Sustainability – Where to Begin?

Beyond a reasonable doubt scientists have found that climate change is occurring, it’s due to human causes, and it poses significant risks to our well-being.  They agree that it can be addressed by changes in energy technologies, public policies, and our individual actions.  The Catholic Church accepts the science and takes the same position.

The connection between sustainability and the moral imperative to care for God’s creation has been made very clear by Pope Benedict XVI:  "Preservation of the environment, promotion of sustainable development and particular attention to climate change are matters of grave concern for the entire human family."  How do we make that connection to life at St. Francis?

First we need to define the word 'sustainability'.  The United Nations defines sustainable development as:  “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Consider this definition in relation to the following:

1)      9 of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record happened since 2000

2)      3,215 daily high-temperature records were set across the U.S. in June

It takes intensive study to link the climate science with daily weather events.  But the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a special report in March that said we will see “unprecedented extreme weather and climate events.”  This will continue unless we make changes.  Our planet is getting warmer.  As a result, we see many strong storms and more severe weather.  

There is strong scientific consensus on climate change, but we lack social consensus.  The social debate will continue – just as it did when the tobacco industry resisted the health warnings about smoking back in the 1960’s. 

As a parish, this is where we begin our effort to integrate sustainability into our lives, as our faith calls us to do.  Please join us for the journey.

Here’s what you can do:

1.         Educate yourself.  Go to the Sustainability page on the Parish website [stfrancisa2.com/sustainability] and read “Holy Cross Abbey: Reinhabiting Place”, which a group of Masters students at the U of M’s School of Natural Resources and Environment wrote in  2010.  [Holy Cross Abbey masters project  http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/69209].  In this coming year we hope to engage a group of current Masters students to help us with the Sustainability Projects beginning at St. Francis and St. Marys.

2.   Join your fellow parishioners as we build a Sustainability Project here at St. Francis.  Contact Scott Wright (734-821-2121).   We are borrowing a model currently being implemented at across the U of M campus:

Steve Lavender and Jane Vogel on behalf of the Sustainability Team 

CLIMATE NEWS from Catholic Coalition on Climate Change

From: Catholic Coalition on Climate Change, Wednesday, July 18, 2012, Responses to Severe Weather...

CLIMATE NEWS SEVERE WEATHER I: 2011 A story from Yahoo! News reports that Last year in the continental United States has been recorded as the country's hottest year since 1895, government scientists have said.  The article quotes Jake Crouch, a scientist at the National Climatic Data Center, who says It's hard to pinpoint climate change as the driving factor, but it appears that it is playing a role.  Dr. Crouch also said that What's going on for 2012 [referring to the record-breaking heat and extreme drought] is exactly what we would expect from climate change. A separate story from Reuters reports that Climate change increased the odds for the kind of extreme weather that prevailed in 2011, a year that saw severe drought in Texas, unusual heat in England and was one of the 15 warmest years on record, scientists reported on Tuesday . . . In the 22nd annual "State of the Climate" report, experts also found the Arctic was warming about twice as fast as the rest of the planet, on average, with Arctic sea ice shrinking to its second-smallest recorded size. Read the full State of the Climate in 2011 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  SEVERE WEATHER II: Drought is Largest Disaster in History of U.S. Amidst record-setting heat across the country, the United States is currently experiencing the worst drought in 25 years.  CNN reports that Authorities have declared more than 1,000 counties in 26 states as natural disaster areas as 61% of land in the lower 48 states [is] experiencing drought conditions. View pictures here.  Yahoo! News reports that this makes the current drought the largest natural disaster in America ever. The article notes that In America's Corn Belt, the prognosis for farmers is grim as fields and pastures become drier by the day.  The Weather Channel reports that Almost a third of the nation's corn crop is already showing signs of damage, and on Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released yet another report predicting that farmers will get only a fraction of the corn anticipated last spring when they planted 96.4 million acres, the most since 1937.

CLIMATE ADVOCACY More on the EPA Rule to Limit Power Plant Pollution The National Catholic Rural Life Conference (NCRLC), a Coalition partner, is encouraging its members to advocate and support the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s new source performance standards for carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants (Docket number EPA–HQ–OAR–2011–0660).  NCRLC believes this the proposal is a standard that would mean cleaner air and a cleaner Creation by limiting carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants.  To lend your voice in support, take action here by sending a comment on the rule to the EPA.   Australian Bishops Provide Guidance on Carbon Tax Reuters reports that Australia unveiled its most sweeping economic reform in decades on Sunday with a plan to tax carbon emissions from the nation's worst polluters, reviving hopes of stronger global climate action with the largest emissions trade scheme outside Europe . . . "It's time to get on with this, we are going to get this done," said Prime Minister Julia Gillard. In order to help Catholics faithfully reflect on a carbon tax, the Catholic Education Office of Melbourne, Australia has published an excellent summary in very short and clear paragraphs on this issue.

Articles published on Sustainability in our weekly bulletin...

On this blog you can see the full text of all articles published on Sustainability in our weekly bulletin.  If you want to see them as they were printed and published in the paper edition of our bulletin follow these links to the PDF...

See the front cover page of our July 8th bulletin at:

What does Sustainability mean for you?

http://www.stfrancisa2.com/sites/all/files/users/user28/120708.pdf

And, see page 8 of our Aug 5th bulletin at:

Sustainability Where to Begin?

http://www.stfrancisa2.com/sites/all/files/users/user28/120805.pdf

Prayers of the Faithful

Sustainability Prayers and Prayers of the Faithful ...  See:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RSvhH-q7moGAlAk76-iOTPAdwd00oSWeFke_uOH0Q58/edit

Sustainability Partnership

What does Sustainability mean for you? 


What connections do you see between energy use in your home and your relationship with God?  How can we, as a Parish, be better stewards of the creation God has given us?  As people of Faith, we have a moral imperative to care for God's creation and its deep distresses.

Pope Benedict XVI tells us: "Preservation of the environment, promotion of sustainable development and particular attention to climate change are matters of grave concern for the entire human family."

Sustainability Partnership

There is mutual interest at St. Francis and St. Mary's in Ann Arbor in "greening" our Parishes. We are forming a team with several significant partners and we invite you to consider joining us. Our first focus is to understand what our Catholic faith tells us about caring for God's creation.

Gary Koenigsknecht, our resident Seminarian, did some great research. Here are a few excerpts from the Pope and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops that tell us why this work is so important. 
"Catholic Theological Foundations for addressing Climate Change"

"Our Creator has given us the gift of creation: the air we breathe, the water that sustains life, the fruits of the land that nourish us, and the entire web of life without which human life cannot flourish."

"Can we remain indifferent before the problems associated with such realities as climate change, desertification, the deterioration and loss of productivity in vast agricultural areas, the pollution of rivers and aquifers, the loss of biodiversity, the increase of natural catastrophes and the deforestation of equatorial and tropical regions?  Can we disregard the growing phenomenon of 'environmental refugees', who are forced by the degradation of their natural habitat to forsake it?"

 "This responsibility is a global one, for it is concerned not just with energy but with the whole of creation, which must not be bequeathed to future generations depleted of its resources."

 "… the issue of environmental degradation challenges us to examine our life-style and the prevailing models of consumption and production, which are often unsustainable from a social, environmental and even economic point of view.  We can no longer do without a real change of outlook which will result in new life-style."

This is our faith and we are called to action.  The purpose of the emerging Sustainability Project at St. Francis is to educate parishioners on the effects of warming trends globally that have the greatest impact on the poorest among us and on future generations so that we can:

• work together to build up the capacity of our Parish and parishioners to be good stewards of creation
• make the needed changes in our parishes and in our homes and lifestyles to improve our stewardship of God's creation and reduce our carbon footprints.

Look for the new "Sustainability Corner" in the Forum, as well as, our Parish Sustainability web page for updates and ways you can engage and contact Scott Wright at 734-821-2121 to join our emerging Sustainability Team.

Jane Vogel & Steve Lavender
on behalf of the St. Francis Sustainability Team

St. Francis Parish Sustainability Project PURPOSE STATEMENT and OVERVIEW

St. Francis of Assisi Parish Sustainability Project PURPOSE STATEMENT and OVERVIEW (PDF) The purpose of the Sustainability Project at St. Francis is to educate parishioners on the effects of warming trends globally that have the greatest impact on the poorest among us and on future generations so that we can: · work together to build up the capacity of our Parish and parishioners to be good environmental stewards · make the needed changes in our parish and in our homes to improve our stewardship of God’s creation and reduce our carbon footprints.

St. Francis Parish Sustainability Project FRAME WORK

St. Francis of Assisi Parish Sustainability Project FRAME WORK ~ faith foundation: liturgy & sermons - prayer & spirituality ~ communication & education: school, religious education (youth), faith formation (adult) ~ stewardship action: 'greening' our parish, homes & lifestyles - energy, bulidings, transportation - purchasing, recycling, waste - food, land, water - culture change. ~ environmental justice & advocacy: justice actions local & global - advocacy