Refugia Newsletter #92

State climate work, Pope Francis, Canada's election, creation care in Indiana churches, Sun Day, flying rhinos, and fiddlehead ferns

Refugia News

It’s commencement season for those of us in academic life, that time of year when we don our academic regalia and say a fond goodbye to our seniors. This year, I had so many wonderful undergraduates in my classes, and I am deeply heartened by these beautiful young souls, trying to do what is right and good in such dark times. I hate to send them off, but the world needs them.

I also had the unique pleasure of graduating six doctoral students! I normally teach only undergraduates, but thanks to the Refugia Cohort I’ve led with husband Ron these last three years through Western Theological Seminary, I got to do something I’ve never done before: place doctoral hoods on graduates. What a radiant moment!

Our six graduates this year with Ron (second from left) and me (in the bright red regalia). Aren’t we adorable?

These dear people have been such a gift to Ron and me and to each other. We have been studying and dreaming together about how people of faith can become people of refugia, and we have created a refugia space within our cohort that has sustained us all through many rough times in these last years. I can’t express how much this group has meant to all of us. These people are just beginning to come into their real power—to create healing, sustaining spaces in their own ministry contexts and to guide people of faith into a more just, sustainable, joyful future.

Our “Rising Sun” Eastern redbud delivers vivid pink blossoms. Hooray!

Last fall, the week after the election, Ron and I planted a tree as a gesture of protest and hope. It’s an Eastern redbud (native to West Michigan) and the cultivar is called: Rising Sun. Yep. We thought that was appropriate. I’ve been protecting this tree all winter from marauding deer, hoping it would survive and blossom. It feels important that this little tree of hope survives. And look! It’s blooming! Let this be a sign, eh?

This Week in Climate News

The struggle continues. Let’s talk again about federal hostility vs. state defiance.

I covered this last time, but it’s worth another round since we’ve now made it—barely—through the first 100 days of this regime. It took a whole team at Inside Climate News to summarize what Trump and his cronies have done to dismantle progress on climate action and environmental protections. This article covers it all, and it’s a lot. Here’s one interviewee from the article trying to describe what the Trump agenda does for climate action:

“At the very least, it’s a massive setback,” said Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, of the first 100 days’ “all-out assault” on former President Joe Biden’s climate agenda and the federal bureaucracy that supports environmental, climate and health protections.

The regime’s actions are irrational, often illegal, and very stupid. The Earth Day press releases from the White House were so laughably full of lies, I won’t even bother to summarize them.

But please do not despair! Look to the world, look to the states. Much is moving ahead. Remember: 89% of the world’s people want climate action from their governments!

For instance, this article by Matt Simon in Grist demonstrates, with receipts, that work at the state level continues apace. Although the US had done little of consequence at the federal level until the Biden administration’s major climate initiatives,

Yet carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. have fallen from 6 billion tons annually in 2000 to less than 5 billion today. For that, the country can largely thank its states and cities, which have embarked on ambitious campaigns to, among other things, electrify transportation, set automobile pollution standards, and incentivize the deployment of renewable energy. At the same time, wind and solar are now cheaper to build than new fossil fuel infrastructure, and there’s little President Trump can do to stop those market forces from driving down emissions further.

The article goes on to describe how states are collaborating, sharing information, and keeping the progress going.

As an excellent example, I highly, highly recommend this inspiring interview with Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker on the Volts podcast. Do you long to hear someone speak in full, articulate sentences? Do you long to hear a political leader speak knowledgeably about climate action and practical means of achieving it? Do you long to hear someone fearlessly speak the truth about the federal regime? Well, here you go. Under Pritzker, Illinois has implemented numerous ambitious climate actions, and they are not backing down now.

As I’ve said before, we have reached a point where economics actually push us toward clean energy transition. Vox writer Paige Vega sums it up neatly:

Simply put, clean energy is no longer just the right thing to develop — it’s good business. Wind and solar? Among the cheapest sources of electricity in the world. Batteries and electric cars? Getting better and more accessible by the year.

That doesn’t mean the fossil fuel industry isn’t still powerful — it is. And fossil fuel subsidies are alive and well. But the progress we’ve made isn’t the kind you can’t reverse with a single election.

The energy economy is transitioning. Technology is advancing. The market is shifting. Our politics might feel stuck, but in many important ways, we continue to move forward.

More receipts? Here are just a few of many. Massachusetts is working on a neighborhood geothermal pilot project. The US (and indeed the world) is experiencing a ginormous surge in grid-scale energy storage (i.e., batteries that store clean-generated energy). Despite Trump’s efforts to resurrect the dying coal industry, a Colorado utility plans to close a coal plant anyway—because the economics make it the right thing. In California last year, solar nearly outproduced natural gas in electricity generation—and may surpass gas this year. Maryland has achieved its goal ahead of schedule to conserve 30% of its land, and is now going for 40%.

Meanwhile, while the US squanders its leadership on everything, including any participation in climate work, the rest of the world unites. Bob Berwyn reported this week for Inside Climate News on a UN conference in New York. Berwyn quotes from the ever-spicy, truth-telling UN Secretary-General:

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said the leaders’ summit was one of the most diverse to focus on climate recently, and that a unifying message emerged.

“Yes, our world faces massive headwinds and a multitude of crises. But we cannot allow climate commitments to be blown off course,” he said in prepared remarks after the meeting, calling on the global community to build more momentum toward climate action at the next annual climate conference, COP30 in Brazil this fall.

“No group or government can stop the clean energy revolution,” he said. “Science is on our side and economics have shifted. We don’t have a moment to lose. No region is being spared from the ravages of accelerating climate catastrophes. And the crisis is deepening poverty, displacing communities and fuelling conflict and instability.”

Deeper Dive

As you know, Pope Francis died on April 21—the day after Easter, the day before Earth Day. He leaves behind a profoundly important legacy, calling for a global transformation both spiritual and practical, uniting our efforts to heal the earth and create more merciful and just societies.

Of the many, many tributes out there, I recommend this one by Kiley Bense of Inside Climate News and this one by Bill McKibben. Both these tributes emphasize the Pope’s prophetic voice on climate change, calling the whole world to hear “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.”

McKibben has often described the Pope’s 2015 encyclical, Laudato si’ as “the most important document of his papacy and arguably the most important piece of writing so far this millennium.” I hope the encyclical continues to resonate across faith traditions and indeed across all people, provoking deeper, more ambitious work toward ecological wisdom and wise practice.

Have you read it? If not, please do. You may be surprised at its power. I don’t agree with every last syllable in it—that’s OK. But Laudato si’ makes a crucial argument that the climate crisis is at heart a spiritual crisis, requiring fundamental spiritual transformation among all people of faith and good will. He calls for Christians, in particular, to seek an “ecological conversion”:

So what [Christians] all need is an “ecological conversion”, whereby the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in their relationship with the world around them. Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience. [par. 217]

Laudato si’ is about 250 paragraphs long. When I teach it, my students are always surprised to find that the Pope is not messing around. He speaks the hard truth emphatically but also pastorally. If you want a little help getting through it, you can use the little “sampler platter” sheet I made for my students to help them find some high points. I made a Google doc for you.

And once you’ve finished that document, you can move on to the Pope’s follow-up letters, Laudate Deum (73 pars.) and Fratello Sole (just a page!).

And if all of that seems too much—or not enough!—or if you want a way to introduce a skeptical, faith-oriented friend to what climate impacts look like in real people’s lives, I recommend viewing the beautiful documentary The Letter: A Message for Our Earth. My students loved this film—it’s moving, inspiring, heartening. You can watch it for free anytime.

In splendid news from Canada, Mark Carney, the liberal candidate for prime minister, pulled off a surprise, decisive win against his opponent, the Trump-adjacent Pierre Poilievre—who amid the kerfuffle lost his seat in parliament altogether. This is fantastic news politically. While Poilievre was expected to win as recently as February, Canadians suddenly united (“elbows up!”) in order to roundly defeat anything at all resembling the petty tyrant to their south.

Canada’s new Prime Minister, Mark Carney. Image credit: Wall Street Journal.

In even better news, Carney is climate champion, and has been for a long time. Bill McKibben’s recent Substack is worth the read, as McKibben explains Carney’s past as a savvy leader on clean energy who “is the the most likely person to midwife us through this transition.” McKibben writes:

In Carney we now have the world leader who knows more than any of his peers about climate change. And who knows roughly twenty times as much about climate and energy economics as anyone else in power. He may turn out to be a truly crucial figure in the fight to turn the climate tide.

Refugia Sighting

One sighting today and one big opportunity to help create more refugia.

First, evangelicals in Indiana. As part of the New York Times’ state-by-state coverage of climate action, Catrin Einhorn reported on hopeful developments among the US’s most climate-resistant religious group: White evangelicals. Einhorn writes:

Of all major U.S. religious groups, evangelical Protestants are the least likely to hear about climate change during sermons, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center, and the least likely to view global climate change as extremely or very serious. Now, networks of evangelicals are looking to shift that.

“If you frame it as environmentalism, or if you frame it as combating global warming, it suddenly gets really politicized,” said the Rev. Nate Pyle, senior pastor at Christ’s Community Church in Fishers, Ind. “When you frame it as stewardship or caring for the creation that God has given us, people are more open.”

The article features numerous churches in Indiana as well as the good folks at the Evangelical Environmental Network, who have long been laboring in the sometimes stony fields of American evangelicals in order to slowly draw them into climate work by speaking the biblical and theological language they best understand and by addressing their concerns.

While I personally get impatient with the terms “stewardship” and “creation care” as being too mild, I understand that for some people, these ways of framing the work are necessary to get started. And I’m so glad for EEN’s excellent work—and also for the Times’ coverage of religion/climate stories.

Englewood Christian Church in Indianapolis has installed solar panels. Image credit: Englewood Church via New York Times.

How can we all help more people of faith and conscience get involved in climate work? I mentioned last time the day of action planned for September called Sun Day. Sun Day will be a massive, highly visible weekend of fairs, rallies, protests, and teach-ins, all to celebrate clean energy. The idea is to create culture change: to help people see that a more joyful, sustainable world is possible. And now, Sun Day planning has officially launched!

Sun Day is using a sort of open-source logo generator to encourage people to engage creatively. This is only one of hundreds of variations on the Sun Day logo. You can create your own here: https://sunday.earth/welcome.

The launch took place in Boston, where several groups came together for a symbolic action: placing a green lamp in the steeple of the Old North Church—where the American Revolution began, because it’s time now for a Green Revolution. One of the speakers at the launch was Diana Butler Bass. She made the case that our faith traditions have become complicit, in our theologies and practices, with extractive and destructive economies. Nevertheless, our traditions contain the resources we need to shape renewed theologies and practices:

Even as we celebrate the technological advances and scientific moves toward a better future, those of us who do different work have a job as well – to correct the moral, ethical, legal, and theological record. To proclaim that the Earth is not an “it” but a living entity that suffers and longs and even has a vocation (like we do). Modern faiths obscured this in their eagerness for power, their desire for wealth or expansion. They became part of the extractive economy and turned away from their more ancient wisdoms.

We moderns said, “The Earth is ours to do with what we like.”

But scripture insists, “The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof.”

Our modern theology of creation has been, in a word, a heresy.

There was always another voice, another way, another vision in the old stories, the spiritual practices of those who went before. And it is our job to recall and recover that ancient wisdom as part of the revolution these green beacons shine with this night.

We need everyone to get involved! Go to the newly launched, beautiful Sun Day website for more information. I will be helping Third Act Faith plan events to equip faith groups’ involvement. Besides helping with Third Act Faith’s events, I will be working to get my university, my church, and my city to cook up events and actions that fit our community. Creativity is highly encouraged!

Fun Things

Well, I detect a grievous shortage of conservation stories in this newsletter. Where are the plants and animals? Most important, where are the beavers?

Ugh. I’ll work on that for next time. Meanwhile, we will just have to settle for flying rhinos and a silly song about ferns.

Black rhinos, as you probably know, are critically endangered, with the world population at only about 6500 individuals. That’s much better than the low point 2500 a few decades ago. But keeping them going requires a lot of careful conservation work. Sometimes they need to be moved around. And one of the best ways is: helicopter. Riley Farrell of BBC News explains:

Black rhinos are moved around for three reasons, says Ursina Rusch, population manager for the WWF South Africa Black Rhino Range Expansion Project. First, to protect them from poaching. Secondly, for monitoring purposes – rhino researchers often take the opportunity to insert satellite GPS telemetry into the rhinos' horns. And, thirdly, to ensure their genetic population is as diverse as possible. The species mostly exists within protected pockets on public and private reserves, so translocation is one of the only available methods to increase their range.

The article goes on to explain in some detail why flying them upside down is often the safest, quickest, and least stressful way to move rhinos. There are also some wonky stats about the helicopters involved, if you’re into that, and a very charming video of a rhino flight—which I couldn’t coax into Substack, so you’ll have to click through to the article to see it.

I mean, the rhino looks pretty relaxed, right? Image credit: Namibian Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism via BBC.com.

Finally, here’s something just to cheer you up: a silly song in honor of fiddlehead fern season and my graduating Refugia Cohort. We somehow settled on the fiddlehead fern as our team mascot. This might have something to do with Betsy skipping out into my backyard during one of our first meetings, harvesting fiddleheads, and sizzling them up in a pan for our delighted tasting (they’re good!). Also, Paul sang a little fern song around the fire that day, and ever since we keep requesting encore performances.

Fern fiddleheads are one of the coolest things plants do, eh?

The cohort determined, over the course of our three years, that silliness is an essential ingredient in refugia spaces. It might even be the secret sauce that makes refugia work. Anyway, here’s our group theme song.

That’s all for this week. Wishing you abiding peace and strength for each day. Be well.

(As always, bold print in quotations is added unless otherwise indicated.)