April 2025 News and Views
April News and Views
TAF NEWS
TAF Offers Opportunities to Take Action
As spring blossoms around us, so do opportunities to take action in the face of staggering new threats to climate and democracy. Your TAF Coordinating Committee has been busy preparing for the coming year, and now is the time to take action. This issue offers several ways you can help, including the following:
Sun Day Planning
Hoping to rival the first Earth Day, Third Act will be celebrating Sun Day on September 20-21 — a global day of action focusing on solar power. TAF is planning how to engage congregations (read story below). If you would like to be on the TAF planning team, please email Patty.Werner@live.com, and type “Sun Day Faith Team” in the subject line.
TAF General Meeting 4/29
Also, mark your calendar for Tuesday, April 29, at 4:00 PM PT/7:00 PM ET for our first major TAF General Meeting about Sun Day, which will focus on networking and brainstorming. Visit our website for details and to register.
April Holidays
As we shared last month, we’ve compiled a list of resources on our website to help you bring earth care into religious holidays like Passover and Easter, and to help you plan Earth Day events for faith communities. We’ve made some updates, so please check it out for the latest information.
Let’s Talk!
One of the simplest things anyone can do to address climate is to talk about it. Yale Climate Connections notes that instead of showering people with climate stats, “‘talk’ is the fertile field in which cultural change begins; in its absence, it’s impossible for a group of people to solve a problem. YCC editors share their specific tactics for starting low-conflict conversations and setting achievable goals for your own climate action.
TAF Offers Sacred Listening Circles and Practices from Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects
The Trump administration’s aggressive anti-climate agenda and other immoral actions bring up a lot of hard emotions. Feeling them is painful, but suppressing them can make us depressed and burned out, interfere with the effectiveness of our activism, and undermine our ability to feel joy. To help us manage these emotions and build resilience for our activism, TAF is offering monthly online sacred listening circles and an exploration of Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects, a set of simple but profound practices to build strength and resilience for our work to heal the world.
Every other month, we will host a sacred listening circle. This is a lightly facilitated opportunity to share and witness our grief, anger, fear, and everything else these times stir up in us. Some of you may have attended the listening circles we held in January and March.
In the alternating months, we will engage in practices of sharing, listening, and imagining related to one of the stages of the Work that Reconnects: gratitude, honoring the pain of the world, seeing with new eyes, and going forth. These practices were developed by Buddhist activist Joanna Macy, Ph.D., an author and scholar of systems theory and deep ecology. They are a powerful resource for transforming anger, despair, and overwhelm into inspired, collaborative action.
Most of these sessions will be led by Martin Wagner, an interfaith eco-chaplain, environmental lawyer, and student of Joanna Macy, with periodic assistance from others.
The first session, on Wednesday, April 23, will feature an Introduction to the Work That Reconnects and the first stage, Gratitude. Read more and register on our website.
The tentative schedule for other sessions this year is the second Tuesday of each month at 4:00 PM PT / 7:00 PM ET. The stages stand alone, so you do not have to attend every session and can join at any time.
May 13: Sacred Listening Circle
June 10: The Work That Reconnects—Honoring the Pain of the World
July 8: Sacred Listening Circle
August 12: The Work That Reconnects—Seeing with New Eyes
September 9: Sacred Listening Circle
October 14: The Work That Reconnects—Going Forth
November 11: Sacred Listening Circle
December 9: The Work That Reconnects—Returning to Gratitude
TAF Joins Hands Off! Demonstrations
On April 5, activists across the country took to the streets with a message to the current administration: Hands Off our democracy! Among them were some 10,000 Third Actors. Members of the TAF Coordinating Committee shared the following pictures from actions they joined across the country.
TA CENTRAL NEWS
Sun Day Plans
The massive Hands Off! mobilization united people across the country against the destruction of our democracy. Bill McKibben and the Third Act staff are planning a mobilization just as large and even more impactful on Sun Day, September 20-21.
Sun Day isn’t just about protests and culture wars but about changing the culture of America by showing our country a more beautiful way to live on this planet. Third Act wants to initiate a major shift toward widespread acceptance of solar energy as the power for the future.
With lead sponsor Fossil Free Media and other organizers, Third Act will be creating giant events to attract major media attention on Sun Day. They want Third Act’s nearly 100,000 members to spread the word and help plan and support a variety of events, such as:
Community solar fairs, with booths and exhibits demonstrating solar technology and green alternatives, and with street theatre, music, arts and crafts, and children’s activities.
Boat parades, EV rallies, foot-races, marches, and dances, all streaming huge, yellow, sun-themed banners and signs
Teach-ins, worship services, film festivals, speeches, and more.
All of this is to show the power of the sun and the benefits of solar energy in a way that is family friendly, uplifting, colorful, and fun. The point is to creatively and joyfully show the world a more beautiful way to live based on sustainable, clean energy.
TAF is promoting a massive, multi-faith effort to engage as many of our earth-care, climate, and environmental justice ministries and congregations as possible. Some congregations may create community solar fairs, outdoor worship services, or community garden projects. Other faith groups may join solar demonstrations, exhibits, and parades that schools or universities are planning in their area. There is so much scope for the imagination! However, all this will take time to organize.
TAF will launch our Working Group campaign on Tuesday, April 29, at 4:00 PM PT/7:00 PM ET (register here). We will build on the excitement, brainstorm our opportunities as faith-based communities, and begin networking with environmental and climate justice teams and organizations.
Over the next several months, TAF will share what congregations can do to participate in Sun Day events and activities. If you want to be on the SunDay planning team, email patty.werner@live.com, and put “TAF Sun Day Team” in the subject line. Because we hope to collaborate with as many groups as possible, we are especially seeking leaders and members of environmental justice and earth care organizations and ministries. All our connections matter!
Please note: an earlier version of this article included information about an April 28 TAF All-In Call to Launch Sun Day plans but that date is for the launch of the TAF Sun Day website only. TAF regrets the error.
NEWS FROM PARTNERS & FRIENDS
Sustainable Woodstock Hosts Earth Day Celebration with Rev. Mariama White-Hammond
Sustainable Woodstock invites you to celebrate Earth Day with Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, Pastor and Founder of the New Roots AME Church in Dorchester, MA, and former Chief of Energy, Environment and Open Space for the City of Boston. While directing climate and energy policy, historic preservation, food justice, and open space efforts for the city, she embedded equity into her work, leading initiatives to establish carbon targets for existing large buildings, and overseeing a green jobs program and historic landmark designations for communities of color. In April 2024 she stepped down from this position to dedicate more time to her church and community engagement work.
For her deeply intersectional work, she has received numerous accolades, including the Barr Fellowship, the Celtics Heroes Among Us Award, the Roxbury Founders Day Award, and the Boston NAACP Image Award. She was also recognized as one of the Grist 50 Fixers for 2019 and one of Sojourners’ 11 Women Shaping the Church.
This online presentation with Q&A is offered on Wednesday, April 23, 3:00 PM PT/6:00 PM ET. Register at sustainablewoodstock.org.
Learn about Microplastics’ Impact on Brain and the Heart
Recent studies have found small fragments of plastics known as microplastics in the human brain and in the arteries leading to the heart. The presence of these particles is linked to adverse health outcomes. In order to share with congregants, family, friends or to support legislation that protects us all, learn how these tiny bits of plastic enter our bodies and make their way into our brains and arteries, and what happens when they lodge there.
Physicians for Social Responsibility - NYS, Environmental Advocates of New York, and Beyond Plastics hosts this free educational webinar, in which these questions will be addressed by Dr. Sanjay Rajagopalan and Marcus Garcia, co-authors of two ground-breaking recent studies on the presence of microplastics in the human heart and brain. Dr. Rajagopalan is a physician scientist whose work has helped transform global perceptions and understanding of the impact of environmental risk factors on cardiovascular disease. Marcus Garcia is a PhRMA Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the University of New Mexico’s College of Pharmacy, specializing in toxicology and pharmacology and dedicated to advancing our understanding of microplastics and their implications for human health, reproduction/development, and the environment.
This webinar is on Thursday, May 15, at 4:00 PM PT/ 7:00 PM ET. Read more and register online.
Senators Share Faith Motivation
As part of his record-breaking speech on the Senate floor, NJ Sen. Cory Booker had a powerful exchange with Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware about how scripture says we should treat the poor, immigrants, and the marginalized. You can view that short clip on the TAF Facebook page.
CLIMATE GOOD NEWS
Help Wanted: The editor of our Climate Good News has stepped down, and we are looking for someone to help compile this monthly feature. If you could help, please email our editor, Jane Ellen Nickell, at janellenickell58@gmail.com.
Wind Turbines Provide Fish Habitat
The Daily Climate reports that some commercial fish like haddock and flatfish are gathering around offshore wind turbines. Research shows that the steel structures anchoring the turbines to the seafloor act like artificial reefs, attracting invertebrates and fish, potentially supporting local fisheries and food chains as they age. In addition to providing clean energy, the turbines may double as marine sanctuaries, creating habitat where there was previously little to none.
NYT Projects Features Climate Fixes across the Country
In her weekly newsletter, Katherine Hayhoe reports on a project by the New York Times, called “50 States, 50 Fixes,” that covers a climate solution in each US state. In the first installment you can read about a car-free community in Arizona, a natural hot-water heating system in Idaho, and eliminating food waste in Massachusetts.
UPCOMING EVENTS
April 23: TAF The Work That Reconnects—Introduction and Gratitude (Zoom), 4:00 PM PT / 7:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
April 24: Hope & Joy: Your Life As Sacred Ground—A Conversation with Mirabai Starr (Zoom), 4:00 PM PT / 7:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
April 29: TAF General Meeting—Sun Day Planning (Zoom), 4:00 PM PT / 7:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
April 30: TA Training Series: Backing Up Targeted Communities (Zoom), 3:00 PM PT/6:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
We encourage you to visit thirdact.org/events to see the full list of Third Act events, including virtual and in-person events that geographic working groups may be holding in your area.
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