UUCA Gardeners of Eden

 

The meeting on July 13th to discuss a response to the issues arising from the film An Inconvenient Truth ended with action. Those present were asked to recommend concrete, achievable things we could do, either as a church or a wider community, to help stop practices that fuel global warming and climate change. Here is a list of those suggestions:

 

 The Congregation:

  1. Support the recommendations of the 2006 UUA General Assembly Statement of Conscience , ‘Threat of Global Warming/Climate Change’ (http://www.uua.org/csw/SOCFinal06_GW.pdf)
  2. Begin a campaign, based on the Cool Cities campaign, to encourage the congregation members to buy compact fluorescent light bulbs for use in their homes. Also petition the UUCA board to change the light bulbs used at church to energy-saving bulbs.
  3. Use the resources on these two web pages to create a worship service around the theology of stewardship for the Earth; contact local churches to be invited to deliver the service and create a pro-environmental group of churches. Ministry Associates could take on this project.

          http://www.christiansandclimate.org

          http://www.gipl.org

  1. Create a section of the UUCA website for members to have access to resources, including a list of websites that offer energy-saving information and tax rebate details.
  2. Coordinate an intergenerational play and get wide congregational and community participation. Ruth Garrison has the information about the play. Gaye can contact the owner of the new small venue theater Le Chat Noir to ask about it being available as a venue. We need a strong director! Please see Ruth Garrison or Gaye Ortiz if you are interested.
  3. Be familiar with the initiatives within the UUA, e.g. The UU Ministry for Earth (http://uuministryforearth.org/index.shtml) and the GA workshop ‘Beyond Science’ (http://uuministryforearth.org/globalwarming/BeyondScienceGA2006.pdf)

 

The wider community:

  1. Direct action at car lots to draw attention to need for alternative fuels/transport
  2. Review Georgia education curricula to see how environmental issues are being presented
  3. Create an awareness campaign/educational display to set up where there is a lot of foot traffic: e.g. First Friday, or contact Fort Discovery about display
  4. Pair up with another person and begin a personal improvement program, encouraging each other to adopt one new habit a month for environmentally-friendly  practices: use one device (powerstrip) for all appliances; turn off lights; share rides, walk or bike instead of using the car; get more fuel-efficient vehicles; conserve hot water/use solar water heating; use thermostats effectively; recycle; buy local/grow your own; consume less
  5. Advocate the raising of gas tax and use revenue to finance alternate sources of energy
  6. Elect people who recognize global warming threat and who will sign the Kyoto treaty
  7. Shame people who waste energy
  8. Write to government officials about drilling in sensitive areas like the ocean
  9. Use natural fibers/materials in our homes
  10. avoid excessive packaging
  11. encourage building bike/scooter lanes on roads
  12. small group training for disasters, build a core community and network with like-minded people and target migration areas

 

 

E-mail addresses were collected from those who wanted to have this information.  We are hoping that the UUCA webpage for Gardeners of Eden (name courtesy of Kathy Benoy) will be up and running soon; any further material to go onto the webpage should be sent to either Gaye Ortiz (gwortiz@comcast.net) or Ruth Garrison (ruth.garrison@knology.net)