Posted 63 days ago
Joining a new generation in making a difference in an environment at risk
by Tom Sine (Based on an interview with Dr. Chris Elisara, founder and executive director of the Creation Care Study Program
“Southeasterly winds are pushing oil-darkened water from the BP oil spill toward Waveland… This is the place where Hurricane Katrina first touched land in August 2005. Now, it again stands as a little beachhead for forecasts of catastrophe.” (1) People of faith are not only praying but volunteering to help with the cleanup as this catastrophe spreads.
Of course no one can predict the total cost of this, the worst environmental disaster in American history. Nonetheless, as we race into this very volatile new decade we can be certain of one thing: we are likely to face a growing list of environmental challenges. To the extent we can anticipate some of these new environmental challenges before they break on the beaches of our lives and society, we have lead time to create new, proactive responses before they arrive.
The Creation Care Study Program (CCSP) is on the forefront of preparing a new generation to both anticipate and create innovative forward-thinking ways to engage new environmental challenges at their unique study centers in Belize, New Zealand/Samoa, and in the future, Buffalo, New York. We interviewed Dr. Chris Elisara, the founder and executive director of this cutting edge environmental study program, to both gain his insights about some of the pressing environmental issues and learn creative ways CCSP grads are making a difference.
Chris expressed hope that the horrific catastrophe in the Gulf would make all of us much more aware of the environment’s interconnectivity to all areas of life and society, ranging from food production, to health, to the economy. In other words, given our dependence upon an inter-related and healthy creation, many of our modern ailments not only have ecological roots, but will require solutions that attend to seemingly unrelated underlying ecological variables and causes.
Anticipating new environmental challenges 2010 to 2020
When I asked Chris which environmental threats on the horizon concern him most he immediately responded, “Climate change related to increased human greenhouse gas production poses the greatest environmental threat to our future.” He added that he feels it is essential that government act to put a price on carbon production, thereby bringing the cost of carbon into the mainstream economy, which will help reduce this dangerous trend.
Bill McKibben, in his new book Eaarth, shares Chris’ concern. “So far humans, by burning fossil fuel, have raised the temperature of the planet nearly a degree Celsius…” which has caused not only a rapid melting of the ice caps, but a dramatic increase in forest fires, increased drought in some countries and weather related disasters. McKibben, Eaarth p.3-7
Chris said the second threat that concerns him most is a major freshwater crisis. He urges those of us who care for creation to add to our existing water conservation efforts the big picture—protecting and restoring entire watershed ecosystems all over the country. We need to be concerned not only about our carbon footprint but our water footprint as well.
Canadian journalist Chris Woods, in his book Dry Spring: The Coming Water Crisis of North America, explains why we all need to be concerned. Not only are we destroying our watershed ecosystems, thereby threatening our freshwater supplies, but climate change is also accelerating the depletion of this essential resource. This is not only a North American crisis but really a coming global crisis as well. Wood, Dry Spring
Celebrating CCSP grads creating new sustainable responses
As I interviewed Chris what impressed me most was how graduates from the Creation Care Study Program are creating new ways to respond to the growing challenges in their own lives by initiating sustainable practices and even finding new ways to make a difference with the urban poor. Let me recount a few examples that he shared with me.
- Several grads work with Flourish, a “collaborative ministry that helps churches care for creation in ways that honor God and help people”. Grads are working with congregations to enable them to create community gardens and encourage Community Supported Agriculture. They are also influencing churches they are involved with to buy fair traded products, do energy audits, reduce their eco-footprint, and care for those recovering from the horrific earthquake in Haiti.
- Gretchen Peck (CCSP Fall ’05) heads Renewal, a national student-led environmental movement seeking to inspire, connect and equip students to become part of the front edge of what followers of Christ are doing to care for creation. Gretchen writes on their website regarding the Gulf crisis, “As the ongoing oil gush gets worse, we are increasingly prompted to remember that our actions contribute to the problem. Loving God requires that we use what he has given us in a responsible manner. This summer instead of consuming oil for powering our vehicles, let’s consume food for powering our bodies! What better way to start the summer than by BIKING!”
- Andrea, a member of Camden House Community in Camden, New Jersey is also a grad of CCSP (Spring ’02). Camden House, part of the New Monasticism Movement in North America, is located not only in the poorest part of the city but also in one of the most polluted neighborhoods in America. Members of Camden House have joined with other community organizations in lobbying to change truck routes to reduce pollution in communities where kids live. Andrea and the other members of Camden House attend Sacred Heart Church and teach in the church’s primary school. Andrea teaches the kids how to do urban farming. The school recently constructed two 50 by 22 foot greenhouses where forty-five fifth graders grow produce for their families and neighbors in their community. One day, while Andrea and the kids were walking past a brown field next to their school, they got a creative idea. They took balls of compost they made in old refrigerators and filled each ball with clover seed because it leaches toxins from the soil. Then, one evening at dusk, they bombarded the brown field with hundreds of their compost balls. After several good spring rains, the toxic field was awash with clover blossoms. Andrea said the children were delighted to see the brown field covered with a sea of white blossoms. God is indeed doing something really, really small and the good news is we can all be much more a part of it. Sine, The New Conspirators
With his wife Tricia, Chris founded the Creation Studies Program in 1996 and, 14 years later, hundreds of seeds like Gretchen and Andrea are making a difference caring for God’s creation all over our troubled planet. And we all can be much more a part of it. Please send us your responses to both the new challenges and ways all of us can join these young innovators in caring for God’s good creation.
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