The faith community in a warming World “I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruit and its good things. But when you entered you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.” Jeremiah 2:7
Forty-five years ago, President Johnson said the atmosphere was being changed by a steady increase of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels. CO2 levels are now the highest in at least 800,000 years. For the 2010 year-to-date (January–November), the combined global land and ocean surface temperature was 0.64°C (1.15°F) above the 20th century average—the warmest such period since records began in 1880. Serious changes to the planet are already occurring. It is certain that life on Earth will suffer, but exactly when and how remains uncertain. To address these realities around the nation, Interfaith Power and Light (IPL) is mobilizing a religious response to global warming in congregations, through the promotion of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and conservation. The IPL effort began in San Francisco, California in 1998 with Episcopal Power and Light and the support of Grace Cathedral as a unique coalition of Episcopal churches aggregated to purchase renewable energy. The Rev. Canon Sally G. Bingham is the founder and executive director of this movement. There are now Interfaith Power & Light affiliates in 37 states and the Washington, D.C. area, working in over 10,000 congregations. North Carolina Interfaith Power & Light (NC IPL), a program of the North Carolina Council of The Rev. Canon Churches, became an affiliate of IPL in 2007. The Sally G. Bingham mission of NC IPL is to work with faith communities in North Carolina to address the causes and consequences of global climate change, and offer practical solutions, through education, outreach and public policy advocacy. NC IPL believes that faith communities can have a profound effect on how humanity addresses climate change. The understanding of climate change as a moral imperative is gaining traction, and the faith community is the primary and most trusted deliverer of this message. The United Nations has affirmed that climate change and other environmental problems must be tackled in partnership with the moral and spiritual forces in the world because of the tremendous reach and influence. Here in the US simply practicing what we preach by retrofitting our own facilities can be significant. According to the federal government’s Energy Star program, if America’s more than 300,000 houses of worship cut energy use by 10 percent: • Nearly $200 million would be saved for congregations’ missions and other priorities. • More than 5.4 billion kWh of electricity would be available without additional cost and pollution. • More than 2 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions would be prevented, equivalent to the emissions of about 400,000 cars, or to planting over a half million acres of trees.
By Carl Sigel
In general achieving energy efficiency is the smartest, cheapest, and easiest way to address our countries’ energy challenges according to The Campaign for an Energy-Efficient America. A strong national energy efficiency program will create hundreds of thousands of good jobs, reduce utility bills for consumers, cut greenhouse gas emissions, enhance national security, reduce the need for new power plant construction, produce a cleaner environment, and benefit American businesses. IPL endorses national climate/energy legislation that includes both strong Energy Efficiency Resource Standards (EERS) and renewable energy standards (RES). North Carolina has the potential of obtaining up to 25% of our electricity from the renewable sources of wind and solar. Currently, North Carolina is sending $2.3 billion annually out of state for the purchase of coal. A strong RES and EERS would use some of these billions to create clean energy jobs and build our solar and wind clean energy future. There are many ways that individuals or congregations can address climate change. • Become an NC IPL participating congregation or a volunteer for NC IPL • Sign up for an NC IPL sponsored Congregational Energy Efficiency and Audit Workshop that examines ways in which your congregation and their member households can save money on energy bills while helping to protect Creation • Enlist NC IPL’s educational resources such as presentations given by our staff and volunteers, or visit the NC IPL website (www. ncipl.org), which contains climate and energy news, events, and relevant documents and resources • Establish an Environmental Stewardship Ministry in your congregation (see “Environmental Resources” listed under Congregational Resources on the Diocesan website, www.episdionc.org). Celebrate a liturgical creation cycle of at least four weeks in length at an appropriate time during the liturgical year for the purposes of affirming the sacredness of God’s Creation The clock is ticking. It is time for people of faith to do everything within our power to truly “tend the garden;” all life on this fragile Earth, our island home, depends on us today.
Carl W. Sigel, Ph.D., is Chair, NC IPL Steering Committee North Carolina Interfaith Power & Light and a member of Church of the Nativity in Raleigh. Contact him at Cwsigel@aol.com.
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