From the President

In a recent article published in the Yale Alumni Magazine, Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, is quoted as saying:

"The perception among many in the media, in politics, and so on - that you can't talk about this because half the country is against you? - it's false, it's wrong . . .  It's only 15 percent. They're a really loud 15 percent, and they have convinced much of the country it's not safe to talk about it, but it's just not true."

Of course, Leiserowitz is referring to conversations on climate change. According to research about 66 percent of Americans think global warming is happening and only 16 percent say it is not happening. Scientific research is beyond dispute when it comes to this topic. According to the 2014 National Climate Assessment, "Downpours are heavier, heat waves longer and more intense, coastal flooding more routine, and the oceans more acidic and less hospitable to many species as they absorb greater amounts of carbon dioxide."

Author of the Yale Alumni magazine article, Neela Banerjee, writes that Leiserowitz "knows that for a long time scientists and environmentalists thought if you just gave people more information, then they would understand that climate change is the crisis of our times. That didn't happen. Still, his research has shown that certain kinds of information, delivered to a specific audience a certain way or by trusted messengers, matters. 'My bottom line is that information is necessary but it's not sufficient.'"

So I write to you who are ministers and congregational leaders, to you who are "trusted messengers," to get the word out that God, from the beginning of time, has called on the faithful to care for the earth and the whole of creation. Our concern for environmental justice is not some new, here today and gone tomorrow, topic aimed at dividing the faithful into competing ideological camps. It is central to our health as God's people and the health of the whole inhabited world.

I would like to invite you to dive into five vital resources in your congregational settings: (1) Get copies of The Green Bible [NRSV] with a powerful foreword by Desmond Tutu for your Bible Study classes; (2) Do what is needed to become a Green Chalice Congregation, Region, or General Ministry; (3) Be on the Path to Positive with MomentUS; (4) Get engaged with Eco America; and, (5) Become a blessing for tomorrow through Blessed Tomorrow.

As the Psalmist reminds us:

"The earth is the Lord's and all

that is in it,

the world, and those who live

in it" [Psalm 24:1].