How Green is your Sanctuary?

Sermon for UU Church of Loudoun

Jack Harper, October 30, 2005

Growing up in the pine woods of Florida in the 1930's imprinted on me a deep love of the place, its animals and plants, its sounds and odors. My bare feet felt the pine straw, the scorching sand, and the cool waters of the nearby creek with its minnows, and snakes, and frogs. The mysterious dark waters of the cypress swamp drew me. I was totally in my element, my green sanctuary. Can children have spiritual experiences in nature? William Wordsworth in recollecting his early childhood wrote,

"There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,

The earth, and every common sight,

To me did seem

Apparelled in celestial light,

The glory and the freshness of a dream."

After World War II, the dream came to an end when bulldozers scraped away my green sanctuary for tract housing. The cypress swamp was cut down and filled up and the creek was dredged to become a ditch, a polluted ditch.

"When you defile the pleasant streams

And the wild bird's abiding place,

You massacre a million dreams

And cast your spittle in God's face."

wrote John Drinkwater

Habitat destruction has become a more common sight in my 50 years of traveling about the planet. Half of the plant and animal species on Earth may be lost this century due to habitat destruction, global warming, over hunting and fishing, toxic pollution, and invasive species. World population now at 6.4 billion is thought by some ecologists to be 20% over carrying capacity for our planet. Another 2.5 billion people by mid-century will further increase demands on Earth's resources.

We have entered a sixth period of the mass extinction of plants and animals on Earth, this time caused by us humans instead of asteroids. Frog and toad species, our early warming systems, have been disappearing for the last decade. At this time a quarter of all mammals are threatened with extinction. Two out of three bird species are in decline. Eighty percent of the world's fisheries are in decline or have crashed. Unless we take action, the great apes may not survive more than a few decades in the wild due to the bushmeat trade, habitat loss, and the Ebola virus. In Africa gorillas and chimpanzees have declined by half in the past 20 years. All of Africa's predators are declining. Lion populations have fallen by 90% in the last 20 years.

Global warming, caused primarily by our burning of oil, gas, and coal for transportation, electricity, and industry, has already heated the Earth by one degree Fahrenheit causing climate changes around the world especially at the poles where Polar Bears and human cultures may not survive this century. Hurricanes and typhoons have become 50% more powerful over the last 30 years. Mountain glaciers including those in Glacier National Park and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania will melt this century. Polar and Greenland Icecap melting will raise sea levels by two or three feet in the next few decades. Human refugees are projected at 150 million as large areas of the planet become flooded or made uninhabitable. Most coral reefs with their fish and sea life will disappear as ocean waters become warmer and more acidic. Thirty percent of the planet is in drought compared with 10% in the 1970's. The prestigious Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, predicts that if we humans heat the Earth more than another three degrees Fahrenheit we can expect climatic catastrophe.

According to economic consultants, Lombard Street Research, the cost of controlling global warming is estimated to be $18 trillion, a cost they consider beyond any conceivable benefit. Really? Is a livable Earth intact with coral reefs, and mountain glaciers , and a rich diversity of plants and animals, and functioning ecosystems not worth $18 trillion? Is an Earth without hundreds of millions of eco-refugees, without killer heat waves and killer hurricanes, and without vast flooding and desertification not worth $18 trillion? There is no one waiting in the wings to rescue Earth from our profligate ways and fossil fuel addiction. While our president maintains that the Kyoto Treaty's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions would be too costly to the American economy, Japan has taken the lead in solar and hybrid car technology and the European Union has become the leader in wind power technology. While 143 nations have started to deal with global warming under the Kyoto Treaty, the United States, a holdout, continues to spew out even more greenhouse gases, now more than one-quarter of the world output, committing us to 51st place in the order of environmentally sustainable countries because of our wasteful and polluting ways.

Our government has not taken scientific warnings seriously, has altered science reports to conform with political ideology, and is actively dismantling environmental protections. Environmental groups, to which you and I contribute, work around the edges of the many problems but cannot hold back the onslaught of massive destruction. Corporations by-and-large concentrate on short term profits and generally do not concern themselves with long-term environmental sustainability. The prices we pay for goods do not reflect their environmental and social costs. When these costs are subtracted from the rising gross domestic product, the resulting Genuine Progress Indicator has been trending downward since the 1970's. The global consumer society is becoming unhealthy and dysfunctional. Unsustainable high levels of consumption in the Western world and Japan have led to declines in the Social Health Index and the Living Planet Index over the last 30 years.

Is there hope in dealing with our unsustainable world systems? Yes, the hope lies within you and me. Church goers everywhere who see the destruction of Creation and four billion years of evolution as a moral crisis may be the last line of defense for Earth. Churches have responded. In the United States Evangelicals, Jews, Catholics, and Protestants have formed an alliance called the National Religious Partnership for the Environment. The successful "What would Jesus Drive" campaign was launched by The Evangelical Environmental Network representing 30 million Americans. Seeing the protection of the environment as a moral and religious obligation, Jewish groups are taking action on species extinction and global warming. The National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Working Group representing 50 million church goers concentrates on environmental justice, climate change, and energy saving. "In respect for God's Creation" the Conference of Catholic Bishops has called for action on global warming and environmental justice.

What are Unitarian Universalists doing to address our Earth crises? The UU Ministry for Earth now has certified 35 churches as Green Sanctuaries whose congregations are dedicated to fostering awareness of environmental issues and injustices and addressing them vigorously. The Green Sanctuary promotes sustainability through lifestyle change and enriches environmental consciousness with spirituality. The study/action issue for 2005/2006 is global warming, now under discussion at Unitarian churches across the country.

At Bull Run Unitarian Universalists of Manassas, Virginia, we began our Green Sanctuary program three years ago and were certified last year as the 20th Green Sanctuary. We assembled a Green Team to plan an environmental program for our 200 members.

Our first effort was to conduct an environmental audit of the buildings, checking heating and cooling efficiencies, lighting, insulation, and toxic cleaning products. We reorganized our recycling efforts with more receptacles throughout the buildings. We asked the Board to authorize the buying of green products, recycled paper and supplies. We bought 100 place settings of non-disposable dinnerware.

To inform our members, friends, and the community of environmental issues, we gave green sermons with moral and spiritual dimensions about global warming, genetic engineering, species extinction, and about environmental leaders such as John Muir. We give our monthly "Green Moments", two minute spiritual or informative readings and skits, at the beginning of Sunday services to keep green issues in the minds of our members. We write monthly Green Corner articles on environmental issues in our newsletter and on our web site. We maintain an on-line Environmental Information Center about local recycling centers and local environmental events. We organize regular outings to places of interest such as organic farms, the Fall Wildlife Festival, Solar Homes Tours, and the Green Festival. We conduct an annual Earth Day Walk. We sell shade-grown, fair trade, organic coffee, tea, and chocolate to our members and friends. We are providing baskets of green products for our annual auction. We have conducted environmental religious education programs for all ages, including the "Earth in Crisis" seminars for adults. We have served organic foods at our green gatherings. We regularly email broadcasts to members notifying them of green events and invitations to contact elected officials to take urgent action.

We have engaged in environmental projects such as the design and construction of a self-guided nature tour at the Occoquan National Wildlife Refuge, where we also removed invasive plants. To support environmental justice we have sent four disadvantaged children to summer adventure camps. We plan to produce a monthly podcast of green happenings and to sponsor an environmental film festival.

Can church goers make a difference considering the dominance of consumerism and powerful interests? Yes, if we realize that it's going to take much more than a little recycling. We first have to inform ourselves, make our own lives green, spread the word, join with others, and most of all "get political" as environmental leader Lester Brown says. We must keep the pressure on our elected officials at every level, informing them that we are serious about global warming, habitat loss, species extinction, urban sprawl, and a myriad of other issues. We have to speak to those among us who are in denial, who are misinformed, and who are unconcerned about the Earth crises that we ourselves have brought about.

We are approaching a bottleneck says renowned biologist Edward O. Wilson. We have to get through the difficult times ahead of more people demanding resources beyond that which Earth can bear, of ecosystem destruction, of massive extinctions, and resource wars in order to enter sustainability for the planet and for mankind. He wrote that,

"A very Faustian choice is upon us: whether to accept our corrosive and risky behavior as the unavoidable price of population and economic growth, or to take stock of ourselves and search for a new environmental ethic."

Systems scientist Ervin Laszlo calls this tipping point a Macroshift for which we have but a few years to prepare before succumbing to a downward spiral. Reaching sustainability is dependent on finding a new paradigm. As Laszlo put it,

"It's about a new worldview with new values adapted to living, surviving, and developing on this planet."

Moving from a consumer-oriented society to one invested in the quality of life will require changes to infrastructure, resource policies, production, consumption patterns, values, and perceptions. Pedestrian-friendly urban design could promote human interaction allowing easy access for work, entertainment, shopping, services, the arts, and sports. Natural areas should be close at hand for enjoyment and to stimulate nature conservation. Transportation could be organized to save commuters time for life-enhancing activities. More environmentally sound products, food, and energy choices could be promoted by government policy initiatives. Redesigning manufacturing to mimic the natural world by reusing all waste, thus relieving demands on the natural resource base. Quality-of-life objectives would have to be adopted by the public, industry, and government to make the transition possible. This difficult and wrenching transformation would not only benefit the human condition and the biosphere but lend dignity and purposefulness to our lives.

We can continue with our wasteful, unsustainable ways and destroy much of the life on this planet or we can take a new direction, developing a new ethic to save Earth for our children, our grandchildren, people everywhere, for our future, for our survival, for plants and animals and ecosystems, for our spirituality, and for our humanity.

Biologist and religious naturalist Ursula Goodenough put it this way,

"If we can revere how things are, and can find a way to express gratitude for our existence, then we should be able to figure out, with a great deal of hardwork and goodwill, how to share the Earth with one another and with other creatures, how to restore and preserve its elegance and grace, and how to commit ourselves to love and joy and laughter and hope."

Woody Guthrie sang that "This land was made for you and me". The biologist in me would have it that, you and I were made for this land, our Mother Earth, our sacred place, our Green Sanctuary.