The image captures something of the old Bois D'Arc tree standing next to the driveway in the house in Richardson, Texas where I grew up. So many memories remain etched in my mind about that house and this old tree. Of course, the tree remains in place beside the drive as I remember it. The tree is permanent. It's stood there for a very long time. It is much, much older than I. When I was a child, it filled the position of one of the constants of my life. I climbed in it. Shot BB guns at it. Hid behind it. Studied it. Spied on my best buddy from a perch up in its substantial limbs. This tree serves as a reminder that my life is very short and other realities matter as much or more than my concerns. I love that old tree. Every time I pass my home place, I look at this tree.
Showing posts with label environmental justice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label environmental justice. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
The old tree. . .
The image captures something of the old Bois D'Arc tree standing next to the driveway in the house in Richardson, Texas where I grew up. So many memories remain etched in my mind about that house and this old tree. Of course, the tree remains in place beside the drive as I remember it. The tree is permanent. It's stood there for a very long time. It is much, much older than I. When I was a child, it filled the position of one of the constants of my life. I climbed in it. Shot BB guns at it. Hid behind it. Studied it. Spied on my best buddy from a perch up in its substantial limbs. This tree serves as a reminder that my life is very short and other realities matter as much or more than my concerns. I love that old tree. Every time I pass my home place, I look at this tree. 
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Environmental Justice
Scripture reading for this Sunday:
Deuteronomy 20:19-20
If you besiege a town for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you must not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. Although you may take food from them, you must not cut them down. Are trees in the field human beings that they should come under siege from you? You may destroy only the trees that you know do not produce food; you may cut them down for use in building siege-works against the town that makes war with you, until it falls.
(New Revised Standard Version)
Deuteronomy 20:19-20
If you besiege a town for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you must not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. Although you may take food from them, you must not cut them down. Are trees in the field human beings that they should come under siege from you? You may destroy only the trees that you know do not produce food; you may cut them down for use in building siege-works against the town that makes war with you, until it falls.
(New Revised Standard Version)
Friday, June 11, 2010
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Climate impact on humans
The Global Humanitarian Forum's most recent report, "Climate Change responsible for 300,000 deaths a year," outlines the impact of climate change on human life.
The report is way beyond sobering. We have so many reasons to come together in community, both locally, nationally and around the world. Certainly, this report provides additional motivation of the most pressing sort.
Here are summary points to get your thoughts flowing:
--First ever report exclusively focused on the global human impact of climate change calculates more than 300 million people are seriously affected by climate change at a total economic cost of $125 billion per year
--Report projects that by 2030, worldwide deaths will reach almost 500,000 per year; people affected by climate change annually expected to rise to over 600 million and the total annual economic cost increase to around $300 billion
--To avert worst possible outcomes, climate change adaptation efforts need to be scaled up by a factor of 100 in developing countries, which account for 99% of casualties due to climate change
The full report goes on. . .
London 29 May – Kofi A. Annan, President of the Global Humanitarian Forum, today introduced a major new report into the human impact of climate change. The ‘Human Impact Report: Climate Change – The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis’ is the first ever comprehensive report looking at the human impact of climate change.
The report was issued immediately prior to official preparatory talks in Bonn for a new UN international climate agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. These talks will culminate at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. The report was reviewed by leading international experts, including Rajendra Pachauri of the IPCC, Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, and Barbara Stocking of Oxfam.
The report estimates that climate change today accounts for over 300,000 deaths throughout the world each year, the equivalent of an Indian Ocean Tsunami every single year. By 2030, the annual death toll from climate change will reach half a million people a year.
To read the entire report click here.
At Central Dallas Ministries, we are working right now on developing a job training program to go along with a possible business venture to bring solar power to low-income communities here in Dallas at a price point that makes sense.
Reactions to the need?
.
The report is way beyond sobering. We have so many reasons to come together in community, both locally, nationally and around the world. Certainly, this report provides additional motivation of the most pressing sort.
Here are summary points to get your thoughts flowing:
--First ever report exclusively focused on the global human impact of climate change calculates more than 300 million people are seriously affected by climate change at a total economic cost of $125 billion per year
--Report projects that by 2030, worldwide deaths will reach almost 500,000 per year; people affected by climate change annually expected to rise to over 600 million and the total annual economic cost increase to around $300 billion
--To avert worst possible outcomes, climate change adaptation efforts need to be scaled up by a factor of 100 in developing countries, which account for 99% of casualties due to climate change
The full report goes on. . .
London 29 May – Kofi A. Annan, President of the Global Humanitarian Forum, today introduced a major new report into the human impact of climate change. The ‘Human Impact Report: Climate Change – The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis’ is the first ever comprehensive report looking at the human impact of climate change.
The report was issued immediately prior to official preparatory talks in Bonn for a new UN international climate agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. These talks will culminate at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. The report was reviewed by leading international experts, including Rajendra Pachauri of the IPCC, Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, and Barbara Stocking of Oxfam.
The report estimates that climate change today accounts for over 300,000 deaths throughout the world each year, the equivalent of an Indian Ocean Tsunami every single year. By 2030, the annual death toll from climate change will reach half a million people a year.
To read the entire report click here.
At Central Dallas Ministries, we are working right now on developing a job training program to go along with a possible business venture to bring solar power to low-income communities here in Dallas at a price point that makes sense.
Reactions to the need?
.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
What? No Corvettes???
I'm green, okay?
I get it about alternative energy sources.
Really, I do.
I get it.
I get it about alternative energy sources.
Really, I do.
I get it.
Hey, I'm as patriotic as the next guy.
I've been advocating for green job training for underemployed and unemployed inner city workers. If you've been here, you've read what I've written.
But, I've got my limits here!
Today I read a prediction that soon GM, if it survives, will stop manufacturing the Corvette.
Tell me it ain't true!
What will America be without the 'Vette?
This is more than I can imagine right now.
What do you think?
.
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Sunday prayer
God, who is Creator, care-giver and challenger, the heavens truly declare your glory, and the skies your handiwork, though we must confess that most of the times we city dwellers are shielded from that knowledge by the bright lights with which we surround ourselves. Our artificial lighting comforts us in the darkness and allows us to pretend that our creations and our work is all that matters. But this summer some of us have ventured out to the desert or mountain top or some deserted beach and looked up and seen your glory splashed across the skies. Some of us have even stopped to think that the mist which stretches across the night sky which we call the Milky Way can be resolved by a good telescope into hundreds of billions of stars.
Then we have asked with the psalmist, O Lord, what is man that you are mindful of him, or the daughter of man that you might care for her? Yet you have made us but a little lower than the angels and set us the task of nurturing and caring for our small part of creation. And that’s the problem. We have taken the garden you have given to our care and used its waters for sewers, its land for a garbage dump, and its creatures for target practice.
It’s really no surprise after all, Lord. How can we be expected to nurture the creation when we won’t even treat each other with respect? When we tell the poor to get a job, and won’t pay a living wage, when we tell the sick to get well, and refuse them health care, when we tell the prisoners to reform, and refuse them employment when they do. How can we ever love our neighbors when our response to those who strike out against oppression is to shoot first and ask questions later?
But that’s why we’re here this morning, Lord. We have heard rumors of the good news which says it is possible to alter our course. We have heard stories of Jesus and the amazing power of his love – power to change people like Peter and Paul, Magdalene and Helena, Augustine and Luther, Wesley and Asbury, Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King, Jr., and even some of our neighbors. Power to recreate us in your image.
So we pray for the gift of your Holy Spirit to come upon us, that we might not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of our minds and hearts, that we might live out the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
We know you can do this, Lord. You can do it right now, if only we would pray sincerely and with full attention the prayer that Jesus taught us, saying…
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.
Dr. Tom Downing
First United Methodist Church
Dallas, Texas
July 27, 2008
.
Then we have asked with the psalmist, O Lord, what is man that you are mindful of him, or the daughter of man that you might care for her? Yet you have made us but a little lower than the angels and set us the task of nurturing and caring for our small part of creation. And that’s the problem. We have taken the garden you have given to our care and used its waters for sewers, its land for a garbage dump, and its creatures for target practice.
It’s really no surprise after all, Lord. How can we be expected to nurture the creation when we won’t even treat each other with respect? When we tell the poor to get a job, and won’t pay a living wage, when we tell the sick to get well, and refuse them health care, when we tell the prisoners to reform, and refuse them employment when they do. How can we ever love our neighbors when our response to those who strike out against oppression is to shoot first and ask questions later?
But that’s why we’re here this morning, Lord. We have heard rumors of the good news which says it is possible to alter our course. We have heard stories of Jesus and the amazing power of his love – power to change people like Peter and Paul, Magdalene and Helena, Augustine and Luther, Wesley and Asbury, Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King, Jr., and even some of our neighbors. Power to recreate us in your image.
So we pray for the gift of your Holy Spirit to come upon us, that we might not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of our minds and hearts, that we might live out the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
We know you can do this, Lord. You can do it right now, if only we would pray sincerely and with full attention the prayer that Jesus taught us, saying…
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.
Dr. Tom Downing
First United Methodist Church
Dallas, Texas
July 27, 2008
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Thursday, June 26, 2008
Community and responsibility
In 1992, when she was only 12, Severn Cullis-Suzuki brought world leaders to tears with a speech at the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in which she chastised them for failing to protect her and her friends from the looming environmental catastrophe.
That was 16 years ago.
Her words remain more than relevant today. As I listened to her, I thought of the power, importance and nature of authentic community, no matter what the issue.
Take a moment and hear her out. Then, let me know your reactions.
That was 16 years ago.
Her words remain more than relevant today. As I listened to her, I thought of the power, importance and nature of authentic community, no matter what the issue.
Take a moment and hear her out. Then, let me know your reactions.
Saturday, March 08, 2008
Trout and Better Living. . .
Trout fishing--well, simply put, there is nothing quite like it.
Since my college days in in the Ozarks, when I scheduled classes to allow for plenty of "stream time," I've been hooked on the sport.
Since my college days in in the Ozarks, when I scheduled classes to allow for plenty of "stream time," I've been hooked on the sport.
I prefer fly fishing, but I've caught more than my share using spinning gear, not to mention country boy garlic cheese set ups! the soybean farmers taught me a lot about landing Rainbows!
Watching a Brown run at a dry fly, breaking the water as it scoops up what appears to be a tasty morsel--hard to beat in my book.
Watching a Brown run at a dry fly, breaking the water as it scoops up what appears to be a tasty morsel--hard to beat in my book.
Rainbows, Brookies, Cutthroats, Goldens, Browns. . .each is so unique and truly beautiful.
Catch.
Catch.
Observe and appreciate.
Release, unless it is lunch time.
Just being out in the woods, wading a stream, camping on a river bank--it all adds up to renewal and regeneration.
I'm a card carrying member of Trout Unlimited (http://www.tu.org/).
Trout magazine comes with membership. In the latest issue (Winter 2008), I learned that what's good for trout turns out to be good for people.
Just being out in the woods, wading a stream, camping on a river bank--it all adds up to renewal and regeneration.
I'm a card carrying member of Trout Unlimited (http://www.tu.org/).
Trout magazine comes with membership. In the latest issue (Winter 2008), I learned that what's good for trout turns out to be good for people.
The editors of the magazine published their legislative agenda in this issue. I was amazed at how each point, if enacted by the Congress, would make life better for both fish and humans.
Here's a sampling for your consideration:
In the current Farm Bill (the same one that funds the Food Stamp program for low-income families, as well as the free and reduced lunch programs for our children), TU is lobbying for $6 billion in funding for conservation and water improvement projects to protect the habitat we humans share and enjoy with the fish of the land!
Hardrock Mining Law reform provides for action to improve 40% of Western headwater streams that have been degraded by pollution from abandoned gold and silver mines. The recommended bill would clean up old mines that compromise the health of fish and folks.
Clean Water Restoration Act (H. R. 2421 and S. 1870) would allow for the ongoing regulation of streams and wetlands development--again, provisions that benefit trout and the rest of us.
The Energy Bill needs strengthening so that regulatory protection does not allow oil and gas exploration on public lands without the application of Clean Water Act regulations.
Fish-friendly agency budgets that fully fund conservation programs, including fisheries and a number of conservation projects, are also targeted for support in the next authorization legislation.
Trout lists several other legislative issues, but you get the picture.
Take care of the trout and we'll be insuring higher quality of life for ourselves!
Got a pole? Or, maybe a canoe?
.
Here's a sampling for your consideration:
In the current Farm Bill (the same one that funds the Food Stamp program for low-income families, as well as the free and reduced lunch programs for our children), TU is lobbying for $6 billion in funding for conservation and water improvement projects to protect the habitat we humans share and enjoy with the fish of the land!
Hardrock Mining Law reform provides for action to improve 40% of Western headwater streams that have been degraded by pollution from abandoned gold and silver mines. The recommended bill would clean up old mines that compromise the health of fish and folks.
Clean Water Restoration Act (H. R. 2421 and S. 1870) would allow for the ongoing regulation of streams and wetlands development--again, provisions that benefit trout and the rest of us.
The Energy Bill needs strengthening so that regulatory protection does not allow oil and gas exploration on public lands without the application of Clean Water Act regulations.
Fish-friendly agency budgets that fully fund conservation programs, including fisheries and a number of conservation projects, are also targeted for support in the next authorization legislation.
Trout lists several other legislative issues, but you get the picture.
Take care of the trout and we'll be insuring higher quality of life for ourselves!
Got a pole? Or, maybe a canoe?
.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Caring for our "home"
Anyone who really cares about people, urban areas and the future needs to read Bill McKibben's essay in the October 2007 edition of National Geographic ("Carbon's New Math," pages 33ff) or go to this link: http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2007-10/carbon-crisis/carbon-crisis.html.
Lots to think about.
Convicting to me on several levels: my love of fast, muscle-type automobiles (I drive a Hemi!); my gluttony of energy on many other fronts; my thoughtless use of non-biodegradable products; my love of air conditioning to the extreme. . .the list goes on and on.
We are insatiable consumers, as evidenced by another wild and crazy "black Friday" just yesterday. The sales numbers aren't in, but if the video footage is any indicator, Americans continued the grand tradition of spend, consume and waste.
One thing seems certain: we are all connected on this one planet as never before. And, urban dwellers, no matter where, share lots in common.
We all need to go "green."
Maybe a first step is to take the problem and the challenge a bit more seriously than we do at present here in Texas!
Lots to think about.
Convicting to me on several levels: my love of fast, muscle-type automobiles (I drive a Hemi!); my gluttony of energy on many other fronts; my thoughtless use of non-biodegradable products; my love of air conditioning to the extreme. . .the list goes on and on.
We are insatiable consumers, as evidenced by another wild and crazy "black Friday" just yesterday. The sales numbers aren't in, but if the video footage is any indicator, Americans continued the grand tradition of spend, consume and waste.
One thing seems certain: we are all connected on this one planet as never before. And, urban dwellers, no matter where, share lots in common.
We all need to go "green."
Maybe a first step is to take the problem and the challenge a bit more seriously than we do at present here in Texas!
Saturday, July 07, 2007
07/07/2007
July 7, 2007. . .7-7-7.
Around the world today people in every nation are thinking about the earth's environment, the challenges presented by climate change and moving toward more "green living."
Around the world today people in every nation are thinking about the earth's environment, the challenges presented by climate change and moving toward more "green living."
Live Earth: The Concerts For A Climate in Crisis provides the music from around the world, including venues in New York City and Washington, DC.
You can check it out at: http://www.liveearth.msn.com/about/factsheet?GT1=10227.
You can check it out at: http://www.liveearth.msn.com/about/factsheet?GT1=10227.
Caring for our neighborhoods, our communities and our neighbors will naturally lead us to be concerned for the entire planet and for neighbors around the world.
The same concern extends to our children, our grandchildren and their children.
7-7-7. . .a time to think things through. . .and sing along!
7-7-7. . .a time to think things through. . .and sing along!
Native American wisdom heard today during Live Earth on the Washington Mall by the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian: "Every decision should be made with the seventh generation in mind."
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