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Environmental Focus Group
Mission Statement: The Environmental Focus Group is a catalyst for action and education concerning the environment. To that end, we seek to further educate and offer suggestions and ideas to the congregation and public at large about steps we can take to improve our environment and care for our Earth.
The Environmental Focus Group has had an incredible year in 2007. We began with the Global Warming Study Group attracting 43 people both from within the congregation and the community at large. The five weeks of study began with Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, followed by four weeks of small group discussion based on a study guide purchased from the Northwest Earth Institute.
A three part mod series followed this in the spring:
Lois Norrgard of the Alaska Coalition, whose mission is to save the Arctic Wildlife Refuge presented a slide show “A Wilderness Worth Saving” and offered actions we could take to help preserve this important wilderness area.
Franklin Codel, a Harvard trained environmental engineer (and a VP for Wells Fargo Mortgage Banking) from West Des Moines, Iowa talked about where the world really is in its production (supply) and consumption (demand) patterns for fossil fuels - focusing primarily on liquid transportation fuels (oil).
Franklin Codel then led us in a workshop that addressed: a) What the impacts to our society and way of life will be when fossil fuel production becomes constrained, b) What alternatives or substitutions exist and their relative viability, c) What leadership roles we can individually, or through St Luke, play to mitigate the impact of declining fossil fuel production in our lives and in the lives of others in our community d) What other actions we can do to become more energy efficient or self-sufficient.
Our series culminated with Fresh Energy’s Science Policy Director, J. Drake Hamilton, discussing how personal and policy changes to promote energy efficiency and clean, renewable energy can help Minnesota lead the way to global warming solutions that will improve our Midwestern economy.
This past November was another productive and exciting month for the Environmental Focus Group. We began our four part series with Voices of Change: An interview with a leading edge thinker on eco-psychology. We viewed and discussed the ideas presented in a video of an interview with Dr. Theodore Roszak who asked us to stop, look and listen to what the planet is telling us. The St Luke Seminar led by our presenter Dr. Judith Scoville, a graduate of United Theological Seminary asked us to think about the following: Who are we as embodied humans? How does nature work? How do we fit into nature? What would a right relationship with the environment look like and how do we culturally adapt to live with nature? Terry Gips, of Sustainability Associates, spoke about economics and the environment from both the personal perspective and the broad view.
The following Sunday Tom Smith-Myott, chair of the St. Joan of Arc Eco-Spirituality Committee, presented on the process St. Joan of Arc went through to renovate its parish center in 2000 based on ecological, social and economic sustainability.
And for the grand finale, St. Luke co-sponsored with 25 other churches and synagogues, Arctic Explorer, Will Steger presenting his eye-witness account of climate change, held at Bet Shalom in Minnetonka. He was accompanied by J. Drake Hamilton from Fresh Energy and meteorologist, Paul Douglas. The event drew over 950 people, all learning about steps we can take to stop global warming.
We had a good year…but we’re not done yet. This year of 2008 will hopefully see us move to more action. Stay tuned and join us if you are so inspired!
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