August News & Views
Aug. 17, 2023
IN THIS ISSUE
Top Stories
— Debra Rienstra at Sept. 26 General Meeting
— Third Act Supports NYC March
— Can’t Make It? Support the March Anyway!
— Taking Third Act Faith on the Road|
— Donate to those helping victims of recent climate disasters
Organizing News
News from Our Partners & Friends
Did You Know?
Resources
Upcoming Events
TOP STORIES
General Meeting Sept. 26
Debra Rienstra will be Guest Speaker Next Month
By Kathleen Dickson
TAF Coordinating Committee Member
Eco-theology author Debra Rienstra will be the guest speaker at the Sept. 26 General Meeting, beginning at 8 p.m. EDT (5 p.m. PDT). Debra, a Third Act Faith member, is the author of "Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth” (Fortress 2022) and host of the podcast "Refugia: A Podcast About Renewal.” As her website describes her work, she is focused these days on taking the climate crisis seriously and responding with the resources of faith, mercy and justice.
A professor of English at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Debra serves on TAF’s Coordinating Committee. She recently participated in Third Act’s Climate Justice Camp at the Wild Goose Festival this summer. [See story below and check out her publisher’s discount offer. Also, look for her guest essay in the upcoming Going Deep.]
Join us via Zoom for an informative gathering that will also include news about Third Act Central's latest actions and a networking breakout session. Register here.
Third Act Supports March to End Fossil Fuels
March in NYC or wherever you are!
By Pat Almonrode
A former TAF co-facilitator currently serving on our Coordinating Committee, Pat is a founding member not only of TAF but also of the Third Act NYC and the Lawyers working groups.
By now, I’m sure that most of you have heard about the March to End Fossil Fuels planned for New York City on Sept. 17. The march — organized by a large coalition of local and national environmental organizations and endorsed by Third Act Central as well as several Third Act working groups — is timed to coincide with the United Nations Climate Ambition Summit, for which Secretary-General António Guterres has called on leaders from governments, business, cities and regions, civil society and finance to come with new, tangible and credible climate action to accelerate the pace of change.
As Guterres said in response to news that this past July would be the hottest month ever recorded, “The era of global warming has ended, and the era of global boiling has arrived. Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning. It is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C [above pre-industrial levels] and avoid the very worst of climate change. But only with dramatic, immediate climate action.” I The march is intended to prompt that kind of dramatic, immediate action. It calls on President Joe Biden to
DECLARE A CLIMATE EMERGENCY to halt fossil fuel exports and investments abroad and turbo-charge the build-out of more just, resilient distributed energy (like rooftop and community solar).
STOP FEDERAL APPROVALS for new fossil fuel projects and repeal permits for climate bombs like the Willow Project and the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
PHASE OUT FOSSIL-FUEL DRILLING on our public lands and waters.
PROVIDE A JUST TRANSITION to a renewable energy future that generates millions of jobs while supporting workers’ and community rights, job security and employment equity.
The march, which begins at 1 p.m. EDT, will be family-friendly and not “too long” (about a mile). The organizers are planning water stations and portable toilets along the route and are working on accommodations for those with mobility issues. Plans are for the march to conclude with a rally with notable speakers and entertainment.
It will be big!
All coalition partners are working hard on local and national recruiting, and Third Act will be there in force. In addition to the NYC and Upstate NY working groups, the Educators and Labor working groups will have large contingents, and we’ve heard that a few other regional working groups are bringing buses. There will also be a significant interfaith contingent for the march, organized primarily by GreenFaith.
We in the NYC working group are doing our best to host visitors who need a place to stay (if that’s you, fill out this form so we can match you with one of our members!).
All are welcome. We want this march to be impactful and un-ignorable. However, we understand that some may not be able to travel. We also understand that some will question the wisdom of burning fossil fuels to participate in a march to “end fossil fuels” — I must admit that I fall into that camp. If you’re unable or unwilling to travel to NYC, please consider organizing (or joining) a local event. Here are some resources from Central and some additional spiritual resources from TAF.
Ultimately, this will be an organizational (or, more often, personal) choice. Please know that you’re welcome in NYC, but you’re also welcome to come up with ways to participate wherever you are. We’re all in this fight together, and we need to engage anywhere and everywhere.
Can’t make it? You have options
If you can’t travel to NYC, please find a way as Pat suggests to support the marchers’ call for world leaders to act with urgency to stop “global boiling.” Because the 17th falls on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, Jewish climate activists in NYC are greatly disappointed they cannot participate but they have produced a special liturgy. TAF member Ace Leveen, also a member of the Jewish Climate Action Network, NYC, has written the following piece to express their support and to share a special liturgy.
Jewish activists find a way to support the march
By Adriane “Ace” Leveen
A former TAF co-facilitator and current Coordinating Committee member, Ace is one of the founders of the Jewish Climate Action Network, NYC and currently serving on its steering committee.
Among the Jewish communities in New York are passionate, well-organized activists who would love to join our non-Jewish friends on the streets of New York on Sept. 17 to demand that those in power, who are gathering at the UN, act now, urgently, in response to the degradation and pending collapse of our earth.
A number of us belong to the Jewish Climate Action Network, NYC. We would join in as we always have, but Sept. 17 is the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the birthday of the world, and among the very holiest days of the year for Jews. Many of us will not be able to join this march, but we will add our prayers to the traditional ritual of Tashlikh that takes place that day in the late afternoon. We stand in solidarity with those who march on Sept 17.
[The following excerpt from the Tashlikh ritual includes a “kavana” (or intention) created by Rachel Landsburg, Jeff Levy-Lyons and Ace Leveen, members of the Jewish Climate Action Network, NYC. Download the entire liturgy here.]
Tashlikh: throwing bread into the water…
On Rosh Hashanah, we celebrate creation and are led to think of our place in God’s creation scheme. When we contemplate these matters and repent from our sins, then they are truly thrown away, into the water, and we feel renewed on this Day of Judgement.
— Moses Isserles in Mahzor Lev Shalem
Let us commit our own selves to individual and communal pathways for climate action as we enter into the new year. And let us open our eyes to the current urgency reflected in those marching in the streets of New York today for a sustainable future for all.
Before the bread is cast into the water, let us add the following intention:
This year, as we cast away our sins while standing where the habitats of land animals like us and the habitats of the water creatures converge, let us take stock of planet Earth and of all of her living creatures.
Let us grieve for the skies filled with smoke, the parched ground and sweltering heat in many corners of the world, the fires and floods that sweep away lives and homes, the melting glaciers and rising seas, and the most vulnerable communities unfairly impacted across the globe.
Here at the water’s edge, we remember God’s spirit sweeping over the primordial water as God set out to create our beautiful and complex world teeming with life and possibility.
Created b’tzelem elohim, in the image of God, let us assume our rightful role as active partners with God and as shomrei ha’adamah, protectors of the earth.
Let us now choose to face the challenges before us and step into this moment with power and resolve, individually and communally. Let us turn our inaction into action, our indifference into determination and through each step, our despair into hope.
And may God respond:
“For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; for just as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more flood the earth; so have I sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you. For the mountains may move and the hills shake; but My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall my covenant of peace be taken away—says Adonai, who has taken you back in love.” (Isaiah 54: 9-10)
Taking TAF on the Road…
…to the Wild Goose Festival
By Melanie Griffin
Third Act Staff and TAF Member
During a week of record-breaking July temperatures, flooding and wildfires, Third Actors from a half dozen states gathered to spread the gospel of climate action at the Wild Goose Festival in rural North Carolina. Third Act was one of the sponsors of the annual celebration of spirit, justice, art and music, hosting a popular outreach table amidst 1,600 festival attendees. Over the weekend, nearly 500 people attended sessions to hear Third Act founder Bill McKibben speak.
A highlight was an all-day Climate Justice Camp, where acclaimed Christian author and speaker Brian McLaren joined Bill in wide-ranging conversations about environmental justice, what it means to be an activist, where they find hope in these perilous times, and how their faith informs their activism. Michigan Third Actor and eco-theology author Debra Rienstra spoke about justice for non-human species and how people of faith can move from passivity to true citizenship. [She will be addressing this topic in her guest essay in the upcoming issue of Going Deep.] In a heartbreaking presentation, guest speaker Belinda Joyner shared her experiences living in what she calls “a dumping ground” and an “environmental sacrifice zone” in North Carolina.
After leading an organizing workshop, Third Act Field Director B Fulkerson switched hats and led a healing yoga session for the 60 attendees. Network Campaigns Lead Melanie Griffin moderated the camp experience, interspersing contemplative practices and rituals designed to help people integrate and accept their emotional responses to the climate crisis.
Before we left the campground, the festival producers invited us back to the main stage in 2024, and our group was already discussing how we might step it up and engage more people next year.
…to Chautauqua
By Jane Ellen Nickell
TAF Co-facilitator
The Chautauqua Institution in western New York has been described as “summer camp for NPR listeners.” Started 149 years ago as a Methodist camp meeting, it has grown today into a residential community with a summer program of worship, education, and world-class speakers and performers that draw more than 100,000 visitors annually. With a robust religious community now encompassing all faiths, a recent Climate Change Initiative, and a population that skews toward retirement age, Chautauqua is a perfect fit for Third Act Faith.
During my two-week stay at Chautauqua in July, I was able to share information about Third Act at the Climate Change Initiative's information table on two different days. I spoke with dozens of people about our work. On Friday, I held an info session at the United Methodist House for folks who were Methodists, Quakers, Unitarian Universalists and Episcopalians. When people asked about our focus and activities, it felt good to share specifics about Third Act’s national campaigns and how TAF supports them, such as our Service of Solidarity before the National Day of Action on 3.21.23.
Having made these initial contacts, we hope to work with Chautauqua staff in the coming months and establish a more extensive presence for the 2024 summer season. If you are interested in helping to develop this relationship, please email us at thirdactfaith@gmail.com
THIRD ACT CENTRAL NEWS
Donate to help victims of climate disasters
Third Act grieves for those facing the destruction wrought by the devastating wildfires in Maui, and for all those across the globe who have lost so much in recent climate disasters. Let’s show our solidarity and support for the people of Maui — as well as for those displaced by the Canadian wildfires and those whose lives have been upended from drought, floods and typhoons. Stories about their suffering fade from the headlines, but these communities need our support.
Please contribute any amount you can to any of the following organizations: The Maui Community Power Recovery Fund, the Canadian Red Cross’s 2023 Wildfire Fund, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to support its global work or a specific emergency response.
ORGANIZING NEWS
New Coordinating Committee member
TAF welcomed a new member to the Coordinating Committee in July: The Rev. Wakil David Matthews, who lives north of Seattle on unceded Duwamish/Suquamish lands. He is an interfaith minister ordained through the Sufi Ruhaniat International Order, which he notes is a “very universalist and ecumenical Sufi organization.” He also serves as an interfaith spiritual director and a Sufi teacher. At our request, he shared the following about his call to serve others and Third Act:
“I feel called to work with those who do end-of-life work and those engaged in social activism. I work well with folks from any spiritual or religious background or who identify as spiritual but not religious. After all, my favorite church is the forest! When I retired from my full-time career, I felt called to this work to fulfill the next stage of my life serving my fellow humans and seekers on the path. I have been an activist for as long as I can remember and was excited to join Third Act as soon as I heard about it. I am also involved in several other social and earth justice organizations and always strive to be of service toward a more just world.”
NEWS FROM PARTNERS & FRIENDS
Save Sept. 7 for IPL webinar on electrifying homes
Learn about the programs available under the new Inflation Reduction Act federal law for swapping out your old fossil-fueled appliances for new, clean electric ones: upfront discounts, tax credits and low-cost financing. The Sept. 7 webinar, hosted by Interfaith Power & Light, is at 7 p.m. EDT (4 p.m. PDT). Learn more and register here to attend or receive the recording afterward.
Senior Swiss women sue over climate heat;
Montana judge rules in favor of youth plaintiffs
By Mary Johnson
TAF Communications Committee Member
An organization calling itself “KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz” (“Senior Women for Climate Protection/Switzerland”) has sued their country in the European Court of Human Rights, “demanding that the federal authorities correct the course of Swiss climate policy because the current climate targets and measures are not sufficient to limit global warming to a safe level.” Their complaint was heard by the Court in March and a decision is expected by the end of 2023.
Like Third Act, this group is made up of seniors — in this case over age 64 — but unlike Third Act, it’s an organization of only women. “Older women are particularly susceptible to intense and frequent heat waves,” they say on their website. They add that while they know that other people suffer from the heat waves, by limiting the suit to members of their own organization — over 2,300 strong — they have a better chance before the Court. Learn more and keep up with the lawsuit here.
News on other climate lawsuits
The Swiss seniors’ suit is just one of many lawsuits now making their way through legal systems across the globe. A number of these suits are brought by specific groups, such as the ones filed by Montana youth, which we reported on in the June newsletter. On Aug. 14, a Montana District Court judge ruled “wholly in favor” of those young plaintiffs (in Held. v Montana, see June News & Views Resources), saying that Montana had violated their constitutional rights by failing to provide a clean and healthful environment. More on that historic ruling here.
Climate litigation has more than doubled in the last five years, according to a report published last month by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University and the United Nations Environment Programme, “becoming an integral part of securing climate action and justice.” The total number of climate change cases, says the report, rose from 884 in 2017 to 2,180 in 2022. While most cases have been brought in the U.S., climate litigation is now taking root all over the world. Read more here.
DID YOU KNOW?
August. Beach time? Maybe not anymore. Global warming has made ocean temperatures the highest in recorded history. At the end of July, waters off Florida measured over 100 degrees F., and an “above-normal” hurricane season is now predicted.
Oceans are in trouble. Antarctic sea ice is disappearing, and we may be reaching a “tipping point” in the ocean's historic ability to lessen global temperature fluctuations. The Gulf Stream, which keeps temperatures moderate over Europe, is predicted to collapse — possibly as early as 2025 — causing far colder winters, sea level rises on European and eastern U.S. shores, and monsoon shifts across Asia. (Learn what's causing this.) Extreme ocean heat is upending migration patterns for many ocean creatures and destroying coral reefs worldwide, even as scientists rush to save the coral that’s left.
In addition to human-caused warming, corporations' accelerating drive to mine the deep sea for minerals threatens to upend — or destroy — the life of the deep sea, says writer Susan Casey, “destroying an ecosystem before we even know what we have lost.” Casey talks of “microbes that have figured out how to survive hundreds of millions of years in an incredibly harsh environment.” Every time researchers explore this deep sea, she says, “They come back with specimens, and 92 percent of them are new species. In the microbial realm, they are finding hundreds of thousands of creatures like microorganisms that are not only new species, they’re like new branches on the tree of life.” The deep sea biome, she says, makes up more than 90 percent of the earth's biosphere.
If you do decide to go to the beach, then yes, you might have to worry about SHARKS! But hey! That’s good news! Some reports say the great white shark population has rebounded after a decline.
RESOURCES
Books for deep reading
Just published, Susan Casey’s new book (see “Did You Know?” above) about the life of the deep ocean, "The Underworld," tells the story of “the mind-blowing complexity and ecological importance of the quadrillions of creatures who live in realms long thought to be devoid of life” — “a gorgeous evocation of the natural world and a powerful call to arms.”
Two other books about the sea and climate change, both written by Elizabeth Rush, also come recommended. "Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore," initially published in 2018, earned her a nomination for a Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction. She weaves together the stories of people and places, plants and animals impacted by rising sea levels, but with a lyrical touch the Chicago Tribune said was “a haunting meditation on how to let go of the places we love.” Her newest book, "The Quickening: Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth," is about Antarctica and climate change, following the voyage of 57 scientists and crew to a glacier that is believed to be rapidly deteriorating and may have a catastrophic impact on global sea levels. It just came out this month. For a taste of her writing, check out her recent New York Times guest essay, “What Our Beech Tree Teaches Us About the Possibility of the Future.”
Book discount: don’t miss this treat
In an earlier issue, we recommended Debra Rienstra’s book, “Refugia Faith” (November 2022). Thanks to her participation as a presenter at the Climate Justice Camp (see above story), Fortress Press is offering it at a 25% discount through Aug. 31. Click this link and enter the code Refugia23. It is one of the best gifts you can give yourself and a loved one. It offers readers hope and refuge from worry.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Aug. 22: Florida Working Group launch (on Zoom), 7 p.m. (EDT) Tuesday, Aug. 22. Register here.
Aug. 28: Welcome to Third Act: Let’s Get Started (on Zoom), 7:30 p.m. EDT (4:30 p.m. PDT). Sign up here. Next month's meetings: Sept. 18 and 25.
Sept. 7: IPL Inflation Reduction Act Resources Webinar (on Zoom), 7 p.m. EDT (4 p.m. PDT). Register here.
Sept. 17: March to End Fossil Fuels, New York City.
Sept. 26: TAF General Meeting (on Zoom), 8 p.m. EDT (5 p.m. PDT). Register here.
Send Us Your Photos and Stories
Third Acts of Faith is published the third week of each month. Please send us your news (up to 300 words) and photos by the 7th day of each month, and help keep our members updated on what you and your faith communities are doing to safeguard our democracy and beloved Earth. Send the submission to thirdactfaith@gmail.com