Hi to every one, the contents present at this web page are in fact remarkable for people knowledge, well, keep up the good work fellows.
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Tom Carr - West Hartford, CT
07/07/2011 13:58
Commenting on the "We Call For" Great start. I would make it stronger with more urgency. Here are a couple of suggestions and I'm sure many others will put in their thoughts, as well.
1. The scientific evidence clearly shows that our excessive use of fossil fuels is the primary reason for the increase in carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere causing the rapid rise in near surface global temperatures and the severe global climate disruptions we are now experiencing.
2. (this was number 3; I'd put it number 2)The warming of global temperatures and the changing climate, with droughts, floods and other extreme weather events, represents a serious threat to ALL life on Earth, even as it disproportionately impacts the poor and vulnerable human populations who are least able to respond and adapt to the growing climate crisis.
3. (Currently, this is #2: I'd make it the third point) As the largest historic contributor of greenhouse gases, the United States has a moral responsibility to be a world leader in making the rapid transition we need to take away from the use of fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy sources.
4. Access to air, water and land that is life-giving is a fundamental right of all people and every living being, and it is the moral and ethical responsibility of governments around the world, including the government of the United States, to ensure this right is protected and ensured.
As people of faith representing the full spectrum of religion in America, we speak from our moral, ethical and spiritual perspectives as we appeal to the United States Congress and the Administration to develop and implement - without delay - the most effective and fair . . . .
As part of this effort, we urge Congress and the Administration to enact an energy policy . . .
I'm wondering if we might want to make a point about species extinction - that's the HUGE issue not too many are talking about (but perhaps that's too much?). Maybe this will spark some more interaction. I hope so. Thanks for your great work on this!!!
Peace, Tom Carr
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Tom Carr - West Hartford, CT
07/07/2011 14:11
A couple of thoughts about the Mission statement:
First: I'm not sure we need to say "we are setting aside our differences. . ." I think a stronger way to say this is that religion is united in this, that we share this one planet and all religions teach that we are stewards/care-takers/partners with all existence/etc. I think anyone who looks at this will know we have major differences on a lot of things but here, in caring for and living on Earth with one another and all life, we are one.
Second: My first reading/impression was that it needs a bit more "religious" language/phrases - God, Spirit, Sacredness, the Holy. I'm not sure how to do that, especially with non-Theistic religions but I think a better wordsmith could do that and it would strengthen our point about speaking from our faith convictions, using the languages of the different religions. The Deuteronomy text is excellent.
Reply
Cindy Harris
07/27/2011 21:46
Tom,
I think your suggestions to strengthen the "Ask" portion of our statement are excellent! I also like your reference to species extinction, and think we should definitely find a way to include that.
Best, Cindy
Reply
Bill Mc Kibben
04/09/2012 17:33
It’s Time for Interfaith Moral Action on Climate Change
There are lots of types of people who have been taking action on climate change over the last several years: environmentalists (of course), students and young people, community-based groups, labor activists, indigenous peoples, Appalachian and Gulf Coast residents, ranchers and more. Also, importantly, have been people from the many different denominations that make up the broad religious community in the United States.
It was personally inspiring to me when several dozen people of faith took action last August, getting arrested at the White House protesting the Keystone XL pipeline. And it is inspiring that some of those people, as well as many more, have joined together to organize five days of faith-based activities calling for action on climate change in Washington, D.C. April 22-26. The Interfaith Moral Action on Climate (http://www.interfaithactiononclimatechange.org) is playing a key role in organizing and connecting these activities.
It’s very important that an interfaith voice— Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Baha’I, Hindu, and Native American—is taking action in this way. A spiritual voice is urgently needed to underline the fact that global warming is already causing human anguish and mortality in our nation and abroad, and much more will occur in the future without rapid action. There is an urgent need to stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry, dramatically reduce wasted energy and significantly shift our power supplies from oil, coal and natural gas to wind, solar, geothermal and other renewable energy sources.
As stated in IMAC’s Call to Action, “Virtually all the world’s religious and spiritual traditions proclaim that we have a moral obligation to be good stewards of the Earth and all of its creatures and processes. To disrupt the climate that is the cornerstone of all life and to squander the extraordinary abundance of life, diversity, and beauty of the planet is a moral failure of the first order.”
What better time to bring this voice forward in unified action than during the week that includes Earth Day? I will be there on Tuesday, April 24th, for a day of activities that begins with an early morning vigil at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial by the Potomac River. At 10:30 am there will be a multi-faith service at N.Y. Avenue Presbyterian Church, followed by a religious procession down Pennsylvania Avenue to Capitol Hill. There a large report card for Congress with an “F” for failure will be presented, underling Congress’ collective failure to serve and protect the American people, all peoples, and Mother Earth from the dangers of climate change, and educational visits with key Congressional members will take place.
I hope others will visit www.interfaithactiononclimatechange.org and make plans to be part of this important, new, collaborative faith initiative.
I think yours is an exceedingly interesting and important movement for journalists to follow and will be watching what you do.
It's of particular interest to me right now as I'm putting together a panel of scientists and researchers for a journalism conference looking at the medical implications for humans of climate change, an issue that has gotten comparatively less attention, as we've looked at the fate of the earth, the environment, the forests and farms, biodiversity and wildlife.
As an environmental journalist, I've followed the issues of climate change for many, many years and authored one of the first books on global warming, first published in 1990, with World Resources Institute, THE GREENHOUSE TRAP: What We're Doing to the Atmosphere and How We Can Slow Global Warming (World Resources Institute Guide to the Environment).
Also, as an editor for a magazine of a large US enivornmental group back in the 1990s, we put out a special issue on the environment and spirituality, back in Winter 1993:
My name is Willy Ens and I am a Canadian living in the Central Interior of British Columbia.
I am glad to have found your website and believe this was directed by my “Higher Power”.
I have long been a man of faith which at times has been really tested over the nearly 32 years that I have been blessed with an insight which I believe I was given to me back in 1981 when I was burdened with an understanding of what we are experiencing as “Global Warming” due to air pollution bringing about Climate Change as we call it now.
Back then I only saw it as an impending gloomy condition which would cause much grief and hardship to us as Earth’s inhabitants so much so that I had all but given up on having a family with children, for me and my recent wife of 1979 who hailed from the First Nation community of what has since been re-named Haida Gwaii a group of islands off of the northern BC coast.
However, she was a third year bible student who had been studying in the United States in a Penticostal church and had come back to BC and the Queen Charlotte Islands (the original name of Haida Gwaii) for the summer in 1977 and we met there.
We were married in Marysville Washington on July 19 1979 by a reverend that I believe she had studied under during her time in bible college.
Well this happened to also be the time of the OPEC oil embargo which stretched into the early 1980′s. All of which had left its mark on my experience of it and was all part of the sequence of events which had me upgrade my class “B” gas fitting lessons which I had attained with my inter-provincial plumbers TQ in the fall of 1977 on Vancouver Island to a class “A” level during March of 1980 in Prince George BC.
Following which in in on April 5 1981, had me primed for the capacity to understand and design a pollution reduction system that also, reduces fuel consumption through utilizing more of the heat released in burning fuel in any conventional “Internal Combustion Engine”.
By utilizing the “Heat Released” on combustion greatly reducing fuel usage (by 25%), make the heat usable (twice) and scrub the exhaust clean of all the “Acid Rain” causing GHGs as well. (I have several write-ups which explain all of this on different blogs and a Hot Mail “Sky Drive” for easy access)
The explanation of the thinking I was given to reason with and how this is accomplished in a general sense can be found here ; http://tinyurl.com/cwnlt26
The history of it as well as about myself can be found here ; http://tinyurl.com/c6kdozw
And this is the type of impact and levels of savings that 25% > 50% savings in fuel + using the wasted heat energy + capturing 100% of the “Acid Rain” forming GHGs and removing them completely from both heating and transportation exhausts, would make.
See; http://sdrv.ms/U53meM
This (the intellectual Property) is owned by me alone and I am looking to share it in partnership with investors to bring it to the people of the world Globally to help us address the climate change it seems we are at the mercy of now.
I will be 61 years of age here (the good Lord willing) on January 26th and the need to retire soon.
I thank you for your patience in reading this, and hope we can work together with this to create millions of Green Jobs, reduce resource waste and depletion, as well as reduce the emissions from our hydrocarbon combustion.
Just as a final note about timing, I can no longer work due to ailments of aging, however I have all of my life earnings invested into it, and will need to apply for welfare before my birthday in only 10 days just to make my rent for next month or I will be on the street and homeless.
I can be reached by phone on my neighbors land line (with proper arrangement) and would appreciate a message first to be able to set it up, but other than for which I am available at your convenience. It is (250) 692 – 0090.
I feel we are both at this point for good reason because our God has directed it to be so.
My name is Willy Ens and I am a Canadian living in the Central Interior of British Columbia.
I am glad to have found your website and believe this was directed by my “Higher Power”.
I have long been a man of faith which at times has been really tested over the nearly 32 years that I have been blessed with an insight which I believe I was given to me back in 1981 when I was burdened with an understanding of what we are experiencing as “Global Warming” due to air pollution bringing about Climate Change as we call it now.
Back then I only saw it as an impending gloomy condition which would cause much grief and hardship to us as Earth’s inhabitants so much so that I had all but given up on having a family with children, for me and my recent wife of 1979 who hailed from the First Nation community of what has since been re-named Haida Gwaii a group of islands off of the northern BC coast.
However, she was a third year bible student who had been studying in the United States in a Penticostal church and had come back to BC and the Queen Charlotte Islands (the original name of Haida Gwaii) for the summer in 1977 and we met there.
We were married in Marysville Washington on July 19 1979 by a reverend that I believe she had studied under during her time in bible college.
Well this happened to also be the time of the OPEC oil embargo which stretched into the early 1980′s. All of which had left its mark on my experience of it and was all part of the sequence of events which had me upgrade my class “B” gas fitting lessons which I had attained with my inter-provincial plumbers TQ in the fall of 1977 on Vancouver Island to a class “A” level during March of 1980 in Prince George BC.
Following which in in on April 5 1981, had me primed for the capacity to understand and design a pollution reduction system that also, reduces fuel consumption through utilizing more of the heat released in burning fuel in any conventional “Internal Combustion Engine”.
By utilizing the “Heat Released” on combustion greatly reducing fuel usage (by 25%), make the heat usable (twice) and scrub the exhaust clean of all the “Acid Rain” causing GHGs as well. (I have several write-ups which explain all of this on different blogs and a Hot Mail “Sky Drive” for easy access)
The explanation of the thinking I was given to reason with and how this is accomplished in a general sense can be found here ; http://tinyurl.com/cwnlt26
The history of it as well as about myself can be found here ; http://tinyurl.com/c6kdozw
And this is the type of impact and levels of savings that 25% > 50% savings in fuel + using the wasted heat energy + capturing 100% of the “Acid Rain” forming GHGs and removing them completely from both heating and transportation exhausts, would make.
See; http://sdrv.ms/U53meM
This (the intellectual Property) is owned by me alone and I am looking to share it in partnership with investors to bring it to the people of the world Globally to help us address the climate change it seems we are at the mercy of now.
I will be 61 years of age here (the good Lord willing) on January 26th and the need to retire soon.
I thank you for your patience in reading this, and hope we can work together with this to create millions of Green Jobs, reduce resource waste and depletion, as well as reduce the emissions from our hydrocarbon combustion.
Just as a final note about timing, I can no longer work due to ailments of aging, however I have all of my life earnings invested into it, and will need to apply for welfare before my birthday in only 10 days just to make my rent for next month or I will be on the street and homeless.
I can be reached by phone on my neighbors land line (with proper arrangement) and would appreciate a message first to be able to set it up, but other than for which I am available at your convenience. It is (250) 692 – 0090.
I feel we are both at this point for good reason because our God has directed it to be so.
My name is Willy Ens and I am a Canadian living in the Central Interior of British Columbia.
I am glad to have found your website and believe this was directed by my “Higher Power”.
I have long been a man of faith which at times has been really tested over the nearly 32 years that I have been blessed with an insight which I believe I was given to me back in 1981 when I was burdened with an understanding of what we are experiencing as “Global Warming” due to air pollution bringing about Climate Change as we call it now.
Back then I only saw it as an impending gloomy condition which would cause much grief and hardship to us as Earth’s inhabitants so much so that I had all but given up on having a family with children, for me and my recent wife of 1979 who hailed from the First Nation community of what has since been re-named Haida Gwaii a group of islands off of the northern BC coast.
However, she was a third year bible student who had been studying in the United States in a Penticostal church and had come back to BC and the Queen Charlotte Islands (the original name of Haida Gwaii) for the summer in 1977 and we met there.
We were married in Marysville Washington on July 19 1979 by a reverend that I believe she had studied under during her time in bible college.
Well this happened to also be the time of the OPEC oil embargo which stretched into the early 1980′s. All of which had left its mark on my experience of it and was all part of the sequence of events which had me upgrade my class “B” gas fitting lessons which I had attained with my inter-provincial plumbers TQ in the fall of 1977 on Vancouver Island to a class “A” level during March of 1980 in Prince George BC.
Following which in in on April 5 1981, had me primed for the capacity to understand and design a pollution reduction system that also, reduces fuel consumption through utilizing more of the heat released in burning fuel in any conventional “Internal Combustion Engine”.
By utilizing the “Heat Released” on combustion greatly reducing fuel usage (by 25%), make the heat usable (twice) and scrub the exhaust clean of all the “Acid Rain” causing GHGs as well. (I have several write-ups which explain all of this on different blogs and a Hot Mail “Sky Drive” for easy access)
The explanation of the thinking I was given to reason with and how this is accomplished in a general sense can be found here ; http://tinyurl.com/cwnlt26
The history of it as well as about myself can be found here ; http://tinyurl.com/c6kdozw
And this is the type of impact and levels of savings that 25% > 50% savings in fuel + using the wasted heat energy + capturing 100% of the “Acid Rain” forming GHGs and removing them completely from both heating and transportation exhausts, would make.
See; http://sdrv.ms/U53meM
This (the intellectual Property) is owned by me alone and I am looking to share it in partnership with investors to bring it to the people of the world Globally to help us address the climate change it seems we are at the mercy of now.
I will be 61 years of age here (the good Lord willing) on January 26th and the need to retire soon.
I thank you for your patience in reading this, and hope we can work together with this to create millions of Green Jobs, reduce resource waste and depletion, as well as reduce the emissions from our hydrocarbon combustion.
Just as a final note about timing, I can no longer work due to ailments of aging, however I have all of my life earnings invested into it, and will need to apply for welfare before my birthday in only 10 days just to make my rent for next month or I will be on the street and homeless.
I can be reached by phone on my neighbors land line (with proper arrangement) and would appreciate a message first to be able to set it up, but other than for which I am available at your convenience. It is (250) 692 – 0090.
I feel we are both at this point for good reason because our God has directed it to be so.
My name is Willy Ens and I am a Canadian living in the Central Interior of British Columbia.
I am glad to have found your website and believe this was directed by my “Higher Power”.
I have long been a man of faith which at times has been really tested over the nearly 32 years that I have been blessed with an insight which I believe I was given to me back in 1981 when I was burdened with an understanding of what we are experiencing as “Global Warming” due to air pollution bringing about Climate Change as we call it now.
Back then I only saw it as an impending gloomy condition which would cause much grief and hardship to us as Earth’s inhabitants so much so that I had all but given up on having a family with children, for me and my recent wife of 1979 who hailed from the First Nation community of what has since been re-named Haida Gwaii a group of islands off of the northern BC coast.
However, she was a third year bible student who had been studying in the United States in a Penticostal church and had come back to BC and the Queen Charlotte Islands (the original name of Haida Gwaii) for the summer in 1977 and we met there.
We were married in Marysville Washington on July 19 1979 by a reverend that I believe she had studied under during her time in bible college.
Well this happened to also be the time of the OPEC oil embargo which stretched into the early 1980′s. All of which had left its mark on my experience of it and was all part of the sequence of events which had me upgrade my class “B” gas fitting lessons which I had attained with my inter-provincial plumbers TQ in the fall of 1977 on Vancouver Island to a class “A” level during March of 1980 in Prince George BC.
Following which in in on April 5 1981, had me primed for the capacity to understand and design a pollution reduction system that also, reduces fuel consumption through utilizing more of the heat released in burning fuel in any conventional “Internal Combustion Engine”.
By utilizing the “Heat Released” on combustion greatly reducing fuel usage (by 25%), make the heat usable (twice) and scrub the exhaust clean of all the “Acid Rain” causing GHGs as well. (I have several write-ups which explain all of this on different blogs and a Hot Mail “Sky Drive” for easy access)
The explanation of the thinking I was given to reason with and how this is accomplished in a general sense can be found here ; http://tinyurl.com/cwnlt26
The history of it as well as about myself can be found here ; http://tinyurl.com/c6kdozw
And this is the type of impact and levels of savings that 25% > 50% savings in fuel + using the wasted heat energy + capturing 100% of the “Acid Rain” forming GHGs and removing them completely from both heating and transportation exhausts, would make.
See; http://sdrv.ms/U53meM
This (the intellectual Property) is owned by me alone and I am looking to share it in partnership with investors to bring it to the people of the world Globally to help us address the climate change it seems we are at the mercy of now.
I will be 61 years of age here (the good Lord willing) on January 26th and the need to retire soon.
I thank you for your patience in reading this, and hope we can work together with this to create millions of Green Jobs, reduce resource waste and depletion, as well as reduce the emissions from our hydrocarbon combustion.
Just as a final note about timing, I can no longer work due to ailments of aging, however I have all of my life earnings invested into it, and will need to apply for welfare before my birthday in only 10 days just to make my rent for next month or I will be on the street and homeless.
I can be reached by phone on my neighbors land line (with proper arrangement) and would appreciate a message first to be able to set it up, but other than for which I am available at your convenience. It is (250) 692 – 0090.
I feel we are both at this point for good reason because our God has directed it to be so.
I wonder how you got so good. This is really a fascinating blog, lots of stuff that I can Get into. One thing I just want to say is that your Blog is so perfect!
I tried about a decade ago to connect with an interfaith group which was trying to raise awareness about Global Warming due to Climate change at about the time of (Y2K).
I asked in that email if there was anyone of their parishioners who would ‘put their money where their mouth was’ namely to step up and try to make a difference, not only proclaim the need to do so ...
However, I have received no reply to it as yet.
Now 13 years later I ask again ... Will anyone actually try to help or do we just all wait for (the President of the USA) or someone else do something meaningful?
I think God helps those who 'help' out of their own conviction.
Although, I don’t belong to any organized religion, however back in 1981 when I was already concerned about pollution, fuel waste, and ‘unused heat’ released into our atmosphere, I was given a “Higher Powered” vision of how to circumvent the problem to a large degree.
The science of it making sense from my then recently acquired knowledge of ‘Industrial Combustion Engineering’ at the field level with a Class “A” Gas fitters license in the Province of BC in Canada.
By 1983 I approached PE Trudeau Our Canadian prime minister of the time, as well as Premier Bill Bennett of BC to help me complete my system to be able to unveil it for the world when they came to visit EXPO ‘86’ in Vancouver, but it was brushed aside.
I have worked for nearly 32 years now on my own without any outside help to continue and complete it for market, yet with my working life spent progressing on it and all of my retirement savings invested in it I have still don’t have it quite ready to “Save our Planet”.
However, I am becoming more hopeful now with the problem of Global Warming no longer just a debate topic but “Dinner table talk” and all because your kids are asking “Why?”
Because with the indisputable evidence of “Sandy” and melting polar ice caps raising our oceans, they won’t buy into the avoidance rhetoric any more.
If you want to read more about it because you are ‘genuinely concerned’ and actually ‘want to make a difference’ this is the web page where my simple concept is explained; see, http://tinyurl.com/cwnlt26
This is the timeline history of it; http://tinyurl.com/c6kdozw
This is the scope of impact and an example of the type of installation where it could be utilized; http://sdrv.ms/U53meM
And my e-mail for if you honestly want to help is en_sensesolutions@hotmail.com
Thank you for trying, because my grandchildren and yours are counting on you and it will take all of us to do it!
Sincerely,
Willy Ens.
Reply
Paul Klinkman
01/16/2013 17:24
Here's my own personal statement on climate change. I'm a Quaker.
1. Our climate change goal is to completely reverse the effects of climate change, with as little permanent damage to the earth (extinctions, for example) as possible, and with as little damage to human life as possible.
2. We may not live to see the goal accomplished. In God’s time, a delay of generations is acceptable.
3. Climate change and good government are linked. Climate is the world community’s problem to solve. We grieve when our governments willfully turn a blind eye to the science of climate change.
4. Our good government goal is for everyone on earth to have a fair chance at building a meaningful life for themselves, with transparent collective ownership of governments. Each other person’s democracy is in general good for our own peace and freedom.
5. For climate restoration, the first recommendation among policy activists is to deploy, deploy, deploy innovative products. The deployment of innovative and effective sustainable energy products is approximately the shortest route to our worldwide climate change goal.
6. Just as the price of photovoltaic panels is being driven relentlessly down, so the price of all alternative energy products shall be driven relentlessly down. The full price of fossil fuels is limited by our having a finite earth with a finite atmosphere.
7. An oligopolistic marketplace creates a rocky environment for innovation. People who have tried to innovate before us have changed the term “leading edge” to “bleeding edge”. Governments interfere in the supposedly free market in many ways, from wars over oil fields to monopolistic predation to patent obstacles placed in the way of poor inventors.
8. A great deal of 17th century dogma about “free markets” and the “invisible hand” wistfully looks back at a financial utopia that never existed. We declare such dogma to be suspect and in need of careful discernment.
9. If climate innovation is a critical benchmark for the earth’s survival and if most potential innovators are dissuaded from innovation by the need for food and heat, then both our governments and our non-governmental communities are equally failing to achieve a critical benchmark.
10. Balancing the free market in favor of the cultivation of climate change innovation should be a priority for Friends. Some of the work requires detailed case studies of how inventors fail. Some of the needed work requires that we walk the innovation path ourselves, singly or in groups.
11. Some people are called to technical tasks in this work. Others are confused by too much technical work. Simple political activism is just as much needed as the technical work.
12. Friends (Quakers) have a rich history of innovation. For just one example, mass transit has a forefather in the Darby family of England. Part of innovation is love for all humanity made manifest.
13. Friends go through periods of confession and do plenty of soul searching, but in the end, dwelling exclusively on climate sorrow without going for a goal doesn’t satisfy our deep longings. Such behavior is natural for a time and Friends must be held in the light as they go through dark nights of their souls. However, the dawn comes, and we must arise to live our lives in the Light.
In medieval cities, craftsmen tended to form associations based on their trades, confraternities of textile workers, masons, carpenters, carvers, glass workers, each of whom controlled secrets of traditionally imparted technology, the "arts" or "mysteries" of their crafts. Usually the founders were free independent master craftsmen who hired apprentices.
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We are people of faith who are deeply concerned about the
effects of climate change ravaging our planet, and are compelled by our
faith traditions and collective conscience to speak out on this deeply
moral challenge.
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