angela barranco: goodafternoon, everyone. hello and welcome tothe white house today. my name is angela barrancoand i'm the director of public engagement with thewhite house council on environmental quality. i'm so thrilled to bekicking off today's champions of changecelebration. you're all here because ofyour leadership in the faith community and yourcommitment to the moral
calling that isclimate action. so a huge round ofapplause for all of you. (applause) thank you. your mission is one we carevery deeply about -- the president verypersonally cares about. and i am so honored to getthis started this afternoon. so i'm excited to kick offthings by introducing our first speaker and myboss, christy goldfuss.
christy is the managingdirector of the white house council on environmentalquality and is going to get us started and introduceall of today's champions. so big round ofapplause for christy. christy goldfuss:hi everyone. good afternoon. i hope you were able to makeit into the white house without too much trouble. sometimes security makes ita little bit of a challenge
to enter here. but i'm glad you're allhere, especially on this warm day. welcome to the white houseand to the champions of change event. as angela said, my nameis christy goldfuss. i'm the managing directorfor the council on today is such a pleasure tobe joined by so many leaders in the faith community.
you have found innovativeways to combine your faith and environmental passionand to encourage others to do the same. through your educational,cultural and grassroots efforts, the ways youhave found to do this are incredibly diverse andinspiring to all of us here at the white house. from reverend lennoxyearwood, jr., president and ceo of the hip hop caucus,using music and celebrity
endorsements to raiseawareness to rabbi marc soloway, who works with ajewish adventure camp that focused on sustainability,these leaders are truly working in ways that willinspire millions across this country andaround the world. as a catholic, it's hard forme not to recognize pope francis' recent encyclical. it's grabbing lots ofheadlines, and it has put this debate front and centerhere in the u.s., reframing
for people what's at stakewhen we talk about climate change. in terms of wildlife, thepope has said, "because of us, thousands of specieswill no longer give glory to god by their very existence,nor convey their message to us. we have no such right." suchwords have the power to make people stop and think aboutclimate change in the midst of their busy lives, evenjust for a single moment. however, long before theseheadlines followed this
connection between faithand climate change, these leaders -- all of you heretoday -- took it upon yourselves to act at home ina way that will have impacts both nationally andinternationally and on our generation andfuture generations. we are here today tochampion the work you have already done, but alsohighlight how you are leading the way so manyothers inspiring them to do great environmental andclimate work and preparing
them to take the torchwhen it's handed to them. we are all finding differentways to tackle the challenge our globe iscurrently facing. from a changing climate onour aging infrastructure, our public lands and watersface threats on many different fronts. you know this. i know this. and, of course, presidentobama knows this.
in his second inauguraladdress, president obama made it clear his commitmentin terms of his own faith, and he said, quoting, "wewill respond to the threat of climate change. knowing that failure to doso would betray our children and future generations. that is how we will preserveour planet, commanded to our care by god. that's what will lendmeaning to the creed of our
fathers once declared." soas we look for solutions to pressing environmentalchallenges, we need to engage our religiouscommunities. just as you have done,others need to learn to do the same. we need to harness theirdedication and passion and help share the sense ofresponsibility for our planet's well-being, becauseit is these traits that translate into somephenomenal environmental
work, into change. and that's why you are allhere today as champions of change. i will ask -- i'm going toread a little bit about each one of you -- and as i sayyour name, please come to the stage so that we canhonor you, one at a time. we'll start out: hudaalkaff, founder and director of the islamic environmentalgroup of wisconsin, with higher education andenvironmental degrees from
the university of georgia. she also has experienceteaching environmental studies courses at theuniversity of wisconsin - madison. reverend kim morrow,executive director of nebraska interfaithpower and light. she has served as ministerof sustainability at first plymouth church in lincoln,and now serves as a climate change resource specialistat the school of natural
resources at the universityof nebraska in lincoln. reverend dr. gerald durleyhas also worked within academia, as he serves asthe dean of clark university in atlanta and the directorof the health promotion resource center of themorehouse university school of medicine. dr. durley is now usinghis extensive and varied background to testify beforethe epa on the clean power plan and to try to removefluoride from toothpaste and
drinking water. and some of our championshave taken their work to the energy field. sister joan brown, at thenew mexico interfaith power and light, is working toengage faith communities in energy efficiency andrenewable energy. she's educating andinspiring our faith communities and individualson how to be energy efficient. we're also seeing peopleorganize grassroots efforts.
steven beumer, an activemember of st. john evangelical lutheran church,has worked to make his church building moreenergy-efficient, organized a special worship servicein april dedicated to earth day, and planted a smallgarden with the church and school that has now led toa $2,500 grant to start a community garden this fall. he also organizes hands-onenvironmental projects in his community, such aslabeling storm drains.
for cassandra carmichael,the executive director for the national religiouspartnership for the environment, serves as analliance of four major faith groups -- jewish, catholic,evangelical and protestant. previously, she was thewashington office and eco-justice program directorfor the national council of churches where sheimplemented the environmental and justiceministries of its 37 member denominations, whichrepresent 100,000
churches nationwide. we're not only seeingthis in our own nation. some of you have takenthe work internationally. sunita viswanath, cofounderof women for aghan women, has worked in women's andhuman rights organizations for almost three decades. sunita is cofounder andboard member of sadhana: a coalition of progressivehindus that prioritize social justice.
per her work with sadhana,she has encouraged hindus to live out principles of faithin action by taking care of the environment. patrick carolan, executivedirector of the franciscan action network alsocofounded the global catholic climate movement,a coalition of catholic leaders and organizationsfrom across the globe, coming together to raiseawareness about the urgency of climate action.
two more left. rachel lamb, from the youngevangelicals for climate action, has developeda successful climate leadership fellows programthat extends to nine college campuses and acrossinternational borders in africa. and lastly, nana firman, asa member of the green mosque initiative for islamicsociety of north america, encourages fellow muslimsto practice an eco-friendly lifestyle.
she also worked with theworld wildlife fund in indonesia, where shedirected climate resiliency work and recovery efforts in the wake of natural disasters. these are allamazing individuals. oh, two more! oh my goodness. either i skipped apage or -- all right. well, reverend lennoxyearwood, come on up! president and ceo of hip hopcaucus, which is using music
and celebrity endorsementsto raise awareness, of course. and then rabbi marc soloway. (laughs) sorry about that. rabbi soloway works with ajewish adventure camp that focused on sustainability. these leaders are alltruly inspiring millions. so let's give them,collectively, a round of applause. and why don't we alljoin together for --
all right, let's giveeveryone one more round of applause as theyreturn to their seats. thank you, all of you, forall of the work that you do. you will hear today fromseveral top administration officials who will alsoshare their thanks and support for your work. more importantly, though,we want to hear from all of you. that's what today is about. learning from all the workthat you do and the examples
that you have inspired inthe religious community and to the next generation toprotect our environment. so with that, i say thankyou and we look forward to hearing from you all today. angela barranco:thank you, christy. it is truly an impressivegroup of faith leaders and huge congratulations to youall and thank you for being here today. but before we call up ourfirst group of champions to
hear from them directly, i'mso pleased to introduce a leader in the civil rightsand faith communities, who literally needslittle introduction. reverend al sharpton. reverend sharpton has beenan outspoken voice for the cause of preserving theearth, and about the impact of climate change inminority communities. last year when presidentobama visited the group reverend sharpton founded,the national action networks
conference, he spoke aboutthe moral obligation we have to confront climatechange today. today i'm pleased to invitedreverend sharpton to the stage to talk about theimportance of his work on climate by people of faith. reverend sharpton. al sharpton: thankyou very much. i"m very happy and honoredto be here, and happy to arrange a very hot day soyou would get to point on
your way here. (laughter) as was stated last year,when president obama address national action network, heraised this issue as a issue of deep moral dimensionsbecause climate change is not a political issueas we approach it. it is a moral as wellas civil rights issue. and he said that we've gotto make sure our citizens have the opportunity to leadhealthy, productive lives.
all of the things that wefight for really will be to no avail if our healthis not intact and if our communities are impacted ina negative way in terms of the health of our citizens. but he not only addressed itin national action network. in his inaugural address, hesaid -- i want to read this quote -- he said, "the pathtoward sustainable energy sources will be long andsometimes difficult. but america cannotresist this transition.
we must lead. we cannot cede to othernations the technology that will power new jobsand new industries. we must claim its purpose. that's how we will maintainour economic vitality and our national treasure --our forest and waterways. our croplands andsnow-capped peaks. this is how we will preserveour planet, commanded to our care by god." that wasa direct quote from his
inaugural address. and for me and many of thechampions that you will see today, it is an issue ofjustice and it is an issue of human rights. african americans are at ahigher risk of being close or predisposed to areas ofcarbon as well as other poisonous pollutionin the air. and we have adisproportionate interest because we sufferdisproportionately.
i remember years ago, whensome in our faith community and the civil rightscommunity, notably champion (inaudible) and otherswould raise this. we acted as though it wasa foreign language, but we breathed it every day. we lived it every day. so as we have fought andthis administration has made history with healthcare, youcannot on the one hand say that we want everyone tohave great healthcare, but
not everyone havegreat health. and you cannot not deal withclimate change as a health issue, as a moral issue andas a civil rights issue. these are facts. we know that burning fossilfuels release carbon dioxide. we know that the carbondioxide traps heat. we know that levels ofcarbon dioxide are higher than they have beenin 800,000 years. and we know that the 20warmest years on record for
our planet allhappened since 1990. we can debate certainopinions, but we can't debate facts. therefore, if we are faithleaders of whatever faith, we have a moral obligationto not defile the earth that god has given us and tostand to make sure that above politics and abovepartisanship and above our denominational differencesand above whatever else we want to say, that we protectthe land that god has given
us protect the earth thatwe inhabit, and protect the inhabitants of the earththat we've been charged to preach, teach, and leave. or follow. it is our obligation if wetake our callings and our assignments seriously. that is why having thesechampions means so much. because they champion all ofour right to do our work and to do it healthily.
i would hope that we leavehere with a new vigor and a new commitment that we'regoing to do something as revolutionary and astraditional as save the earth that god has given us. that is part of all of ourministries and part of all of our duties. thank you and god bless you. angela barranco: thankyou, reverend sharpton. and let's give him anotherhuge round of applause.
now i'd like to introducethe moderator of our first panel: the reverend mitchhescox, president of the evangelicalenvironmental network. a lot can be said about "therev," as we like to call him. he has published numerousarticles and worked with new society publishers to getthe word out about how churches are workingtogether to fight he has tirelessly devotedmuch of his career to organizing otherevangelicals in an effort to
make the case for actingon climate change. as part of his environmentalwork, he even led a 300 creation care walk from westvirginia to washington, d.c., and the 80-mile gulfcoast prayer walk during the deep water horizon spill. we are thrilled to have therev joining us here today, he himself a long-standingchampion for climate action. please welcome reverendmitch hescox to kick off our first panel.
mitch hescox: well,thank you angela. and i'd like to invite therest of my panelists to come up and join me here atthe table so we can start entering into a dialogue. here you -- you're next-- would you sit there? you're in the next panel. well, thank you all and-- for being here today. and a special thank you toall the champions of change. and just as a way ofintroduction, you know, i
think it's importantthat this first group is primarily engaged withwhat's happening, certainly on the local level andwithin their own faith communities. and certainly -- even thoughthere are many different traditions gathered at thistable, in this room and certainly in our country, ithink there are two really key aspects of faith that weneed to lift up: the first is the moral action, to carefor the least of beasts.
whether they're inour own communities. whether they're in distantlands in the developing world. climate change is thegreatest moral challenge of our generation because itimpacts every single person in the world. every single person. we can talk about foodscarcity and energy prosperity and poverty. we can talk aboutforced migration.
we can talk about increasedasthma in our own cities. diseases like lymedisease in my home state, pennsylvania, which isspreading like wildfires because of increasedtemperatures. but there's something elsethat's part of our faith traditions thatsometimes is missing. and that's that we'recalled to make hope happen. we're here today to talk aboutcreating a new world.
they're literally causing arevolution -- a clean energy revolution, which will powerour economies, help those in the developing world trulyseek that energy prosperity i mentioned a while ago. and make a place where wehave a great -- not only air that we can breathe andwater that we can drink, but jobs and economy poweredfor future generations. and so i think that's thekey to us here today, is to talking about that hope.
and one thing that's also --is very unique, i believe, to our faith traditions-- is no matter if we are muslim, or hindu, orevangelical, or catholic, or jewish, we all believe thata human being can transform or be transformed. that they can change. and so this panel isabout transformation. about all of ustransforming, and being agents of transformation tohelp the individual, and
then to help thesociety to move forward. you know, it is my pleasureto be the leader of the evangelical environmentalnetwork, and a great team of folks, and -- allover the country. but it's also a blessing tobe here today, and i'm going to stop now with me, becauseyou know, us evangelical preachers can talk for 45 or50 minutes and, you know, we wouldn't want to do that. but i'm just going to alloweach of my friends here on
the panel to introducethemselves, to say about a minute introduction or so,and then we're going to do something uniquefor a panel. we're going to try not to doquestions and answers, but try to have a dialogue aboutsome of the subjects that are so dear toall of our hearts. so i will turn to myleft, and allow ... huda alkaff: oh. hello.
salaam alaikum. peace be with you all. i greet you with anislamic greeting. i'm huda alkaff, and i'm thefounder and director of the islamic environmental groupof wisconsin, formed in 2005. this is a volunteer group. we are celebrating10 years this year. the group is called now,wisconsin green muslims. we educate the muslimcommunity and the public at
large about islamicenvironmental teachings, and we collaborate withwisconsin interfaith power and light, and interfaithearth network, and many, many other collaborators onmany issues such as climate change, water issues, foodissues, fair trade, green ramadan initiative, andrenewable energy and energy efficiency, recycling, andenvironmental justice. and we are part of theclimate justice movement. mitch hescox: thank you.
kim morrow: i'm reverend kim morrow. i'm the director of nebraskainterfaith power and light. i'm also the adjunctminister of sustainability at first-plymouth church,which is a big united church of christ congregationin lincoln, nebraska. and i also served as theclimate change resource specialist at theuniversity of nebraska. a lot of us doing this workknow that we have to wear multiple hats to pay thebills, so that's why i have
so many titles. and i really enjoy doingthis work in the heartland, in a red state. it's probably unlikely placeto be doing climate work, but we've had someincredible successes. and what i have found doingthis work in the midwest is that people have a deep andabiding love of the land, and are very connected tothe cycles of nature because of their agriculturalheritage.
and so, when we can makethat connection with their love of -- love of theworld, and their centering in faith, we can makesome real progress. so, happy to be here. sunita viswanath:hi, everyone. my name is sunita viswanath,and i'm a co-founder and board member of sadhana,which is a coalition of progressive hindus. and our organization isall volunteer, as well.
and we are only fouryears old, and i'm here. i'm so proud to be here, andi'm so grateful to be here. and i'm representingprogressive hindus, my colleagues in sadhanaand other organizations, especially the contingentwho was in rome, advocating fiercely for climate action. sadhana is a broad socialjustice organization. we are striving to connectthe progressive values and principles at the heartof our faith, with
social action. and we want to mobilizehindus to make loud their good deeds that they dovery, very nobly but privately. and we're trying to make aforce for justice in this world. joan brown: goodafternoon, and blessings to everyone. my name is joan brown. i'm a franciscan sister. my community is based inrochester, minnesota.
i am from new mexico, andvery happy to be here -- very humbled to be here. and i bring with me many,many people who are working on these issues of faithand climate change. and there are many of otherswho should be here, who are doing much betterwork than i am. so, in new mexico, we workwith people in education around climate change,care of creation. we help them engage inenergy efficiency, renewable
energy, solar. and we do public policyadvocacy at the local, state and the federal levels. and, you know, i'm also anoxfam sister ambassador on the planet, as well. so we make the connectionswith the local and the international work. and in this work, i thinkwhat's most important -- because there's so much workto be done -- is that this
really is a work of love. and it's a radical,revolutionary call of love, and loving all asbrothers and sisters. and putting that love intoaction, because we are all one part of the sacredearth community. so, thank you againfor being here. marc soloway:good afternoon. my name is rabbimarc soloway. i'm from boulder, colorado,and i serve a wonderful
congregation there calledbonai shalom, which has really strived to becomea green community. we were one of the firstcommunities in the region to become zero-waste, and we'vebeen supporting a lot of farming initiatives,and so on. i'm also very proud to bethe chair of the rabbinic advisory board for hazon,which is one of the largest faith-based environmentalorganizations in the world right now, and has helpedover 70 jewish communities
around the country partnerwith local farms in community-supportedagriculture projects, in csas. also a proud member of agoat co-op, a jewish goat co-op in boulder, where imilk -- get to milk goats every sunday morning. and also proud to be a rabbiin a community that has the only jcc -- the only jewishcommunity center in the world with a director offarming and sustainability, who is here this afternoon.
and i represent -- likeothers have said -- so, so many people in thejewish community. i feel like i'm on theshoulders of giants who've been environmentalactivists in thejewish community for decades and decades and decades. in our particular corner,one of the things that we're doing is really challengingpeople significantly to think about theenvironmental impact of the
food that they eat,especially meat, which is responsible for moregreenhouse gasses. the livestock industry,meat and dairy together, is responsible for moregreenhouse gasses than the whole transportsector put together. and just here to honor thatconnection between the choices that we make everyday as consumers and as eaters. and some of us, includingme, like our food very much. so i think more and moreabout the impact of our food.
steven beumer:good afternoon. my name is steve beumer. i'm a member of st. johnevangelical lutheran church in winter park, florida. that is justnorth of orlando. and we have been on a pathof trying to do small things -- i think change reallybegins with a thousand little small eventsand the small steps. and so we have been doingmany of those in our
congregation, from a newroof that reflects sunlight, which florida gets a lot of-- changing light bulbs, having a worship servicearound earth day, our very first and hopefully now willbe something that happens every year. i'm a layperson in thechurch, so here to say that those folks that sit thereand their worship services -- you're the ones that canmake the change happen. it doesn't have to bedependent on your faith
leader to make it happen. you can make it happen. and i want to also say thatas varied as our panel is today that certainlytoday the illusion of our differences within ourdifferent faith blocks vanishes today. mitch hescox: wellthank you all. very good comments andvery good introductions. now, as i mentioned, thisis all about making hope
happen, about transformationand about learning from each other. and again, it's not going tobe (inaudible) down the row asking everybody questions. let's try to enterinto a dialogue. the starting point i'd liketo go to is: share with the people here of a startingpoint for you, of how you maybe engaged a member ofyour congregation or your group. how you started out, sortof, identifying to make
change happen throughincorporating and bringing other people on board. so that's sort of our firstdialogue question and, please just jump in andlet's do it together. joan brown: okay, welli'll start with that. and i was so nervous i don'tknow if i said that i'm the executive director of newmexico interfaith power and light. and i'm on the interfaithpower and light national board.
i'll say that. but in terms of that, youknow, as a franciscan sister there's this comment byfrancis that said, "preach the gospel and if you must,use words." and so for myself, the best wayis just who you are. and showing your enthusiasm,excitement and affirmation of people for whateverthey're doing, wherever they're starting at. so that's beenmost successful.
and just persistence. i mean, you have to justkeep at it and at it and at it. this really is in the trenches, i call "slogging" work. and people come on board,like our lady of most holy rosary, a catholic parishthat, after working with them for years, they didenergy efficiency and they put on some 275 solarpanels, so that's my experience. it's who we are. marc soloway: i'll jump in.
you know, as a rabbi of acongregation, i feel like every year there's this sortof pressure and tension about planning for the highholidays, for rosh hashanah, yom kippur andthose sermons. you know, i give like fivesermons over that period of time. big sermons. and i always sort of gothrough this brood of thinking, like, "who cares?"
although not sayingreally, like, who cares. but i've found that,actually, there are three significant sermons thati've given over the course of our high holidays thathave had pretty radical impact. in 2007, on the first day ofthe jewish new year, on rosh hashanah, i gave a sermonabout, like, if we're celebrating thebirthday of the earth. what does that really meanin terms of what's going on in climate change?
and from that, a woman,debbie, in my community, immediately after i gave thesermon came up and said, "i want to start our green team(inaudible) shalom." and it became this grassrootsactivism and she was inspired. and we started partneringwith a company in boulder called eco-cycle and offeredwhen people have, like, lifecycle events like a barmitzvah or something like that, that they couldtake an option to have a zero-waste event.
which meant everything wouldbe either composted or recycled. and after a while, everybodystarted doing it and then we took it to the board and isaid, "well, why don't we just have it as our policy?" and it became our policy. and i feel like that led theway for other communities to follow us. and then another -- i gave asermon about local farmers and local agriculture andjust agribusiness and how we
needed to take out ourconsumer dollars elsewhere. and from that we, inpartnership again, with other communities and withthe jewish community center, we started our own csa withabout 70 to 80 families joining ourcommunity-supported agriculture program. and then another -- on yomkippur, which is a fast day where no one's eating, idecided to give a very cool sermon about foodand food issues.
and i spoke about the meatindustry and from that, i have been told, many peoplejust changed their eating habits. and in changing their eatinghabits, they really took more seriously theenvironmental impact of their food and we becamea vegetarian facility. and so there's been animpact through a combination of really reaching out topeople in the community for grassroots work, but alsojust acknowledging that
there's a -- that peopleactually do this. (laughs) and that's whatwe have to say as faith leaders. and then that canhave an impact. and if we influence even 100people or 1,000 people to make small changes in theirlives, then as pope francis said, i think, beautifullyin the encyclical letter, it's these small changesthat are actually acts of hope and acts of love thatcan really transform our world, so.
sunita viswanath: i'd liketo jump in because i think my project is actually thesmallest -- (laughs) -- among all the champions. and it's straightfrom the heart. as a hindu, for almost 25years, i've been working on women's rights, and i'veseen that as my dharma, my rightful duty as a hindu. and later on in life, inthe last four years, with colleagues i've been able tospeak as a hindu, come out
as a hindu, and speak aboutdoing social justice work as my dharma, as my duty. and one legitimate pathto god or to truth, in hinduism, equivalent andequally important to the others is karma. work. action. there's also devotion. there's also knowledge.
but i guess my way of livinga meaningful life has been to do. and so it was very importantfor sadhana, which means faith in action or practice,to do or to have a project. and so our project iscalled project prithvi. prithvi is mother earth. and it's very simple andsmall and it's magical. there's a beach in queens --there are several -- we've adopted one -- wherehindus worship.
and they put their offeringswith all their prayers and love and yearninginto the water. the water is divine. the air is divine. the earth is divine. this is devout prayer. the problem is that theofferings go into the water and wash back up and on anygiven day, when you go to the beach you will see themstrewn across the beach,
entangled with garbage. and what happens is, everymonth we go to temples and we speak to priests and weengage them in advocacy of -- about the contradictionof worshipping earth and defiling earth and howthat makes no sense. and the priests help usmotivate and mobilize devotees to come out on amonthly basis and clean up with us. and that's where the changehappens, which --
it's transformation. it's revolution. every single time thevolunteers who come out with us -- and sometimes there's100 -- will talk about how pained they are to seetheir offerings -- a broken ganesha, a broken lakshmi-- face-down in the dirt, wrapped up with filth. and that pain iswhat leads them. and it happens atthe beach cleanups.
those volunteers will goto somebody who is doing a puja, which is worship, atthe beach and say to them, "what are you going todo with these offerings? don't put them into thewater." and right there in front of our eyes, we seethat change happening. and it's remarkable. i just want to say that inhinduism, we are all one. and this is true inall of our faith. in one way or another, wefeel that we're part of a
sacred oneness and there isan imminent divinity in all of us, regardless of race,religion, gender, caste, species even. so this idea that we areone with the earth is very natural. it feels veryright, to a hindu. so it's not hard to get them-- get us to see that if we discriminate, if weperpetrate violence to each other or theearth, we suffer.
and our suffering can leadus to action, and that's what we're tryingto do in sadhana. mitch hescox: steve, youhaven't jumped in already. steven beaumer: sure. one of the interestingdevelopments that happened -- there was a room in ourchurch building that had been used as storage. and i asked if i could cleanit up and take it over and put some, you know -- we'dhad a food pantry and some
information on recycling. and we were going to recycleglasses and ink cartridges and all sorts ofthings in the room. and as we began the cleanup,there was a giant one of these huge copiers in there. and i said, "well, what arewe going to do with this? it hasn't worked for years."and somebody said, "oh, just roll it out and throw it inthe dumpster." i said, "no, you can't throw thatin the dumpster.
that'll go in the landfill. this thing's got ink andelectronics." so we decided to do an e-waste and wecollected, in the end, about 914 pounds and an e-wastecompany came and safely disposed of those. some of those little actionshad led into the discussion around earth day of havingour worship service focus exclusively oncare for creation. and we did have one of-- i thought -- the most
beautiful earth day servicesever and established, through now every earth daythat we'll have a worship service. i printed up some extrabulletins if you want to see me afterwards. i'll be happy to share someof the things -- how we creatively used -- and morepeople got involved in that, as i mentioned. they would like to doan earth day service.
and folks came up with musicand verses and things that -- our pastor gavea wonderful sermon. so it evolved into a betterdiscussion after that, because people understoodthat this was not a political issue. it was not a club. it was not a secularenvironmental group. it truly was a moralinitiative from a faith perspective.
and from our book ofinstructions in the bible, it says to do this. kim morrow: i would just addthat, in terms of how we started, i was very carefulwhen i came to first plymouth church and startedthe sustainable living initiative five years ago. i sort of got the sensefrom some people in the congregation that they werea little bit afraid that i was going to start callingpeople to task and slapping
their hands for notrecycling or not composting and this and that. and i really did not want toset that kind of tone in the beginning. and so we started with food. because everyone likes food. everyone cares about foodand loves sustainability and climate change andjustice and so on. and so we started a seriesof organic potluck lunches
and a cooking class thatwould be on a saturday. and then the potluck lunchwould be on sunday and we would bring in a speakerfrom our local network of sustainability leaders andthey would give a talk. and so, from the beginning,we started with a very invitational model. we wanted to create a sortof wholesome vision that was community-based and friendlyand family-based and (inaudible) welcome,like you mentioned.
we simply wanted to invitepeople to come into this vision of a new world, atransformed world, with us. and that has really worked. huda alkaff: yeah, i'man environmentalist by training, actually. i'm an environmentalist --(inaudible) what do you want to be when you grow up? i used to tell them, "i wantto be an environmentalist." so i am now.
(laughs) and what i wantedto do -- like everything, solve the world. but that cannot be done. so what worked for us overmany, many trials with the islamic environmental groupof wisconsin is to divide the whole year intodifferent themes. so that would be worked onand so we could kind of focus each month -- forexample, february is on and we did a very successfulcampaign with youth on
climate change, where we hadthem doing photo petitions as part of the midwestclimate action league. and we had 200 youth --muslim youth -- in wisconsin (inaudible) for the petitionand supporting a clean power plant. and that was part the -- outof 2,000 midwest (inaudible) so we really dida good job there. so climate changein february. march is in water --our focus is in water.
and we have -- we focus alot on water because it's sacred and it's scarce. and we tie it withclimate change. so when you care aboutsomething and it's spiritual and it's precious and youlove it, you care about what happens to it. so we go there. we say, "let's care aboutwhat's happening to our resources." andwe build on that.
we work on --and we celebrate. each month, whatever resultswe have, like, whatever -- if we reduced how much waterwe consumed, our goal is to reach what the prophetmohammad used to use when we (inaudible) washingbefore prayer. he used to use alittle bit of water. we know that amount. whereas we use thisamount of water -- a lot. so we have a goal reachingthat, what the prophet
mohammad used to usethe bout of water. and we look at the watermeter every time we move down. we have a campaignaround that. and we celebrate how much-- whatever achievements we have. we say, "next year we can dobetter." so we quantify all our results. next year we do anothercampaign and we say, "we did that last year, so we can dobetter." so the same thing
happened last year-- renewable energy. how much we -- how muchmovement in that regards. energy efficiency -- whatdid we do in that regard? recycling. how much recycled? thousands this year. we can do better next year. so we always quantify thatand we celebrate after each month of a theme.
we celebrate thatand we move forward. environmental justice, wecelebrate it in december. we celebrate human rights asenvironmental justice is our theme. environmental justice is ahuman rights issue and we stand up for that. we say that clean air,clean water, pure water, sanitation and access tohealthy food -- that's all environmental justice issueand it's a human rights issue.
so we celebrate that. so we built around that andwe move from one mosque to the other in wisconsinaround these things. and another thing aboutgreening ramadan, we used to do this for a decadenow, but this year, we collaborationwith many others. it's a national campaignwith the islam society of north america. and we have 35 mosquesparticipating with -- that
means tens of thousands ofmuslim persons are reducing their ecological footprint. so, yeah, it's one stepat a time, but it counts. mitch hescox: awesome. i think as we think aboutthis and continue this, i want to remind everybodythat we're not just speaking to sort of us whoare in the room. but this is being, you know,webcast and stored and will hopefully be a referenceto other people around the
nation and evenaround the world. and so keeping with thistradition of making hope happen -- that we want tosee transformation both on the individual basis, butthen collectively for societal change of fundingthis clean energy revolution of reducingcarbon pollution. i'd like to ask each one ofyou, if you have a story -- you don't have to mentionnames -- of an individual who you've seen transformedwithin your area of service
who now is joinedwith you as a partner. and he may be even movingbeyond you to organize other people, to helpother people. to be part of this hopefulgeneration to make a new world. so again, i'll throw it opento anybody who wants to start out and i think wehave an answer right there. are you ready to go? sunita viswanath: i thinkthe transformation happened in the organization.
when the seven or so of usstarted sadhana, we were each completelydisconnected inside. for me, i was doing myafghan women's rights work. and absolutely, you know --this was my faith in action. i was going to where theneed was the greatest and doing my social justicework, but i would never have said that. and at home, with my family,i would go to temple on my kids' birthdays.
they all shaved their headwhen they were one and one of my sons ishere right now. they had the annaprashan --first solid food ceremony. in my own way, i waspracticing my hinduism, but keeping it separate from mysocial justice work, knowing inside that theywere connected. and this is true of allthe members of sadhana. and we, over the courseof building this little organization that's broughtso much meaning to our life,
have brought ourselvestogether and we speak in a more whole way. but also the organization,when we first started, i feel that we were --anybody could have joined. and at this point, fouryears on, we really do place our work -- if you like, inthe prophetic tradition. we want our work to takeplace where the need is the greatest: wherepeople are poor. where the environmentis suffering.
where people aremarginalized, disenfranchisedand made invisible. that's where wewant to do our work. and that's been theevolution and growth of the organization. we haven't even gottenstarted yet, so it's very powerful personally to eachof us in the organization. joan brown: i'll jump in. and these are some examplesthat just happened a couple
of weeks ago. because we are working veryhard because of the papal encyclical (inaudible),praise be -- on climate change. and so, you know, people aresuddenly feeling empowered by that. and so we had an event, apanel a couple of weeks ago. and it was interfaith andall these people came and there were catholics andmethodists and baha'is and all these folks.
so afterwards, severalpeople came up to me and said, "i want to getinvolved." so one of them was a lutheran gentleman andsaid, "you know, i just -- i didn't realize thechurches were into this. so how can i get involved?" i said, "come, we'll havelunch next week." we had lunch last week and he wasconcerned about moving solar energy up for people thatdon't have any electricity or energy.
and sort of jumping overthe carbon emissions. and he was talkingabout africa. and i said, "you know, wehave many many navajo people who have no electricity orrunning water -- navajo nations, which ispart of new mexico. and he's an engineer. and he says, "well, that'ssomething i'd like to get behind." well, would youbelieve it -- the way providence, the waythe holy one works.
so two days later i gota call from an episcopal minister who's part of theepiscopal diocese of navajo land -- calling and saying,"you know, we really want to have an energy audit at --not just our mission church" -- and they have, like,i don't know how many buildings and how many acresof land just on their one mission -- "but we want toput on solar." and i said, "well, that's great." andshe said, "and our bishop said, 'we want to do it forevery facility we have in
our whole diocese on navajonation.'" i was even more thrilled. then i started talking toher about, you know, the clean power plant. because we have terriblepollution in new mexico and terrible poverty. and the health issuesare just awful. and so for the four cornersarea, with the coal-fired power plants -- and we hadthat, i don't know if you
saw that nasa picture ofthat big, terrible red cloud over northern new mexico? northwest? that's us. anyway, we had this methaneemission, so we're going to be working on the epa andthe blm methane ruling. and she said, "well, wouldyou believe that at our last diocesan meeting of thewhole diocese, we decided as a diocese that we wantedto work on these issues.
we not onlywanted, we had to. we're compelled by faith towork on these issues." so those are just a couple-- and i have more. i have a catholic woman lastweek at bible study with the encyclical and shesays, "i had no idea!" twenty women, said, "we hadno idea the catholic church felt this way. how can we get involved?" so i invited themto join a committee.
mitch hescox: that's great. wonderful. before we continue, iwant to give a shout out. jerry lawson, will youstand up for just a second? jerry leads the eprenergy star program for congregations. and if you don't have abeginning resource for energy efficiency, pleasegot to the epa energy start website and download theirenergy start handbook
it's a good starting pointfor energy efficiency. sister, you reminded me ofit, so i wanted to give that shout out to jerry. marc? marc soloway: first, i wantto say that i just finished reading the encyclical lastnight, and i find out an unbelievablyinspiring document. i hope everyone's read it oris thinking about reading it. it's really -- it's avery empowering and very
inspiring document, i think. and i think pope francisdefinitely is speaking to all people of faith. and i think that, to me,segues into this question. because i think around thecommunity of hazzan, the environmental organization imentioned earlier, i've seen so many examples of peoplewho are -- who feel kind of very disenfranchised from aspiritual judaism, but are activists or farmers or justfoodies or whatever they are.
and there's something aboutit coming together of a really beautifulspirituality, a jewish spirituality that reallydemands us to be shomrei adamah, like guardiansof the earth. and the people who've beenre-inspired, i think, by their judaism through thework of activism -- and i've also seen the same happenthe other way around. where people who are deeplyconnected to their jewish practice from a faithperspective, whether it's
the observance of thesabbath or whatever it might be, have, through the --what is being dubbed the new jewish food movement --through getting to milk a goat for the first time oractually see an animal being slaughtered in a traditionalway or meeting a farmer for the first time and actuallygetting to shake their hand and say, "wow thank you forgrowing my food for me. thank you for all the workthat you do." i think these have transformed people'srelationships with food and,
of course, the torah, ourscripture, has so many laws of agriculture that are, youknow, don't make sense in a normal agriculturalsociety, you know? things like leaving thecorners of your field for the needy andvulnerable in society. if you've harvestedsomething during the day and you collect it and thenleave it behind and then you forget about it, you know,you're obligated, according to the torah, not togo back and collect it.
and some of the csa, jewishcsa programs around the country have built in thisnotion that, well, if you forget to go pick up yourchaff from the farmers on a thursday afternoon orwhenever your pickup is, then we assume that you aredonating it to people who need it more than you do. and so this re-enlivenmentof ancient biblical traditions that gives us asense of -- there are some very, very deep and corevalues around environmental
justice, around foodjustice, around just sourcing our food. and there's been a reallydelightful coming together of people whose, i think,spirituality is being reinvigorated and peoplewhose activism has been reinvigorated throughthese partnerships. and when you -- there arethese gatherings that we have where you see justincredibly diverse group of people, like farmers andactivists and rabbis and
educators all just comingtogether to celebrate a more sustainable way of lookingat how we operate and how we function as a community andhow we operate especially around the food that we eat. so i definitely would sayi've seen transformations in that world. and we're going totransition now in a little bit -- and everybody, i'msure, might have a story. we can find a way toincorporate that at the end.
but our organizers tell meit's time to receive some of your questions from thosewho are in the room. so we have microphonesaround the room and so please just stand up andi'll acknowledge you and we'll get a microphone toyou if you'd like to ask a question. the gentleman in the backin the shirt there, please. and please identify yourselfso we know who you are and -- here we go.
richard azeke: goodafternoon everybody. my name is richard azeke. i am a member of the(inaudible) professional network here in d.c. andalso i'm a passionate environmentalist(inaudible). so i just wanted -- youtalked about the story about meeting an environmentalistwhen you were young. i related (inaudible) andi really appreciate you sharing that.
i wanted to ask you allabout -- i think one of the panelists mentioned the --(inaudible) saw all the papers and thepaper in the water. and all the prayers and the(inaudible) that was being collected in the trash. i think when i heard yourcomment, i was thinking about, you know,pinpoints, you know? i think a lot -- especiallyour society -- it's going to take a certain amount oflike, big issue or like, big
situation that's going tocause some negative affect on a lot of us before we'reable to really make a move on climate change. and i think for many peoplewho are really interested in, you know, seeingprogress, a lot of people are disenfranchised,thinking, "well, it's going to take some big issue, somebig problem to affect a lot of people who are(inaudible) you know, make the change." so can you kindof talk about how you feel
we can get past that inorder to say, "we can be proactive and make achange." so we don't have to wait for some bigcalamity for everybody to (inaudible). mitch hescox: hey, man,i think that's what this panel's about. it's about makinghope happen. and i'm going to turn to kimfor the first response and then huda, if you'd like togive one, please -- since
you haven't spoken fora while, please do. kim morrow: i reallyappreciate your question, and i think that absolutelywhat we're all about is about building hopefultransformation. and i think the faithcommunity has tremendous resources for helpingthis transition happen in positive ways. i'm often very, verygrateful that i am doing this work from a faith-basedperspective and not just
from a secular perspective. because we all havetremendous resources for continually going back tothe bases of hope that are embedded in our traditions. and we can speak aboutthose, preach about those, call other people to actionaround those bases of hope that can make areal difference. yesterday, i was sightseeinghere in d.c. with my daughters, and we visitedthe national archives.
and i found a photograph ofa civil war soldier that was holding an american flagthat was all tattered and torn to pieces. and that photograph reallyjarred me, and it really got my attention because ina sense that was such a hopeful andfrightening image. and it really connected ithink with the work i feel i do and that we all do --that we're holding on to this vision of hope.
and it's terribly tattered. it's terribly frighteningwhat we're facing, and it's hard for us to do this workemotionally and spiritually, looking truthfullyat what we're facing. and yet, just as thatsoldier held up that tattered flag and continuedto fight for the union of the united states ofamerican, we continue to hold up this flag of hopethat is going to lead our society through thiscrisis against all odds.
we are committed to ourdepths to getting our world through this andin a positive way. huda alkaff: yeah. a question i ask when wedo -- when we do water and climate conversations withthe community -- i ask them, "picture a water moment, aprecious water moment in your life. hold that image experiencewith water in your memory. just hold it fora second there.
now imagine whateverpicture, whatever experience -- wonderful experienceyou had with water. imagine that isno longer there. imagine it's gone. imagine that you don't haveany access to it anymore. how do you feel?" we go from there. we have stories. we share stories.
we go from there into,"okay, what can be done?" we tie it with spiritualaspects, and as i mentioned from (inaudible) wateris sacred, spiritual. so, we as a successpoint, going from those conversations that weinstalled in almost all mosques in wisconsin. or i would say, largepercentage of those and many of them are willing to dothe same -- is to have those sensors in thatpollution station.
so, you have those faucetsthat are controlled. and so, we reduce theamount of water waste significantly. and we celebrate thatbecause it's like an achievement that the wholecommunity agreed upon, the whole community came about. we tied it to spirituality. it's a part of our faith. we need to reduce water.
the prophet mohammed usedto do that in the koran. it's the no waste messagethere that you can eat and drink and whatever,but don't waste. so, installing thosesensored faucets in almost all the pollution stationsand (inaudible) always. whenever you make ablutionbefore prayer, washing before prayer -- whichmuslims pray five times a day -- you're alwaysconscious of that. you always havemessage there.
we have those educationmessages for the youth, kids in all our formal andinformal schools. steven beumer: it's soimportant that everybody here know they can doone or two little things. after our worship servicethis saturday, we out with a group of us and took metalsigns and glued them on the sewer intakes that say"don't throw stuff down here because it ruins the lakes." in florida, the trash goesright into the lakes.
and we spent anafternoon doing that. it transformed i think a lotof the people who went with us because they weren'tmaking the connection between care of god'screation and doing this little task, but found it tobe so transformative at the end. and then, we hung stuff onpeople's doors as we glued those down and explainedwhat we were doing to them. and many people weresurprised, "oh, this is the church that's doing this?"
mitchell hescox: well,we're out of time. so, i would like, startingwith steve, one sentence to close up your remarks, andwe'll work our way down. and we'll it tothe next group. so, steve you get onesentence, and we'll repeat it (inaudible) down. steven beumer: i think it'simportant to remember in our faith tradition -- inchristianity, in lutherans -- that we have faith thatthere are miracles that have
happened in our faith --that jesus turned water into wine. so, how much of a stretchcan it be that we could look at -- have faith in amiracle of a creator that made the grapes that makethe wine and that created the water thatmakes the wine. and can't we celebrate that? can't we be in awe of that? can't we find that holinessin that work that we do to
protect it? marc soloway: the hebrewname adam that describes a human being is the same asadama which is the earth. we come from the earth. we have toprotect the earth. we have an incredibleobligation to do so that's deeply at the heart ofthe jewish tradition. and i think as empoweredwe are by these hopeful messages of small change, ialso think that we cannot
forget how important itis to be involved on a political level too, andthat we have to keep lobbying. we have to keep onknocking on doors of our representatives andchallenging corporate america, which is not takingany of this seriously. joan brown: and ultimatelywe are called to radical revolutionary loving ofevery nanoparticle, every brother and sister here andthroughout the planet, every person that works inwhatever institution
including hereon capitol hill. and it's tasks to make thatloving actions visible for all of us because we're allin this together, and we're all brothers and sisters. sunita viswanath: i'm goingback to the pain points. i think living on this earthtoday we must feel the pain because there is so muchsuffering and there is so much violence and there isso much destruction of our planet.
so, we must feel that pain. but that feeling of the painmust be transformative. and i think that, you know,most of our philosophies and religions tell us this, butin hinduism once we lose that sense of separationfrom each other. once we feel one with thisuniverse, there can be no selfish action. and that is wherethe hope lies. from there starts the hope.
and to hindus who arelistening, i want to bring to one of our favoritetexts, the bhagavad-gita, where krishna says, "withlove and devotion, offer me a leaf, a flower, a fruit,or water, and i will receive your love." let us remember those wordsand remember the krishna is the taste of water and thefragrance of the earth. and the bhagavad-gita is acall to action just like the pope's encyclical.
so, let us not just think ofthese beautiful thoughts, but let us act together. kim morrow: you know, ithink the most tragic thing that's happened in theclimate crisis is that it did become apolitical issue. and the time is far passedfor this to cease being a partisan issue or any kindof issue that divides. it needs to be an issue thatunites, and i hope that everyone in the room will doeverything they can to speak
to their electedrepresentatives so that we can move forward as onepeople to protect our earth. huda alkaff: yeah, i'llclose with a hadith from the prophet mohammed,peace be upon him. he said, "if doomsdayis about to take place, whenever one of you has atree sapling in his or her hand, which he or she cancultivate it, let him or her cultivate it for he orshe will be rewarded." so, this is an active hope-- it's a call for an active
hope for all of us. mitchell hescox: and thankyou for our first panel of champions of changein climate change.
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