By Scott Hardin-Nieri, Director of the Creation Care AllianceFrom the California drought to Missouri floods to our changing growing seasons, climate change is already affecting people around the world, in our country and here in North Carolina. The deeper ecological crisis that has been impacting vulnerable communities for decades is also coming to greater attention: toxic drinking water, leaking coal-ash pits, collapse of fisheries, soil erosion, oil spills and gas leaks have made headlines and received increasing news coverage. To help our faith communities address the impacts of climate change and ecological crisis, the Center for Earth Ethics and Union Theological Seminary gathered 35 priests, ministers, preachers, pastors, nuns and evangelists in New York City from June 6-10 for a five-day training. As the Director of the Creation Care Alliance, I was fortunate enough to be invited. We had a chance to learn from other faith leaders, brainstorm new approaches to addressing these global challenges, and attended presentations from Vice President Al Gore of the Climate Reality Project, Chandra Taylor Smith of the Audubon Society, Jacqui Patterson of the NAACP, Rev. Leo Woodberry and Tim DeChristopher of the Climate Disobedience Center, Rev. Ed Brown of Care of Creation, Shantha Ready Alonso of Creation Justice Ministries, and many others. Now that I am back in WNC, I’m looking forward to working through the Creation Care Alliance to put some of this training and into practice, facilitating climate conversations in our local communities. We’ll be bringing this work to a national gathering called the Wild Goose Festival this summer and will continue to accompany people and communities in caring for people and planet.
