Spirit-Led Action on Climate Change

In recent years, New England Yearly Meeting (NEYM) has committed Friends to act to reduce human-caused climate change.

• Minute 2016-67:  2016 Yearly Meeting Minutes on Climate Change [1]
• Minutes 2017-30 & - 31
• Minute 2018-36:  Earthcare Ministry Report [2]

Here are some actions we can take:

1. Schedule an energy audit of your house.
   
   1. Connecticut (CT):  https://www.EnergizeCT.com/Events-Resources/Energy-Basics/Energy-Assessments [3]
   2. Maine (ME): https://www.EfficiencyMaine.com/At-Home/Energy-Audit/ [4]
   3. Massachusetts (MA):
      • Cape Cod:  http://www.CapeLightCompact.org/Energy-Efficiency/Residential/ [5]
      • Elsewhere in MA:  https://www.MassSave.com/en/Saving/Energy-Assessments/ [6]
   4. New Hampshire (NH):  https://NHSaves.com/Programs/ [7]
   5. Rhode Island (RI):  http://www.Energy.RI.gov/Energy-Efficiency/Residents/ [8]
   6. Vermont (VT):  https://www.EfficiencyVermont.com/Services/Energy-Assessments/Home-Energy-Assessments [9]
2. Use our Climate Calculator at http://ClimateCalculator.org/ClimateCalculator.html [10] to calculate your own carbon footprint and decide which action to take including the following impactful actions (► when otherwise in the market for an item):
   
   1. ► Buy hybrid or fully-electric car
   2. ► Buy green electricity or install solar panels
   3. ► Replace appliances (refrigerator, furnace, air conditioning, heat pump, etc.) with Energy Star or other efficient products
   4. Plant trees
   5. Turn down thermostat in winter by 2-3 degrees and up in summer by 2-3 degrees
   6. Eat a full low-carbon diet almost every day
   7. Have a full energy audit (including pressure test)
   8. Join a climate-change group
   9. Write your legislators (local, state, national) about the need to take action
   10. Get your school or business to reduce fossil fuels
3. Contact Steve Gates (scgates1 [at] sbcglobal [dot] net (subject: Climate%20Calculator) ) if you'd like to help in getting your whole meeting get involved.
4. See also:
   • Earthcare Ministry Committee (https://neym.org/earthcare-ministry [11]) [now at https://neym.org/committees/earthcare-ministry [12]]
   • Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative (https://capecodclimate.org/home [13])
   • Quakers and Climate Change Worldwide (https://quakersandclimatechange.com/ [14])

2017-30    Ruah Swennerfelt (Burlington), clerk of Earthcare Ministry, introduced the report from Earthcare Ministry, the Prophetic Climate Action Working Group (PCAWG) and others.  She suggested that we start by “planting our feet solidly on the ground.”

Katherine Fisher (Beacon Hill) reported on the climate consultation hosted by the Yearly Meeting. Some of the concrete things that Friends and Friends meetings in New England are doing to help lessen our contribution to climate change are doing energy audits, installing solar energy systems, and taking other actions.  The Legacy Gift Fund has supported some of this work. Often, meeting-wide actions come from one person’s leading.  She presented suggestions for individuals, for monthly and quarterly meetings, and for Yearly Meeting.

For Individuals:

1. Pray deeper.  Find the spiritual foundation for the climate work.  Listen to Spirit.  Form spiritual deepening groups to support one another.
2. Be bolder.  Be prepared to take risks on behalf of Earth.  Get out of our comfort zones.
3. Show up when the opportunity arises to make a difference.
4. Make space for the necessary grieving work to help us move through despair to empowerment.
5. Get involved with state and local government.  Work together with climate change groups to leverage impact.  Get involved with companies (e.g., power companies) that are key players.
6. Consider the implications of the Quaker value of simplicity in terms of its potential for impact on our production of greenhouse gases.  Understand that deep, systemic changes are necessary, beyond the simplification of our individual lifestyles.
7. Get to know each other (because we are dispersed communities) in a way that matters (knowing each other’s hopes/dreams/foibles) so we can connect.  Doing this frees up such an enormous power and creates so many opportunities, breaks down artificial barriers, and brings wealth of resources in communities.

For Monthly, Quarterly, and NEYM:

1. Encourage all 90 of the meetings in NEYM to become actively engaged with climate change.  As part of this, we need to develop better ways of communicating/connecting among all of the meetings so that we can share success (and failure) stories.
2. Measure the CO₂ used at (or associated with) the Yearly Meeting—and at all of our Meetings.
3. Have closer interaction with Friends Committee on National Legislation to identify things to work on/write letters on.  Have each Meeting organize a regular use of letter writing to promote climate-related legislation; perhaps a “letter writing First Day”?
4. Encourage green manufacturing /green services, since we can’t reduce greenhouse gases fast enough without doing this.  This may involve one or more green certification processes, as well as providing information about the amount of non-renewable energy used in producing individual goods and services.
5. Help families (as well as meetinghouses) reduce their carbon footprint.
6. Charter buses or shuttle from bus station to Sessions.

She reported on how we have been faithful this year to the 2016 climate minute:

• We have supported a Prophetic Climate Action Working Group.
• We held a Climate Consultation to hear of the work being done.
• We gathered for a weekend of discernment on how to move forward.
• NEYM Friends represented us at the Standing Rock Water Protection Action [15].
• We sponsored the Climate Pilgrimage [16] in July.  [See also https://www.quakerearthcare.org/article/rooted-reverence-reflections-climate-pilgrimage [17].]
• Many monthly meetings stepped up to the Minute and took concrete action during the year.

Jay O’Hara (West Falmouth) reported that the Prophetic Climate Action Working Group (PCAWG), which came together during last year’s Sessions, is not a committee of the Yearly Meeting.  They are a group of people who try to listen to what leadings are given them for action in climate witness.

God leads us in steps.  It takes humility to realize that we do not need to know where we are led.  We just need to take the next step. If the leading is true and powerful, more steps will follow, and the ground will shift.  God moves first through individuals; the Holy Spirit moves through individual gifts and leadings.

Meg Klepack (West Falmouth) reported that PCAWG has felt love and prayers every step of the way.  They have investigated what it means to prophesy. Prophecy is not telling the future.  Prophecy breaks through routines, calling us to a deeper faithfulness and witness which is framed by our authentic Quaker existence.  They met multiple times, first preparing the ground.  They hosted meetings for grieving.  They waited for direction.  In their March meeting, they wondered if it would be their last meeting, but then way opened for action and new life arose as they found a way to witness to the transformation of God.

In July PCAWG set off on a 7-day, 60-mile pilgrimage between two coal-fired plants in New Hampshire, joined by many in a corporate witness.  The walk prepared participants to give over their lives.  Civil disobedience followed.  Some blocked the train tracks so that coal could not be delivered to the plant.  Those blocking the tracks were invited into the invitation of Jesus to give over their lives to whatever would happen on those tracks.  The police never arrived, so they had abundant time on the tracks which they spent in Bible study, worship, and in finding community with each other.  There were some rough edges, but they found that their true work in that place was discovering how to live into holy community.

Members of PCAWG believe they are discovering new vessels for God’s work.  They hope that their experience may inspire others.  They asked all who were present: where do you find life, energy, and resonance?

We settled into worship, then engaged with these questions in pairs and small groups.

2017-31    From the suggestions for further action given by Earthcare Ministry and the Climate Consultation, Friends approved the following:

1. We recognized that we have much work to do around climate change.
2. We reaffirmed last year’s climate minute: 2016-67:

Friends at the New England Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions at Castleton, VT, August 6–11, 2016, have heard a Divine call to the witness of addressing climate change.  We affirm the overwhelming scientific consensus that greenhouse gases released by human activity are causing climate change, that these changes threaten life on our planet as we know it, and that we have a responsibility to address the very real threats that will impact both rich and poor.  Those on earth who have contributed least to this crisis are likely to suffer most from it.

This is not just one concern among many to be carried by only some among us.  We all live on this planet and are all complicit in altering its climate.  It is incumbent upon every Friend and every Friends Meeting to discover how God is leading us to do our part to reverse this great threat.

As in past times of crisis, the strength and love of our community life will make it possible for Friends to see to what they are called, and carry it out faithfully whatever the cost.  We can engage with each other tenderly and hold each other lovingly accountable to move from fear into courage, in response to this crisis.  This is the manner in which Friends have always responded to great moral challenges of their own time.

Recognizing that we, gathered here, are shaped and limited by our own economic and social positions, nevertheless the divine Witness challenges us, in compassion and in love for all children of God, and for the beautiful earth, to pray, wait, and act with a focus and fearlessness appropriate to the urgency of the times.  Love requires it of us.