and as a Congressional Science Fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), where he helped to evaluate the legislation to phase out CFCs in aerosol cans and worked on energy RandD following the oil embargo. He has written extensively on climate change, and has been a principle author of the industry chapters of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Second Assessment: A Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 1995).
Vijaya Nagarajan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Francisco. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Her dissertation was entitled, “Hosting the Divine: The Kolam as Embedded Ritual, Aesthetic, and Ecology in South India.” Nagarajan has also sered as co-founder and co-director of the Institute for the Study of Natural and Cultural Resources and has been affiliated with various environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) both in India and the United States.
Vasudha Narayanan is the American Academy of Religion “president elect” and the author of “‘One Tree is Equal to Ten Sons’: Some Hindu Responses to the Problems of Ecology, Population and Consumption,” published in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion 65 (Summer 1997): 191–232. In addition, she has been the recipient of several grants and fellowships including a Guggenheim fellowship (1991–1992) and an National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) fellowship (1998–1999). Her research interests focus on shared ritual worship spaces between Hindus and Muslims in south India. Her published works include: The Vernacular Veda: Revelation, Recitation and Ritual (University of Southern California Press, 1994) and a number of forthcoming titles such as: The Sacred Utterance: A Translation of a 9th Century Poem, Hindu Traditions in the United States: Temple Space, Domestic Space and Cyberspace, and The Hindu Traditions: An Introduction.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr was born in 1933 in Tehran, Iran in a family of educators and scholars, his father having been one of the founders of the Persian educational system. Consequently, he received the best classical Persian and Islamic education during his early years in Tehran. He later came to the West to finish his secondary education at the Peddie School in New Jersey and after graduating as the valedictorian of his class, he went to MIT where he studied physics and mathematics and graduated with honors in 1954. Meanwhile, his interest turned to an ever greater degree to philosophy and the history of science and he transferred to Harvard University to pursue graduate studies first in the field of geology and geophysics in order to acquaint himself with a descriptive as well as a mathematical science, and finally in the field of the history of science and philosophy in which he received his doctorate from Harvard University in 1958 with specialization in Islamic cosmology and science. From 1958 until 1979, he was professor of the history of science and philosophy at Tehran University and for several years the dean of the Faculty of Letters and for sometime the vice chancellor of the University. He also served for several years as president of Aryamehr University in Iran. In 1962 and 1965 he was visiting professor at Harvard University and in 1964-65 the first Aga Khan professor of Islamic studies at the American University of Beirut. He was also the founder and first president of the Iranian Academy of Philosophy and is president of the Foundation for Traditional studies.
In 1979 Dr. Nasr migrated to the United States where he became first the distinguished professor of Islamic studies at the University of Utah, then from 1979 to 1984 professor of Islamic studies at Temple University. Since 1984 he has been University Professor of Islamic studies at the George Washington University.
Dr. Nasr has lectured widely throughout the United States, Western Europe, most of the Islamic world, India, Australia and Japan. He has also given several major lectures such as the Azad Memorial Lecture in India, the Iqbal Lecture in Pakistan, the Charles Strong Memorial Lecture in Australia, the Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the Cadbury Lectures at Birmingham University in England. He has also been for ten years member of the directing committee of FISP (Federation Internationale des Societes Philosophiques) and a member of the Institut International de Philosophie.
Dr. Nasr is the author of over fifty books and over 500 articles. His works concern not only various aspects of Islamic studies but also comparative philosophy and religion, philosophy of art and the philosophical and religious dimensions of the environmental crisis.Lance Nelson is Professor and Chair of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego. He received his Ph.D. from McMaster University. His writings on Advaita Vedanta and other aspects of South Asian religion have appeared in books and scholarly journals in the United States and India. His published works include the edited volume, Purifying the Earthly Body of God: Religion and Ecology in Hindu India (SUNY, 1998).
Melissa Nelson is a Ph.D. candidate in cultural ecology at the University of California at Davis, President of The Cultural Conservancy (a native nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of traditional cultures and their ancestral lands) and a member of the Board of Directors of the United Religions Initiative. A member of the Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa Indians, her research focuses on Native American environmental justice and cultural restoration at the Presidio National Park in San Francisco, a military base that has recently been converted into a park.
Norman Newell is Curator Emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History and Professor Emeritus at Columbia University. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He is the author of numerous scientific papers as well as several books including, On Creation and Evolution: Myth or Reality? (Columbia University Press, 1982). His numerous awards for scientific achievements include awards from the National Academy of Sciences, Yale and Kansas Universities, and the American Museum of Natural History (Gold Medal).
Jacob Olupona is Professor of African-American and African Studies at the University of California, Davis, President of African Association for the Study of Religions, and Chair of the American Academy of Religion’s (AAR) Committee on International Connections. He received his Ph.D. in religion from Boston University. Olupona and has taught at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria and has served as a Fulbright Visiting Professor, an Academic Fellow at the Commonwealth Universities (England), Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s Center for the Study of Religions, and has been a recent recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and the University of California Research Fellowship. He has authored several publications including: Kinship, Religion, and Rituals in a Nigerian Community (Coronet Books, 1991), Beyond Primitivism: Indigenous Religious Traditions and Modernity (forthcoming), African Spirituality (forthcoming), and has edited or co-edited several additional books including: African Traditional Religions in Contemporary Society (Paragon 1991), and, co-edited with Suleyman Nyang, Religious Pluralism in Africa: Essays in Honor of John Mbiti (Mouton de Gruyter, 1993).
Pramod Parajuli teaches anthropology, ecology, and social movements at Syracuse University, New York. His research interests are in analyzing the intersection of social movements, ecology, and traditions of knowledge among ecological ethnicities�peasants, indigenous peoples, rural peasants, fisherfolks, etc. He is actively involved in various ethno-ecological movements and movements for sustainable livelihoods in his home country, Nepal, and in India. He has recently completed a manuscript entitled, Tortured Bodies and Altered Earth: Ecological Ethnicities in the Regime of Globalization (forthcoming).
Mary Pearl is the President of Wildlife Preservation Trust International (WPTI), a Director of the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (a consortium of biodiversity research institutions based at Columbia University), and co-founder of the Center for Conservation Medicine (a partnership of Wildlife Trust with Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine). She received her doctorate from Yale University and has published widely in the field of biodiversity conservation. She is co-editor of the book Conservation Medicine (Oxford University Press, 2002) which explores links between healthy ecosystems and healthy communities, and co-editor of Conservation for the 21st Century (Oxford University Press, 1989), a volume of international authorship that was the first to bring together biologists, resource managers, and environmental ethicists.
Dennis Pirages is Harrison Professor of International Environmental Politics at the University of Maryland and a lifetime fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He received his PhD from Stanford University after conducting his dissertation research at the University of Warsaw. The author or editor of twelve books and more than fifty articles and chapters in edited books, his research interests include: ec
| The Forum welcomes contributions of scholars and activists around the world whose work examines the role religion play in revisioning future human-earth relations. Through their association with the Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions Conference on World Religions and Ecology, the Forum has been affiliated with more than 800 scholars around the world involved in issues relating to religion and ecology. Current leadership in the Forum includes the following individuals:
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Steering Committee Coordinator |
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| Mary Evelyn Tucker | Yale University | |
| Coordinator | ||
| John Grim | Yale University | |
| Michael McElroy | Harvard University Center for the Environment | |
| Tu Weiming | The Harvard-Yenching Institute | |
| Richard Clugston | Center for Respect of Life and Environment (CRLE) of the Humane Society of the United States | |
| Thomas Berry | Fordham University, emeritus | |
| Advisory Board of Area Specialists for the Forum
Buddhism |
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| Stephanie Kaza | University of Vermont | |
| Kenneth Kraft | Lehigh University | |
| Donald Swearer | Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School | |
| Duncan Ryuken Williams | University of California, Irvine | |
| Christianity | ||
| John Chryssavgis | Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology | |
| John Cobb | Claremont School of Theology | |
| Gordon Kaufman | Harvard Divinity School | |
| Sallie McFague | Vancouver School of Theology | |
| Rosemary Radford Ruether | Pacific School of Religion, Graduate Theological Union | |
| Confucianism | ||
| John Berthrong | Boston University | |
| Joanne Birdwhistell | The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey | |
| William Theodore de Bary | Columbia University | |
| Rodney Taylor | University of Colorado, Boulder | |
| Daoism | ||
| Norman Girardot | Lehigh University | |
| Liu Xiaogan | Chinese University of Hong Kong | |
| James E. Miller | Queen’s University, Ontario | |
| Hinduism | ||
| Ann Grodzins Gold | Syracuse University | |
| David Haberman | Indiana University | |
| Vijaya Nagarajan | University of San Francisco | |
| Vasudha Narayanan | University of Florida | |
| Lance Nelson | University of San Diego | |
| Indigenous Traditions | ||
| Ogbu Kalu | University of Nigeria | |
| Oren Lyons | Onondaga Nation of the Haudenosaunee, SUNY, Buffalo | |
| Mary MacDonald | LeMoyne College | |
| Victor Montejo | University of California, Davis | |
| Jacob Olupona | Harvard Divinity School | |
| Leslie Sponsel | University of Hawaii | |
| Ines Talamantez | University of Califonia, Santa Barbara | |
| Islam | ||
| Frederick Denny | University of Colorado, Boulder | |
| Richard Foltz | Concordia University, Montreal | |
| Safei-Eldin Hamed | Texas Technical University | |
| S. Nomanul Haq | University of Pennsylvania | |
| Tazim Kassam | Syracuse University | |
| Fazlun Khalid | Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences | |
| Seyyed Hossein Nasr | George Washington University | |
| Alwi Shihab | Former Foreign Minister, Indonesia | |
| Jainism | ||
| Christopher Key Chapple |
Loyola Marymount University |
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| Satish Kumar | Schumacher College, England | |
| L. M. Singhvi | Member of Parliament, India | |
| Judaism | ||
| Mark X. Jacobs | Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) | |
| Hava Tirosh-Samuelson | Arizona State University | |
| Ismar Schorsch | Jewish Theological Seminary | |
| Steve Shaw | Jewish Theological Seminary | |
| Moshe Sokol | Lander College for Men | |
| Shinto | ||
| Rosemarie Bernard | Waseda University | |
| Sonoda Minoru | Kyoto University | |
| Dialogue Partners
Science |
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| Mary Barber | Ecological Society of America | |
| Niles Eldredge | American Museum of Natural History | |
| Ursula Goodenough | Washington University | |
| Robert Lange | Brandeis University | |
| Jane Lubchenco | Oregon State University | |
| Robert Pollack | Columbia University | |
| Caroly Shumway | New England Aquarium | |
| Brian Swimme | California Institute of Integral Studies | |
| Edward O. Wilson | Harvard University | |
| Economics | ||
| Robert Costanza | University of Maryland | |
| Herman E. Daly | University of Maryland | |
| James Gillespie | Hitachi Foundation | |
| Robert Massie | Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) | |
| Juliet Schor | Harvard University | |
| Eiman Zein-Elabdin | Franklin and Marshall College | |
| Education | ||
| Thomas Collins | Palmer Trinity School | |
| Peter Blaze Corcoran | Florida Gulf Coast University | |
| Don Melnick | Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC), Columbia University | |
| Patricia Mishe | Antioch College | |
| David Orr | Oberlin College | |
| Mary Pearl | Wildlife Preservation Trust | |
| George Rupp | International Rescue Committee | |
| Larry Shinn | Berea College | |
| Mitchell Thomashow | Antioch New England Environmental Studies Program | |
| Ethics | ||
| J. Baird Callicott | University of North Texas | |
| Chris Cuomo | University of Cincinnati | |
| Stephen Dunn | University of Toronto, emeritus | |
| Dieter Hessel | Theological Education to Meet the Environmental Challenge (TEMEC) | |
| Daniel Maguire | The Religious Consultation on Population, Reproductive Health, and Ethics | |
| Jay McDaniel | Center for Spirituality and Sustainability, Hendrix College | |
| Pramod Parajuli | Social Movement Learning Project | |
| Bron Taylor | University of Florida | |
| Franklin E. Vilas | Interfaith Partnership (UNEP) | |
| Public Policy | ||
| Donald Brown | Department of Environmental Protection, Pennsylvania | |
| William Moomaw | Global Development and Environment Institute, Tufts University | |
| Dennis Pirages | Harrison Program on the Future Global Agenda, University of Maryland | |
| Steven Rockefeller | Earth Charter Drafting Committee | |
| William F. Ryan | International Development Research Centre (Ottawa) | |
| Timothy Weiskel | Harvard Seminar on Environmental Values | |
| Area Specialists for this Web Site
Hinduism |
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| Ann Grodzins Gold | Syracuse University | |
| David Haberman | Indiana University | |
| Jainism | ||
| Christopher Key Chapple | Loyola Marymount University | |
| Buddhism | ||
| Kenneth Kraft | Lehigh University | |
| Confucianism | ||
| Joanne Birdwhistell | The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey | |
| Daoism | ||
| James Miller | Queen’s University, Ontario | |
| Shinto | ||
| Rosemarie Bernard | Waseda University | |
| Indigenous Traditions | ||
| Melissa Nelson | The Cultural Conservancy | |
| Leslie Sponsel | University of Hawaii | |
| Judaism | ||
| Moshe Sokol | Lander College for Men | |
| Christianity | ||
| Dieter Hessel | Theological Education to Meet the Environmental Challenge (TEMEC) | |
| Islam | ||
| Richard Foltz | Concordia University, Montreal | |
| Web Site Personnel | ||
| Forum Administrative Assistants | ||
| Anne Keeler Evans and Donna Rosenberg | FORE | |
| Web Site Consultant | ||
| Anthony Templer | atanda web presence services | |
| Annotated Bibliography Senior Project Editor | ||
| Melinda Mott Krokus | Harvard University, Divinity School | |
| Annotated Bibliography Project Assistants | ||
| Bev Foulks | Harvard University, Divinity School | |
| Tovis Page | Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences | |
| Danielle Widman | Harvard University, Divinity School | |
| Editorial Assistants | ||
| Rachel Billings | Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences | |
| Kim-Loi Mergenthaler | ||
| Sara Roscoe | Harvard University, Central Administration | |
| Engaged Projects | ||
| Tovis Page | Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences | |
| Public Policy Research Assistants | ||
| John Stith | ||
Overview of
World Religions and Ecology
Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim
Yale University
2009
Background
The environmental crisis is one that is well documented in its various interlocking manifestations of industrial pollution, resource depletion, and population explosion. The urgency of the problems are manifold, namely, the essential ingredients for human survival, especially water supplies and agricultural land, are being threatened across the planet by population and consumption pressures. With the collapse of fishing industries and with increasing soil erosion and farm land loss, serious questions are being raised about the ability of the human community to feed its own offspring. Moreover, the widespread destruction of species and the unrelenting loss of habitat continue to accelerate. Climate change threatens to undermine efforts to reverse these trends and to move toward a sustainable future for humans and nature.
Clearly religions need to be involved with the development of a more comprehensive worldview and ethics to ground movements toward sustainability. Whether from an anthropocentric or a biocentric perspective, more adequate environmental values need to be formulated and linked to areas of public policy. Scholars of religion as well as religious leaders, and laity can be key players in this articulation process. Moreover, there are calls from other concerned parties to participate in a broader alliance to halt the loss of species, topsoil, and natural resources as well as to mitigate the effects of climate change. This alliance of scholars, religious leaders, and activists is creating common ground for dialogue and creative partnership in envisioning and implementing long range, sustainable solutions to some of our most pressing environmental problems. This is critical because the attitudes and values that shape people’s concepts of nature come primarily from religious worldviews and ethical practices. The moral imperative and value systems of religions are indispensable in mobilizing the sensibilities of people toward preserving the environment for future generations.
One of the greatest challenges to contemporary religions, then, is how to respond to the environmental crisis which some believe has been perpetuated by the enormous inroads of materialism and secularization in contemporary societies, especially those societies arising in or influenced by the modern West. Others such as the medieval historian Lynn White have suggested that the emphasis in Judaism and Christianity on the transcendence of God above nature and the dominion of humans over nature has led to a devaluing of the natural world and a subsequent destruction of its resources for utilitarian ends. While the particulars of this argument have been vehemently debated, it is increasingly clear that the environmental crisis presents a serious challenge to the world’s religions. This is especially true because many of these religions have traditionally been concerned with the paths of personal salvation that frequently emphasize other worldly goals and reject this world as corrupting.
How to adapt religious teachings to this task of revaluing nature so as to prevent its destruction marks a significant new phase in religious thought. Indeed, as the historian of religions, Thomas Berry, has so aptly pointed out, what is necessary is a comprehensive reevaluation of human-Earth relations if the human is to continue as a viable species on an increasingly degraded planet. In addition to major economic and political changes, this will require adopting worldviews that differ from those which have captured the imagination of contemporary industrialized societies that view nature as a commodity to be exploited. How to utilize the insights of the world’s religions is a task of formidable urgency. Indeed, the formulation of a new ecological theology and environmental ethics is already emerging from within several of the world’s religions. Clearly each of the world’s religious traditions has something to contribute to these discussions.
Broader Ethical Context for Sustainability
The focus of ethics in the world’s religions has been largely human centered. Humane treatment of humans is often seen not only as an end in itself but also as a means to eternal reward. While some have critiqued this anthropocentric perspective of world religions as rather narrow in light of environmental degradation and the loss of species, it is nonetheless important to recall that this perspective has also helped to promote major movements for social justice and human rights.
While social justice is an ongoing and unfinished effort of engagement, the challenge for the religions is also to enlarge their ethical concerns to include the more than human world. Social justice and environmental integrity are now being seen as part of a continuum. For some decades environmental philosophers have been developing the field of environmental ethics that can now provide enormous resources for the world’s religions in considering how to expand their ethical focus. Emerging biocentric, zoocentric, and ecocentric ethics are attentive to life forms, animal species, and ecosystems within a planetary context. A new “systems ethics” of part and whole, local and global, will assist the religions in articulating a more comprehensive form of environmental ethics from within their traditions. This is a major part of the development of religions into a dialogue with the sustainability movement. Humans are seeking an ethics to respond not only to suicide and homicide but also biocide and ecocide.
Thus religions are gradually moving from exclusively anthropocentric ethics to ecocentric ethics and even to anthropocosmic ethics. The latter is a term used by Tu Weiming to describe the vibrant interaction of Heaven, Earth, and humans in a Confucian worldview.1 In this context, humans complete the natural and cosmic world and become participants in the dynamic transformative life processes. This idea can extend ethics to apply to the land-species-human-planet-universe continuum. This is a fruitful yet still emerging path toward a comprehensive ethics for sustainability. This path has various challenges, including within the religions themselves.
Problems and Promise
It must be recognized that the world’s religions, through intolerance and exclusive claims to truth, have often contributed to tensions between peoples, including wars or forced conversion. It is also the case that religions have often been at the forefront of reforms, such as in the labor movement, in immigration law, in justice for the poor and oppressed. The movements of non-violence for freedom in India and for integration in the United States were inspired by religious principles and lead by religious leaders.
In addition, the emerging dialogue on religion and ecology also acknowledges that in seeking long-term environmental sustainability, there is clearly a disjunction between contemporary problems regarding the environment and traditional religions as resources. The religious traditions are not equipped to supply specific guidance in dealing with complex issues such as climate change, desertification, or deforestation. At the same time one recognizes that certain orientations and values from the world’s religions may not only be useful but even indispensable for a more comprehensive cosmological orientation and environmental ethics.
The disjunction of traditional religious resources and modern environmental problems in their varied cultural contexts needs to be highlighted so that new conjunctions can be identified. Scholars of religion and ecology acknowledge that religious scriptures and commentaries were written in an earlier age with a different audience in mind. Similarly, many of the myths and rituals of the world’s religions were developed in earlier historical contexts, frequently agricultural, while the art and symbols were created within worldviews very different from our own. Likewise, the ethics and morality of the world’s religions respond primarily to anthropocentric perspectives regarding the importance of human-human relations, and the soteriology and spirituality are formulated in relation to theological perspectives of enhancing divine-human relations.
Despite these historical and cultural contingencies, there are particular religious attitudes and practices as well as common ethical values that can be identified for broadening and deepening environmental perspectives. Thus we affirm the actual and potential contribution of religious ideas for informing and inspiring ecological theology, environmental ethics, and grassroots activism. Religions are now reclaiming and reconstructing these powerful religious attitudes, practices, and values toward re-conceiving mutually enhancing human-Earth relations. Careful methodological reflection is needed in considering how to bring forward in coherent and convincing ways the resources of religious traditions in response to particular aspects of our current environmental crisis. It entails a self-reflexive yet creative approach to retrieving and reclaiming texts and traditions, reevaluating and re-examining what will be most efficacious, and thus restoring and reconstructing religious traditions in a creative postmodern world. All of this involves a major effort to evoke the power and potential of religious traditions to function even more effectively as sources of spiritual inspiration, moral transformation, and sustainable communities in the midst of the environmental challenges faced by the Earth community.
That is because world religions are being recognized in their great variety as more than simply a belief in a transcendent deity or a means to an afterlife. Rather, religions are seen as providing a broad orientation to the cosmos and human roles in it. Attitudes toward nature thus have been significantly, although not exclusively, shaped by religious views for millennia in cultures around the globe.
In this context, then, religions can be understood in their largest sense as a means whereby humans, recognizing the limitations of phenomenal reality, undertake specific practices to effect self-transformation and community cohesion within a cosmological context. Religions thus refer to those cosmological stories, symbol systems, ritual practices, ethical norms, historical processes, and institutional structures that transmit a view of the human as embedded in a world of meaning and responsibility, transformation and celebration. Religions connect humans with a divine presence or numinous force. They bond human communities and they assist in forging intimate relations with the broader Earth community. In summary, religions link humans to the larger matrix of indeterminacy and mystery from which life arises, unfolds, and flourishes.
Certain distinctions need to be made here between the particularized expressions of religion identified with institutional or denominational forms of religion and those broader worldviews that animate such expressions. By worldviews we mean those ways of knowing, embedded in symbols and stories, which find lived expressions, consciously and unconsciously in the life of particular cultures. In this sense, worldviews arise from and are formed by human interactions with natural systems or ecologies. Consequently, one of the principal concerns of religions in many communities is to describe in story form the emergence of the local geography as a realm of the sacred. Worldview generates rituals and ethics, ways of acting, which guide human behavior in personal, communal, and ecological exchanges. The exploration of worldviews as they are both constructed and lived by religious communities is critical because it is here that we discover formative attitudes regarding nature, habitat, and our place in the world. In the contemporary period to resituate human-Earth relations in a more balanced mode will require both a reevaluation of sustainable worldviews and a formulation of viable environmental ethics.
A culture's worldviews are contained in religious cosmologies and expressed through rituals and symbols. Religious cosmologies describe the experience of origination and change in relation to the natural world. Religious rituals and symbols arise out of cosmologies and are grounded in the dynamics of nature. They provide rich resources for encouraging spiritual and ethical transformation in human life. This is true for example in Buddhism, which sees change in nature and the cosmos as a potential source of suffering for the human. Confucianism and Daoism, on the other hand, affirm nature's changes as the source of the Dao. In addition, the death-rebirth cycle of nature serves as an inspiring mirror for human life, especially in the Western monotheistic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. All religions translate natural cycles into rich tapestries of interpretive meanings that encourage humans to move beyond tragedy, suffering, and despair. Human struggles expressed in religious symbolism find their way into a culture's art, music, and literature. By linking human life and patterns of nature, religions have provided a meaningful orientation to life's continuity as well as to human diminishment and death. In addition, religions have helped to celebrate the gifts of nature such as air, water, and food that sustain life.
In short, religions have been significant catalysts for humans in coping with change and transcending suffering while at the same time grounding humans in nature's rhythms and Earth's abundance. The creative tensions between humans seeking to transcend this world and yearning to be embedded in this world are part of the dynamics of world religions. Christianity, for example, holds the promise of salvation in the next life as well as celebration of the incarnation of Christ as a human in the world. Similarly, Hinduism holds up a goal of moksha, of liberation from the world of samsara while also highlighting the ideal of Krishna acting in the world.
This realization of creative tensions leads to a more balanced understanding of the possibilities and limitations of religions regarding environmental concerns. Many religions retain other worldly orientations toward personal salvation outside this world; at the same time they can and have fostered commitments to social justice, peace and ecological integrity in the world. A key component that has been missing in much environmental discourse is how to identify and tap into the cosmologies, symbols, rituals, and ethics that inspire changes of attitudes and actions for creating a sustainable future within this world. Historically, religions have contributed to social change in areas such as the abolitionist and civil rights movements. There are new alliances emerging now that are joining social justice with environmental justice.
In alignment with these "ecojustice" concerns, religions can encourage values and ethics of reverence, respect, restraint, redistribution, responsibility, and renewal for formulating a broader environmental ethics that includes humans, ecosystems, and other species. With the help of religions humans are now advocating for a reverence for the Earth and its long evolutionary unfolding, respect for the myriad species who share the planet with us, restraint in the use of natural resources on which all life depends, equitable distribution of wealth, recognition of responsibility of humans for the continuity of life into future generations, and renewal of the energies for the great work of building a sustainable Earth community. These are the virtues for sustainability, which the world’s religions can contribute.
The Call and the Response
It is, thus, with some encouragement that we note the growing call for the world’s religions to participate in these changes toward a more sustainable planetary future. There have been various appeals from environmental groups and from scientists and parliamentarians for religious leaders to respond to the environmental crisis. In addition, there has been a striking growth in monographs and journal articles in the area of religion and ecology. Several national and international meetings have also been held on this subject. For example, environmental groups such as World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have sponsored interreligious meetings, such as the one in Assisi in 1986. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in North America has established an annual Environmental Sabbath and distributes thousands of packets of materials for uses in congregations throughout the United States and Canada. The Parliament of World Religions, held in Chicago in 1993 and attended by some 8,000 people from all over the globe, issued a Global Ethics of Cooperation of Religions on Human and Environmental Issues statement. The subsequent Parliaments held in Capetown and Barcelona had the environment as a major theme. The Parliament planned for December 2009 in Melbourne also has a major focus on the role of religions in contributing to a sustainable future.
International meetings on the environment such as the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders have been held in Oxford (1988), Moscow (1990), Rio (1992), and Kyoto (1993). These included religious leaders such as the Dalai Lama as well as diplomats and heads of state such as Mikhail Gorbachev, who hosted the Moscow conference and attended the Kyoto conference to set up an International Green Cross for environmental emergencies. Moreover, the Tehran Seminar on Environment, Culture, and Religion was held in Iran in June 2001 and one on “Environment, Peace and the Dialogue of Civilizations and Cultures” was organized in May 2005. Both of these were sponsored by the Iranian government with the support of the United Nations Environment Programme. Gorbachev has held several Earth Dialogues on “Globalization: Is Ethics the Missing Link?” held in Lyon, France in 2002, in Barcelona, Spain in 2004, and in Brisbane, Australia in 2006. The International Union for the Conservation organized the first panel on “Spirituality and Conservation” at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona in 2009.
Since 1995 the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has convened symposia on “Religion, Science, and the Environment” focused on water issues in Europe, the Amazon, and the Arctic. Similarly, the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) based in England has been convening conferences and activating religious communities. In the United States, the National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRP) has organized the Jewish and Christian communities on this issue. The time is thus propitious for encouraging the contributions of particular religions to solving the ecological crisis, especially by developing a more comprehensive environmental ethics to ground movements focused on sustainability.
Conclusion: The Need for Interdisciplinary Dialogue
Clearly religions have a central role in the formulation of worldviews that orient us to the natural world and the articulation of ethics that guide human behavior. The size and complexity of the problems we face require collaborative efforts both among the religions and in dialogue with other key domains of human endeavor. Religions, thus, need to be in conversation with sectors—science, economics, education, and public policy—that have addressed environmental issues. Environmental changes will be motivated by these disciplines in very specific ways: namely, economic incentives will be central to adequate distribution of resources, scientific analysis will be critical to understanding nature’s economy, educational awareness will be indispensable to creating modes of sustainable life, public policy recommendations will be invaluable in shaping national and international priorities, and moral and spiritual values will be crucial for the transformations required for life in an ecological age.
Thomas Berry has observed that assisting humans by degrading the natural world cannot lead to a sustainable community. The only sustainable community is one that fits the human economy into the ever-renewing economy of the planet. The human system, in its every aspect, is a subsystem of the Earth system, whether we are speaking of economics or physical well being or rules of law. In essence, human flourishing and planetary prosperity are intimately linked.
Endnotes
The word “anthropocosmic” is used by Tu Weiming in Confucian Thought: Selfhood as Creative Transformation (Albany: State University of New York, 1985).
The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
4.9 (September 2010)
“Raimon Panikkar, 'apostle of inter-faith dialogue,' dies”
By William Grimes
New York Times
September 4, 2010
Raimon Panikkar, a Roman Catholic theologian whose embrace of Hindu scriptures and Buddhism made him an influential voice for promoting dialogue among the world’s religions, died on Aug. 26 at his home in Tavertet, Spain. He was 91.
His death was announced on his Web site, raimon-panikkar.org.
For full story, visit:
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The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
4.12 (December 2010)
Contents:
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
2. “Time to Take Action on Climate Change Communication”
3. Blog of the Ignatian Network on Environment: http://ignatianeconet.wordpress.com/
4. Journey of the Universe
5. New Books
6. Events
7. Paul Winter's Annual Winter Solstice Celebration in the World's Largest Cathedral
8. Online Teleseminar Series on Evolutionary Christianity
9. Call for Papers: “Traditional Knowledge, Spirituality and Lands” (Special Issue of International Indigenous Policy Journal)
10. Call for Papers: "Plant Ethics" (Special Issue of PAN Philosophy Activism Nature)
11. Call for Papers: “Degrowth” (Special Issue of Environmental Values)
12. Eco-Congregation Scotland: www.ecocongregation.org/scotland
13. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
Greetings,
Welcome to the December issue of the newsletter for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. We have much to share with you this month with regards to developments in the field of Religion and Ecology, including books, conferences, calls for papers, job openings, events, and more.
We always work to bring you the latest news regarding issues of climate change. Currently, the United Nations Climate Change Conference is happening in Cancún, Mexico (November 29 through December 10). Around the same time as conference, many other efforts are taking place to facilitate the negotiation of both mitigation and adaptation to climate change as a global community. In the November 19 issue of Science, several researchers and scholars working with climate change published a letter titled “Time to Take Action on Climate Change Communication.” The letter compels the scientific community to enact an initiative to share with public and private sectors information about climate change risks and potential solutions. The letter also calls for institutions to support and fund such an initiative. To read the letter and demonstrate your support by endorsing it, please visit: http://www.ClimateEngage.org.
The time surrounding the UN Climate Change Conference is providing opportunities for religious communities and leaders to develop responses to climate change. An example of such a religious response to climate change can be found in the blog of the Ignatian Network on Environment. The blog began on the occasion of last year’s UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, and the blog continues to discuss Christian, specifically Ignatian, perspectives on climate change, climate justice, the UN Climate Change conferences, and many other issues that involve the intersection of faith and ecology. To visit and participate in this blog, visit: http://ignatianeconet.wordpress.com.
Religious and ethical perspectives on climate change are discussed in a new book, Religion and Dangerous Environmental Change: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on the Ethics of Climate and Sustainability (LIT Verlag, 2010). Edited by Sigurd Bergmann and Dieter Gerten, this volume is a collection of essays that cross disciplinary boundaries to include the humanities and the arts with sciences to exemplify how religions can facilitate the mitigation of climate change and adaptation to its effects.
Another publication featured in this newsletter is the groundbreaking work, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Ecological and Economic Foundations (Earthscan, 2010), edited by Pushpam Kumar. Written by a team of international experts from fields of science, policy, and economics, this volume is part of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), a project set up by the United Nations Environment Programme in 2007. The purpose of TEEB is to study the economic value of Earth's ecosystems and organisms, including the value of forests, freshwater, soil, and biodiversity. TEEB reports on the global economic benefits of biodiversity and the costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. For more info on TEEB, please visit: http://www.teebweb.org. Moreover, TEEB does not include religious and ethical criticisms of economic models of privatization or other policies that might reduce natural resources to economic value, such that resources are managed without sufficient concern for ethical and religious values.
We also want to direct your attention to calls for papers recently issued by three journals. First, a special issue of the International Indigenous Policy Journal will focus on the well-being relationship among traditional knowledge, spirituality, and lands. For more information, visit: http://www.iipj.org. Second, a special issue of PAN Philosophy Activism Nature will focus on the topic of “plant ethics,” addressing question of the moral considerability of plants. Contributions are welcome from multiple disciplines from the humanities and life sciences. See below for more information. Third, a special issue of Environmental Values will focus on the notion of “degrowth” (décroissance), which raises important questions for those concerned with challenging dominant models of economic growth and sustainable development. Papers are encouraged that discuss the “degrowth” movement, its principles and practices, and its ethical, economic, and philosophical implications. For more information, visit: http://www.erica.demon.co.uk/EV/cfp.html.
Finally, we want to announce Paul Winter’s Annual Winter Solstice Celebration, which will take place in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine for four performances celebrating the Winter Solstice and the longest night of the year. For more information, see below. To buy tickets, watch solstice videos, or download a free music collection, visit: http://www.SolsticeConcert.com.
We hope that this newsletter supports your own work and helps you further your own engagements with the field of Religion and Ecology.
Warm wishes,
Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
California Institute of Integral Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Web Content Managers & Newsletter Editors
http://www.yale.edu/religionandecology
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
2. “Time to Take Action on Climate Change Communication”
In the November 19 issue of Science, several colleagues and I published a letter titled “Time to Take Action on Climate Change Communication.” In the letter, we issued a call to the science community to “develop, implement, and sustain an independent initiative with a singular mandate: to actively and effectively share information about climate change risks and potential solutions with the public, particularly decision-makers in the public, private and non-profit sectors.” Moreover, we called on philanthropic funding institutions to “endorse and provide sustained support for the initiative.”
I ask that you join my colleagues and me by endorsing this letter. You can read the full letter, and demonstrate your support by endorsing it, at www.ClimateEngage.org.
Thank you in advance,
Anthony Leiserowitz, Ph.D.
Director, Yale Project on Climate Change Communication
School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Yale University
3. Blog of the Ignatian Network on Environment: http://ignatianeconet.wordpress.com/
On the occasion of the COP 15 meeting at Copenhagen, the Ignatian Network on Environment began this blog. José-Ignacio Garcia and Jacques Haers, both Jesuits active at OCIPE in Brussels (Belgium) offer food for thought and discussion. Sean McDonagh S.S.C., a Roman Catholic Columban priest who has written about Christianity and ecology, also contributes to this blog. We hope that readers will actively participate and share their own opinions and ideas.
The address of the blog is: http://ignatianeconet.wordpress.com/
4. Journey of the Universe
The Journey of the Universe book, film, and educational series by Brian Thomas Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker will be available in June 2011. This is the result of a seven year process of working with talented film makers and scientists.
For further information on the book, visit the Yale University Press website:
http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300171907
For information on the film and educational series, visit:
5. New Books
Religion and Dangerous Environmental Change: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on the Ethics of Climate and Sustainability
Edited by Sigurd Bergmann and Dieter Gerten
Studies in Religion and the Environment Vol. 2/Studien zur Religion und Umwelt Bd. 2
LIT Verlag, 2010
http://www.lit-verlag.de/isbn/3-643-10093-1
Given the increasing threats of environmental changes to human societies it is imperative to complement technological and economical problem solutions with alternative perspectives from the humanities and the arts. This pioneer book attempts to advance climate and environmental sciences by including religion as a microcosm of cultural response to environmental change. The authors are renowned in disciplines as diverse as hydrology, religious studies, theology, cultural studies, philosophy and visual arts. They exemplify how religion can contribute to sustainable mitigation of climate change and to creative adaption to its impacts, thus preparing for a deep cultivation of research on religion in environmental change.
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The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Ecological and Economic Foundations
Edited by Pushpam Kumar
An output of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB)
Earthscan, 2010
http://www.earthscan.co.uk/?tabid=102480
Human well-being relies critically on ecosystem services provided by nature. Examples include water and air quality regulation, nutrient cycling and decomposition, plant pollination and flood control, all of which are dependent on biodiversity. They are predominantly public goods with limited or no markets and do not command any price in the conventional economic system, so their loss is often not detected and continues unaddressed and unabated. This in turn not only impacts human well-being, but also seriously undermines the sustainability of the economic system.
It is against this background that TEEB: The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity project was set up in 2007 and led by the United Nations Environment Programme to provide a comprehensive global assessment of economic aspects of these issues. This book, written by a team of international experts, represents the scientific state of the art, providing a comprehensive assessment of the fundamental ecological and economic principles of measuring and valuing ecosystem services and biodiversity, and showing how these can be mainstreamed into public policies.
This volume and subsequent TEEB outputs will provide the authoritative knowledge and guidance to drive forward the biodiversity conservation agenda for the next decade.
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Witness For The Earth: Coalescing the Religious Environmental Movement
Edited by Tom English and Frederick Krueger
National Religious Coalition on Creation Care, 2010
http://www.amazon.com/Witness-Earth-Coalescing-Religious-Environmental/dp/1453871934#_
In this book religious leaders and their institutions call for strong national action on global climate change. This call comes from the majority of America's religions including Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Eastern Orthodox, Episcopalian, Evangelical, Quakers and Baha'i. Dr. James Hansen, Director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, provides scientific insights showing that climate change is real. The evidence is mounting all around us. The carbon dioxide in the air is increasing. This causes the air temperature to rise, and also increases the acidity of the ocean. Mountain glaciers are retreating. The sea ice in the Arctic is shrinking. Sea levels are rising, and water supplies are threatened. The impacts on humans and other species are already alarming. The challenge we face is a moral test. The statements from religious leaders are important because our world is rapidly changing. Human population has doubled in just the past thirty years. Technologies are changing with bewildering speed. Humans are the most powerful biological and geological force on the planet. If current trends continue, the impacts of our fossil fuel addicted economy will last for millennia. If we remain on our present course, we will condemn our children and those children that follow to a much poorer existence than that with which we have been blessed. This book provides the moral basis for avoiding this catastrophe. It provides a prescription for choosing life so that we and our children may live.
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Green Christianity: Five Ways to a Sustainable Future
By Mark I. Wallace
Fortress Press, 2010
http://fortresspress.com/store/item.jsp?clsid=241237&isbn=0800664612&infoid=21957
The central message of this book is that religion has a special role to play in saving the planet. Religion has the unique power to fire the imagination and empower the will to break the cycle of addiction to nonrenewable energy. The environmental crisis is a crisis not of the head but of the heart. The problem is not that we do not know how to stop climate change but rather that we lack the inner strength to redirect our culture and economy toward a sustainable future. Only a bold and courageous faith can undergird a long–term commitment to change. This book is a call to hope, not despair—a survey of promising directions and a call for readers to discover meaning and purpose in their lives through a spiritually charged commitment to saving the Earth.
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Dear Thomas: A Memoir for Thomas Berry
By Vic Hummert
CreateSpace, 2010
http://www.amazon.com/Dear-Thomas-Autobiography-Vic-Hummert/dp/1453761195/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291534964&sr=8-1
In 2004 during a visit with Thomas Berry, who lived on the top floor of a barn in Greensboro, N.C., Berry brushed off objections about "Who would want to read about my life" he had a desire to read the story. On three occasions Berry urged Vic Hummert to write his life story as "fulfillment" of a privileged life. The contents of this book are a chronological recounting of one man's life, going from a humble origin in rural Illinois to the most densely populated region of the world, later to Latin America for only one year, with a brief interlude in Czechoslovakia and visits to nearly twenty nations. In each region environmental devastation was encountered resulting in painful awareness of the perishing planet. Nuclear warfare would be the ultimate destruction of Earth. Awareness of this cosmic threat brought the author's path into a personal confrontation with atomic war plans inside the Nuclear War Policy Office in Honolulu, at the secret invitation of a ranking officer who disagreed with U.S. military nuclear policies.
6. Events
“Living on the Edge”
The Fourth International Conference of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture (ISSRNC)
University of Western Australia (UWA-Perth)
December 16-19, 2010
http://www.religionandnature.com/society/conferences.htm
“Dimensions of Political Ecology: Conference on Nature-Society”
Keynote Speaker: Paul Robbins
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
February 18-19, 2011
http://www.uky.edu/AS/Geography/PEWG/
“American Teilhard Association Annual Meeting”
Speaker: John Haught
Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY, USA
May 14, 2011
http://www.teilharddechardin.org/events.html#annual_meeting
“Animals as Religious Subjects: A Transdisciplinary Conference”
Hosted by the European Forum for the Study of Religion and Environment
University of Chester, UK
May 21-24, 2011
http://www.chester.ac.uk/trs/animals-as-religous-subjects
“Technology and Security”
17th International Conference of the Society for Philosophy and Technology (SPT)
University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA
May 26-29, 2011
https://spt2011.unt.edu/
“Old World and New World Perspectives on Environmental Philosophy”
The Eighth Annual Meeting of the International Society for Environmental Ethics (ISEE)
June 14-17, 2011
Nijmegen, The Netherlands
http://www.cep.unt.edu/ISEE2/call-2011.pdf
“Doing Good, Doing Bad, Doing Nothing: Scientific and Religious Perspectives”
The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science
Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, New York (USA)
June 18-25, 2011
http://www.iras.org/Site/Conference.html
“This Planet as Paradise: Beauty & Ecological Restoration”
4th in a Series of Earth-Honoring Faith
Instructors: Rita Naskashima Brock, Marty Haugen, Janet Parker, Larry Rasmussen, Barbara Rossing, Daniel Spencer
Ghost Ranch Abiquiu, NM, USA
June 20-26, 2011
http://www.ghostranch.org
“Minding Animals Conference 2012”
Utrecht University, the Netherlands
July 1-7, 2012
http://mindinganimals.com/
http://www.uu.nl/faculty/humanities/EN/congres/mindinganimals/Pages/default.aspx
7. Paul Winter’s Annual Winter Solstice Celebration in the World’s Largest Cathedral
Music, dance and renewal of spirit at the great turning point of the year.
For more than 30 years, Paul Winter's Solstice has been one of New York's most popular holiday events, along with The Nutcracker and the Radio City Christmas. Winter, the six-time Grammy-winning saxophonist, will once again bring his ensemble to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine for four performances celebrating the Winter Solstice and the longest night of the year.
Joining the Consort this year will be Armenian vocalist/percussionist Arto Tunçboyaciyan, gospel singer Theresa Thomason and the dancers and drummers of Forces of Nature Dance Theatre, who lit up the show last year.
Besides the perennial Solstice classics, the program will feature new pieces born of collaborations among the special guests and the Consort, along with music from the Consort’s new album Miho: Journey to the Mountain. And of course the star of the show, the Cathedral, will contribute its acoustics and esthetic majesty to the celebration.
To buy tickets, watch solstice videos, or download a free music collection, visit: http://www.SolsticeConcert.com
8. Online Teleseminar Series on Evolutionary Christianity
Evolutionary Christianity is a free, online teleseminar series bringing together 30 of today's most inspiring Christian leaders and esteemed scientists for a groundbreaking dialogue on how an evolutionary worldview can enrich your life, deepen your faith, and bless our world.
This exciting series of deep conversations begins on Saturday, December 5 and will run through February 2011 and caters to those who value evidence as divine communication. Whatever our differences, we all have deep-time eyes and a global heart—that is, we're all committed to a just and healthy future for humanity and the larger body of life.
Join Evolutionary Christianity today by going to www.evolutionarychristianity.com and signing on for free!
9. Call for Papers: “Traditional Knowledge, Spirituality and Lands” (Special Issue of International Indigenous Policy Journal)
There is evidence to suggest that cultural continuity of Aboriginal communities is a key aspect determining well-being among Aboriginal peoples. One of the most poignant aspects of traditional culture is spirituality. It is known that Aboriginal spiritualities are undergoing a period of revitalization throughout the world. For instance, in Canada between 1991 and 2001 Aboriginal spirituality was the only growing spiritual path found among First Nations communities. Similar spiritual revitalization is taking place in other jurisdictions. Questions that arise as a result of this spiritual renaissance include: What are the impacts of spiritual revitalization on Indigenous communities? How does the interrelation with 'religion' impact an individual’s and a community's well-being? How is this revitalization being received in settler society? What are the implications for policy development? How far an international reach and to what degree are transnational connections being forged in the revitalization of traditional spirituality?
The International Indigenous Policy Journal is pleased to announce a call for articles for a special edition addressing the well-being relationship among traditional knowledge, spirituality, and lands. This special edition will be managed by Marc Fonda. Dr. Fonda is the former Managing Editor of the IIPJ, is a senior researcher for the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, and is an Adjunct Research Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Fonda can be reached at: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Deadline for article submissions: March 31, 2011
Expected date of publication: October 2011
10. Call for Papers: “Plant Ethics” (Special Issue of PAN Philosophy Activism Nature)
In 2011, PAN Philosophy Activism Nature will dedicate a Special Issue to the topic of ‘plant ethics’ – the question of the moral considerability of plants. The basis of this special issue will be an excerpt from the forthcoming publication of Plants as Persons: A Philosophical Botany (SUNY Press) by Matthew Hall, a work which challenges readers to reconsider the moral standing of plants.
Contributions to this Special Issue are welcomed from across the disciplines of philosophy, cultural anthropology, religious studies, conservation biology, animal studies, plant sciences, and literature. We especially welcome work which crosscuts the humanities and life sciences. Potential themes to engage with ‘plant ethics’ include religious ecological ethics, ideas of ‘nature’, animal ethics, vegetarian philosophies, human-plant communication, biodiversity conservation, gardening & agricultural norms, bioethics, concepts of human and non-human life, death & killing and the value of life.
Papers should be approximately 5000 words in length, to be submitted no later than June 2011.
To register interest and for further information, contact Matthew Hall (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
For more information on Plants as Persons see http://www.sunypress.edu/p-5089-plants-as-persons.aspx.
PAN Philosophy Activism Nature is a journal publishing articles, short prose pieces and poetry exploring the philosophical, psychological, mythological, religious, and aesthetic underpinnings of sustainability thought, design and practice. PAN is pitched at a general readership with an interest in creating a new ecological culture of sustainability. Each issue includes scholarly articles which have been subject to independent peer review as well as other contributions selected by the editors.
11. Call for Papers: “Degrowth” (Special Issue of Environmental Values)
The notion of degrowth (décroissance) has assumed an increasingly high profile within political discourse and social action over the last decade. Drawing on prominent environmental concerns (including limits to growth, climate change and peak oil) and related social anxieties over the increasing globalisation of the economy and the normalisation of excessive consumption, degrowth raises important questions for those concerned with the composition of environmental values in the twenty first century.
This special issue invites papers addressing contemporary work on the social, economic, environmental, political and/or ethical aspects of degrowth. It seeks to present research that interrogates the philosophical dynamics of degrowth (in particular how it challenges prevailing orthodoxies of sustainable development), as well as studies of actual programmes of degrowth (including, inter alia, community economics programmes, transition culture initiatives, and eco-villages). Papers are also encouraged which explore the repercussions of degrowth in principle and practice especially with regard to the Global South.
At a more specific level, the editors of Environmental Values are interested in papers on one, or more, of the following themes with respect to degrowth:
* Its history, evolution, and contested construction as a movement.
* Its philosophical origins and implications.
* The challenges that its principles, and contraction economics, present to neoliberal economic orthodoxies.
* Its implications for social and environmental ethics.
* Applications in specific geographical contexts.
* Emerging political and intellectual critiques.
Interested authors should submit an abstract of no more than 200 words, outlining the main arguments of their paper, to Mark Whitehead ((JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)) by March 31, 2011.
http://www.erica.demon.co.uk/EV/cfp.html
12. Eco-Congregation Scotland: www.ecocongregation.org/scotland
Eco-Congregation Scotland is an ecumenical charity which offers a programme to help congregations understand environmental issues and make appropriate practical and spiritual responses. The programme is free of charge and very flexible, as each congregation has different opportunities for change.
Small actions add up to big results. Hundreds of Scottish congregations have requested information, 262 are already well on their way with environmental projects and 89 have gained awards. Could you start things off in your church?
Find out at www.ecocongregation.org/scotland who we are, what we do, and how you can get involved. There's also news, a list of events, materials, a list of registered churches, and pages for regional networks. Enjoy browsing, and please contact us if you have any comments on the site.
Eco-Congregation Scotland also has a blog. To see the latest news about Eco-Congregation Scotland, upcoming events and to post your own comments, go to: ecocongregationscotland.blogspot.com.
Visit the climate change pages of the Church of Scotland website: www.churchofscotland.org.uk/councils/churchsociety/csclimate.htm
13. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme. For more information, visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo
For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental ethics/philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html. If you know of a publication that needs to be added to this list, email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/index.html
The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
4.10 (October 2010)
To read an obituary written by Dana Ullman, visit:
http://homeopathy.wildfalcon.com/archives/2010/08/27/rustum-roy-1924-2010/
“Reason, Theology and the Genome”
To subscribe to the Forum Newsletter, please send an email to:
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
November 2010
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
2. Events
3. New Books
4. Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction (A Film by Species Alliance)
5. CNN Video Clip: “Faith's Role in the Environment”
6. "Toward a Stewardship of the Global Commons," by the Geological Society of America
7. Call for Papers: “Green Feminisms: Women, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice” (Conference on April 30-31, 2011 at SUNY New Paltz, NY, USA)
8. Call for Papers: “Old World and New World Perspectives on Environmental Philosophy” (Conference on June 14-17, 2011 at Nijmegen, The Netherlands)
9. Call for Papers: "The Greening -- or not -- of America" (Journal of American Culture)
10. Job Opening: Adjunct Professor of Global Theology, Worldviews and Ideologies at the University of Helsinki (Finland)
11. Job Opening: Instructor in Environmental Ethics and Worldviews at Royal Roads University (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)
12. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
October 2010
I. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
II. Rustum Roy (1924 – 2010)
III. Events
IV. Ground for Hope (Nov. 14-15, New Jersey, USA)
V. New Publications
VI. Essay Competition on Christianity and Animals
VII. Call for Papers for American Academy of Religion Regional Meetings 2011
VIII. Job Opening: Assistant Professor of Christian Social Ethics at Drew Theological School (Madison, NJ, USA)
IX. Job Opening: Director of Education and Programs at Ghost Ranch Education and Retreat Center (Abiquiu, NM, USA)
X. “Restoring Food Democracy: What Gandhi Can Teach Us About Sustainability, Appropriate Technologies, and Social Justice,” by A. Whitney Sanford
XI. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
September 2010
I. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
II. Raimon Panikkar (1918 - 2010)
III. Events
IV. New Books
V. “A Garden Once Again” (CD tribute to Father Thomas Berry by Kathleen Deignan)
VI. Gulf Oil & New Orleans Coverage: Braasch Photography
VII. Call for Papers for American Academy of Religion Regional Meetings 2011
VIII. Lent 4.5 — Christian Simplicity
IX. Time for Creation! (Sept. 1 – Oct. 10, 2010)
X. Bellringing for Biodiversity (Sept. 22, 2010)
XI. Winter Solstice Celebration with Paul Winter Consort & Special Guests (Dec. 16-18, 2010, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York, NY, USA)
XII. The Feather Project -- New Video of Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim
XIII. Open Position as Research Associate for the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion
XIV. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
August 2010
I. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
II. New UN Women Organization Created by the United Nations
III. Events
IV. New Books
V. Recent Article on Thomas Berry & Earth Jurisprudence
VI. New Film: Beyond the Tipping Point?
VII.Save the Date: “Ground of Hope--New Jersey" (Nov. 14-15, 2010, NJ, USA)
VIII. Call for Papers for Society for Philosophy and Technology Conference on “Technology and Security” (May 26-29, 2011, University of North Texas, TX, USA)
IX. Call for Papers for the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture Conference on “Living on the Edge" (Dec. 16-19, 2010, University of Western Australia)
X. Job Opening: Executive Director for the National Religious Partnership for the Environment
XI. Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)
XII. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
July 2010
I. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
II. Events
III. Theory, Culture & Society Special Issue on Changing Climates
IV. “Seeing the World Anew: A Framework for a Renewed Economy," by Maria Riley, O.P.
V. Call for Papers: “Animals as Religious Subjects: A Transdisciplinary Conference” (May 21-24, 2011 at the University of Chester, UK)
VI. “‘Follow the Islamic way to save the world,’ Prince Charles urges environmentalists,” by Rebecca English
VII. “Dialogue between Inuit and Western Perspectives on Climate Change,” by Timothy B. Leduc
VIII. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
June 2010
I. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
II. “Towards a New Economy and a New Politics,” by Gus Speth
III. Journey of the Universe Project
IV. Events
V. “A Great Urgency: To All World Religious and Spiritual Leaders,” by Chief Arvol Looking Horse
VI. Strong Evidence on Climate Change Underscores Need for Actions to Reduce Emissions and Begin Adapting to Impacts
VI. National Council of Churches Climate Change Leadership Training Program (September 8-10, 2010 in Washington, DC, USA)
VIII. Catholic Coalition on Climate Change
IX. The New Community Project
X. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
May 2010
I. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
II. New Books
III. Events
IV. Summer Institute: "Contemplative Environmental Studies: Pedagogy for Self and Planet" (August 1-6, 2010 in San Cristobal, NM, USA)
V. Film Series: EarthBound
VI. Documentary: The Root and The Tree
VII. Call for Submissions to Archive of Case Studies
VIII. Call for Papers for "Creation, Nature and the Built Environment," the Biennial Conference in Philosophy, Religion and Culture (October 1-3, 2010 in Sydney, Australia)
IX. Call for Applications for Templeton Research Fellows Program
X. “Swadhyaya’s Dharmic Ecology,” by Pankaj Jain
XI. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
April 2010
I. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
II. Call for Submissions: Global Oneness Book Project on “What Connects Us?”
III. “Hope for Creation: A Live Simulcast Event” (April 21, 2010)
IV. Invitation to “Renewal L.A.” (April 25, 2010, Los Angeles, CA, USA)
V. New Books
VI. Events
VII. Call for Papers for the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture Conference on ‘Living on the Edge’ (December 16-19, 2010, University of Western Australia)
VIII. Call for Papers for Conference on "Ahimsa and Sustainability" (November 12-14, 2010, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA, USA)
IX. Eco-volunteers required for TV Series on 'How Green Is Your Deen?'
X. Faculty Position Opening in Science and Religion at Harvard Divinity School
XI. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
March 2010
I. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
II. Panel Discussion: "Our Toxic Environment: Its Effects and What We Can Do about It" (March 26, 2010, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA)
III. "Environmental (Dis)Locations: A Conference with Religious Imagination Exploring Environmental Justice and Climate Change" (April 8-10, 2010, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA)
IV. Videos from World 2.0 and the United Nations University
V. RENEWAL Web Festival
VI. Faculty Colloquium: “Teaching Toward Eco-Justice: Where Sustainability and Social Justice Meet in Theological Education” (July 26-28, 2010, Seattle University, Seattle, WA, USA)
VII. GreenFaith Fellowship Program Seeks Applications
VIII. Apprenticeship at the Center for Nature and Christian Spirituality (September 2010 through August 2011, Occidental, CA, USA)
IX. Teva Seminar on Jewish Environmental Education (June 7-10, 2010, Cold Spring, NY, USA)
X. New Resources on Climate Change, Hunger, and Poverty from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
XI. Call for Papers for the Fifth Annual Vine Deloria, Jr. Indigenous Studies Symposium (July 8-10, 2010, Northwest Indian College, Bellingham, WA, USA)
XII. Events
XIII. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
February 2010
I. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
II. "Environmental (Dis)Locations: A Conference with Religious Imagination Exploring Environmental Justice and Climate Change" (at Yale University, New Haven, CT)
III. Call for Papers for the 2010 Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (in Atlanta, GA, USA)
IV. Call for Papers for Workshop: "Aesth/Ethics in Environmental Change" (in Hiddensee, Germany)
V. Call for Papers for Conference: “Political Ecology and Environmental Philosophy: Toward Ecological and Social Sustainability” (at Colby College, Waterville, ME, USA)
VI. Events
VII. “Copenhagen – Hopenhagen,” by Nanna Borchert
VIII. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
July 2009
I. Editorial: “Religion, Ecology, and Justice,” by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
II. Recent Endorsements of the Earth Charter
III. Pope Proposes New Financial Order Guided by Ethics
IV. Message from Roland Faber: New Ph.D. program in Religion with a concentration in Process Studies at Claremont School of Theology
V. New Books
VI. Events
VII. From the Field: “Islam, Ecology, and the Principles of Environmental Justice,” by Sarah E. Robinson
VIII. Worldviews and Other Journals
June 2009
I. Editorial: “Remembering Thomas Berry,” by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
II. Thomas Berry Award and Memorial Service
III. New Books
IV. Call for Papers: "Spirituality in Action: Bringing Transpersonal Psychology to a World in Crisis"
V. Earth Ministry's Second Annual St. Francis Sermon Contest
VI. Events
VII. From the Field: “Sacred Energy / Mass of the Universe,” by William Livingstone Wallace (Bill)
VIII. Worldviews and Other Journals
May 2009
I. Editorial by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
II. From the Field: “The Eco-Footprint of War,” by Rev. Amanda Hendler-Voss
III. Sustainability at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting
IV. Events
V. Calls for Papers
VI. New Books
VII. Environmentalism Article by Steven F. Hayward in the Claremont Review of Books
VIII. Harvard Summer Course with Paul F. Waldau on “Religion and Animals”
IX. Workshop on Religion in Climate Change
X. “2009 Earth Plunge” Retreat at the White Violet Center for Eco-Justice
XI. Message from Dan Spencer on "Greening Religion: Pedagogy, Religion, and Ecology"
XII. Worldviews and Other Journals
April 2009
I. Editorial: “Religion and Ecology in a Changing Climate,” by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
II. Climate Change Blog
III. New Books
IV. Events
V. Workshops
VI. Volunteer Opportunities
VII. Faith and Eco-Justice Fellowship
VIII. Calls for Papers
IX. Sources and Resources for Religion and Conservation Biology
X. From the Field: “Collaborating to Conserve our Climate, Save our Seas, and Find New Friends,” by Marah J. Hardt and Kate McLaughlin
XI. Worldviews and Other Journals
March 2009
I. Editorial by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally, “Perspectives on Energy”
II. Common Ground: Science and Religion in Dialogue for a Sustainable Future
III. Report on the 2009 Interdisciplinary Colloquium on Theology and Energy, by Luke Higgins
IV. New DVDs on the Green Patriarch Bartholomew
V. New Book: Agenda for a Sustainable America
VI. Call for Papers: “The Dynamics of Culture and Environment in Asia”
VII. Events
VIII. GreenFaith Leadership Programs
IX. Green Yoga Conference and Certificate Program
X. Environmental Ethics Institute
XI. Eco-theology Course: “Greening Our Spirits, Greening Our World”
XII. From the Field: “Vegetarianism and the Jewish Community,” by Richard H. Schwartz
XIII. Worldviews and Other Journals
February 2009
I. Editorial by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
II. 2009 Meeting of the American Academy of Religion
III. 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions
IV. News: Catholic Bishops in the Philippines Call for Moratorium on Mining and Logging
V. Events
VI. New Book: Love God, Heal Earth
VII. Report on Interfaith Conference on Climate Change
VIII. Online Discussion: “Dharma, Hinduism and Environmental Ethics”
IX. Focus on the Web: Professional Development
http://fore.research.yale.edu/education/professionaldevelopment/index.html
X. From the Field: “City, Nature, Religion,” by Richard Bohannon
XI. Worldviews and Other Journals
January 2009
I. Editorial by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
II. Religion and Ecology Videos
III. Focus on the Web: Archived Conference Materials: http://fore.research.yale.edu/archivedconferencefiles/index.html
IV. New Books
V. Call for Papers
VI. Conference Announcements
VII. New Courses with the Zygon Center for Religion and Science
VIII. From the Field: The Archive
IX. Worldviews and Other Journals
December 2008
I. Editorial by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
II. New Blog: “Sustainable China”
III. New Books
IV. Conference Announcements
V. Job Announcement: Joint Position in Philosophy/Religion Studies and Anthropology
VI. New Global Digital Library on Ethics
VII. Focus on the Web: Ethics http://fore.research.yale.edu/disciplines/ethics/
VIII. From the Field: "Yoruba Religion and Ecology in Cuba," by Amanda D. Holmes
IX. Worldviews and Other Journals
November 2008
I. Editorial by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
II. 10th Anniversary of the Forum
III. Interfaith Climate Summit
IV. From the Field: "Water and World Historical Processes," by Terje Oestigaard
V. Focus on the Web: Syllabi http://fore.research.yale.edu/education/resources/syllabi/index.html
VI. Resource Information Sheet
VII. New Booklet: The Church and Climate Change
VIII. New Journal: Journal of Human Rights and the Environment
IX. Call for Papers: "Converging Technologies, Changing Societies"
X. Worldviews and Other Journals
October 2008
I. Editorial by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
II. From the Field: Jim McGarry
III. Focus on the Web: Projects
(http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/projects/index.html)
IV. New Book: The Green Bible
V. Religion and Ecology Events at the American Academy of Religion
VI. Conference Announcements
VII. Worldviews and Other Journals
September 2008
I. Introduction by Sam Mickey and Elizabeth McAnally
II. Report from Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim
III. From the Field: Sarah Fredericks
IV. Focus on the Web: Events (http://fore.research.yale.edu/events/index.html)
V. New Guidebooks Related to Climate Change
VI. Blog: Green Muslims in Washington, D.C.
VII. Conference Announcements
VIII. Calls for Papers
IX. Job Announcements
X. Worldviews and Other Journals
August 2008
I. Editorial by Sam Mickey and Elizabeth McAnally, "Introductions"
II. From the Field: Rev. Franklin E. Vilas, D.Min. "Creation Season Surfaces Worldwide"
III. Focus on the Web: The Shift to Yale
IV. The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability, by James Gustave Speth
V. Conference Announcement
VI. Events, Professional Organizations, Calls for Papers, and Journals
July 2008
I. Editorial by Whitney Bauman, "Changes in the Forum Family"
II. From the Field: Forrest Clingerman and Mark Dixon, "A Field Report on the Ohio Northern University Working Group on Religion, Ethics, and Nature"
III. Focus on the Web: The Shift to Yale
IV. The Natural History of the Bible, by Daniel Hillel
V. United Church of Christ Announcement on Climate Change
VI. Conference Announcement
VII. Sermon Contest
VIII. Events, Professional Organizations, Calls for Papers, and Journals
June 2008
I. A Letter from Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim
II. From the Field: Rev. Dr. Jim Antal, "Called to be a Sentinel: Environmental Educator, Pastor, and Activist"
III. Focus on the Web: Statements
IV. Sierra Club Announces "Faith in Action" Publication
V. Recent Publications in Religion and Ecology
VI. Conference Announcements
VII. Worldviews and other Calls for Papers
May 2008
I. Introduction to the May Newsletter by Whitney Bauman
II. From the Field: Religion and Conservation biology by Tom Baugh
III. The Vatican and Voluntary Simplicity
IV. Spiritual Environmentalism by Paul Carr
V. Beyond Earth Day by Kim Winchell
VI. Focus on the Web: How to get connected with the Forum.
VII. Job Announcement: Exceutive Director of Iowa Interfaith Power and Light.
VIII. Leadership by Youth for Faith and the Earth (LYFE) Conference
IX. Greening Our Religions
X. Earth Ministry Contest
XI. Worldviews and Other Journals
XII. Calls for Papers/ Conferences and Events
April 2008
I. Editorial, Global Climate Change, by Whitney Bauman
II. From the Field: “All Creatures Great and Small: Humane Society, Animals, and Religion" by Christine Gutleben
III.Letter on Climate Change by the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church
IV. University of North Texas Conference on Religion and the Environment
V. Upcoming Conference on Religion and Animals
VI. Focus on the Web: Projects and Statements
VII.Worldviews and other Journals in the Field
VIII. Events, Paper Calls, and Other Professional Organizations
March 2008
I. Renewing Hope, by Whitney Bauman
II. From the Field: “Religious Communities and the Climate Crisis" by Elizabeth Allison
III.Focus on the Web: Resources for Educators
IV. GreenFaith Fellowship
V. Yale School of Forestry Launches New Website
VI. Worldviews and Other Journals Related to the Field
VII. Links to Upcoming Events/Call for Papers
February 2008
I. The Enchantment, Dis-Enchantment, and Re-Enchantment of Nature by Whitney Bauman
II. From the Field: “Renewal,” by Terry Rockefeller and Marty Ostrow
III. “Renewing Hope: Pathways of Religious Environmentalism”
IV. Focus on the Web: Publications
V. Excerpt from the Papal Address on the World Day of Peace: “The Family, the Human Community, and the Environment.”
VI. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
VII. Links to Upcoming Events/Call for Papers
January 2008
I. An opening word, by Whitney Bauman
II. Editorial: Gender and Justice in Bali by Gotelind Alber
III. A note about the Humane Society’s Religious Initiative
IV. Focus on the Web: Intersecting Disciplines
V. Worldviews Advertisement; other journals and organizations
VI. World Council of Churches News (See JG email)
VII. Paper Calls and Upcoming Events
VIII. “From the Field” by Jay B. McDaniel
December 2007
I. Editorial, Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim
II. News From Bali
III. From the Field, “Water as Sacred Connection” by Casandra Carmichael, EJ.
IV. Focus on the Web-site: Events
V. A Brief note on Eco-Pedagogies
VI. News, Announcements, and Upcoming Events
November 2007
I. Editorial: Religion and Ecology at the American Academy of Religion (AAR)
II. From the Field: “The Green Seminary Initiative” by Beth Norcross, Laurel Kearns, and David Rhodes
III. Focus on the Website: Class Resources
IV. Other News and Upcoming Events
October 2007
I. Editorial: "Hope in a time of Global Climate Change" by Whitney Bauman
II. From the Field: “Tasteless: Towards a Food-Based Approach to Death” by Val Plumwood
III. Focus on the Web-Site: Professional Development
IV. Worldviews: Journal of Religion, Culture and the Environment announces new name!
V. Upcoming Events and Other news
September 2007
Contents
I. Editorial: Whitney Bauman
II. Essay From the Field: Mark MacDonald, First National Anglican Bishop of Canada
III. Focus on the Website: Annotated Bibliographies
IV. Events
To subscribe to the Forum Newsletter, please send an email to:
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November Newsletter
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
2. Events
3. New Books
4. Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction (A Film by Species Alliance)
5. CNN Video Clip: “Faith's Role in the Environment”
6. "Toward a Stewardship of the Global Commons," by the Geological Society of America
7. Call for Papers: “Green Feminisms: Women, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice” (Conference on April 30-31, 2011 at SUNY New Paltz, NY, USA)
8. Call for Papers: “Old World and New World Perspectives on Environmental Philosophy” (Conference on June 14-17, 2011 at Nijmegen, The Netherlands)
9. Call for Papers: "The Greening -- or not -- of America" (Journal of American Culture)
10. Job Opening: Adjunct Professor of Global Theology, Worldviews and Ideologies at the University of Helsinki (Finland)
11. Job Opening: Instructor in Environmental Ethics and Worldviews at Royal Roads University (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)
12. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
October 2010
I. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
II. Rustum Roy (1924 – 2010)
III. Events
IV. Ground for Hope (Nov. 14-15, New Jersey, USA)
V. New Publications
VI. Essay Competition on Christianity and Animals
VII. Call for Papers for American Academy of Religion Regional Meetings 2011
VIII. Job Opening: Assistant Professor of Christian Social Ethics at Drew Theological School (Madison, NJ, USA)
IX. Job Opening: Director of Education and Programs at Ghost Ranch Education and Retreat Center (Abiquiu, NM, USA)
X. “Restoring Food Democracy: What Gandhi Can Teach Us About Sustainability, Appropriate Technologies, and Social Justice,” by A. Whitney Sanford
XI. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
The Forum on Religion and Ecology Newsletter
4.11 (November 2010)
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
4. Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction (A Film by Species Alliance)
5. CNN Video Clip: “Faith's Role in the Environment”
6. "Toward a Stewardship of the Global Commons," by the Geological Society of America
9. Call for Papers: "The Greening -- or not -- of America" (Journal of American Culture)
12. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
1. Editorial, by Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
Greetings,
Welcome to the November issue of the newsletter for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. We have much to share with you this month with regards to developments in the field of Religion and Ecology, including books, videos, conferences, calls for papers, job openings, events, and more.
We want to highlight the upcoming conference, “Pierre Teilhard de Chardin for A New Generation.” It will be held November 18-21 at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA, USA. Keynote speakers include Mary Evelyn Tucker, Illia Deleo, Brother Jeffrey Gros, and David Grumett. John Grim and Brian Swimme will also be speaking. For more information, visit: http://www.teilhardforanewgeneration.com/
We also want to inform you about the 2010 Winter Solstice Celebration with the Paul Winter Consort and Special Guests. Four shows of this solstice celebration will be held at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, NY on December 16-18, 2010. For more information, visit: http://paulwinter.com/concerts/upcoming-concerts/
We are excited to share news with you about the recent publication of Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril. Edited by Kathleen Dean Moore and Michael P. Nelson, this anthology brings together inspiring and compelling accounts from over eighty visionaries calling for individual and collective moral responsibility for the planet’s ecological and social crises. Contributions are in various forms, such as letters, poems, economic analyses, proclamations, essays, and stories, and contributors include Mary Evelyn Tucker, Brian Swimme, Barack Obama, Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Bill McKibben, Wendell Berry, Terry Tempest Williams, Wangari Maathai, E.O. Wilson, Gary Snyder, and many others. For more information, visit: http://tupress.trinity.edu/
We also want to direct your attention to a feature-length documentary that explores the current planetary crisis pertaining to biodiversity loss. The film, Call of Life, investigates the causes and possible effects of the current mass extinction of species while including perspectives from leading scientists, social scientists, environmentalists, religious leaders and scholars, and more. Through interviews with eminent figures from various backgrounds, the film examines the primary drivers of species loss: habitat destruction, global warming, pollution, and invasive species, all compounded by the expanding human population and our consumption patterns. For more information, visit: http://www.speciesalliance.org/video.php
Along with films and books, television media can also present helpful information regarding environmental issues and their relationships to religious worldviews and values. One such example is a recent interview on CNN, in which CNN’s Nadia Bilchik discussed issues of environmental education with four members of the Temple of Understanding: Mary Evelyn Tucker, Ibrahim Abdil-Mu’id Ramey, Karen Armstrong, and Rabbi Lawrence Troster. To see the video, visit: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2010/10/31/nr.bilchik.religion.and.environment.cnn?iref=allsearch. Recently the Temple of Understanding celebrated its 50th anniversary with a dinner in New York where they recognized Interfaith Visionaries, including John Grim, Mary Evelyn Tucker, and others working in the field of religion and ecology. For more, visit: http://www.templeofunderstanding.org/wwd_2010_awards-2.htm
Another helpful resource for understanding global environmental issues is the series of essays by members of the Critical Issues Committee of the Geological Society of America. The essays are collected under the title, “Toward a Stewardship of the Global Commons: Engaging ‘My Neighbor’ in the Issue of Sustainability,” and the collection is available online: http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/local/sustainin0.html. The essays provide pathways to raise public awareness of the issue of sustainability. They compel us to engage our neighbors or students in dialogue concerning the ideas that will influence the quality of their lives and those of future generations. Each essay in this series focuses on a particular concept that is essential to understand the issue of sustainability, including concepts of the commons, time (and deep time), resources, connectedness, ecological footprint, spaceship Earth, the global ecosystem, change, culture, choice, the future, and more. The goal of this work is to help bring these concepts into the public domain so that they support the cultivation of sustainability literacy.
Finally, to support your own participation in academic efforts to respond to the complex challenges of environmental issues, we are happy to share with you three Calls for Papers. The first two are calls for submissions for conferences. Taking place in New York in April 2011, the first is a conference on “Green Feminisms,” which explores intersections between environmental issues and issues related to women. For the CFP, visit: http://www.nwsa.org/regions/newyork.php. Taking place in the Netherlands in June 2011, the second conference focuses on the cross-fertilization between environmental philosophies from America, Europe, and other continents, “Old World and New World Perspectives on Environmental Philosophy.” For the CFP, visit:
http://www.cep.unt.edu/ISEE2/call-2011.pdf. The third CFP is for an issue of the Journal of American Culture, “The Greening—or not—of America,” which focuses on the global environmental crisis and its implications for culture in the United States. For the CFP, visit: http://leopold.asu.edu/node/36.
Providing opportunities to engage religious and ecological perspectives through conferences, film, television, essays, journals, and more, we hope that this newsletter supports your own work and helps you further your own engagements with the field of Religion and Ecology.
Warm wishes,
Sam Mickey & Elizabeth McAnally
California Institute of Integral Studies
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale
Web Content Managers & Newsletter Editors
http://www.yale.edu/religionandecology
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“Creation, Communion and the Universe Story”
A conference by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim
St. Thomas Seminary, Bloomfield, CTUSA
November 13, 2010
http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/item/creation-communion-and-the-universe-story/
“Ground for Hope: A Religious-Environmental Education & Training Event”
Keynote Lecture by Dr. Larry Rasmussen
Watchung Ave. Presbyterian Church, North Plainfield, NJ, USA
The Theological School at Drew University, Madison, NJ, USA
November 14-15, 2010
http://greenfaith.org/programs/coming-events/ground-for-hope-nov.-14-15
“Pierre Teilhard de Chardin for A New Generation”
Hosted by Santa Clara University and the Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley
Keynote speakers: Mary Evelyn Tucker, Illia Deleo, Brother Jeffrey Gros, and David Grumett. John Grim and Brian Swimme will also be speaking.
Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA, USA
November 18-21, 2010
http://www.teilhardforanewgeneration.com/
“On the Run: European and Pacific Responses to climate change in the Pacific”
YMCA Youth Hostel, Berlin, Germany
November 19-21, 2010
http://www.pacific-net.eu/DNN/default.aspx
“Second International Congress of Bioethics”
With emphasize on Morality, Spirituality and Creationism
Tehran, Iran
November 20-22, 2010
http://iranbioethics2010.ir/
“Living on the Edge”
The Fourth International Conference of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture (ISSRNC)
University of Western Australia (UWA-Perth)
December 16-19, 2010
http://www.religionandnature.com/society/conferences.htm
“2010 Winter Solstice Celebration with Paul Winter Consort & Special Guests”
Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York, NY, USA
December 16-18, 2010
http://fore.research.yale.edu/calendar/item/2010-winter-solstice-celebration-with-paul-winter-consort-special-guests/
http://paulwinter.com/concerts/upcoming-concerts/
Grounding Religion: A Field Guide to the Study of Religion and Ecology
Edited by Whitney Bauman, Richard Bohannon, and Kevin O’Brien
Routledge, 2010
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415780179/
How do religion and the natural world interact with one another? Grounding Religion introduces students to the growing field of religion and ecology, exploring a series of questions about how the religious world influences and is influenced by ecological systems.
Grounding Religion examines the central concepts of ‘religion’ and ‘ecology’ using analysis, dialogical exchanges by established scholars in the field, and case studies. The first textbook to encourage critical thinking about the relationships between the environment and religious beliefs and practices, it also provides an expansive overview of the academic field of religion and ecology as it has emerged in the past forty years.
The contributors introduce students to new ways of thinking about environmental degradation and the responses of religious people. Each chapter brings a new perspective on key concepts such as sustainability, animals, gender, economics, environmental justice, globalization and place. Discussion questions and contemporary case studies focusing on topics such as Muslim farmers in the US and Appalachian environmental struggles help students apply the perspective to current events, other media, and their own interests.
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Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril
Edited by Kathleen Dean Moore and Michael P. Nelson
Trinity University Press, 2010
http://tupress.trinity.edu/
Moral Ground brings together the testimony of over eighty visionaries-theologians and religious leaders, naturalists, scientists, elected officials, business leaders, activists, and writers-to present a compelling call to honor our individual and collective moral responsibility to the planet. In the face of environmental degradation, species extinction, and climate change, scientific knowledge alone does not tell us what we ought to do. Nor can political processes or economic incentives give us all the answers. The missing premise of the argument and the much-needed centerpiece in the debate to date has been the need for ethical values, moral guidance, and principled reasons for doing the right thing for the future of our planet, its animals, its plants, and its people.
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Uprisings for the Earth: Reconnecting Culture With Nature
By Osprey Orielle Lake
White Cloud Press, 2010
http://www.whitecloudpress.com/society-and-politics/uprisings-for-the-earth/flypage.pbv.tabs.tpl.html
This groundbreaking book from artist-author-advocate Osprey Orielle Lake explores how the beauty, vitality, and ecological systems of the natural world can guide and transform human perspective, particularly as we face current environmental crises. Lake shows that we must infuse our cultural discourse with the language, importance, and wisdom of nature—that lasting changes in our way of life will arise from and find broad support only when nature in all its transformative beauty and power is once again front and center in our everyday vocabulary and life.
Her wisdom, stories, lyrical style, and thorough research frame chapters such as “Around the Fire: From Global Warming to a Renewed Hearth”, “Anthem to Water”, “Democracy Ancient and Modern” and “Honor the Women”. Osprey takes us along wild rivers as she explores water conservation and the mysteries of water science; sits us around a fire along with great minds of past and present to contemplate the climate crisis; and takes us to several continents where we navigate deeper into history of culture and land. Whether you are an agent for social, environmental, or political change or a lover of natural history and literature, consider this book required reading for its inspiration, innovation, and hope for the Earth and future generations.
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The Divine Dynamic: Exploring the Relationships between Humans, Earth, and the Creative Power of the Universe
By John Surette, SJ
ACTA Publications, 2010
http://www.actapublications.com/detail.html?id=9780879464332
In this series of short reflections suitable for individual and group use, Jesuit author John Surette uses passages from the Scriptures to explore how humans are part of what he calls "The Divine Dynamic" of the Universe. This book challenges the way we think about God, the planet of which we are a part, and the ways we relate to one another.
John Surette, SJ, has been a Catholic priest for almost fifty years. He has worked in the Caribbean islands and territories for many years as a chemistry teacher, adult religious educator, and community organizer. He lives in LaGrange Park, Illinois, where he is involved with eco-spirituality and eco-justice groups, including Spiritearth and The Well Spirituality Center.
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Animals as Biotechnology: Ethics, Sustainability and Critical Studies
By Richard Twine
Earthscan, 2010
http://www.earthscan.co.uk/Products/9781844078301/tabid/102349/Default.aspx
In Animals as Biotechnology, sociologist Richard Twine places the question of human/animal relations at the heart of sustainability and climate change debates. The book is shaped by the emergence of two contradictory trends within our approach to nonhuman animals: the biotechnological turn in animal sciences, which aims to increase the efficiency and profitability of meat and dairy production; and the emerging field of critical animal studies - mostly in the humanities and social sciences - which works to question the nature of our relations with other animals.
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Food Security and Global Environmental Change
Edited By John Ingram, Polly Ericksen and Diana Liverman
Earthscan, 2010
http://www.earthscan.co.uk/?tabid=102368
Global environmental change (GEC) represents an immediate and unprecedented threat to the food security of hundreds of millions of people, especially those who depend on small-scale agriculture for their livelihoods. As this book shows, at the same time, agriculture and related activities also contribute to GEC by, for example, intensifying greenhouse gas emissions and altering the land surface. Responses aimed at adapting to GEC may have negative consequences for food security, just as measures taken to increase food security may exacerbate GEC. The authors show that this complex and dynamic relationship between GEC and food security is also influenced by additional factors; food systems are heavily influenced by socioeconomic conditions, which in turn are affected by multiple processes such as macro-level economic policies, political conflicts and other important drivers.
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4. Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction (A Film by Species Alliance)
Produced by Chera Van Burg
Directed by Monte Thompson
60 minutes
http://www.videoproject.com/calloflife.html
http://www.speciesalliance.org/video.php
Call of Life is the first feature-length documentary to fully investigate the growing threat posed by the rapid and massive loss of biodiversity on the planet. Featuring leading scientists, social scientists, environmentalists and others, the film explores the scope, the causes, and the predicted global impact of a mass extinction occurring on a scale not seen since the disappearance of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
If current trends continue, scientists warn that half or more of all plant and animal species on Earth will become extinct within the next few decades. Entirely caused by human activities, this contemporary mass extinction is disrupting and destroying the complex, interconnected biological systems that support life on earth.
Through interviews with eminent biologists and ecologists, the film examines the primary drivers of species loss: habitat destruction, global warming, pollution, and invasive species, all compounded by the expanding human population and our consumption patterns.
5. CNN Video Clip: “Faith's Role in the Environment”
On October 31, 2010, CNN’s Nadia Bilchik joined members of the Temple of Understanding to discuss their role in environmental education.
Watch this short interview with these members:
Mary Evelyn Tucker (Co-director, Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale)
Ibrahim Abdil-Mu’id Ramey (Director, Muslim American Society Freedom)
Karen Armstrong (Author, A History of God)
Rabbi Lawrence Troster (Director, GreenFaith's Fellowship Program)
6. “Toward a Stewardship of the Global Commons,” by the Geological Society of America
“Toward a Stewardship of the Global Commons: Engaging ‘My Neighbor’ in the Issue of Sustainability”
By Members of the Critical Issues Committee, Geological Society of America
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/local/sustainin0.html
Part I: Stewardship of the Commons
Part II: Understanding Deep Time
Part III: Doubling Time
Part IV: Sustainability and Resources
Part V: The Connectedness of Everything
Part VI: Ecological Footprint and Carrying Capacity
Part VII: Spaceship Earth: No Place Else to Go
Part VIII: Part of the Global Ecosystem
Part IX: We Live in a World of Change
Part X: Sustainable World
Part XI: Cultural Context of Sustainability
Park XII: We Have the Option of Choice: The Future Is Up To Us.
Guidelines to Sustainability Literacy
7. Call for Papers: “Green Feminisms: Women, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice” (Conference on April 30-31, 2011 at SUNY New Paltz, NY, USA)
Throughout the world women have taken the lead in struggles against the destruction of the environment and in developing new ways to live with the earth. Feminist thinkers, by challenging systems of domination, have pointed out the connections between the domination of nature and other forms of domination. This conference will bring together theorists, activists and artists who are engaged in struggles against the destruction of the earth and are envisioning more egalitarian ways of living. By linking theory and practice, “Green Feminisms” hopes to present new models for halting the degradation of our environment.
We invite proposals for workshops that address a variety of environmental issues, examined through a feminist lens and we encourage proposals that incorporate critical race theory and transnational perspectives. We welcome submissions from scholars, activists, artists, and musicians for presentations, workshops, or performances for complete sessions or individual presentations.
A 500 word proposal is due by November 18, 2010.
For more information, contact Amy Kesselman ((JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)) or Claire Papell ((JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).
For the full CFP, visit: http://www.nwsa.org/regions/newyork.php
8. Call for Papers: “Old World and New World Perspectives on Environmental Philosophy” (Conference on June 14-17, 2011 at Nijmegen, The Netherlands)
The Eighth Annual Meeting of the International Society for Environmental Ethics (ISEE) issues a call is for proposals of the following kinds:
1. Proposals for 2-hour themed sessions are encouraged, including author-meets-critics sessions, sessions emphasizing socially engaged philosophic activities, etc. Themes can be found at: http://www.cep.unt.edu/ISEE2/call-2011.pdf
2. Papers are welcomed from all philosophical traditions, and from environmental philosophy broadly conceived (not just environmental ethics).
3. We particularly welcome offers to give 10 minutes of summary and comments on general session papers. Offers for chairing sessions are also welcomed.
Please submit abstracts of 300 words by December 6, 2010.
Full papers for the themed and general sessions must be available to be placed on the conference website by May 9th, 2011. Send abstracts, proposals, or expressions of your willingness to comment or chair via email to Martin Drenthen ((JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).
For the full CFP, visit: http://www.cep.unt.edu/ISEE2/call-2011.pdf
9. Call for Papers: “The Greening -- or not -- of America” (Journal of American Culture)
At the focus of this special issue is the global environmental crisis now sometimes being faced – and undeniably also sometimes being denied. What are its implications for the culture of the United States? America, because of its position as the world’s dominant military superpower and consumer of resources, occupies a critical role in the environmental crisis. In this special issue, we seek contributions from a range of interdisciplinary environmental thinkers, dreamers and practitioners.
Submissions, generally 15-25 pages in length, are to be original scholarly manuscripts formatted according to MLA style guidelines.
This issue will be edited by Jane Caputi ((JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)) and Suzanne Kelly ((JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).
The deadline for submission is December 31, 2010.
For the full CFP, visit: http://leopold.asu.edu/node/36
10. Job Opening: Adjunct Professor of Global Theology, Worldviews and Ideologies at the University of Helsinki (Finland)
University of Helsinki has launched a Tenure Track System for teaching and research personnel. The aim of the system is to enhance the predictability, competitiveness and attractiveness of an academic career.
The Faculty of Theology declares open for application one tenure track position in the field of Global theology, worldviews and ideologies.
The Faculty is seeking to employ talented and motivated individuals, who have completed their doctorate 3 to 7 years ago and have subsequently gained scientific and other relevant academic merits.
Details can be found at: http://www.helsinki.fi/teol/tdk/english/administration/tenure.html
11. Job Opening: Instructor in Environmental Ethics and Worldviews at Royal Roads University (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)
Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada is a public university with a primary focus on graduate education for in-career professionals. The MA in Environmental Education and Communication is a transdisciplinary program that ranges through courses in systems, conflict, communication and education, and a very important course on worldviews and ethics. The program runs over two years, includes two three-week residencies and a final one week residency, a thesis, and a range of highly interactive on-line courses.
I am looking for an instructor, preferably with a PhD (or close to it), who is comfortable with teaching about both environmental ethics and about worldviews to instruct a 10 week on-line course (using the Moodle platform) running from April to June, 2011.There would be roughly 25 students in the class. Payment would be around $7500 (Canadian). RRU provides good support for instructors, assisting them to be effective teachers in the on-line environment.
Expressions of interest should be sent to Dr. Richard Kool: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
12. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology has as its focus the relationships between religion, culture and ecology world-wide. Articles discuss major world religious traditions, such as Islam, Buddhism or Christianity; the traditions of indigenous peoples; new religious movements; and philosophical belief systems, such as pantheism, nature spiritualities, and other religious and cultural worldviews in relation to the cultural and ecological systems. Focusing on a range of disciplinary areas including Anthropology, Environmental Studies, Geography, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Sociology and Theology, the journal also presents special issues that center around one theme. For more information, visit: http://www.brill.nl/wo
For more information on other journals related to religion and ecology and to environmental ethics/philosophy, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/journals/index.html. If you know of a publication that needs to be added to this list, email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
For the archive of previous Forum newsletters, visit: http://fore.research.yale.edu/publications/newsletters/index.html
To subscribe to the Forum Newsletter, please send an email to:
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Edited by Kathleen Duffy, S.S.J.
Saint Joseph’s University Press, 2010
Rediscovering Teilhard’s Fire is a collection of 17 scholarly essays focusing on the legacy of Jesuit paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin. It is divided into four thematic sections: Teilhard as Visionary, Mystic, Theologian, and Philosopher; Teilhard’s Aesthetic Appeal; Teilhard in Dialogue; and Teilhard’s Contributions to Science and Technology.
Click here to download the PDF order form with the table of contents.
The world is warming, it is very likely caused by humans, there are multiple lines of robust evidence pointing to human causation, and under business-as-usual great and perhaps unimaginable harms could happen. With knowledge comes responsibility and so ethics requires that we speak up about the dangerous, irresponsible and hugely harmful way in which disinformation about climate change science is being disseminated around the world.
This September 15 post from the New York Times Dot Earth page includes a number of graphs which illustrate the extent of the continued loss of Arctic sea ice.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/arctic-sea-ice-continues-its-summer-slide/
2010 tied with 2005 for the warmest combined land and ocean surface temperature worldwide since recordkeeping began in 1880, according to a January 12, 2011 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
View ABC Nightly News segment here:
Read Reuters analysis here:
http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFN1219766720110112?sp=true
Read the NOAA 2011 summary report here:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/2010/13
The 2009 State of the Climate report released in July 2010 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce draws on data for 10 key climate indicators that all point to the same finding: the scientific evidence that our world is warming is unmistakable. More than 300 scientists from 160 research groups in 48 countries contributed to the report, which confirms that the past decade was the warmest on record and that the Earth has been growing warmer over the last 50 years.
To read a summary and to access the full report, click here:
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100728_stateoftheclimate.html
August 7, 2010
By Andrew C. Revkin
Dot Earth
Aug. 9, 8:30 a.m. | Updated An enormous iceberg, about four times the size of Manhattan, broke away from Greenland’s Petermann Glacier on Aug. 5.
Greenland has for years been shedding ice faster than the rate at which accumulating snow adds to the overall bulk of its ice sheet. The calving of an enormous ice “island” from the Petermann Glacier several days ago created a photogenic “moment” in a long-term process.
Jason E. Box, a glacier and climate researcher at Ohio State University who forwarded the image above (it was generated by the Canadian Ice Center), sent these reactions before heading into the field:
Petermann is a sleeping giant that is slowly awakening. Removing flow resistance leads to flow acceleration…. The coincidence of this area loss and a 30 square kilometer loss in 2008 with abnormal warmth this year, the setting of increasing sea surface temperatures and sea ice decline are all part of a climate warming pattern.
Questions about the eventual contribution to rising sea levels from Greenland’s eroding ice mass (and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet down south) remain hard to answer. I’ve put out a query to a batch of glaciologists for more thoughts and will update this post when they reply.
Aug. 9, 8:30 a.m. | Update
Andreas Muenchow of the University of Delaware is much more cautious than Ohio State’s Jason Box about attributing the ice breakup to recent warming. He submitted a comment below that I’m highlighting here:
Air temperatures have very little to do with this breakup because this glacier is losing more than 80% of its ice by melting from the ocean below this floating glacier. The newly broken off piece, as massive as it is, contributes less than 10% of the ice lost over 50 years. If one wants to make the connection to global warming for this glacier, one will need to proof that ocean temperatures under the ice have increased. And from measuring those for a day in 2003 and a day in 2006 and a day in 2007 and a day in 2009, we are barely able to provide a first description that we submitted for peer review a few weeks ago, e.g., http://muenchow.cms.udel.edu… … We are not even sure what the sill depth for this fjord is, e.g., the deepest part that connects Petermann Fjord with the rest of the ocean, within better than 100 meters. In much of the Arctic, temperature in the ocean increases with depth to about 300-500 meters which is the range of the likely sill depth. There is plenty of heat inside the fjord already to melt it from below (see linked manuscript), so an interesting question to ask (again, this may have nothing to do with climate change), why is the floating ice shelf there in the first place? Boundary layer physics, turbulence, tides, and glacier dynamics may all relate and may all be more fruitful ways in trying to understand what is happening than just to wave the hand and tick this off as another sign of global warming.
Global warming and climate change are very real and challenging problems, but it is foolish to assign every “visible” event to that catch-all phrase. It cheapens and discredits those findings where global warming is a real and immediate cause for observable phenomena. Details matter, in science as well as in policy.
I couldn’t agree more. It was important to note the development, as I did, but also to be careful about the lure of the “ front-page thought.”
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/vast-ice-island-breaks-free-of-greenland-glacier/
It's not polite to say so, but if Americans understood just how many trillions their military was really spending on protecting oil, they wouldn't stand for it.
August 5, 2010
By Peter Maass
Foreign Policy
Shortly after the Marines rolled into Baghdad and tore down a statue of Saddam Hussein, I visited the Ministry of Oil. American troops surrounded the sand-colored building, protecting it like a strategic jewel. But not far away, looters were relieving the National Museum of its actual jewels. Baghdad had become a carnival of looting. A few dozen Iraqis who worked at the Oil Ministry were gathered outside the American cordon, and one of them, noting the protection afforded his workplace and the lack of protection everywhere else, remarked to me, "It is all about oil."
The issue he raised is central to figuring out what we truly pay for a gallon of gas. The BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico has reminded Americans that the price at the pump is only a down payment; an honest calculation must include the contamination of our waters, land, and air. Yet the calculation remains incomplete if we don't consider other factors too, especially what might be the largest externalized cost of all: the military one. To what extent is oil linked to the wars we fight and the more than half-trillion dollars we spend on our military every year? We are in an era of massive deficits, so it pays to know what we are paying for and how much it costs.
The debate often hovers at a sandbox level of did-so/did-not. Donald Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, insisted the invasion of Iraq had "nothing to do with oil." But even Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, rejected that line. "It is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows," Greenspan wrote in his memoir. "The Iraq war is largely about oil." If it is even partly true that we invade for oil and maintain a navy and army for oil, how much is that costing? This is one of the tricky things about oil, the hidden costs, and one of the reasons we are addicted to the substance -- we don't acknowledge its full price.
If we wish to know, we can. An innovative approach comes from Roger Stern, an economic geographer at Princeton University who in April published a peer-reviewed study on the cost of keeping aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf from 1976 to 2007. Because carriers patrol the gulf for the explicit mission of securing oil shipments, Stern was on solid ground in attributing that cost to oil. He had found an excellent metric. He combed through the Defense Department's data -- which is not easy to do because the Pentagon does not disaggregate its expenditures by region or mission -- and came up with a total, over three decades, of $7.3 trillion. Yes, trillion.
And that's just a partial accounting of peacetime spending. It's far trickier to figure out the extent to which America's wars are linked to oil and then put a price tag on it. But let's assume that Rumsfeld, in an off-the-record moment of retirement candor, might be persuaded to acknowledge that the invasion of Iraq was somewhat related to oil. A 2008 study by Nobel Prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard University budget expert Linda Bilmes put the cost of that war -- everything spent up to that point and likely to be spent in the years ahead -- at a minimum of $3 trillion (and probably much more). Again, trillion.
Of course we would have to wait a long time before finding a PowerPoint presentation in the Pentagon or White House (no matter the party in power) on defense spending for oil. Just as cuts to Social Security are a third rail, an accounting of oil-related military spending is nearly unheard of in the halls of power. For politicians and generals, it is a slippery slope: Speak too loudly on the subject, and they risk undercutting the we-only-want-to-make-the-world-a-better-place notion of U.S. foreign policy. It's easier to let the debate idle at vague rhetoric rather than hard numbers.
You would have to go back nearly 20 years to get anything on the subject from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of the U.S. government that in 1991 estimated that between 1980 and 1990 the United States spent a total of $366 billion to defend oil supplies in the Middle East. The GAO report was just a snapshot of one region in a limited time frame a long time ago when America was not fighting a major war there or elsewhere. The study would have been a good start if it had been followed by other studies that went deeper and further, but that didn't happen (see Hot Potato, Department of).
So it has fallen to a cottage industry of out-of-government experts like Stiglitz and Stern to examine metrics that measure oil's connections to not just war but corruption and poverty. These experts include Paul Collier of Oxford University, who wrote The Bottom Billion, as well as Michael Ross at UCLA, Michael Watts at UC Berkeley, Ian Gary at Oxfam, and Sarah Wykes, formerly with the NGO Global Witness. Their areas of expertise -- economics, geography, political science, corruption -- as well as the metrics on which they focus, are similar to the unconventional backgrounds and ideas of the experts whom Gen. David Petraeus called on to rethink the metrics and practice of counterinsurgency.
Oil has yet to find its Petraeus; it remains a badly quantified problem. The abstraction of global warming, the pity of oil-soaked pelicans, even battlefield deaths in Iraq -- these have not occasioned real changes in our addiction to all things petroleum. The United States consumes more gasoline today than on the day Iraq was invaded and the day of the BP accident. If I had a dollar for every time a politician said, as President Barack Obama did in his Oval Office energy speech in June, "The time to embrace a clean energy future is now," I could build a wind farm. An honest accounting would do a lot more than tired platitudes because it would force us to confront the hidden costs that we don't see at the pump. And after all, the best way to get the attention of consumers is through their pocketbooks.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/08/05/the_ministry_of_oil_defense
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Buddhism and Ecology Bibliography
Duncan Ryuken Williams
Trinity College
To view annotations for this bibliography, see our annotations search section.
Download an annotated copy of this bibliography in pdf format.
Abraham, Ralph. “Orphism: The Ancient Roots of Green Buddhism.” In Dharma
Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology, ed. Allan Hunt Badiner, 39–49. Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1990.
Aitken, Robert. The Practice of Perfection: The Paramitas from A Zen Buddhist Perspective. New York: Pantheon, 1994.
________. “Right Livelihood for the Western Buddhist.” In Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology, ed. Allan Hunt Badiner, 227–32. Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1990. Reprinted in Primary Point 7, no. 2 (summer 1990): 19–22.
________. “Gandhi, Dogen, and Deep Ecology.” In Deep Ecology: Living As If Nature Mattered, eds. Bill Devall and George Sessions, 232–35. Salt Lake City, Utah: Peregrine Smith Books, 1985. Reprinted in The Path of Compassion: Writings on Socially Engaged Buddhism, ed. Fred Eppsteiner, 86–92 (Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1988).
________. The Mind of Clover: Essays in Zen Buddhist Ethics. San Francisco, Calif.: North Point Press, 1984.
Almon, Bert. “Buddhism and Energy in the Recent Poetry of Gary Snyder.” Mosaic 11 (1977): 117–25.
Anderson, Bill. “The Use of Animals in Science: A Buddhist Perspective.” Zen Bow Newsletter 6, no. 2–3 (summer-fall 1984): 8–9.
Ariyaratne, A. T., and Joanna Macy. “The Island of Temple and Tank. Sarvodaya: Self-help in Sri Lanka.” In Buddhism and Ecology, eds. Martine Batchelor and Kerry Brown, 78–86. London: Cassell, 1992.
Badiner, Allan Hunt. ed. Mindfulness in the Marketplace: Compassionate Responses to Consumerism. Berkeley: Parallax Press, 2002.
________. “Is the Buddha Winking at Extinction?” Tricycle 3, no. 2 (winter 1993): 52–54.
________., ed. Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology. Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1990.
________. “Dharma Gaia: The Green Roots of American Buddhism.” Vajradhatu Sun, April-May 1988, 7.
Balsys, Bodo. Ahimsa: Buddhism and the Vegetarian Ideal. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publications, 2004.
Barash, David P. “Buddhism and the ‘Subversive Science’.” The Chronicle of Higher Education 47, no. 24 (2001): B13-B14.
________. “The Ecologist as Zen Master.” American Midland Naturalist 89, no. 1 (January 1973): 214–17.
Bari, Judi. “We All Live Here: An Interview with Judi Bari.” By Susan Moon. Turning Wheel (spring 1994): 16–19.
Barnhill, David L. “A Giant Act of Love: Reflections on the First Precept.” Tricycle 2, no. 3 (spring 1993): 29–33.
________. “Indra’s Net as Food Chain: Gary Snyder’s Ecological Vision.” Ten Directions (spring-summer 1990): 20–28.
Barnhill, David, and Roger Gottlieb, eds. Deep Ecology and World Religions: New Essays on Sacred Ground. Albany, NY: SUNY, 2001.
Batchelor, Martine, ed. “Even the Stones Smile: Selections from the Scriptures.” In Buddhism and Ecology, ed. Martine Batchelor and Kerry Brown, 2–17. London: Cassell, 1992.
Batchelor, Martine and Kerry Brown, eds. Buddhism and Ecology. London: Cassell, 1992.
Batchelor, Stephen. “The Sands of the Ganges: Notes Toward a Buddhist Ecological Philosophy.” In Buddhism and Ecology, eds. Martine Batchelor and Kerry Brown, 31–39. London: Cassell, 1992.
________. “Buddhist Economics Reconsidered.” In Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology, ed. Allan Hunt Badiner, 178–82. Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1990.
________. “Images of Ecology.” Primary Point 7, no. 2 (summer 1990): 9–11.
Bilimoria, Purushottama. “Buddha, fifth century BCE.” In Fifty Key Thinkers on the Environment, ed. Joy A. Palmer. New York: Routledge, 2001, 1-7.
Birch, Pru. “Individual Responsibility and the Greenhouse Effect.” Golden Drum: A Magazine for Western Buddhists, February-April 1990, 10–11.
Bloom, Alfred. “Buddhism and Ecological Perspective.” Ecology Center Newsletter, December 1989, 1–2.
________. “Buddhism, Nature, and the Environment.” Eastern Buddhist, n.s., 5, no. 1 (May 1972): 115–29.
Brown, Brian Edward. “Buddhism in Ecological Perspective.” Pacific World, n.s., 6 (fall 1990): 65–73.
Bruun, Ole and Arne Kalland, eds. Asian Perceptions of Nature: A Critical Approach. Richmond, Surrey: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 1995.
Buddhadasa Bhikkhu. “A Notion of Buddhist Ecology.” Seeds of Peace 2 (1987): 22–27.
Burkill, I. H. “On the Dispersal of the Plants Most Intimate to Buddhism.” Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 27, no. 4 (1946): 327–39.
Byers, Bruce A. “Toward an Ecocentric Community: From Ego-self to Eco-self.” Turning Wheel, spring 1992, 39–40.
Calderazzo, John. “Meditation in a Thai Forest.” Audubon, January-February 1991, 84–91.
Chapple, Christopher Key. “Jainism and Buddhism.” In A Companion to Environmental Philosophy, ed. Dale Jamieson, 52-66. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2001.
________. “Toward an Indigenous Indian Environmentalism.” In Purifying the Earthly Body of God: Religion and Ecology in Hindu India, ed. Lance Nelson, 13–37. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1998.
________. Nonviolence to Animals, Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1993.
________.“Noninjury to Animals: Jaina and Buddhist Perspective.” In Animal Sacrifices: Religious Perspectives on the Use of Animals in Science, ed. Tom Regan, 213-235. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986. Revised version printed as “Nonviolence to Animals in Buddhism and Jainism.” In Inner Peace, World Peace: Essays on Buddhism and Nonviolence, ed. by Kenneth Kraft, 49-62. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992.
Codiga, Doug. “Zen Practice and a Sense of Place.” In Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology, ed. Allan Hunt Badiner, 106–11. Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1990.
Colt, Ames B. “Perceiving the World as Self: The Emergence of an Environmental Ethic.” Primary Point 7, no. 2 (summer 1990): 12–14.
Cook, Francis. “The Jewel Net of Indra.” In Nature in Asian Traditions of Thought: Essays in Environmental Philosophy, eds. J. Baird Callicott and Roger T. Ames, 213–29. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1989.
________. “Dogen’s View of Authentic Selfhood and Its Socio-ethical Implications.” In Dogen Studies, ed. William R. LaFleur, 131–49. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 1985.
________. Hua-yen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1977.
Cooper, David E., and Simon P. James. Buddhism, Virtue and the Environment. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing, 2005.
Cooper, David E. and Joy A. Palmer, eds. Spirit of the Environment: Religion, Value and Environmental Concern. New York: Routledge, 1998.
Coward, Harold, ed. Visions of a New Earth: Religious Perspectives on Population, Consumption, and Ecology. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 2000.
Crawford, Cromwell. “The Buddhist Response to Health and Disease in Environmental Perspective.” In Radical Conservatism: Buddhism in the Contemporary World: Articles in Honour of Bhikkhu Buddhadasa’s 84th Birthday Anniversary, 162–71. Bangkok: Thai Inter-Religious Commission for Development/International Network of Engaged Buddhists, 1990. Reprinted in Buddhist Ethics and Modern Society, eds. Charles Wei-hsun Fu and Sandra A. Wawrytko, 185–93 (New York: Greenwood Press, 1991).
Cry from the Forest: A “Buddhism and Ecology” Community Learning Tool. Phnom Penh, Cambodia: Buddhist Institute, NGO Working Group for Non-formal Monk Environmental Education Project (MEEP), UNDP-ETAP, and UNESCO, 1999. (http://www.camdev.org/Publications/Cry-English-Revised-for-printing.pdf)
Currier, Lavinia. “Report from Rio: The Earth Summit.” Tricycle 2, no. 1 (fall 1992): 24–26.
Curtin, Deane. “Dogen, Deep Ecology, and the Ecological Self.” Environmental Ethics 16, no. 2 (summer 1994): 195–213.
Dalai Lama. Foreword to Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology, ed. Allan Hunt Badiner. Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1990.
________. “Buddhism and the Protection of Nature: An Ethical Approach to Environmental Protection.” Buddhist Peace Fellowship Newsletter, spring 1988.
Darlington, Susan Marie. “Practical Spirituality and Community Forests: Monks, Ritual and Radical Conservativism in Thailand.” In Nature in the Global South: Environmental Projects in South and Southeast Asia, eds. Paul Greenough and Anna L. Tsing, 347-366. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003.
________. “The Spirit(s) of Conservation in Buddhist Thailand.” In Nature Across Cultures: Views of Nature and the Environment in Non-Western Cultures, ed. Helaine Selin, 129-145. Boston: Kluwer Academic Press, 2003.
________. “Rethinking Buddhism and Development: The Emergence of Environmental Monks in Thailand.” Journal of Buddhist Ethics 7(2000):1-14. (http://jbe.gold.ac.uk/7/darlington001.html). Republished as “Buddhism and Development: The Ecology Monks of Thailand.” In Action Dharma: New Studies in Engaged Buddhism, eds. Christopher Queen, Charles Prebish, and Damien Keown, 96-109. London, UK: RoutledgeCurzon Press, 2003.
________. “Monks and Environmental Action in Thailand.” Buddhist Forum, 1994.
________. “Monks and Environmental Conservation: A Case Study in Nan Province.” Seeds of Peace 9, no. 1 (January-April 1993): 7–10.
________. “Buddhism, Morality, and Change: The Local Response to Development in Northern Thailand.” Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1990.
Davies, Shann, ed. Tree of Life: Buddhism and the Protection of Nature. Hong Kong: Buddhist Perception of Nature Project, 1987.
De Silva, Lily. “The Hills Wherein My Soul Delights: Exploring the Stories and Teachings.” In Buddhism and Ecology, eds. Martine Batchelor and Kerry Brown, 18–30. London: Cassell, 1992.
________. “The Buddhist Attitude Toward Nature.” In Buddhist Perspectives on the Ecocrisis, ed. Klas Sandell, 9–29. Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1987.
De Silva, Padmasiri. “Environmental Ethics: A Buddhist Perspective.” In Buddhist Ethics and Modern Society: An International Symposium, eds. Charles Wei-hsun Fu and Sandra A. Wawrytko, 173–84. Contributions to the Study of Religion, no. 31. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.
________. “Buddhist Environmental Ethics.” In Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology, ed. Allan Hunt Badiner, 14–19. Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1990.
del Raye, Bonnie. “Buddhists Concerned for Animals.” In Turning the Wheel: American Women Creating the New Buddhism, ed. Sandy Boucher, 289–94. San Francisco, Calif.: Harper and Row, 1988.
Devall, Bill. “Ecocentric Sangha.” In Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology, ed. Allan Hunt Badiner, 155–64. Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1990.
________. Simple in Means, Rich in Ends: Practicing Deep Ecology. Salt Lake City, Utah: Peregrine Smith, 1988.
Devall, Bill and George Sessions. Deep Ecology: Living As If Nature Mattered. Salt Lake City, Utah: Peregrine Smith, 1985.
Dhamma Bhikkhu Rewata. “Buddhism and the Environment.” In Radical Conservatism: Buddhism in the Contemporary World: Articles in Honour of Bhikkhu Buddhadasa’s 84th Birthday Anniversary, 156–61. Bangkok: Thai Inter-Religious Commission for Development/International Network of Engaged Buddhists, 1990.
Donegan, Patricia. “Haiku and the Ecotastrophe.” In Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology, ed. Allan Hunt Badiner, 197–207. Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1990.
Dutt, Denise Manci. “An Integration of Zen Buddhism and the Study of Person and Environment.” Ph.D. diss., California Institute of Integral Studies, 1983.
Duval, R. Shannon, and David Shaner. “Conservation Ethics and the Japanese Intellectual Tradition.” Conservation Ethics 11 (fall 1989): 197–214.
Dwivedi, O. P., ed. World Religions and the Environment. New Delhi, India: Gilanjal Publishing House, 1989.
Earhart, H. Byron. “The Ideal of Nature in Japanese Religion and Its Possible Significance for Environmental Concerns.” Contemporary Religions in Japan 11, nos. 1–2 (March-June 1970): 1–25.
Ehrlich, Gretel. “Pico Iyer Talks With Gretel Ehrlich: Buddhist at the Edge of the Earth.” Tricycle 5, no. 3 (spring 1996): 77–82.
Einarsen, John., ed. The Sacred Mountains of Asia. Boston: Shambhala Press, 1995.
Eppsteiner, Fred., ed. The Path of Compassion: Writings on Socially Engaged Buddhism. Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1988.
Fields, Rick. “The Very Short Sutra on the Meeting of the Buddha and the Goddess.” In Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology, ed. Allan Hunt Badiner, 3–7. Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1990.
________. “A Council of All Beings.” Yoga Journal (November-December 1989): 52, 108.
Fitzsymonds, Sue. “Treading Softly on This Earth.” Golden Drum: A Magazine for Western Buddhists, February-April 1990, 12.
Foltz, Richard. Worldviews, Religion, and the Environment. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2003.
Fossey, Kevin, Somdech Preah Maha Ghosananda, Sri Kushok Bakula, and Nhem Kim Teng. “Buddhism.” Faith in Conservation: New Approaches to Religion and the Environment, eds. Martin Palmer and Victoria Finlay, 77-82. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 2003.
Franke, Joe. “The Tiger in the Forest: A Walk with the Monk Who Ordained Trees.” Shambhala Sun 4, no. 2 (November 1995): 48–53.
Gates, Barbara. “Reflections of an Aspiring Earth-Steward.” Inquiring Mind 7, no. 2 (spring 1991): 18–19.
Getz, Andrew. “A Natural Being: A Monk’s Reforestation Project in Thailand.” Buddhist Peace Fellowship Newsletter, winter 1991, 24–25.
Giryo, Yanase. O Buddha! A Desperate Cry from a Dying World. Nagoya, Japan: KWIX, 1986.
________ . An Appeal for Your Help in Halting World Environmental Destruction Now for Future Generations. (Information may be obtained from: Jiko-bukkyo-kai, Okaguchi 2 chome 3–47, Gojo, Nara Prefecture, Japan 637.)
Gold, Ann Grodzins. “Children and Trees in North India.” Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion 6, no. 3 (2002): 276-299.
Gosling, David L. Religion and Ecology in India and Southeast Asia. London: Routledge, 2001.
Grady, Carla Deicke. “A Buddhist Response to Modernization in Thailand: With Particular Reference to Conservation Forest Monks.” Ph.D. diss., University of Hawaii, 1995.
________. “Women and Ecocentric Conscience.” Newsletter on International Buddhist Women’s Activities 21 (October 1989). Reprinted as “Women and Ecocentricity,” in Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology, ed. Allan Hunt Badiner, 165–68 (Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1990).
Granoff, Phyllis. “The Violence of Non-Violence: A Study of Some Jain Responses to Non-Jain Religious Practices.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 15, no. 1 (1992): 1–43.
Gray, Dennis D. “Buddhism Being Used to Help Save Asia’s Environment.” Seeds of Peace 2 (1987): 24–26.
Grosnick, William Henry. “The Buddhahood of the Grasses and the Trees: Ecological Sensitivity or Scriptural Misunderstanding.” In An Ecology of the Spirit: Religious Reflection and Environmental Consciousness, ed. Michael Barnes, 197–208. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1994.
Gross, Rita. “Toward A Buddhist Environmental Ethic.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 65, no. 2 (summer 1997): 333–53.
Halifax, Joan. The Fruitful Darkness: Reconnecting with the Body of the Earth. San Francisco, Calif.: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993.
________. “The Third Body: Buddhism, Shamanism, and Deep Ecology.” In Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology, ed. Allan Hunt Badiner, 20–38. Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1990.
Hannan, Pete. “Images and Animals.” Golden Drum: A Magazine for Western Buddhists, August-October 1989, 8–9.
Harris, Ian. “Buddhist Causation, Dysteology and Environmental Ethics.” Ecology and Asian Religions, ed. Lance Nelson. Albany, NY: State University Press of New York, 2000.
________. “Buddhism and Ecology.” Contemporary Buddhist Ethics, ed. Damien Keown, 113-136. London, England: Curzon Press, 2000.
________. “Buddhist Environmental Ethics and Detraditionalization: The Case of EcoBuddhism.” Religion 25, no. 3 (July 1995): 199–211.
________. “Getting to Grips with Buddhist Environmentalism: A Provisional Typology.” Journal of Buddhist Ethics 2 (1995): 173–90.
________. “Causation and ‘Telos’: The Problem of Buddhist Environmental Ethics.” Journal of Buddhist Ethics 1 (1994): 46–59.
________. “How Environmentalist Is Buddhism?” Religion 21 (April 1991): 101–114.
Harvey, Peter. “Attitude to and Treatment of the Natural World.” An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics, 150-186. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Hayward, Jeremy. “Ecology and the Experience of Sacredness.” In Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology, ed. Allan Hunt Badiner, 64–74. Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1990.
Head, Suzanne. “Creating Space for Nature.” In Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology, ed. Allan Hunt Badiner, 112–27. Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1990.
________. “Buddhism and Deep Ecology.” Vajradhatu Sun, April-May 1988, 7–8, 12.
Henning, Daniel H. Buddhism and Deep Ecology. Bloomington: AuthorHouse Press, 2002.
Ho, Mobi. “Animal Dharma.” In Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology, ed. Allan Hunt Badiner, 129–35. Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press, 1990.
Hope, Marjorie and James Young. “Buddhism.” Voices of Hope in the Struggle to Save the Planet, 245-280. Croton-on-Hudson, NY: Apex Press, 2000.
Htun, Nay. “The State of the Environment Today: The Needs for Tomorrow.” In Tree of Life: Buddhism and the Protection of Nature, ed. Shann Davies, 19–29. Hong Kong: Buddhist Perception of Nature Project, 1987.
Hughes, James., ed. Green Buddhist Declaration. Moratuwa: Sarvodaya Press, 1984. (Information may be obtained from: 98 Rawatawatte Rd., Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.)
Ikeda, Daisaku. “Man in Nature.” In Dialogue on Life 1, 26–56. Tokyo: Nichiren Shoshu International Center, 1976. Reprinted in Life: An Enigma, A Precious Jewel, trans. Charles S. Terry, 28–46 (Tokyo and New York: Kodansha International, 1982).
________. “Life and the Environment.” In Dialogue on Life, vol. 2, 78–90. Tokyo: Nichiren Shoshu International Center, 1977.
Inada, Kenneth K. “Environmental Problematics.” In Nature in Asian Traditions of Thought: Essays in Environmental Philosophy, eds. J. Baird Callicott and Roger T. Ames, 231–45. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1989.
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________. The Real Work: Interviews and Talks, 1964–1979. New York: New Directions, 1980.
________. Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems. San Francisco, Calif.: Four Seasons Foundation, 1976.
________. Six Sections from Mountains and Rivers without End. San Francisco, Calif.: Four Seasons Foundation, 1976.
________. Turtle Island. New York: New Directions Books, 1974.
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Sotoshu Shumucho. International Symposium: The Future of the Earth and Zen Buddhism. Tokyo: Sotoshu Shumucho, 1991.
Sponberg, Alan. “Green Buddhism and the Hierarchy of Compassion.” Western Buddhist Review 1 (December 1994): 131–55.
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Sponsel, Leslie E. “Cultural Ecology and Environmental Education.” Journal of Environmental Education 19, no. 1 (1987): 31–42.
Sponsel, Leslie E., and Poranee Natadecha-Sponsel.“Illuminating Darkness: The Monk-Cave-Bat-Ecosystem Complex in Thailand.” In Socially Engaged Spirituality: Essays in Honor of Sulak Sivaraksa on His 70th Birthday, ed. David W. Chappell, 255-270. Bangkok: Sathirakoses-Nagapradipa Foundation, 2003. Reprinted in This Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature, Environment, ed. Roger S. Gottlieb, 134-144. New York: Routledge, 2004. (http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/resources/projects/thailand/cave.htm)
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________. “The Role of Buddhism for Creating a More Sustainable Society in Thailand.” In Counting the Costs: Economic Growth and Environmental Change in Thailand, ed. Jonathan Rigg, 27–46. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1995.
________. “The Relevance of Buddhism for the Development of an Environmental Ethic for the Conservation of Biodiversity.” In Ethics, Religion, and Biodiversity: Relations between Conservation and Cultural Values, eds. Lawrence S. Hamilton with Helen F. Takeuchi, 75–97. Cambridge: White Horse Press, 1993.
________. “Nonviolent Ecology: The Possibilities of Buddhism.” In Buddhism and Nonviolent Global Problem-Solving: Ulan Bator Explorations, eds. Glenn D. Paige and Sarah Gilliatt, 139–50. Honolulu, Hawaii: Center for Global Nonviolence Planning Project, Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace, University of Hawaii, 1991.
________. “Buddhism, Ecology, and Forests in Thailand: Past, Present, and Future.” In Changing Tropical Forests: Historical Perspectives on Today’s Challenges in Asia, Australasia, and Oceania: Workshop Meeting, Canberra, 16–18 May 1988, ed. John Dargavel, et al., 305–25. Canberra: Australian National University Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, 1988.
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Spretnak, Charlene and Fritjof Capra. Green Politics. Santa Fe, N. Mex.: Bear and Co., 1986.
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Buddhism and Ecology: Challenge and Promise Donald K. Swearer |
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Introduction
The concepts of karma and rebirth (samsara) integrate the existential sense of a shared common condition of all sentient life-forms with the moral dimension of the Buddhist cosmology. Not unlike the biological sciences, rebirth links human and animal species. Evolution maps commonalities and differences among species on the basis of physical and genetic traits. Rebirth maps them on moral grounds. Every form of sentient life participates in a karmic continuum traditionally divided into three world-levels and a hierarchical taxonomy of five or six life-forms. Although this continuum constitutes a moral hierarchy, differences among life-forms and individuals are relative, not absolute. Traditional Buddhism may privilege humans over animals, animals over hungry ghosts, male gender over the female, monk over laity but all forms of karmically conditioned life-human, animal, divine, demonic—are related within contingent, samsaric time: “In the long course of rebirth there is not one among living beings with form who has not been mother, father, brother, sister, son, or daughter, or some other relative. Being connected with the process of taking birth, one is kin to all wild and domestic animals, birds, and beings born from the womb” (Lankavatara Sutra). Nirvana, the Buddhist highest good, offers the promise of transforming karmic conditionedness into an unconditioned state of spiritual liberation, a realization potentially available to all forms of sentient life on the karmic continuum. That plants and trees or the land itself have a similar potential for spiritual liberation became an explicit doctrine in Chinese and Japanese Buddhism but may even have been part of popular Buddhist belief from earliest times—in sum, a realization that all life-forms share both a common problematic and promise. Although the Buddhist doctrines of karma and rebirth link together all forms of sentient existence in a moral continuum, Buddhist ethics focus on human agency and its consequences. The inclusion of plants and animals in Buddhist soteriological schemes may be important philosophically because it attributes inherent value to nonhuman forms of life. Nonetheless, humans have been the primary agents in creating the present ecological crisis and will bear the major responsibility in solving it. The myth of origins in the Pali canon describes the deleterious impact of human activity on the primordial natural landscape. Unlike the garden of Eden story in the Hebrew Bible where human agency centers on the God-human relationship, the Buddhist story of first origins describes the negative impact of humans on the earth created by selfishness and greed. In the Buddhist mythological Eden, the earth flourishes naturally, but greedy desire leads to division and ownership of the land that in turn promotes violent conflict, destruction, and chaos. In short, in the Buddhist myth of first origins, human agency destroys the natural order of things. Though change is inherent in nature, Buddhists believe that natural processes are directly affected by human morality.2 Within the Buddha’s enlightenment vision (Nirvana) all the major dimensions of the Buddhist worldview are found. Tradition records that during the night of this experience the Buddha first recalled his previous lives within the karmic continuum; then he perceived the fate of all sentient beings within the cosmic hierarchy; finally he fathomed the nature of suffering and the path to its cessation formulated as the four noble truths and the law of interdependent coarising. The Buddha’s enlightenment evolved in a specific sequence: from an understanding of the particular (his personal karmic history), then to the general (the karmic history of humankind), and finally to the principle underlying the cause and cessation of suffering. Subsequently, this principle is further generalized as a universal law of causality: “On the arising of this, that arises; on the cessation of this, that ceases.” Buddhist environmentalists find in the causal principle of interdependence an ecological vision that integrates all aspects of the ecosphere—particular individuals and general species—in terms of the principle of mutual codependence. Within this cosmological model individual entities are by their very nature relational, thereby undermining the autonomous self over against the “other,” be it human, animal, or vegetable. Buddhist environmentalists see their worldview as a rejection of hierarchical dominance of one human over another or humans over nature, and as the basis of an ethic of emphathetic compassion that respects biodiversity. In the view of the Thai monk, Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, “The entire cosmos is a cooperative. The sun, the moon, and the stars live together as a cooperative. The same is true for humans and animals, trees, and the earth. When we realize that the world is a mutual, interdependent, cooperative enterprise . . . then we can build a noble environment. If our lives are not based on this truth, then we shall perish.” A Western Buddhist, observing that the Buddhist worldview or dharma not only refers to the teachings of the Buddha but also to all things in nature, characterizes Buddhism as a “religious ecology.”3 In later schools of Buddhist thought the cosmological vision of interdependent causality evolved into a more substantive sense of ontological unity. Metaphorically, the image of Indra’s net found in the Hua Yen (Jp. Kegon) tradition’s Avatamsaka Sutra has been especially important in Buddhist ecological discussions. For Gary Snyder the image of the universe as a vast web of many-sided jewels each constituted by the reflections of all the other jewels in the web and each jewel being the image of the entire universe symbolizes the world as a universe of bioregional ecological communities. Buddhist environmentalists argue, furthermore, that ontological notions such as Buddha-nature or Dharma-nature (e.g., buddhakaya, tathagatagarbha, dharmakaya, dharmadhatu) provide a basis for unifying all existent entities in a common sacred universe, even though the tradition privileges human life vis-�-vis spiritual realization. For T’ien-t’ai monks in eighth century China, the belief in a universal Buddha-nature blurred the distinction between sentient and nonsentient life-forms and logically led to the view that plants, trees, and the earth itself could achieve enlightenment. Kukai (774–835), the founder of the Japanese Shingon school and Dogen (1200–1253), the founder of the Soto Zen sect, described universal Buddha-nature in naturalistic terms, “If plants and trees were devoid of Buddhahood, waves would then be without humidity” (Kukai); “The sutras [i.e., the dharma] are the entire universe, mountains, and rivers and the great wide earth, plants and trees” (Dogen). Buddhist environmentalists cite Dogen’s view as support for the preservation of species biodiversity. Two types of criticism have been leveled against Buddhist environmentalists (sometimes characterized as ecoBuddhists or Green Buddhists); scholars who argue that ecologizing the Buddhist worldview distorts the philosophical and historical integrity of the tradition; and, practioners who see a tendency in Green Buddhism to reduce the tradition to a one-dimensional teaching of simple interrelatedness at the expense of its classical emphasis on the development of spiritual and ethical transformation. The four dimensions of the Buddhist worldview as proposed above offer a framework for understanding both the advocates of Buddhist environmentalism and their critics.
Although the picture of the Buddha seated under the tree of enlightenment has not traditionally been interpreted as a paradigm for ecological thinking, today’s Buddhist environmental activists point out that the decisive events in the Buddha’s life occurred in natural settings: that the Buddha Gotama was born, attained enlightenment, and died under trees. The textual record, furthermore, testifies to the importance of forests, not only as an environment preferred for spiritual practices such as meditation but also as a place where laity sought instruction. Historically, in Asia and increasingly in the West, Buddhists have situated centers of practice and teaching in forests and among mountains at some remove from the hustle and bustle of urban life. The Buddha’s own example provides the original impetus for such locations: “Seeking the supreme state of sublime peace, I wandered . . . until . . . I saw a delightful stretch of land and a lovely woodland grove, and a clear flowing river with a delightful forest so I sat down thinking, ‘Indeed, this is an appropriate place to strive for the ultimate realization of . . . Nirvana’” (Ariyapariyesana Sutta, Majjhima Nikaya). Lavish patronage and the traffic of pilgrims often complicated and compromised the solitude and simple life of forest monasteries, but forests, rivers, and mountains constitute an important factor in the Buddhist ecology of human flourishing. Recall, for example, the Zen description of enlightenment wherein natural phenomena such as rivers and mountains are perceived as loci of the sacred. Although religious practioners often tested their spiritual mettle in wild nature, the norm appears to be a relatively benign state of nature conducive to quiet contemplation as suggested by the above quotation, or by the naturalistic gardens that one finds today in many Japanese Zen monasteries originally located on the outskirts of towns. Buddhadasa Bhikkhu called his forest monastery in south Thailand “the Garden of Empowering Liberation,” observing: “The deep sense of calm that nature provides through separation from the stress that plagues us in the day-to-day world protects our heart and mind. The lessons nature teaches us lead to a new birth beyond suffering caused by our acquisitive self-preoccupation.” For Buddhist enviromentalists, centers like Buddhadasa’s Garden of Empowering Liberation also present an example of a sustainable lifestyle grounded in the values of moderation, simplicity, and non-acquisitiveness. Technology alone cannot solve the ecocrisis. More importantly, it requires a transformation of values and of lifestyle. Buddhadasa intended the Garden of Empowering Liberation not as a retreat from the world but as a place where all forms of life—humans, animals, and plants—live as a cooperative microcosm of a larger ecosystem and as a community where humans can develop an ecological ethic. Such an ethic highlights the virtues of restraint, simplicity, loving-kindness, compassion, equanimity, patience, wisdom, nonviolence, and generosity. These virtues represent moral ideals for all members of the Buddhist community— religious practioner, lay person, political leader, ordinary citizen, male, female. For example, political leaders who are mandated to maintain the peace and security of the nation, are also expected to embody the virtue of nonviolence. In this connection, King Asoka is cited for his rejection of animal sacrifice and protection of animals. The twin virtues of wisdom and compassion define the spiritual perfection of the bodhisattva (saint) but these prized moral qualities, associated especially with the Buddha or monks, are represented in narrative and didactic literature by a variety of human and animal life-forms. For contemporary engaged Buddhists—the Dalai Lama especially—a sense of responsibility rooted in compassion lies at the very heart of an ecological ethic: “The world grows smaller and smaller, more and more interdependent . . . today more than ever before life must be characterized by a sense of universal responsibility, not only . . . human to human but also human to other forms of life.”4 For many Buddhist environmentalists compassion necessarily follows an understanding of all life-forms as mutually interdependent. Others argue that a mere cognitive recognition of interdependence is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for an ecological ethic. These critics emphasize the centrality of practice in Buddhism and the tradition’s insistence on training in virtue and the threefold path to moral and spiritual excellence (morality, mindful awareness, wisdom). Among contemporary engaged Buddhists, the Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, has been the most insistent on the central role of mindful awareness in the development of a peaceful and sustainable world. Critics of the ethical saliency of the traditional Buddhist vision of human flourishing argue that philosohical concepts such as not-self (anatman) and emptiness (sunyata) undermine human autonomy and the distinction between self and other, essential aspects for an other-regarding ethic. What are the grounds for an ethic or laws that protect the civil rights of minorities or animal species threatened with extinction when philosophically Buddhism seems to undermine their significance by deconstructing their independent reality as an epistemological fiction? Furthermore, they point out that the most basic concepts of Buddhism—Nirvana, suffering, rebirth, not—self, and even causality-were intended to further the goal of the individual’s spiritual quest rather than engagement with the world. They conclude, therefore, either that Buddhism serves primarily a salvific or soteriological purpose or that the attempt to ecologize the tradition distorts the historical and philosophical record. Buddhist environmentalists respond that their tradition brings to the debates about human rights and the global environment an ethic of social and environmental responsibility more compatible with the language of compassion based on the mutual interdependence of all life-forms than the language of rights. Furthermore, to apply Buddhist insights to a broad ecology of human flourishing represents the tradition at its best, namely, a creative, dynamic response to its contemporary context. A related but more sympathetic criticism from within the Buddhist environmental movement suggests that for Buddhism to be an effective force for systemic institutional change, the traditional Buddhist emphasis on individual moral and spiritual transformation must be adjusted to address more forcefully the structures of oppression, exploitation, and environmental degradation. While preserving the unique Buddhist emphasis on the practice of mindful awareness and a lifestyle of simplicity, today’s engaged Buddhist activists are, indeed, addressing head-on international issues ranging from the disposal of nuclear waste to human rights violations in Myanmar and a just and peaceful resolution of the Chinese occupation of Tibet. The most internationally visible leaders in this movement are the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh but they are joined by many others from around the globe including Sulak Sivaraksa, Ahangamage T. Ariyaratna, Joanna Macy, and Kenneth Kraft.
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Endnotes |
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| 1 James Gustafson, A Sense of the Divine (Cleveland, Ohio: Pilgrim Press, 1994). Return to text 2 Lily de Silva, “The Hills Wherein My Soul Delights,” in Buddhism and Ecology, Martine Batchelor and Kerry Brown, eds. (London: Cassell, 1992). 3 Martine Batchelor and Kerry Brown, eds., Buddhism and Ecology (London: Cassell, 1992). 4 Nancy Nash, “The Buddhist Perception of Nature Project,” in Buddhist Perspectives on the Ecocrisis, Klas Sandell, ed., (Buddhist Publication Society, 1987).
This article was originally published in Earth Ethics 10, no.1 (Fall 1998). |
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General Shinto Links |
| Ancient Japan Shinto Kokugakuin University: Encyclopedia of Shinto Pluralism Project Religious Tolerance Organization: Basic Information on Shinto Shinto and Buddhism: Wellsprings of Japanese Spirituality (article) |
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Additional Shinto Resources and Links |
| Links: Tsubaki America Shinto Homepage |
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Engaged projects in religion and ecology refers to the activities of community organizations and religious institutions that are inspiring and grounding environmental concerns in practical programs, outreach, and education. These projects generally incorporate religious traditions as part of their environmental philosophy drawing on particular scriptures, symbols, and rituals. Engaged projects range from Learning Centers and Retreat Centers to Organic Farms and Alternative Energy Communities.
International Engaged Projects
Alliance of Religions and Conservation
Statement Prepared by the Jinja Honcho
Shinto Faith Statement
Shinto and Ecology:
Practice and Orientations to Nature
Rosemarie Bernard
Harvard University
Introduction
Shinto (or kannagara no michi, literally “the way of the deities”) is Japan’s indigenous religion. Shinto refers to diverse and localized religious beliefs, ritual practices, and institutions. On the one hand, Shinto encompasses local community practices, while on the other it also includes the elaborate and highly structured ceremonial practices of the imperial institution and, in earlier historical periods, of the state. From its beginnings in early Japanese history, Shinto has been profoundly influenced by Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. Syncretic interaction with Buddhism, in particular, has been strong historically. Yet, at the beginning of Japan’s modernization Shinto would be officially separated from Buddhism at the level of divinities worshiped, ritual practices, and institutional structures. Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Shinto ritual practices were centralized and reorganized according to a hierarchy that brought even the smallest outlying Shinto shrines within the fold of state administration, with the emperor and his rituals at the center. The effects of those modern transformations were profound as regards ceremonial practices and institutional structure, but less so upon the most fundamental beliefs that are characteristic of the Shinto orientation to the world.
Today, there are more than 80,000 Shinto shrines that are scattered all over the Japanese archipelago. There deities are worshiped and rituals are still performed according to the general patterns established by the state for all shrines in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Yet this is carried out in keeping with localized tradition and regional or community preferences. Regionality of Shinto religious practice accounts for great diversity in Shinto, while those different instances share certain basic beliefs and values.
It is impossible to consider the topic of Shinto and ecology without making reference to the broader issue of Japanese cultural attitudes to the natural environment. This is because what one might describe as Shinto beliefs are often values that are entrenched in Japanese folk culture in general, and which find expression in other areas beyond religion, from sociopolitical organization to aesthetics, and so on. Yet, as Conrad Totman has noted in his work on the history of forestry in Japan,1 the destruction of the natural environment gradually increased to such proportions that the archipelago came to stages of severe environmental degradation several times, only to be barely saved by systematic, usually centrally managed, programs of reforestation. Indeed, it is an irony that a country in which the boundaries between culture and nature are so fluid should have undergone such a degree of environmental degradation. However, such historical developments must also be understood against the background of Japanese culture, according to which nature is valued not as “wild nature,” but instead as “humanized” or “culturalized” nature. In Japan, nature is “cultivated” by culture. Nature is idealized in its “cultured” forms. Some would argue that historically religions, including Shinto, have played a part in the wanton exploitation of forest resources. On the other hand, Japanese indigenous religion and its orientation to the world, which are interconnected with nature and aesthetics, have a great deal to offer in the struggle to conserve the environment.
The Shinto beliefs and attitudes toward nature which are relevant to the problem of environmental preservation include three key points. First, great value is accorded sacred space and time, generally as shrines in groves, the boundaries of which are demarcated as distinct from the secular world. The location of Shinto shrines in local landscapes is an important dimension of their sacredness. As Japanese folklorists have often emphasized, the traditional Japanese village, in close proximity to a community shrine, is focused on agriculture, with seasonal worship of deities offered the fruits of production. The agricultural cycle provides the rhythms of ritual activities that punctuate the year. Cyclical time, periodic time repeats itself as an eternal process.
The second point notes a close relation between nature, deities (kami), and human beings. The interactivity of those three is such that human beings also act upon the world they inhabit with nature and deities. Preventing the natural world from devolving into a state of chaos is the goal of certain ritual action. Discretion towards nature and the kami is essential, since they nurture human life. In Shinto, and in Japanese folk beliefs more generally, the natural and social environments are interrelated. In spatial and topographical terms, this is manifested in the arrangement of traditional residences in relation to fields, mountains, and rivers. The community shrine, situated in a forested grove, is the very expression of the community itself (in a Durkheimian sense) that sacralizes itself in the demarcated domain of sacred space.
Finally, the idea of purification is a key aspect of all ritual activity in Shinto. Purification (harae) is performed to reestablish order and balance between nature, humans, and deities. Regularly performed as part of all ritual, as well as on special occasions during the year, purification ceremonies counteract pollution (kegare). Harm done or accreted pollution can be neutralized by means of ritual purification. The latter, in particular, is a key dimension of the relationship between the Japanese and nature, which warrants “cultivation” and exploitation of the environment on the one hand, yet which on the other emphasizes the need to rectify imbalances between nature, humans, and deities. Religious belief is not only a matter of thought, but equally of practice. While many Japanese are likely to believe that by virtue of their cultural identity they live in harmony with nature, one cannot help but recognize the ecological devastation of many parts of Japan. Shinto is a diverse set of beliefs and practices which have been deeply embeded in Japanese cultural history. Shinto ritual, in particular, has had a role to play in Japan’s modernization, and continues to be affected, as is all of Japanese society, by the impact of technological and economic change. At present, the only significant green spaces in crowded Japanese urban centers are the groves that surround Shinto shrines. Even the simple preservation of those shrine groves is a difficult task to achieve given the onslaught of pollution as well as pressures to make spatial concessions to further urban growth. The Shinto community is aware of the importance of its special position as guarantor of groves of urban and outlying greenery. Moreover, they are aware of the crucial challenges of translating tradition into modern relevance, so as to transform belief systems into environmental practice.
About this Author
Rosemarie Bernard is an anthropologist who has done research on Shinto ritual, specifically on the rites of renewal at the Grand Shrines of Ise, and on Japanese imperial ritual. From April 1993 to March 1994 she was an Information Officer in the Public Relations Section of Jingu Shicho (the bureaucracy that manages The Grand Shrines of Ise). She is currently a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. She is editing the forthcoming volume, Shinto and Ecology, in the CSWR/Harvard University Press World Religion and Ecology book series.
Endnotes
1 Conrad Totman, The Green Archipelago (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1990).
This article was originally published in Earth Ethics 10, no.1 (Fall 1998).
Copyright © 2004 Rosemarie Bernard.
Reprinted with permission.
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“Towards an Ethos of Inclusion - A contribution to the post-2015 development dialogue”
By Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics
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In this video, watch Bettina Gray, host of Spiritual Resources, interview Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim.
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Full title:
Strong Evidence on Climate Change Underscores Need for Actions to Reduce Emissions and Begin Adapting to Impacts
May 19, 2010
WASHINGTON — As part of its most comprehensive study of climate change to date, the National Research Council today issued three reports emphasizing why the U.S. should act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop a national strategy to adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change. The reports by the Research Council, the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering, are part of a congressionally requested suite of five studies known as America's Climate Choices.
"These reports show that the state of climate change science is strong," said Ralph J. Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences. "But the nation also needs the scientific community to expand upon its understanding of why climate change is happening, and focus also on when and where the most severe impacts will occur and what we can do to respond."
To read “Strong Evidence on Climate Change Underscores Need for Actions to Reduce Emissions and Begin Adapting to Impacts,” click here:
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=05192010
Were the December 2009 Copenhagen climate change talks a disaster or a positive step forward? This article surveys both perspectives and then examines the Copenhagen Accord, the three-page political document hastily cobbled together by world leaders in Copenhagen's final two days. The conclusion: most nations failed to live up to their ethical obligations in approaching the negotiations and the driving forces behind the content of the Copenhagen Accord are based upon ethically problematic assumptions and premises.
To read "A Comprehensive Ethical Analysis of the Copenhagen Accord," click here:
http://climateethics.org/?p=343#more-343
Some nations failed to approach the recent Copenhagen climate change negotiations from an ethical perspective, focusing instead on narrow national economic interests, according to a statement released by the Collaborative Program on the Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change in a December 11 press conference at the Copenhagen talks.
To read "Ethics: Crucial Missing Element in Negotiations - Duties and Responsibilities, Not Just Narrow National Economic Interest," click here:
http://climateethics.org/?p=320
To view the EDCC press conference, click here:
http://www3.cop15.meta-fusion.com/kongresse/cop15/templ/play.php?id_kongressmain=1&theme=unfccc&id_kongresssession=2433
