We are facing a climate crisis. Climate change is already causing suffering for peoples around the world every day. Recognizing the interdependence of all life, we are called as people of faith and conscience to heal and sustain the planet we call home.
We are diverse in spiritual belief, yet united in faith that a better world is possible and that our collective power can create change.
We commit to join together to SHIFT to a low carbon future, ADVANCE the human rights of affected communities, and GROW the climate justice movement.
People of faith have been on the frontlines of environmental justice for decades. United in collective action, connected through partnership, we change the world.
On February 9, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan. Announced in August 2015, the plan is designed to create a 32 percent reduction in carbon emissions from 2005 levels within the power sector (primarily coal-fired plants) by 2030. States must comply by 2022, and the first deadline for individual plans (September 2016) is now delayed by the stay. The National Catholic Reporter details the implications of the stay and the potential impacts of Justice Antonin Scalia's death just four days after the decision.
This Monday, February 15, a coalition of religious organizations, including the Unitarian Universalist Association and Unitarian Universalist Ministry for the Earth, sent the following letter to Congress and the Administration on the Supreme Court's decision to stay the Clean Power Plan.
By Hannah Hafter, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
“Whose land do you live on?”
It’s an uncomfortable question for those of us known as “settlers,” and one that we do not regularly have to face. Last year, as part of the UU College of Social Justice’s “Solidarity with Original Nations and Peoples” program, I had gone in considering myself someone whose eyes were open to the injustices done to the original peoples of the United States. As I stood on the rocky shorefront of the Salish Sea, listening to Lummi organizer Freddie Lane explain the history of this sacred site under threat, I realized that my knowledge barely scratched the surface.
