The first factor, which was not predictable, was the demise of Interfaith Power & Light National in January 2025. All of us, including the national staff, got an email notice telling us that the offices were closing at the end of the week. The National Board hosted a Zoom meeting afterward to inform us that IPL National was bankrupt and – that was that.
New York IPL is a separate entity with its own Federal tax ID. We were not affected monetarily by the closing of IPL National. With full disclosure, NYIPL had not received any funding from the national office since 2019. What was bone of contention became a blessing in disguise.
What we did lose was all the talented national staff who focused on Washington DC, both the legislative initiatives and the regulatory processes. They were distributing monthly updates up until the last day of their employment. Their curated reports are difficult to replicate, and no other organization offers analysis and clarification after publication without bias like our national staff did. Yes, there are other religious organizations involved in climate change at a national level, but the IPL National office was unique and apparently at this point, not easily replaceable.
As a consequence of their closing, a number of forty-two state IPL’s have closed their doors, especially those who were independent entities and not subsumed under larger organizations. Since the NYIPL staff have not taken a salary since COVID, the board elected to remain open as long as volunteers engage and congregations request services and help. There have been ongoing requests by both congregations and our climate coalition.
The state IPL’s that are still functioning are communicating and exchanging program ideas, successes and challenges. We are planning to meet in person this year because the mission remains the same: to move our country to address climate change in a significant manner.
Storytelling Workshop
We are taking our stories and our demands to our legislators with video clips. Join us as we learn how to make a 2-3 minute video using our faith traditions. At the end of workshop you will be able to:
- Write a brief story
- Record easily (painlessly) for posting
- Learn the storytelling tradition of your faith
- Take action and reach out further into the community
- Turn the words of heartfelt prayers into deeds with others across the state.
Sunday, August 28th @ 7:00pm
To register go to: https://forms.gle/xVHsiG2WnLgyb8Xj7
Carbon Dioxide emissions in millions metric tons
West Virginia v the EPA
What Does West Virginia v EPA mean?
Congresspeople and as a whole, the Congress, are not experts on environment and environmental issues. They pass laws that give general directions and boundaries while instructing agencies to engage experts to implement the laws by drafting regulations. The majority of the Supreme Court says this methodology is no longer valid. They ruled the legislation must spell out the regulations in full in the legislation and the EPA only has the authority to oversee the regulations written in the laws. The EPA can no longer promulgate regulations. The Supreme Court demands are impossible, which means the entire fossil fuel industry is now essentially deregulated.
Power of Our Voice Confirmed
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has called for a “Special Session” of the Assembly to consider the “Build Public Renewables Act” that he failed to bring to the floor for a vote at the end of the session last week. The NYS Senate has already passed the bill.
Calling a special session is rare and unusual. Politico offers that the special session to consider the bill was called because the intense public pressure.
That pressure is US, my friend. Whoo-hoo!
The session will convene on July 28th.
This is What Democracy Looks LIke
Thrive Agenda
Announced on February 1, 2021: NY Renews becomes the official state anchor of the national THRIVE AGENDA, commonly known as The Green New Deal. The elements and structure of the THRIVE AGENDA is already familiar to New Yorkers who pushed and won the Climate and Community Leadership Protection Act and are now advocating the Climate and Community Investment Act. You can read the THRIVE AGENDA in detail on their website.
Big Bold Jewish Climate Fest
164 workshops, panels, discussions, and events on climate change.
You (You kindhearted soul) Are The Target
The competent magician compels the audience to turn their attention elsewhere while the switch is made, seemingly unseen. Magicians are Old School though, because entire industries have adopted the mechanism of deception as their entire public relations strategy. The tobacco industry got away with it for fifty years and now the fossil fuel industry is well into its fourth decade of deceit. Their latest target is your growing desire to address climate change.
The Exxon-Mobil’s, Shell’s and Koch Brothers know they can no longer suppress or delay your fear of climate change consequences. All forms of communication are beaming video, pictures, and commentary of the rising natural events that are destroying lands, disrupting regions, and leaving swathes of dead creatures, even human beings. The corporations know the entirety of the fossil fuel industry is responsible. They even recognize that most of the world’s population knows of their culpability.
Still, they hope to delay the dismissal and banning of fossil fuels and their byproducts. They have an excellent plan. They are not going to talk about their responsibility, they are going to broadcast your responsibility. They are presenting a marketing plan that declares, “You are the problem, and you are the solution to climate change.â€
Yes, you are the problem and all that you need to do is tidy up your little piece personal property. Save the planet by putting in a compost heap. Help your community by consolidating your errands into a minimum number of trips. Dry your laundry on a line in the backyard. Change out lightbulbs. Replace that dirty old furnace with a new, efficient model. Use the Energy Star program and replace all your appliances as they age. Recycle.
Do all these things, the marketing promises, and you will have addressed your personal responsibilities. You are done and you should be proud of yourself for addressing climate change. Sit back and appreciate life.
Each and every step of this pernicious initiative is a lie, a devastating one too. Compared to the gigatons of emissions being pumped into atmosphere, every possible act and deed an individual can do to address their personal responsibilities is negligible. Your actions are a drop of spit off the pier when the freighter is discharging its bilge water in the harbor.
What do you really need to do to address climate change?
- Hold the fossil fuel industry accountable. This is the action they fear. Bringing attention to their culpability and demanding action against them is what they are paying P.R. firms to help them avoid.
- Demand loudly and often that your legislators act
- Elect legislators who support climate change legislation
- Demand that state agencies and regulatory bodies enforce environmental laws.
- Go to zoning board meetings
- Attend public meeting of state and county agencies.
- Broadcast as loudly as the fossil fuel industry does.
The Limits of Religion and How It Informs the Religious Response to Climate Change
Part of addressing climate change is the technical challenges. The methods of science and engineering have proven themselves to be far more capable in providing probable solutions to climate change than religion. The sacred foundational texts and the subsequent holy documents were never envisioned as scientific directives. Even when droughts threatened and bubonic plagues charged down the Silk Road, all the religions from China to Europe were not capable of investigating the sources and resolving the crises. Modern science and engineering are late in the history of religion, and all our technical solutions are recent.
Another part of addressing climate change is a question of which government policies to implement. The Hebrew Bible knew only kings and tyrants, judging monarchs good or bad based on their worship of Adonai God. Solomon is mentioned as imposing heavy taxes and forcing onerous conscription to build his temple, but he is judged as a good king based solely on his choice of building a temple to Adonai God. Economics and government policies are not part of the religious foundations.
When a recession descends upon a country, whether the country is Iran, Saudi Arabia, India or Italy, there are only a few reasonable choices the government has available to effectively address the crisis. Bringing a country out of recession looks similar around the world and the dominant religion of the country has no bearing on the government course of action. Certainly, believers pray to God that the policies work, but the choice of policies is not a religious call.
Religions are at its best when they identify the sacred values of solving a crisis such as global warming. Religion has always had a unifying power, bringing people together for a cause. Religion at its best creates identity and nobility of the cause. Religion can drive the conversation in the public square and religion can reframe cacophony of self-interested voices (such as the fossil fuel industry), giving clear perspectives on the choices we must make.
The world does not need or want a Jewish, a Muslim, or a Christian solution to the global climate pandemic. The world needs a religious voice clarifying the sacred tasks that must be undertaken. The world needs a clear moral direction that can overcome the forces of greed and nationalism at this critical juncture.
Raising a religious voice in a time of unchecked nationalism and political partisanship is daunting. Religious people are dismissed with causal disdain, which is why the moral vacuum must be reclaimed. We must raise our religious voices in the public square and in our legislator’s offices (even if remotely). What good is all our protestations and claims of piety if we do not speak our faiths to our governments and our fellows to address the climate?