Adventist Environmental Advocacy

NEW BLOG

2009-04-22T08:44:00.000-07:00

Adventist Environmental Advocacy has morphed into a new blog project:

ADVENTISTS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

Please add this new and improved blog to your list of favorites.

Peace,
The AEA Team

Earth Day 2009

2009-04-21T16:15:00.000-07:00

What are you going to do for Earth Day 2009?

Click here to look for events near you.

Review: Who Killed the Electric Car

2009-04-21T16:14:00.000-07:00

I recently reviewed Who Killed the Electric Car? for Spectrum Magazine.

North Americans love murder-mysteries. Evidence Exhibit 1: an episode of CSI airs almost every night of the week. Whodunit? What was the motive? Will the perpetrator be apprehended? Was there a cover-up or conspiracy? And most importantly, was it Colonel Mustard in the kitchen with a knife?!

If a coroner’s report were distributed for this “death-umentary,” it might read something like this:

Deceased: Electric-powered EV1
Emergency Contact (Relation): General Motors (Parent)
Lifespan: 1996-1999
Cause of Death: Unknown. Suspicion of foul-play.

[complete article]

The Climate Project

2009-04-03T12:33:00.000-07:00

Sara Goodwin writes for us today about a recent presentation at Andrews University. She is a freshman biology major at AU, thinking of being an ecologist “when she grows up.” In her free time, she enjoys reading, music, and enjoying the great outdoors. I have added links to her original report. Thanks for sharing, Sara. I hope you and the Village Green Preservation Society will continue to be involved with this blog.

- - - - - - - - -

A couple weeks ago, the Andrews University community enjoyed an evening presentation by Peter Sinclair, a member of the organization, The Climate Project, who has worked alongside environmental activists such as Al Gore and many prominent climate scientists. I admit that I was a little skeptical at first since Sinclair is not a scientist, and neither is Al Gore (as much as I enjoyed his video, An Inconvenient Truth). But when he began his presentation by saying, “I am not a scientist — I am just a storyteller, reporting the facts as they have been given to me by the scientists,” I was satisfied.

Sinclair gave a brief overview of some of the issues caused by climate change and addressed several common myths and misconceptions that are tossed around by the skeptics. He also spent quite a bit of time covering ways that people and communities could make a positive environmental difference, focusing mainly on energy conservation. I appreciated his professional, humorous style, especially since this is a subject I’ve heard about over and over (who hasn’t these days?). Almost all of the people I spoke with afterwards shared my opinion.

I’m curious, though. How many people are actually doing something to address these environmental issues? I don’t just mean showing people An Inconvenient Truth and wearing trendy t-shirts. I mean, how many of you have changed your light bulbs and planted trees and biked to work and gone vegetarian? I admit that I don’t do as much as I could, but I’m trying to be more conscientious.

“The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains.” –Psalm 24:1

Why should we care? Because God does.

By: Sara Goodwin

God is...

2009-04-03T12:32:00.000-07:00

I recently read an enviro article by James Cress in Ministry – God is Great; God is Green (Nov 2008). These quotes stood out to me:

At this time when scientists and political leaders (many of them secularists) are concerned about the environment, ought not creationists be even more concerned and involved? Even though I fervently believe that Jesus is returning soon, I do not know the date. Therefore, as former United States Interior Secretary James Watt once told a congressional hearing, “I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns, whatever it is we have to manage [the planet] with a skill to leave the resources needed for future generations.”²

Of course, our concern for the planet must never surpass our concern for people and bringing the good news of Jesus to them. The ultimate salvation for this planet will not be found in ecofriendly lightbulbs, but rather in He who is the Light of the world.

At the same time, if we say we love people, surely we have a responsibility to those same people to exercise dominion over the planet in a responsible fashion and leave it in respectable condition for however many generations follow.

² James Watt, quoted in David Neff, “Second Coming Ecology,” Christianity Today 52, no. 7 (July 2008), http://tinyurl.com/45zjcf (accessed Sept. 24, 2008).

[complete article]

Environmental stewardship (aka Creation Care) is being addressed by many SDA publications. I’m curious if you are seeing a greater green consciousness in your local congregation. What changes do you see locally?

Signifance of the Creation Story

2009-04-03T12:31:00.000-07:00

The creation story has theological, sociological and ethical implications for many topics. This past week I was surprised to come across creation care while reading research shared by Allan Martin on young adult ministry. One of the 7 articles was “‘Converted to the Kingdom:’ Social Action Among College Students Today” (Evan Hunter, Christian Education Journal, Series 3, Vol. 5, No. 1). Excerpt:

Social justice begins with teaching about creation. Stephen Mott (1982) argues that all human rights are grounded in the cultural mandate of the opening scenes in Genesis. Human rights are bestowed as an aspect of bearing God’s image: “God is the provider and protector of human rights; we accept them as duties as we perceive God’s love and acknowledge God’s authority over us” (p. 52). Wright (2006) also points to creation as essential in understanding human kind as the image bearers of God. People are addressable by God, accountable to God, and possess dignity and equality because they are made in God’s image. God’s goodness and blessing are not reserved just for the final special creation of humankind, but can be found in the repeated “it was good” statements of the opening chapter of Scripture. The cultural mandate given to humans was to care for this creation, which reflects the goodness of the creator. The God with a mission gives humanity a mission to extend his reign throughout all of creation (Wright, 2006). Proverbs proclaims that the one who oppresses the poor shows contempt for the Maker. By extension, this applies to the fullness of creation–humankind and the very planet itself. Justice begins with understanding that the Creator stands with his creation. (p 92)

This beginning of justice also give Christian students a more complete understanding of their own efforts in caring for creation. College students’ zeal for the environment has led to recycling programs, sustainable and organic foods in campus dining halls, and even the design of “green buildings” for college campuses. Groups such as A Rocha Trust, Restoring Eden, Revision.org, and the Evangelical Environmental Network are gaining notoriety…. The interest in caring for the planet already exists, though most students cannot articulate a biblical rationale for their concern. By beginning with Genesis 1, we have the opportunity to connect their passion to a broader theological framework. (p 93)

Mott, S. (1982). Biblical ethics and social change. New York: Oxford University Press.

Wright, C. (2006). The mission of God. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic.

It’s a pretty basic teaching, but I think the point is worthy. Why am I committed to creation care? Is it a fad for me, or are my actions rooted in eternal principles and teachings? Can I succinctly articulate the spiritual underpinnings of my convictions? And, of course, am I really walking the talk?

The Original Plan

2009-02-23T10:47:00.000-08:00

If you’ve watched The Ordinary Radicals or checked out our featured links, then you’ve already seen the great stickers at Restoring Eden. For example:

I was reminded of their “resources” when reading this article at Relevant Magazine–Naked Vegetarians (David Benson).

Interview: Matt Vincent -- ZipCar Member

2009-02-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

Pastor Matt Vincent and I were talking recently during a church board meeting in Chicago, and our conversation turned to Zipcar. Matt is a member, and he’d used Zipcar to get across Chicago for the meeting that night. Pastor Jose Bourget confirmed that public transportation between Matt’s place and the church is poor compared to most routes in town.

Zipcar is in our list of auto resources (scroll down the page), but Matt is the first member that I know personally. To help our blog readers (and me) better understand the car rental service, I sent Matt a few questions by email.

J: Can you give us a brief description of Zipcar and how it works?

M: Zipcar is a car sharing program that rents by the hour instead of the day. The price of the rental (around $8.50/hr here in Chicago) includes the price of gas and premium insurance. If you rent over 6 hours, then you can just rent it for a day and it would cost you the same. Here in Chicago the cars are all around the city, you get online, book a car, go pick it up and use it until your time is up at which point you return it to where you got it. Simple as that, right?

J: How long have you been a Zipcar member, and how satisfied are you with their service?

M: I have been a member of Zipcar for over 6 months now, and while we probably spend more on transportation now simply because the car we had before was paid off, it would certainly be cheaper than making payments on a newer car, plus gas and insurance.

J: What specific factors motivated you to become a member?

M: We actually decided to give it a go once we saw that it was going to take $1600 to get our old car roadworthy again. We figured we would go for Zipcar instead since it was available in Chicago and we didn’t know where we were going to end up next*. I wish I could say our motives were purely to be green, but it was certainly a factor.

J: Zipcar operates in only a handful of major metropolitan areas, but they have a presence on a significant number of university campuses (see list). Prophet Matt, which SDA college or university will be the first to join up?

M: Obviously Walla Walla University will be the first campus to operate Zipcars. Unfortunately for my alma mater, that is probably not the case. However, if I were to make a prediction, I would make an educated guess that it would show up at Columbia Union College simply because Zipcar is already there in Washington, DC, and there are cars available near the campus although not as close as one might hope, but they are available in Takoma Park.

J: What other question(s) should I ask that I’m neglecting?

M: The only other thing I would add is to give as balanced a perspective on it as possible. The advantage of Zipcar is that it is a great alternative to public transportation. Perhaps its not quite as green as taking a bus or a train; it is a great way to haul groceries, run errands, or simply get around faster than a bus or train while still being a good steward and lowering your own costs. However, Zipcar can get expensive if you use it too often. Its easy to spend several hundreds of dollars a month just by running here or there, but it teaches you one thing: take advantage of time out in the car to run extra errands, versus running an errand here or there every day of the week. This is more efficient use of time and therefore more environmentally friendly since we reduce our road time. (Zipcar speaks green)

J: Thanks a lot for telling us about Zipcar, Matt. Readers, if you click on the icon below, you get $25 off at Zipcar, and so does Matt.

Finally, Matt, we wish you the best with your new ministry in Europe. God be with you and bless you. I hope we’ll be hearing more about your developments even though you’ll be across the pond.

Other Auto Resources:

AutoBlog Green (green your wheels)
Carectomy (ditch that car)
Greasecar (diesel engine conversion)

Simply Christian

2009-02-03T13:53:00.000-08:00

I’ve been reading N. T. Wright’s Simply Christian while eating breakfast each morning, and a quote from today’s portion is worth sharing here (p. 149):

Because Christian worship is the celebratory praise and adoration of God the creator, one of its key tasks is to tell, in a thousand different ways, the story of creation and new creation. But if we try merely to celebrate creation the way it now is, concealing its flaws and horrors behind pious language, Christian worship can easily deteriorate and become trivial or sentimental. Wise Christian worship takes fully into account the fact that creation has gone horribly wrong, has been so corrupted and spoiled that a great fault line runs right down the middle of it–and down the middle of all of us, who, as image-bearing human beings, were meant to be taking care of it. That’s why Christian worship is also the glad celebration of God’s action in the past in Jesus the Messiah, and of the promise that what he accomplished in dying for our sins will be completed. In other words, as in Revelation 5, worship of God as redeemer, the lover and rescuer of the world, must always accompany and complete the worship of God as creator. This means, of course, telling the story of the rescue operation as well as of creation. Indeed, it means telling the story of salvation precisely as the story of the rescue and renewal of creation.

That’s one long paragraph with a lot to chew on. May we worship God mindfully as our creator and rescuer this week. May we each join in that story as we discover more and more of what it means to be God’s “image-bearing human beings” in this world.

AU Receives Green Grant

2009-02-02T14:39:00.001-08:00

Andrews Univesity recieved a $1,815 grant to improve its recycling efforts. Following are excerpts from "Andrews Receives Recycling Grant," which was published in the January 21-27, 2009 issue of The Student Movement, the Andrews University weekly newspaper (no author listed; links added by AFE):

Dec. 18, 2008 The Berrien County Resource Recovery Office notified the Village Green Preservation Society (VGPS), a student-led campus environmental group, that Andrews had been awarded the Berrien School Recycling Grant.

The yearly grant awarded a combined total of approximately $10,000 to Andrews and 12 other area schools.

The money is planned to be used to furnish Burman, Lamson, and Meier Hall dormitories with user-friendly recycling bins.

[Provost] Knight gave her oral pledge to the group to match the grant money received.

Additionally, the undergraduate SA set aside $1,500 at the beginning of the school year to fund recycling bins for the Campus Center and Cafeteria.

When asks how he thinks the recycling program will impact the campus, Benjamin Oliver remarked, "It's most basic impact will significantly reduce the amount of trash that the university discards and the amount that goes to landfills. On a more personal level, it will really create an ethic of recycling [and] reusing, not just wastefulness... [The program] should reflect well on the university, as it goes well with our new commitment to 'go green'."

The VGPS and SA are planning to combine forces to educate students about the new program.

Godwin [the VGPS sponsor] offered some closing remarks, "I think what [the program] does is begin to line up our institutional behavior more effectively with... who we are. We are an Adventist institution that takes seriously our understanding of God as Creator and certainly one thing that should flow from that is more effective environmental stewardship."

2009

2009-01-06T18:22:00.000-08:00

The family gave me the Living Green Page-a-Day calendar for Christmas.

Day 1:

"Take this day to set some goals for a greener year. Resolve to think twice before every purchase you make. Could you borrow it instead? Go without? If it's a must-have, consider how and of what it's made, where it came from, and how far it had to travel to you before you open your wallet."

What are your green goals for the year? What's your next step?

Friday Potpourri

2008-12-19T08:14:00.000-08:00

1. Global Warming -- Somehow I hadn't heard much about global warming for a stretch, but this week a new headline caught my attention--Ice melting across globe at accelerating rate, NASA says (Emanuella Grinberg, CNN.com, 16 Dec '08).

"Between 1.5 trillion and 2 trillion tons of ice in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska have melted at an accelerating rate since 2003, according to NASA scientists, in the latest signs of what they say is global warming."

2. Green News -- This blog does not seek to be your sole source of environmental info; that's why we offer links to other orgs that can do this quite effectively. Personally, I recommend subscribing to the Grist email service.

However, some AEA readers may find ZapRoot a quick and fun way to get your green news (for those old enough to get decent rates on rental cars, the video work may cause seizures).

The main benefit of watching on their website is the extensive list of sites that are referenced in the short videos (example). But if you subscribe to ZapRoot on iTunes, the headings will make a lot more sense, so content is easier to find and return to.

3. GC Youth Ministry -- The Jan/Feb/Mar 2009 edition of Accent (GC Youth Ministries resource mag), says to "go green." On page 14, Corrado Cozzi reports on the AMiCUS International Student Congress that AEA high-lighted back in October. Nearly 400 university students were in Bucharest, Romania for the event.

Were any of our readers there? If so, what was your experience?

Some of the questions Cozzi's article asks:

What can I do in my little "world"?
Is the warming up of the planet a sign of the end?
Should we preserve biodiversity?
Was Ellen G. White green?

The article concludes, "I have no conclusion other than this: To get up and do our best to continue the job description God gave us in Eden in order to care for His creation. And remember: He never ordered us to stop. Never!"

Thumbs up to Cozzi and the European leadership!

Get a copy of the mag and share it with church leaders near you. Can't find a copy? Ask.

A Path Toward Awareness

2008-12-14T09:41:00.000-08:00

I have written previously about the first scientific article that made a significant impact on my environmental awareness--Easter's End (Jared Diamond, Discover, 1 Aug 1995).

This past week I was reminded of what I believe was my first encounter with Christian enviro stewardship. It was 10 years later when Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis was published in 2005 (Movement 7 -- Good). We pick up the story as he is speaking of the creation narrative (p. 158):

"God then makes people whom he puts right in the middle of all this loaded creation, commanding them to care for creation, to manage it, to lovingly use it, to creatively order it. The words he gives are words of loving service and thoughtful use. From day one (which is really day six), they are in intimate relationship and interaction with their environment. They are environmentalists. Being deeply connected with their environment is who they are. For them to be anything else or to deny their divine responsibility to care for all that God as made would be to deny something that is at the core of their existence.

"This is why litter and pollution are spiritual issues.

"And until that last sentence makes perfect sense, we haven't fully grasped what it means to be human and live in God's world. Everyone is an environmentalist. We cannot live independently of the world God has placed us in. We are intimately connected. By God."

It goes on. Check it out.

And what was the first teaching you heard or read on Christian ecological conservation, on creation care?

Enviro Justice

2008-12-11T16:25:00.000-08:00

We worship a God of justice. We partner with Him in this ministry. And the EPA helps out by letting us know who needs to be nabbed. Naturally.

Environmental fugitives get own most-wanted list (Dina Cappiello, AP, 10 Dec '08)

"The government is starting a different kind of most-wanted list — for environmental fugitives accused of assaulting nature.

"These fugitives allegedly smuggled chemicals that eat away the Earth's protective ozone layer, dumped hazardous waste into oceans and rivers and trafficked in polluting cars."

Do your civic and spiritual duty by viewing the complete list here.

Books for Ordinary Radicals (Part 2)

2008-12-07T13:37:00.001-08:00

At \books for ordinary radicals\, we just finished reading the environmental section of Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice.

This week:

Wonder and Restraint: A Rabbinical Call to Environmental Action (COEJL)
Toxic Waste and the Talmud (Jeremy Benstein)
Judaism, Oil, and Renewable Energy (Shana Starobin)

Last week:

Rereading Genesis (Ellen Bernstein)
Jewish Textual Practice and Sustainable Culture (Natan Margalit)

A Conversation with Pastor Tara VinCross

2008-12-04T15:37:00.000-08:00

As you know, Pastor Tara VinCross recently joined the AEA team. Her first post highlighted the film The Story of Stuff (Nov 24). As a way to welcome her to the team and to introduce her to our readers, I thoutht a little interview would be in order. Here is our email exchange:

Jeff: Greetings, Tara. First of all, it's great to have you at AEA. Thanks for joining the team. You are a spiritual leader and a Creation Care enthusiast. What's your story? How did your thoughts, lifestyle and values develop to this point?

Tara: Thank you for the warm welcome Jeff! I appreciate the opportunity to join AEA and the work you're doing to increase awareness and inspire action on behalf of God's Creation in our church. My journey to Creation Care has been a lifelong process that really began with being raised outside Seattle, WA, an area known for its emphasis on caring for the earth. I was not brought up as a church-goer, but from a young age I was nurtured to give attention and care to the environment around me. I grew up singing "Garbage Blues," a song by Tickle Tune Typhoon [http://tickletunetyphoon.com/] that encourages kids to recycle.

At school we celebrated Earth Day. At home, we had weekly chores that included sorting and loading the recyclable items for drop off. We attended and participated in various health and environmental festivals. One year, as an early teenager, I even dressed up in a giant broccoli costume they provided and stood on the street corner waving at people, inviting them to come to the festival. It was a pretty funny sight!

Really, I loved spending hours outside in God's creation backpacking, building forts with my brother and hiking in nearby Mount Rainier, and as I did, God led me to not only fall in love with the creation, but the Creator. After I became a Christian and a Seventh-day Adventist, I realized that many of the things that I already had a love for - health, care for people and care for the earth - were things that were taught by the Scriptures and the Bible. The core truths of responsibility, stewardship and love were all throughout the Scriptures, and these Biblical mandates only served to strengthen the passion that I feel for the people and planet God has made.

J: As a pastor, how do you incorporate environmental stewardship into the life of your church?

T: The most recent way of incorporating environmental stewardship took place as we were finishing up our nomination/election process of church leaders. As a committee we decided to commission a "Green Team" for our church, a group of individuals dedicated two goals: 1) to bringing our church behavior in line with our beliefs about Christian stewardship of the environment and 2) to educating our members about the actions steps they can take in their own homes. We are beginning the process of increasing understanding in our church community, and I know it will continue to unfold in the coming years.

I also speak to care for people and planet in my sermons, and in our own lifestyle choices, which leads people to ask questions about why we do what we do. Every time I turn down a plastic bag in a store, there is an opportunity to answer the question, "why?" In fact, just the other week, I commented to a church member how great it was to see them using a reusable water container instead of plastic bottles. "I got it from you!" they exclaimed. Apparently, they had seen me carrying around my water container and they thought, hey, I can do that too. You never know what is going to spread and change in the church! Another church member is also passionate about environmental stewardship, and as the leader for fellowship meals, makes sure that we do not buy any styrofoam products for our potluck buffet meals. Each of these decisions fosters a spirit of care and awareness for all that God has made.

J: And how do you see the relationship between ecology and spirituality? That's kind of vague; take it wherever you want.

T: I believe that one of the most challenging truths in the Scriptures is that following Jesus radically changes our lives. We see how God transformed the lives of Jesus' followers, and other God-followers in the Bible, yet still it is one of the things that I see we are most resistant to. My goal as a pastor and spiritual leader is to encourage each of us to de-compartmentalize our faith. What do I mean? The tendency is to compartmentalize our spiritual life to once a week or in the morning when we pray, which then "frees us up," so to speak, to live, eat, spend and shop however we like. Instead what I see in Scripture is that Jesus transforms the total life, making us into new creations [2 Corinthians 5:17], which then allows us to live differently in the world. We are living according the principles, values and priorities of the Kingdom of God, which affects everything we do.

Within this total picture of spirituality, suddenly consuming less, using reusable bags or buying local food become sacraments - outward, visible signs of the inward work of God's grace. Just like any other change, our actions are prompted by God's love and salvation extended freely to us, and done out of love for our Creator. I truly believe that living the way God designed us to live - at peace in our relationship with God, each other and the earth - is the best possible way to live.

J: I'm curious what green topics are on your heart, on your mind? Can you give our readers a hint at some of the issues you'll be writing about?

T: Oh, I get excited about so many different green topics - with health, green lifestyle, and social justice at the top of my list. For the last year I have been convicted to pay more attention to how the stuff I buy affects people around the world. Watching China Blue, a documentary on the blue jean industry, really opened my eyes to connections between environment and social justice. Leviticus 19:16 says, "Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life, I am the Lord." In the New Testament, when a guy asks Jesus, "Who's my neighbor?" Jesus challenges him to think beyond the perimeters of 'neighbor' that he had established in his mind [Luke 10:25-37]. I am still wrestling with how this understanding of neighbor affects how I buy, when so much of what fills store shelves pollutes and wreaks havoc on people and the environment around the world. It's a tension that we all live in and one that I hope to continue to discuss.

J: Thanks for sharing your thoughts and story. I like how you bring together song, film and scripture. We look forward to hearing more from you more. God bless.

What do you want to ask Tara? Post it in a comment below.

Books for Ordinary Radicals

2008-11-30T14:47:00.000-08:00

Over at \books for ordinary radicals\, we're reading Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice. The current chapters are on the environment, so I thought I'd give them a shout-out here.

This week:

Rereading Genesis (Ellen Bernstein)
Jewish Textual Practice and Sustainable Culture (Natan Margalit)

Coming next week:

Wonder and Restraint: A Rabbinical Call to Environmental Action (COEJL)
Toxic Waste and the Talmud (Jeremy Benstein)
Judaism, Oil, and Renewable Energy (Shana Starobin)

Calling All Ladies of the Earth and Spirit

2008-11-26T07:02:00.000-08:00

Below is the start to an article at Spectrum [full article]:

"Adventist Women and the Earth: A Response to the Ecofeminism"

Conference Date: April 24-26, 2009
Location: La Sierra University, Riverside, California
Submissions Due: Friday, February 13, 2009

Undergraduate and Graduate Student Call for Papers: "Adventist Women and the Earth: A Response to the Ecofeminism" is the theme of the 2nd Annual Young Women & the Word Conference, hosted by the Women's Resource Center and co-sponsored by La Sierra University.

Evangelicals for Social Action

2008-11-25T11:25:00.001-08:00

Lowell "Rusty" Pritchard has written some great articles at Evangelicals for Social Action. Check out these three:

Stuck in the Middle -- Balanced thoughts on climate change.
Remember the Sabbath to Save the Planet -- Frequent AEA readers will recognize some of this content.
Fear Not -- Self explanatory.

The Story of Stuff

2008-11-24T07:19:00.000-08:00

The Story of Stuff chronicles the journey of our stuff - our everyday purchases - from extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and finally, to disposal. It answers some of the questions of how we got to the point we are now as a society.

When I first saw this about a year ago, the biggest revelation for me was the concept of the externalized cost that comes with each of my purchases. Even if I'm not paying for it myself, there are costs - to humans, to animals, to the environment - that come with everything I buy. Now that's something to think about when I see a sale...

Have you had the chance to check out this short film? What are your thoughts?

The Future of Food (again)

2008-11-10T07:02:00.000-08:00

I seem to keep talking about this film. Recently, I had the privilege of writing a review of The Future of Food for the Spectrum Magazine blog. It is a more in-depth consideration of the documentary than I had previously shared (Jeff's Justice Journal, Nov '07; here at Adventist Environmental Advocacy, Jan '08).

Have you seen it? What did you think? Was any of it new for you? Did it lead to any life changes? What's your story?

Community Solutions

2008-11-05T17:26:00.000-08:00

The makers of The Power of Community recently wrapped up The Fifth U.S. Conference on Peak Oil and Community Solutions in Rochester, MI. The four areas of focus were energy, housing, transportation and food. These categories are significant for us all. How can I live more sustainably in these life spheres?

I had hoped to attend the conference, but couldn't make it in the end. Were any Adventists there who can give us a report?

For the rest of us, the closest we'll get is by reading Plan C (Murphy) or by ordering the yet-to-be-released conference DVDs (2005-2007 proceedings).

New Contributor: Pastor Tara VinCross

2008-10-27T15:10:00.001-07:00

We are excited to announce a new contributor at the AEA blog--Tara VinCross.

Maybe you read about her and her husband in the September '08 CUC Visitor article, Are We Green Yet? The following excerpt from that article will be her introduction:

Pastor Tara VinCross, and her husband, Caleb, who say their green habits “have evolved over time,” only buy organic, locally grown foods; buy fair-trade, organic clothing; use recycled toilet paper; recycle—producing only half a bag of trash per week; and have pared down to one vehicle. “What continues to drive us is that God cares for the Earth, and, from the beginning, humans were set up to be its caretakers,” explains Tara, a recent Master of Divinity graduate from the Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University (Mich.). (p. 10-11)

We look forward to hearing from Tara as she has time.

Grace and peace,
The AEA Crew

Warming Up in the EAD

2008-10-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

I had the great privilege to meet Corrado Cozzi at the 180 Symposium this week. While talking about his ministry in the Euro-Africa Division, I learned he was working on an article for Accent magazine on the environmental conference he had just sponsored in Romania. The 4th International Student Congress was held in Romania with the theme, Warming up: Facing the Ecology challenges in the light of the Bible and Science.

Here is the statement drafter by Congress participants (from the site listed above):

Statement on the stewardship of creation

In the light of the teaching of Scriptures, the inspired counsels of E. G. White and the scientific data and reflections brought together in this Congress,

We commit ourselves:

To affirm our commitment to God the Creator within the context of our Christian mission, the Three Angels Message of Revelation 14 and daily Christian discipleship.

To affirm that full redemption includes the creation and therefore Christians should also manifest in their lives that their relation with nature has also been restored.

To recognize that the goal for ecology is the restoration of the Eden ideal, healing our fractured relationships with God, with ourselves, with each other and with nature.

To study and respect nature, the second book of God, in the light of the Bible, following the example of Jesus, and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

To integrate the stewardship of nature in Christian education given at home, in the church, and in our schools to reach and inspire the next generations.

To preach and teach more about the care of Creation, including in our Bible studies and in our evangelistic meetings and in our every day lives.

To consistently practice the health and life style principles of the SDA church, including the promotion of a vegetarian diet.

To keep working for an intelligent awareness of practical and concrete ways to respect nature: the use of energy, transportation, recycling waste, care for water, air and soil, plants and animals, and in our shopping habits.

To engage ourselves in creation healing by promoting and supporting ecological actions within the community where we live.

To promote the ideal that our homes, churches, institutions and enterprises be as intentionally green as possible, and even the greenest in town.

To extend the kingdom of God on this earth and to persevere in the stewardship of creation, while awaiting full redemption for us and for our world only on the New Earth.

The participants of the 4th EUD Student Congress,
Cernica, September 25-28, 2008

Vote the Environment

2008-10-20T17:26:00.001-07:00

What are the most important issues to you in the upcoming presidential election? The War on Terror? Healthcare? The economy? VPs? The environment?

While I usually stress the power of the vote we cast with every dollar spent, I do concede that this is the season for the vote that gets more press.

The activists at Patagonia remind us that voting for the environment is really a vote for many positive issues: "Smart energy solutions, for example, would impact everything from gas prices to foreign policy. Climate change too is at a tipping point and we have the opportunity to make a difference" (www.votetheenvironment.org).

To learn more about the candidates' views on environment issues, check out these political sites:

Found this on Patagonia's site:

Revolution in Jesusland

2008-10-15T15:06:00.001-07:00

Recently, a few SDAs on Facebook have made positive comments about the political/religious blog Revolution in Jesusland (Zack Exley). I have also enjoyed reading his blog for some time, and while not every Adventist will appreciate Exley's perspective or politics, two of his recent posts on the environment are worth mentioning here:

1. One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems -- This brief review of The Green Collar Economy (Van Jones) points out "that we need to completely rebuild our economy or the planet is toast. We also have a situation in which our economy has lost it’s purpose. Most Americans are now employed making junk or providing junk services that no one *really* needs.... How do we get our society back to work?" To find out, read on.

2. Dale Wiley Interview with Matthew Sleeth -- There are Bibles for everything these days--The Poverty and Justice Bible, Faith in Action Study Bible, Golfer's Bible, etc. Finally, there is one for the environmental activist. When speaking to Andrews University employees in August, Sleeth talked about working on this project. To learn more about about The Green Bible and to read an interview with Matthew Sleeth, check out this post.

Mammals in Decline

2008-10-06T17:51:00.000-07:00

Today we're reminded that there is significant news in the world beyond economics and politics.

Researchers who have been studying mammal populations "estimate that one in four species is threatened with extinction and that the population of one in two is declining" (Scientists: 1 in 4 Mammals Faces Extinction, Randolph Schmid, AP/Live Science, 6 Oct 2008).

The article goes on to state, "Within our lifetime hundreds of species could be lost as a result of our own actions, a frightening sign of what is happening to the ecosystems where they live."

Since loss of habitat is a significant factor, my mind turns to population trends. In the Seventh-day Adventist official statement on birth control, reproduction is connected with environment concerns, specifically the correlation between "population growth and the use of natural resources." However, no conclusion is made nor prescriptive steps offered.

So what do you think? Is overpopulation a problem that we should work to limit (through contraceptives, economic development or other means) or is it a blessing for our evangelistic efforts as these are souls who need to hear about Jesus?

More reading on loss of life on Earth:

Locavore

2008-09-28T14:25:00.000-07:00

Locavore (n): "Someone who eats food grown or produced locally" (wikipedia). [More: Eat Local Challenge, Suite 101]

I am a hypocritical advocate for eating locally grown food. Here are 10 benefits I posted on another blog. And we're still waiting for a volunteer to read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Kingsolver) and review it here.

Today I came across an interesting post at the Freakonomics blog from this past June--Do We Really Need a Few Billion Locavores?--that takes a look at the specific issue of a locavore's carbon footprint. Interestingly, it reports the finding of Weber and Matthews that shifting away from red meat has a more significant impact on carbon emissions than does going local. Specifically, "shifting less than one day per week’s worth of calories from red meat and dairy products to chicken, fish, eggs, or a vegetable-based diet achieves more GHG reduction than buying all locally sourced food" (Dubner, Freakonomics, 9 June 2008).

Eating locally still gets two thumbs up, so go find your local farmers' market or CSA. But as for carbon footprints, who knew that leaving the cows alone would reduce greenhouse gases more than eliminating all the transportation of our food supply?

That's an energy policy?

2008-09-18T13:23:00.000-07:00

Senator John McCain has advocated some rather gimmicky fixes to the high cost of fuel that not only WOULDN'T provide a real benefit to the average American household, but would also be very detrimental to the environment.

A "gas tax holiday" and offshore drilling would not appreciably reduce the cost at the pump, according to economists, and would do ecological damage according to ecologists. Not all of McCain's energy policy is equally gimmicky. McCain also supports clean, renewable energy. But the political stunts aimed at uninformed voters need to stop!

John McCain might not live long enough to see the financial impact of domestic drilling (unless he lives until 2030). And even then, the cost of fuel may have climbed enough by then to make any potential savings at the pump negligible.

/Thanks to the Adventist Caricaturist for the fun graphic, commissioned especially for this piece.

Columbia Union Conf. Visitor: Are We Green Yet?

2008-09-16T18:14:00.000-07:00

Jared and I usually mention other people's opinions and writings here at AEA. However, this month it's reversed. We are quoted in the Columbia Union Conference Visitor September cover story--Are We Green Yet?

(And now this blog post referencing a magazine article that talked about this blog is turning green reporting into an eco-pretzel.)

I'm encouraged to see mainstream SDA publications dealing with this issue. And the content is excellent--schools, churches and hospitals taking stewardship seriously.

Thanks for including us, Visitor.

What is your school, church or SDA workplace doing to reduce, reuse, recycle and rot?

Adventist Review: Jo Ann M. Davidson

2008-09-11T16:21:00.000-07:00

Jo Ann Davidson, who preached on environmentalism to start the year at Andrews University, had a quality article in the Adventist Review--And It Was Good (21 Aug 2008).

What are your reactions?

It's probably time for AEA to interview Dr. Davidson. Look for that in the future.

So you think drilling is the answer?

2008-09-10T08:22:00.001-07:00

Matthew Sleeth Speaks at Andrews University

2008-08-27T14:24:00.001-07:00

The Andrews University Family Fall Fellowship had the theme of "Our Father's World." The weekend included vespers and Sabbath School with noted environmental activist, Matthew Sleeth, M.D., a sermon by JoAnn Davidson that could well be described as an Adventist Theology of Ecology, bird-watching, canoeing, and a Sabbath lunch of (mostly) locally grown food.

Dr. Sleeth, author of Serve God, Save the Planet, is noted for his passion, humor, spirituality and walking the talk. He has downsized his home, drastically reduced the amount of waste going out the door, and significantly cut the use of electricity (monthly electrical bill ranges from $9 to $40).

During Sabbath School, Sleeth shared that he used to offer simple steps like changing light bulbs as something important for people to start doing to care for the planet. Now he says his suggestion is to take a Stop Day, the Sabbath. His family cleans on Friday, lights a candle at the beginning of Sabbath, and doesn't turn the TV on for another 24 hours.

You can listen to a similar presentation by Dr. Sleeth given at Mars Hill in the God is Green Series ($5 to download). Those who subscribe to the Mars Hill podcast have also heard Sleeth teach on the Sabbath at the Shed.

To read the three other AEA posts that reference Dr. Sleeth, use the Search Blog function at the top of the screen.

Dr. Stephen Dunbar Works Toward Economic Stability, Environmental Conservation in Honduras

2008-08-27T10:29:00.000-07:00

Dr. Stephen Dunbar, Assistant Professor of Earth and Biological Sciences at Loma Linda University, works with community members, high school students and NGO's like ADRA to bring positive economic and environmental changes to Honduras.

Dr. Dunbar's work in Honduras, featured previously on Adventist Environmental Advocacy, involves among other things the conservation of marine turtles native to Honduras. Currently working in Honduras, Dr. Dunbar shares this update with AEA:

Over the last few months, I’ve been working with a number of organizations on an over-arching plan for a unique approach to addressing the needs of rural communities in Honduras. Working with a number of Schools and Departments at Loma Linda University, we’ve started to approach organizations such as ADRA Honduras, ADRA Canada, the Honduras Ministry of Environment, and the Ministry of Tourism.

Our approach is to integrate various fields of study and research to assess and help communities meet their needs in a sustainable way, all the while building capacity in the community for health, education, micro-business, stable economics, and environmental conservation. In most cases, community development doesn’t include the critical aspect of environment. For us, that’s what initially drove the idea. Recognizing the potential for losing the important resource of sea turtles in some areas of Honduras was an impetus to find sustainable solutions to assisting local communities in developing sustainable alternative income sources.

As part of the effort to develop income sources, we’re working with local community members to be involved with our research as research assistants. One of the projects we’re just starting is a 24/7 Nesting Beach Hotline. The hotline will provide a link between the community and the research, giving anyone who sees a turtle on the beach a way to report it. When reports come in, we’ll have a group of community members trained to respond to calls and provide them a wage for doing so.
However, in order to make this work, we need to publicize the program and get
the Hotline telephone number out to the public in a special way.

At the moment, we’re in Roatan presenting the program to as many high schools as possible. We’ve come up with a school presentation that introduces the sea turtle research and the Nesting Beach Hotline, and then challenge them with the Nesting Beach Hotline Art and Jingle Contest. We’re looking for artwork and a jingle that can be used to make everyone in the Bay Islands aware of the program. If we have buy in from the children, they’ll likely influence their families at home to become more aware and conscious of the status and plight of sea turtles around the Bay Islands. One of our other goals is to link the Bay Islands into the global conservation community. This Hotline and the contest are ways to do that.

Although it’s always a challenge for us, we see the conservation work as one way to impact both the environment and the communities that rely so heavily on the environment. It’s a good feeling to be a part of a program like that; one that impacts not only people, but their natural surroundings, as well.

Voice of Prophecy

2008-08-25T16:25:00.000-07:00

The July/August 2008 issue of Voice of Prophecy News is titled How Should Christians Spend the Earth?

The first article, "It's Not Easy Thinking Green," starts with the line, "Conservative Christians in America often don't lead the way in taking care of this planet..." That's a pretty good start; lead with the facts.

I appreciate the piece, though I'm not sure "just in case" is the real reason for caring for God's creation--take care of the place just in case we have to live here for another generation or two. But it's not a bad ending. The other articles are worth contemplating as well.

Who else heard or read this series? Your reaction?

Grace, Sabbath, and Al Gore

2008-07-16T19:27:00.000-07:00

What I wish I had said

A day ago, I took part in a thirty minute panel discussion of climate change, Christianity, and the Scriptural call to action where the environment is concerned for a new show on the Loma Linda Broadcasting Network (LLBN). While I don't want to give away too much since the conversation we taped has not yet aired on LLBN, I'll mention that the conversation began with an anecdote about Al Gore. (You can read my report of the show's taping here.)

Two things occurred to me, both of which I wish I would have said, but neither of which I actually said. First, many viewers of LLBN will probably take exception to Al Gore as a reason for Christian care for the environment because Gore has gone beyond the science by politicizing the issue in many people's view. Secondly, this issue has gone well beyond Al Gore. It's bigger than Al Gore. While he remains a prominent voice stirring conversation about the environment, this isn't about him. It never really was. It's about understanding the problems and finding viable long-term solutions. I wish I had said that while doing the show for LLBN.

I also wish that I would have said what occurred to me today in a class entitled "Issues in Adventist Theology" at La Sierra University. It occurred to me that two central themes in Adventism - Sabbath rest and God's grace - lie at the heart of why we care for the Earth.

A brief explanation is in order.

God's Grace

I haven't heard too many Adventist theologians who make the following point, and yet it is essential to our understanding of Creation. God's first action recorded in Scripture, Creation, is clearly, undeniably, and unmistakably an act of sheer grace. Creation is undeserved. God's giving this planetary home to all its living things is an act of unmerited favor toward all living things on Earth. Creation happened as an expression of God's loving generosity. Creation is a demonstration of God's grace!

The Sabbath

If Creation is a demonstration of God's grace, then Sabbath is a perpetual reminder of God's graciousness. It is accentuated by the command to rest. The culmination of Creation Week is rest, and humanity's first act is rest! No action on the part of humanity, no quality humanity possesses can account for the Sabbath rest. It is a manifestation of God's grace. Every time we celebrate Sabbath, we acknowledge that it is God's acts in the world, not our own that give life, that renew, that sustain. It is because of God's gracious gift that we are, and Sabbath rest is the invitation to revel in that graciousness on a weekly basis.

What has all that to do with environmentalism, climate change and all that? Plenty, I think.

The majority of what I have read (and written myself) concerning care for creation and environmental stewardship has had to do with the command to care, the moral imperative, the necessity of action. To be sure, those things matter. To be sure, they are biblical and true. And yet the primary reason why we care--why we act as stewards of the environment--flows from the grace of God.

Grace precedes Creation. Grace provides Sabbath. Grace is God's undeserved, lavish giving seen in all that we are and all that we have. In response to God's gracious giving, we honor God and honor Creation as God's primary act of grace. From a sense of thankfulness, we take up the task and priviledge of caring for the Earth.

I wish I would have said some of that when the cameras were rolling and I had a brief moment to articulate in front of tens, even hundreds of thousands of people, what forms the basis of my interest in caring for the environment--God's grace does. But you know what they say about hindsight...

*Some of these ideas may be extensions of what Jeff said in his first post here.

We're probably eco-nerds

2008-07-15T20:48:00.000-07:00

My wife and I ate at a Thai restaurant last night in the neighborhood. We took our own reusable containers knowing that we'd have leftovers, and not wanting to take their styrofoam to-go containers.

We are officially eco-nerds, and proud of it! Styrofoam is bad stuff. In 10,000 years if the world is still spinning, cockroaches will still be alive and styrofoam will still be as it is now. Along with plastic, it does not biodegrade. And guess what - it costs more to recycle plastics and styrofoam (where it is actually recyclable) than to make new products.

So we take our own containers. It's free, easy, and saves a whole lot of garbage from sitting around in landfills or rivers, lakes and oceans for the next 10,000 years. Join us! Make your next meal out a BYOC dinner - bring your own container!

The earth says thanks.

In front of the cameras - LLBN

2008-07-15T20:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I had the unique opportunity to appear on the Loma Linda Broadcasting Network (LLBN) as part of a panel discussion on Christianity and Care for the Earth. LLBN, which started as a small-town dream, has grown its viewership steadily and surpassed the audience of SDA TV giant 3ABN.

I took part in the taping of a program called Intersections, scheduled to air in the Fall. Our discussion, called "Why on Earth Should We Care?" dealt with global warming and ecological crises and how Christians might faithfully respond to them. I joined Lee Greer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Genomics at La Sierra Universty as a guest panelist. Julius Nam, Carla Gober, and Leigh Aveling hosted the program.

Before the taping, we met together in a restaurant in Loma Linda to discuss the program and become acquainted. I already knew Julius Nam from various other associations, and had met Lee Greer once before at the San Diego Adventist Forum's retreat at Pine Springs Ranch, during which Greer was a guest presenter and panelist.

After lunch, we went over to the LLBN studios to apply makeup and tape the segment. If you don't know me, let me tell you about my receding hairline. It has been likened to deforestation and low tide. It glows when light shines on it. After liberally applying some powdery stuff to my shiny dome, I took my place in front of the cameras with the other panelists. (I realized after the taping that I had cotton fuzz stuck to my facial whiskers from the pad I used to apply my makeup. I just know it'll show up on TV!

The 30-minute segment flew by! While taping, we managed to tip the tabletop by leaning on it, and someone's cell phone went off for about ten seconds. We hashed out the Christian response to the environment and made certain that nobody would confuse us for New Agey Earth Worshippers. It's the Creator we honor by caring for Creation people!

I had a great time at LLBN, and look forward to the show's airing in the coming months.

Adventist Leaders on Environment, Global Warming

2008-07-09T19:36:00.000-07:00

Over at the Spectrum blog, discussion has warmed up over the environment and climate change (once again). Only this time, the president of the Seventh-day Adventist world church, Jan Paulsen, is part of the conversation. Paulsen recently made his clearest statement to date on environmental stewardship in the Adventist World. His article, "Freedom to Care" outlines reasons and motivations for a faithful response from Adventists on environmental issues we face today.

"Is the environment an 'Adventist issue?" Paulsen asks. "Do we have something significant—something unique—to contribute to environmental care? I believe the answer is 'Yes.'"

The first step, Paulsen suggests, in dealing with the environment is removing political wrappings from the issue. He states, "...when we peel back the layers that surround 'environmentalism,' we find ideas that resonate also with our own deeply held beliefs and values: care for God’s world and care for our fellow human beings."

He goes on to say, "As we look more closely at environmental stewardship and consider our response, I believe we will find a bedrock of principle on which to develop a clear, biblically sound, distinctly Adventist approach. I pray that as we do so, we will not be less bold, less farsighted than our early pioneers."

Read the full article.

This is hardly the first time Adventist leadership has provided direction in the conversation on Adventism and the environment. Here are more statements approved by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists:

Caring for Creation

A Statment on the Environment

Stewardship of the Environment

Dangers of Climate Change

Aside from Jan Paulsen and the leaders at the GC, another prominent Adventist addresses climate change from his position as a senior member of the Science Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, and two of its subcomittees: Energy and the Environment and Research and Science Education.

Roscoe Bartlett is a self-described conservative Republican and Seventh-day Adventist professor, farmer, scientist and inventor-turned Congressman. In 2007, Rep. Bartlett introduced legislation along with Edward J. Markey to "provide a crucial planning and risk-assessment tool as the Congress seeks innovative solutions to global warming. "

The Global Climate Change Security Oversight Act (H.R. 1961), required the Director of National Intelligence to submit to Congress a National Intelligence Estimate on the anticipated geopolitical effects of global climate change and the implications of its effects on U.S. national security. Bartlett acknowledged that climate change is a "threat multiplier."

As it turns out, both Paulsen and Bartlett have been made into caricatures, which are used here by permission of the artist.

Energy Independence Day - A Good Idea

2008-07-04T15:27:00.000-07:00

Energy crisis. There's a phrase that's being thrown around a lot in the media these days. You've heard it, probably said it. Everyone is talking. About the high cost of gas. About the rising cost of crude. About the need to drill or the need to prevent drilling. About oil and coal and alternatives.

Independence Day is a day we celebrate our freedom from external control, taxation without representation, dependence on foreign imports. Even so, today when it comes to the energy that Americans use, we are still subject to foriegn control, prices influenced by cartels and foreign leaders, and we are still dependent on oil from abroad.

Here are some quick points to ponder when considering the issues America faces pertaining to energy, its production and its consumption.

Petroleum

reserves are finite

comes primarily from outside the U.S.

pollution (greenhouse gases) a damaging byproduct

spills are extremely damaging to ecosystems and extremely costly to clean

costs are highly unstable and are subject to external forces

drilling damages fragile ecosystems

will run out eventually

Coal

reserves are finite

extraction causes lung diseases
poisonous gases pollute bodies of water

mountaintop removal for coal extraction devastates ecosystems

coal emits harmful greenhouse gases

coal causes acid rain

is nonrenewable

Wind

essentially infinite

no harmful byproducts

wind farms do not emit any toxins into the environment

clean and efficient energy

entirely renewable

Solar

totally clean

sun will not run out

not subject to external market manipulations

long-lasting panels

no emissions

Drilling for more oil is not a long term fix. Economists suggest that it is not a short-term fix either, as it would not impact the price of fuel, and it would not significantly impact oil production until 2030. And that is coming from the Bush Administration's Energy Information Administration. By 2030, $5 a gallon for gas will seem like peanuts if trends continue, and greenhouse gas emissions will have continued to devastate our planet.

It is time to declare our independence from foreign energy and to ramp up production of clean alternatives to petroleum and coal. Our economy, our country, and our planet depend on it!

Faith & Environmentalism

2008-07-01T05:59:00.000-07:00

Today I came across an interesting post written by Brian McLaren at God's Politics, a blog hosted by Jim Wallis of Sojourners, describing a booklet published by the Sierra Club about faith and environmentalism--Faith in Action.

D#@*$% Environmentalists! (by Brian McLaren, June 27, 2008)

"Faith in Action" is a colorful, easy-to-read booklet and after a brief introduction, it is pure stories -- stories of Baptists and Catholics, Quakers and Congregationalists, synagogues and mosques, Vineyard churches and Buddhist communities, creatively expressing care for God's beautiful earth. They're launching projects as varied as their backgrounds -- fighting mountaintop removal, protecting watersheds, changing light bulbs, tithing C02, building energy-efficient buildings, promoting energy conservation, sponsoring local agriculture, sponsoring retreats and bike rides, and in scores of other ways building deep commitment to "keeping the faith by keeping the earth."

Click here for Sierra Club's main page on faith that is full of great links like this one on greening your church. Looking for more? Check out this list of other religious websites dedicated to creation care. And the Renewal documentary looks interesting.

Cloth with a Message

2008-06-26T14:10:00.000-07:00

My wife showed me this piece of organic cloth today, a fine message to wear when covering one's nakedness.

Portland-based Herbivore Clothing also prints this same message on a handy tote.

I decided not to post the provocative "Praise Seitan" t-shirt. FYI: seitan is wheat gluten, the mystery goo behind many meat substitutes.

Adventist Review Links Vegetarianism and Environment

2008-06-13T09:26:00.000-07:00

We certainly do!

That's how Adventist doctors Peter Landless and Allan Handysides responded to the question, "Do you agree that our dietary practices affect the environment?"

Landless and Handysides went on to give a good (if brief) overview of a few ways that a vegetarian diet profoundly benefits the environment in the May 22 edition of the Adventist Review.

For people who spend time considering the earth's ecology and how to protect it, the link between vegetarianism and the environment comes as no surprise. There are tons of credible examples available on the web and elsewhere making the connection.

And yet for Seventh-day Adventists, vegetarianism has traditionally been about two things: health and legalism. Adventists have known since the days of the notorious Sanatarium at Battle Creek that a meat-free diet is good for you. The "Health Message" is as Adventisty as the Sabbath.

For others, Vegetarianism had to do with rules. Misconstrued (and perhaps a few not misconstrued) statements by Ellen White led many SDAs to the conclusion that vegetarianism = morality = law keeping = salvation issue. That many Adventists have bucked vegetarianism (no pun intended) is a testimony to the damage such a legalistic view has done to our collective psyche.

But when it comes to ecological reasons for going veg, many Adventists remain clueless. Enter Landless and Handysides in the Review (Adventism's flagship journal). The article states in part: The consumption of animal flesh foods has a very powerful effect on the environment. Additionally, the use of irrigation and fertilizers and pesticides also has enormous impact on the environment.

"It is calculated that the production of one pound of animal protein costs multiple times more than the production of vegetable protein in resources such as water, land usage, and fertilizer. Individuals switching to vegetarian diets might seem to have little impact, but whole shifts by large populations would have much more effect. Huge industrial-type farms for poultry, pigs, and beef produce massive quantities of concentrated animal waste that are nightmares of sewage disposal. Water utilization in the production of animal food products versus that needed for plant food products is about threefold greater—2,400 versus 800 liters per person."

The doctors go on to describe the need for personal responsibility when it comes to energy consumption. If their encouragement doesn't do it, perhaps the cost of fuel will!

They also recommend buying produce from local growers where possible considering the vast amounts of energy required to transport produce to your local grocer from, say, Chile.

They go on to offer this helpful line:

"It is time for concerned study into how we can address these environmental issues, recognizing that our concern has to address the whole slate of our behaviors, not merely diet."

But then botch it a bit (I feel) with an attempt at exegetical support for environmental concerns:

"The Bible plainly states that the Lord will destroy those who destroy the earth."

This text (Revelation 11:18) is theologically problematic enough that I plan to deal with it separately in another upcoming blog entry. But for the way that the docs use sketchy biblical support to get there, they make a solid conclusion:

"As Adventists, we can argue individual issues of environmental change, but we need to be strong supporters of environmental protection and depoliticize the issue because it belongs to us all, regardless of our political persuasion or national identity. Surely the earthly future for our children is clouded, and action today impacts their tomorrow."

Thank you, Adventist Review (and Drs. Landless and Handysides), for this helpful and generally insightful article on not only the environment, not only vegetarianism, but also on the ways that we can live faithfully in anticipation of the new creation!

Stewardship, Not Ownership

2008-06-12T21:54:00.000-07:00

The shining world outlasts us all

-Fernando Ortega

Most Christians (most Adventists included) agree that the earth is OLD. Really old.

Nobody wants to say for certain exactly how old -- 10 thousand years? 10 million years? 10 billion years? But whatever time frame we decide on (and by the way, scientific data does not have an agenda), we can all agree that the human lifespan, even for the oldest newsmaking Adventists, is like a flea on a camel (that is, not much at all) when compared with the time our planet has been bravely careering through the cosmos.

When we put human life into that context -- against the backdrop of the seemingly endless march of time* -- human claims of ownership of any portion of creation seem somewhat absurd. Even the great civilizations of antiquity gave way to the endless rush of days so that today, they are remembered by their colossal ruins, if at all. Time gets the better of us all in the end.

This isn't meant to be a diatribe against optimism (I'm generally a fairly optimistic person, myself). Rather, it is a sober look at a reality that is quite helpful when we talk about things like ownership of property and privatizing this and that, as though we had some enduring claim to a part of the cosmos. Guess what, you can't take it with you when you go (though the Egyptian lords certainly tried).

So what's the point?

Christianity has always claimed two things:

1. We are strangers here. We are sojourners, immigrants or wayfaring wanderers. Please notice that this does not in the least imply that we should seek to escape from this planet as quickly as possible, or that we should not be fully engaged with the world we live in. In fact, some sharp scientists and theologians have proposed that the cosmos itself is homeless alongside of us due to its origins from nothing, and that special relativity and quantum physics suggest now more than ever that we belong to this world!

2. We are stewards of creation, not owners. Scripture tells the story of our human parents receiving a mandate from God to serve and preserve their earthly home. "The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it" (Genesis 2:15). It's right there in Scripture: This planet of ours isn't ours. We are tenants, attendants, servants of the earth, but never masters or owners!

It is perhaps because we have forgotton these two truths about ourselves that the earth has endured so much abuse at our hands. When we confused dominion with domination, stewardship with ownership, we at once began exploiting the earth for our own ends with no thought for all the others who have lived before us, all those who live alongside us, and those who will live once we have taken our places back in the ground, waiting, waiting for the time when theOne (only one) who owns will be fully known.

Until then, let us be faithful stewards, never acting as if we were owners.

*It's worth noting that modern cosmology does not affirm a steady-state, static universe with an endless march of time, but rather a universe with a definite starting time just before the Big Bang. That should not be problematic for Adventists who have always contended that the universe was created ex nihilo (out of nothing), in fact it should be exciting!

Cartoonists take on energy crisis

2008-06-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

NEWSFLASH: Canada KFC goes vegan, SDA products in demand!

2008-06-09T10:32:00.000-07:00

Ontario, Canada - GlobeLife ran an article today announcing that Kentucky Fried Chicken in Ontario will now offer vegan chicken substitutes in franchises throughout the province.

Vegan foods contain no animal products, including dairy products and eggs.

Reports link the decision to offer meatless chicken at the world's favorite fried chicken hangout with a protracted battle between PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and KFC.

Now all of a sudden, Adventist veggie products are in the spotlight. GlobeLife mentions that SDA fake chicken products are a big hit among vegetarians, and can expect even more positive publicity now that the world's biggest poultry hawker has chickenless chicken for sale.

Of course all this also means good news for people who care about the earth --

Less of this:

And more of this:

Workplace Witness - Adventists Making a Difference

2008-05-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

So, speaking of Bike-to-Work Week, here's an Adventist who not only chose to take part this week, but who also has made plans to make this a permanent habit.

Jodi Teale is a registered nurse who works in a GI lab in Southern California. Jodi earned a degree in nursing from Southwestern Adventist University, and then spent a year abroad at a jungle clinic in Nicaragua.

When Jodi heard that May 12-16 is Bike-to-Work Week, she latched onto the opportunity to hone her physical fitness while also saving money at the pump by leaving her car in the garage. Gas prices in California have topped $4 a gallon in many places, and don't show signs of coming down with summer approaching.

Turns out her riding to work has become the talk of the unit. Coworkers in Jodi's lab started talking when she showed up clad in lycra for work on Tuesday. She says she received compliments and questions, and some of her coworkers also began considering making the commute to work on two wheels instead of four.

Jodi occasionally references her senior class motto in high school: "Preach the gospel, and when necessary, use words." Now several years later, as a hospital professional, that motto is incarnate in Jodi's witness not only to physical health (see also: Adventist Health Message), but also to care for creation.

Bush on Global Warming: It's real

2008-05-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

In an interview (May 13, 2008) with Politico's chief political correspondent, Michael Allen, President George W. Bush (again) conceded publicly that global warming is real and that has been clearly defined as a problem. At the same time, the President sought to frame the issue in terms of its economical repercussions, saying that "you can't have a solution to global warming unless China and India are part of any international pact."

During the interview, President Bush also said that he would consider enacting a "gas tax holiday" that has been a source of controversy in the 2008 presidential election. Senators Hillary Clinton and John McCain supported suspension of the national gas tax during the summer months when demand for fuel peaks, while Senator Barack Obama denounced the plan as a political gimmick to shore up support. Environmentalists have argued that lowering the cost of fuel would encourage more driving, which in turn would produce more greenhouse gas emissions.

As long ago as 2002, Bush indicated that humans played a part in rising temperatures, spurring vitriolic denunciations from the far right among those who felt President Bush was selling out. But despite Bush's acknowledgment of the reality of anthropogenic climate change six years ago, the Bush administration maintained a policy of obfuscation and obscurantism where global warming was concerned.

The House of Representatives Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, in response to President Bush's talking points on climate change in 2007, noted that the Bush administration consistently denied the human component of climate change, deliberately suppressed the dissemination of scientific research on climate change, and dragged its feet in combating global warming.

For all the President's waffling on the issue of global warming, one thing is clear: the President acknowledges that climate change is real, that humans contribute to it, and that the United States should act to combat it when and if economic machines like China and India take steps to curtail greenhouse gas emissions. Even more illuminating is that while the Bush administration will act unilaterally for causes it deems right (witness the "Global War on Terror"), curtailing climate change clearly doesn't qualify as one of those causes, despite admissions of the real problem posed by global warming.

For the transcript of President Bush speaking with Politico's Mike Allen on climate change, click here.

Bike to Work Week

2008-05-11T21:56:00.000-07:00

The League of American Bicyclists is promoting Bike-to-Work Week from May 12-16 and Bike-to-Work Day on Friday, May 16. It's the Adventist health message, care for creation, and a solution for the soaring cost of gas far better (and more effective) than the gimmicky gas tax holiday all rolled into one week of two-wheeled commuting.

To kick off bike to work week, I spent my Sunday with my wife and some friends rolling to the coast along Southern California's Santa Ana River Trail toward Huntington Beach. The feel of wind in the face and pavement rushing under my skinny tires brings back childhood memories of tearing around the neighborhood on Sunday mornings.

Though the trail winds through some of SoCal's biggest metro areas (near Disneyland and the home of the Anaheim Angels and the Mighty Ducks), we identified all kinds of water birds - several varieties of ducks, herons, egrets, cormorants, and other wading birds.

We ended at the beach in time for the morning fog to burn off for a terrific California spring day - perfect for celebrating Mother's Day (my Mom took the car down). My wife plans to do the 6 mile commute to the hospital where she works by bike this week. My Dad, a professor at Loma Linda University rides to work nearly every day from his home in Redlands. I walk to class because I live to close to La Sierra University to ride, but I plan on putting in some miles on the bike as well this week.

How about you? Do you bike to work? Do you plan to try it this week? Want to get started? Let us know by commenting below. We'd love to hear your stories about commuting by bike or help you find resources about how you might join in the ride to work fun!

Strap on a helmet and get rolling!

San Diego Adventist Forum: Creation Care and Global Sustainability (Part 2)

2008-05-06T17:55:00.000-07:00

The second portion of the San Deigo forum retreat on Global Sustainability and Creation Care (see part one below) provided opportunities for audience participation and Alex Carpenter's up-to-date information from the front lines of the Religious response to climate change.

Bonnie Dwyer, the Editor of Spectrum Magazine gave a few words of introduction to Carpenter (who really needs no introduction among the Adventist Forums crowd) followed by Alex's presentation on contemporary responses from religious communities to today's most pressing ecological challenges.

Carpenter highlighted his involvement with the Regeneration Project, an interfaith ministry devoted to deepening the connection between ecology and faith. Part of the Regeneration project is the Interfaith Power and Light campaign, which helps faith communities address local ecological concerns. Some upcoming projects include a congregation carbon calculator that will allow congregations to assess their impact on the environment, find ways to reduce their "footprint" and set congregational goals.

Here is a video of Alex's boss, the Rev. Sally Bingham who heads the Regeneration Project.

Watch more at the Regeneration Project's YouTube channel.

_________________________________________________________

Sabbath Afternoon Session

Panelists: Dr. Robert Ford, Dr. Lee Greer, Bonnie Dwyer, Alexander Carpenter, Dr. John Perumal, Maxine Nicola

Topic: What does Sustainabilit for Me as an SDA Christian?

_________________________________________________________

The panel discussion provided attendees an opportunity to sound off (which they did!), and for panelists to share their collective wisdom (they also did). The conversation was cordial, but there were raw moments as well, honest moments...

Here are a few quotable quotes from the conversation (moderated by Bob Ford):

Bonnie Dwyer: "...Grow your own food! Let's hear it for homegrown tomatoes!"

Alexander Carpenter: "We left the Stone Age even though there are still stones around"
(commenting on the use of coal)

Lee Greer: "A conscious consumer can do a lot!"
(commenting on ways individuals can act on behelf of the environment)

Bonnie: "We can be critical of the church, but the church is us."

Alexander: "We don't want to bring the proof text method to new issues."

(commenting on the risk of turning contemporary issues into a neo-fundamentalism)

Bob Ford commented on the quality of our waiting in relation to the expectaion of the second coming.

Bonnie Dwyer wants to see the Pathfinders club become an environmental group for a new generation of Adventists.

Alexander Carpenter suggests that we start thinking about our relationship with eachother as a relationship with Jesus.

San Diego Adventist Forum: Creation Care and Global Sustainability (Part 1)

2008-05-06T14:33:00.001-07:00

May 2-4, Pine Springs Ranch -- The San Diego chapter of the Association of Adventists convened to take part in a give and take weekend gathering focusing on the intersections between Adventism and the environment. The retreat featured distinguished guests Robert Ford, Ph.D., Professor of International Sustainable Development and Social Policy at Loma Linda University's School of Science and Technology, and Lee F. Greer, Ph.D., Professor of Evolutionary Biology at La Sierra University.

Alexander Carpenter, Online Editor of Spectrum Magazine and graduate student at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California shared thoughts from the leading edge of America's religious response to climate change during a Saturday afternoon session.

The conference offered three main presentations on Friday Evening and Saturday morning, followed by a panel discussion with Bob Ford, Lee Greer, Bonnie Dwyer (Editor of Spectrum Magazine), Alex Carpenter, Maxine Nicola (long time member of San Diego Forum and licensed nurse), and John Perumal, Ph.D. (Professor of Plant Ecology and Physiology at La Sierra University).

The report below highlights the content and materials of the presenters as well as snippets from the panel discussion, complete with photos. Because I was unable to attend the first meeting on Friday evening, that session is omitted.
__________________________________________________________
Saturday Morning, Session 2
Presenter: Dr. Robert Ford
Topic: Philosophical, Historical, and Social Roots of the Sustainability Concept
__________________________________________________________

One of Dr. Ford's current projects involves aiding in the establishment an Environmental Agency in Abu Dabi in the United Arab Emirates.

Dr. Ford discussed the precursors of the Sustainable Development (development + environmentalism = sustainable development).

An illuminating part of Ford's discussion took aim at human impact on the earth. Ford noted that in the last 10 years, scientists have detected more wobble in the Earth's rotation than could be accounted for in predictive computer models. The extra wobble has been attributed to the huge amounts of water stockaded behind dams throughout North America. Human impact includes the very motion of the Earth itself!

Human impact also includes accelerated soil erosion, loss of biodiversity and rapid extinction of species, and an undisputed correlation between climate change and increasing CO2 since the Industrial Revolution.

A noteworthy impact of climate change on poor, developing nations: Many varieties of rice grown in places like Southeast Asia are non-native, hybrid rices. Such hybrids show high sensitivity to rise in temperatures. Rice output could decrease as much as 80% with an increase in temperature as small as 2-3 degrees Fahrenheit!

Ford also noted the impending water crisis - already in the Middle East, water is more expensive than oil!

More on Dr. Ford's presentation available at the following link:
http://resweb.llu.edu/rford/docs/misc/Sustainability_1.pdf
___________________________________________________________
Saturday Morning, Session 3
Presenter: Dr. Lee F. Greer
Topic: Evolving Thoughts and Options for the Future
___________________________________________________________

Dr. Greer brought his background in Biology to bear on the issue of environmental concerns and sustainable options.

Greer pointed out several factors that have created the present ecological crises: an addiction to oil, carbon emissions that cause climate change (Greer was careful to note the controversy surrounding climate change is political in nature, not scientific - the science is not disputed among peer-reviewed researchers), the stress placed on life's support systems that cause mass extinction.

Greer raised a key question for the weekend: Where is the Church on all of these issues?
The answer he proposed is that the Church comes down on both sides - the Church is both perpetrator of environmental damage and an instrument of environmental healing, part of the problem as well as part of the solution.

Greer went on to propose 9 practices by which we all can positively impact the environment.

1. Respect for the commons in life. This means an emphasis on what we share in common with other humanity. Greer suggested a need for a fundamental shift in perspective from ownership to stewardship (I am a caretaker rather than permanent owner).

2. Don't say "nothing can be done." This is taking a moral stance, Greer contended, and a morally reprehensible stance at that. He pointed out a tremendous rise in levels of lead present in the atmosphere from the Industrial Revolution to the 1990's. When the government banned leaded gasoline, the levels of lead fell almost below levels at the start of the Industrial Revolution. The same can be done in the case of climate change if action is taken right away.

3. Stand resolutely for peace - oppose war and violence. Rejecting tribalism and sectarianism, Greer notes that all humanity shares a common ancestry in the African diaspora, and therefore we share a common humanity.

4. Support alternative transportation. This includes cycling, walking, public transportation, hybrid vehicles. Greer advocates insistence that public officials be held to utilizing alternative transportation as well. Economic pressure can and should be applied toward that end.

5. Purchase local food, supporting local economies. This dramatically reduces the energy needed for long-range shipping of imported produce, etc. Furthermore, local produce is often less expensive and is fresher.

6. Support alternative power. Here, Greer cited two honors projects at La Sierra University which he supervises. La Sierra University is working on converting used cooking oil into biodiesel and another project focuses on installing solar panels on the La Sierra campus that will eventually supply the vast majority of the school's electricity.

7. Use alternative, sustainable housing. Greer provided examples of housing that is both environmentally sound and economically viable. These values need not be in conflict.

8. Support Reforestation. There is no such thing as sustainable use of old growth forests, according to Greer. Any cutting down of old growth forests does permanent damage to ecosystems and by extension, to the planet. Instead, replanting is needed. Greer also recommends planting trees that produce food as a sustainable way to get produce and make friends with the neighbors (you can't eat all those oranges yourself).

9. Theology must emphasize immanence of God. Christianity has often grappled with metaphysical dualism, a split between physical and spiritual realms. Making this distinction has devastating ecological consequences, Greer argues. If God is outside nature, nature is outside God. What we need to do is "detoxify" religion, according to Greer. Part of this is a focus on the immanence of God, not merely God's transcendence.

Other noteworthy tidbits from Dr. Greer's presentation - charts with numerous data sets that corroborate one another and validate (unequivocally) the link between anthropogenic CO2 and rising global temperatures.

Several more photos available here.

It's Earth Day!

2008-04-22T18:10:00.001-07:00

5 Days 'Til Earth Day

2008-04-17T19:34:00.000-07:00

There's a big beautiful planet in the sky.
It's my home. It's where I live.
You and many others live here too.
It's our home. It's where we live.
-Raffi

Earth Day is a reminder to me not only of the terrific treasure that is this planet Earth, but also a reminder of the many people and other living things that call this planet home. I feel overwhelmed sometimes when I think about Earth's rich biodiversity - from the rare, mythical Swinhoe's soft shell turtle discovered this week in Vietnam to Mister Splashy Pants, the humpback whale saved from Japanese whalers this year - our planet teems with fascinating life!

While Earth Day reminds us of the treasures that are ours, Earth Day also calls us to remember how fragile life is on our planet. As humans continue to be fruitful and multiply, we're changing the environment along the way. We alter landscapes and habitats, waterways and ecosystems.

April 22, five days from now calls on us as co-inhabitants of this planet, and particularly those of us who see God above and behind it all, to celebrate over the Earth, and then in turn to soberly reflect on the ways we impact it with the choices that we make and sometimes the choices that we don't make.

But mostly, Earth Day is about remembering why this Earth of ours is worth protecting, worth caring for.

I say we embrace Earth Day, as Christians. Make it one of our important holidays, letting Earth Day be a time to feel good about our places in creation, and then asking how we might, in the places we inhabit, make this planet a better place for all life!

Five days to go.

A Walk on the Wild Side(walk)

2008-03-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

Worldwide, there were some 200 million automobiles in 1970; by 1990 the number had grown to 500 million. If current population and buying trends continue, it is estimated that by 2030 there could be more than 1 trillion cars rumbling down our highways and byways (Hypertextbook.com).

While the auto industry provides thousands of jobs for workers around the globe, at least two significant problems come to mind when considering 1,000,000,000,000 cars and trucks and minivans and SUVs and crossovers—energy needs and emissions.

First, a trillion autos require a lot of energy. Limited oil reserves and increasing demand mean that prices are bound to continue rising. Consequently, the gas or diesel powered combustion engine is not a sustainable means of powering our transport. Given the second concern—emissions—we can be glad that this is true.

Two other technologies that many of us are watching are electric- and hydrogen-powered autos. Presently, electric-cars cannot be considered the silver bullet solution since most of our electricity comes from burning coal and natural gas at the power plant. Burning fossil fuels to supply the power needed for electric cars is not a sustainable practice considering the limited resource supply and carbon emissions. Nuclear power as a replacement for current electricity production methods is a short-term option at best (A Crude Awakening). As for hydrogen fueled cars, we’re told that the technology and infrastructure are some 20 to 40 years away.

What about renewable energy sources? At this point it’s hard to imagine that solar or wind could generate enough electricity to energize those trillion cars in 2030.

Because of these issues, some of us are coming to the conclusion that we’ll need to reduce our reliance on cars. Instead of 3 cars per family, we may have to learn to live with one. Many people could live without a car, at least for significant portions of their lives. Is this possible? Would you accept this? What changes would you need to make?

For those living in cities, it is easier to live without a motorized vehicle. I really appreciated not having my own car during the three years that I lived in South Korea—no insurance payments, oil changes, new tires, registration fees or road-side breakdowns. Convenient public transportation in the form of buses, subways, trains and taxis made getting around fairly convenient. I do have to say that I liked having a friend with a car for our weekend rock climbing trips in remote areas. But one car was enough for four of us guys to share.

What about outside of major metropolitan areas? Can we function without one car per person? After returning to the U.S., my wife and I shared one car even though we each had two or three part-time jobs in two different cities. Between creative sharing, improved communication and the inter-city bus, we were able to make it work for a year and a half.

People like Tom Sobal demonstrate that this can be taken even further. He walks or rides everywhere he needs to go around town, even taking his girl to school in a bike trailer. But Tom is a world-class athlete. My friend Angela has lived without a car in both Korea and the U.S., and we can all learn from her experiences.

AEA: How long have you lived in Lincoln without a car?

Angela: I think about five years total, but only three years of conscious carlessness.

AEA: What factors led you to not buy a car?

Angela: While I was teaching in Korea the car that my sister and I shared [in Lincoln] died. While living in Kimhae I began to love walking and taking taxis or buses, but mostly I loved walking. On the weekends I would walk all over the town. I think I could cross the town in about an hour and a half. When I came back, I'm pretty sure that I had enough money saved that I could've bought a used car, but I had already learned the value of my feet and legs and appreciation for public transportation so I decided not to buy a car. In the beginning it was a kind of pleasure to walk and ride the bus. Now it is more of a necessity and pleasure. I couldn't afford to buy a car and pay for insurance and gas. Whoa. I can't even imagine.

AEA: Do you have to commute to work?

Angela: For most of my time in Lincoln I worked as a substitute teacher. It required me to be able to travel to middle schools and high schools around the city. Thankfully almost all the schools have a bus route within a few blocks of the school. Right now I work at... a coffee shop and at… the local co-op. One of the branches of [the coffee shop] is only a couple blocks from my house, so I walk there. The downtown branch is about 15 or 20 minutes away by bus, 35 minutes by bike and probably and hour and 20 minutes on foot. [The co-op] is 10 minutes away by bike, 10 minutes by bus and 45 minutes on foot. I'm a slow walker.

AEA: How do you commute and get around for non-work events?

Angela: I ride my bike weather permitting, otherwise I take the bus. If I miss the bus or have to go places when there are no buses running, I get rides from my friends who do have cars... or I walk. Sometimes it's dependent on my pride.

AEA: Do you feel like your life is limited because you don't have a car?

Angela: No, I don’t. I think that I've had to reevaluate what is possible to accomplish in a day and let go of some things, but it feels more like being set free than being limited. When I have a car I feel like there are so many things I can and should do during the day. But when I don't have a car, I know that I can only do a certain amount of things. I can't go all over town. I need to choose days to get certain things done and time them out, or I need to let some things go.

AEA: What do you like about using your bike and the bus?

Angela: I like being outside. I like not having to feel guilty about not having a set work out plan. I naturally can use my body anytime I go somewhere. I feel that my time is expanded since I don't drive. I have these long beautiful moments of silence and waiting and walking. I can watch the world and think and imagine. I love it so much. My sense of time has also changed. I would cringe at having to drive an hour and a half to go to church, but I don't think twice about getting up early to walk an hour and a half across town to church…. Sometimes I do feel lazy. It's not always easy to go out when the weather is bad, but when the weather is nice, it's a pleasure and I don't feel like I'm wasting time. I feel like my time is always being used in a productive, restful, lovely way. I feel present. Driving always feels like a waste of time, like I'm just waiting to get to my next destination.

AEA: Are you trapped in Lincoln because you don't have a car?

Angela: Of course not. I can always rent a car or take the bus or train or plane or get rides with people. There are so many options. Really, were I ever trapped in Lincoln it would be because of money, not the lack of a car.

AEA: Do you look down on those of us who do own and drive cars? :)

Angela: Um...I try not to. I have found that I have certain arrogance when crossing the street. I expect cars to respect my right of way. I also get frustrated when people stop in the crosswalk instead of behind the line or when cars are impatient to turn right when I have the walk sign. I think drivers are too impatient and not observant enough, myself included, on occasion. Also, I do appreciate my friends who have cars. I often get rides from them and am glad for that.

AEA: Do you plan to buy a car someday?

Angela: I would like to buy a car someday, but I don't want to get one until I have plenty of money and can buy a good, reliable and fuel efficient one. Ideally, I'd like to have a car share system or only have a car for road trips.

AEA: You know someone else who doesn't have a car. Could you tell us about him?

Angela: One of my coworkers hasn't owned a car since 1977. He does it for the earth entirely. He won't even use the buses in Lincoln. Maybe it's more that the bus system here is so inefficient, not that they use gas. He travels a lot and rides buses in other cities. However, in Lincoln he walks or rides his bike always. He’s one of my heroes.

AEA: What other things would you like to share with AEA?

Angela: I would like to confess that for the past few weeks I've been driving instead of riding bike, walking or riding the bus. My friend is working out of town and is letting my use his car. There is a part of me that loves driving. It's nice to be able to go where I want to go when I want to go there and I’ve found it’s nice to give rides to other people who don’t have cars. Still, I try to only use it to go to the places I need to go, like work or the post office or to my friend's house. However, when the weather warms up, it's back to biking for me.

AEA: Thanks a lot for sharing, Angela. You must be glad that spring is nearly here. I hope AEA readers will listen to your story and be motivated to reduce their driving by using public transportation or by walking and riding more. Following this interview are additional resources (updated 24 Mar '08) for those of you who would like to learn more about some of the issues raised in this conversation.

: : :

Blogs, Sites & Organizations:

Documentaries:

A Crude Awakening
A Convenient Truth (Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil)
The End of Suburbia
Who Killed the Electric Car?

Articles:

Big incentive for fuel-efficient vehicle (AP, 20 Mar 2008)

The Sins of the West -or- Where ships go to die

2008-03-09T21:02:00.000-07:00

In an attempt refocus attention on the practice of confession, Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti recently announced that the Catholic Church has doubled and modernized its list of seven deadly sins.

The Vatican's new catalog of vices lists the following "new" sins:

Environmental pollution
Genetic manipulation
Accumulating excessive wealth
Inflicting poverty
Drug trafficking and consumption
Morally debatable experiments
Violation of fundamental rights of human nature

News of the new list of sins coincides with a sobering report from the Washington Post that the Geophysical Research Letters, a scientific journal, says that carbon emissions must near zero in order to reduce the effects of climate change in the foreseeable future.

The news from the Vatican also coincides with a re-release of a 2007 segment by 60 Minutes on the ship breaking yards in Chittagong, Bangladesh. The 60 Minutes feature takes a close look at life on the sludge-covered beaches of Chittagong where hundreds of bare-footed men disassemble ships run aground primarily by Western nations. The steel from the ships goes to recycling plants that supply the vast majority of Bangladesh's steel.

Workers at the ship breaking yards work for approximately a dollar a day in dangerous conditions. In addition to providing steel, the beached ships also bring toxic chemicals, asbestos, lead and mercury to the shores of Bangladesh. Workers have no protection from the hazards, no health care or life insurance, and a high rate of injury and mortality.

In addition, the ship breaking industry, a multi-million dollar industry for wealthy businessmen, comes at a devastating cost for the environment. Chemicals and heavy metals tarnish the beaches and waters of Chittagong with no consideration of their far-reaching affects. Environmental concerns, say owners of the yards, are luxuries for wealthy nations to consider.

Environmental pollution
Accumulating excessive wealth
Inflicting poverty
Violation of fundamental rights of human nature

Such yards are also prevalent throughout India.

Global Warming Reader

2008-02-27T05:32:00.001-08:00

(Updated 3/14/08)

These three articles that argue against global warming were shared with me recently.

Temperature Monitors Report Widescale Global Cooling (Michael Asher, DailyTech.com, 26 Feb, 2008)
Forget global warming: Welcome to the new Ice Age (Lorne Gunter, National Post, 25 Feb 2008)
NOAA: Coolest Winter Since 2001 for U.S., Globe (NOAA, 13 Mar 2008)

I came across these next two that support human-caused global warming this morning. The first was on CNN, and the other was on the Spectrum blog.

Eskimo village sues over global warming (CNN.com/AP, 27 Feb 2008)
The cold truth about climate change (Joseph Romm, Salon.com, 27 Feb 2008)

And these appeared before my very eyes today (2/29/08).

Record-warm winter in Finland may boost crops (ENN.com/Reuters, 28 Feb 2008)
Conspiracy theory in the frozen North (Andrew Leonard, How the World Works/Salon.com, accessed 29 Feb 2008)

And I want to go on record again as saying that as serious as global warming may be, even if the planet cools two degrees tomorrow, we should still take care of this planet for so many other reasons.

Serve God, Save the Planet

2008-02-21T08:40:00.000-08:00

I had heard Dr. Matthew Sleeth preach. I'd read some of his interviews. I had scanned his website. I had researched the organization he now works for--A Rocha. But I hadn't actually read his book, Serve God, Save the Planet, cover-to-cover until a few weeks ago.

You can read all about the book, the man, and the mission on the official website, so I won't go into it too deeply here. Basically, Dr. Sleeth left his job as an ER physician to serve God by advocating for environmental stewardship, thus saving the planet. His family moved out of their spacious home and into a domicile the size of their previous garage. The story is one of change, learning, action and hope.

Part way through the book, I felt like Sleeth was wandering from the central theme of environmental stewardship by discussing parenting, television, sports and other issues. Eventually, I decided that he was expanding the concept of creation care; it is bigger than renewable energy, beyond global warming, broader than carbon trading.

Chapter 7 is possibly the most intriguing from a Seventh-day Adventist perspective because he advocates for a day of rest. I had read his thoughts on this topic and reported them here previously, but the chapter went into more detail than I had heard previously. Even though various Sabbatarian readers will disagree with Sleeth's conclusion that the specific day of choice does not matter, we can still appreciate his acknowledgement of God's special gift and reconsider it in the context of environmental conservation and sustainable living.

While the book moves quickly, it still addresses (a) the theology of environmental stewardship, (b) current ecological degradation, (c) practical actions for meaningful lifestyle changes, and (d) personal anecdotes.

Each chapter includes discussion questions (Workbook), which positions the book to be a great book club project. Also, four appendices are quite useful:

Energy audit
Appliance suggestions
Earth care to-do list
Quotes from significant spiritual leaders

The Development of a Theme

2008-02-10T11:46:00.000-08:00

When I first began writing for AEA, I introduced myself to Jared and Caleb by describing my path toward environmental consciousness. However, I realized recently that I left one critical item out of my story, an article in the August 1, 1995 edition of Discover--Easter's End. Today I relocated the article and found that it was written by Jared Diamond, the author of Collapse and Guns, Germs and Steel.

Though I wouldn't consider myself an environmentalist for at least another five years, it was the first time I realized that human actions can have a lasting impact on nature and society.

Here's the opening:

In just a few centuries, the people of Easter Island wiped out their forest, drove their plants and animals to extinction, and saw their complex society spiral into chaos and cannibalism. Are we about to follow their lead?

[MORE]

The Time is Now -- By Raintree

2008-02-04T07:54:00.000-08:00

A long-time friend recently wrote a passionate, poetic and prophetic essay. Here is a portion of it republished with permission. Below the article is a link to her complete essay at myspace.com. Links have been added to key words without input from the author.

We're at a time in our history that we need to make some decisions. We need to realize that the practice of unrestrained capitalism has grown out of control. It, as it stands today, is not ethical. We need to realize that the pressure we've put on our planet is about to send us somewhere we don't want to go. As a Christian, I would argue that the care of our environment is a moral imperative. Our first job was to care for the earth, and all its inhabitants. I believe it is time to return to our work, and realize that most, if not all of our problems begin here.

It is time to let go of our wants and concentrate on our needs--and those of others, and the planet.

It is time to look at labels and purchase from local sources whenever possible.

It is time to discover the wonder of thrift stores.

It is time to support our family farmers, who should not have to make the decision to try to compete against large multinational companies who sell the seeds/the pesticides the seeds 'need', and require the farmer to buy seeds every year, ad infinitum, till the cows come home-- not to mention, control the price the farmer gets for his produce.

It is time to support locally grown and organic produce. 90% of our apple juice comes from apples grown in China.

It is time to legalize the farming of industrial hemp--which will provide paper, clothing, textiles, nutrition (hemp seeds are high in Omega's, and make a tasty milk substitute)--not to mention require no pesticide, and nourish the ground they are grown in.

It is time to eat simply. Most of the greenhouse gas in the US is produced at the feed lot--not from cars, not from power plants.

It is time to ride your bike, or walk to work, and take public transportation when possible.

It is time to encourage xeroscaping. Get over the huge lawn, people.

It is time to demand that our new housing developments be built 'green' and with more than a row of garages to look at when driving down the street. Support new urbanism.

It is time to encourage job growth by encouraging the growth of industry that will supply us with clean energy.

To read Raintree's entire essay,

rich with political and pragmatic wisdom,

please click here--The Time is Now.

Environmental Film Festival

2008-01-28T10:11:00.000-08:00

I am fortunate to have friends who like to share. Allow me to comment on six films and programs they have shared with me over the past few weeks.

In November of 2007, a group of us watched An Inconvenient Truth for our community movie night. After that contentious evening, one person began collecting documentaries about global warming, and yesterday we watched two from his library—The Great Global Warming Swindle and Discovery Channel’s Global Warming: What You Need to Know.

Exactly one week earlier, another friend called me on the phone and said, “Turn on CBS. It’s a special on global warming.” Soon I was watching a rebroadcast of The Age of Warming (Podcast, 20 Jan 2008).

These three teachings on the state of our planet presented both contradictory and complimentary information. For example, while all three agreed that global warming is happening to some degree, The Great Global Warming Swindle proposed solar activity as the cause, while the other two programs argued the warming is from increased greenhouse gases released by human activity.

A new data point for me was that ocean waters expand as they heat. Previously, I had thought liquids only expand as they freeze. I had read that the current sea level increases were primarily from higher temps causing glaciers to melt, but Discovery pointed out that temperature also plays a more direct role.

One interesting commonality between CBS’s presentation and The Great Global Warming Swindle was in censorship, although the examples given were reversed. That is, U.S. scientists finding evidence for man-made heating were censored by the White House, whereas the IPCC censored researchers who did not support the greenhouse gas theory.

Because the scientists in the CBS special worked for the U.S. government, executive lawyers had the power to heavily edit their reports. Examples of original and edited reports were shown, and the authors spoke briefly about their treatment and frustration.

Conversely, scientists in The Great Global Warming Swindle talked about the deletion of their doubts from the IPCC report. These doubts included reservations about (a) greenhouse gases as the cause of warming and (b) the supposed negative effects of climate change. One researcher wanted his name removed from the IPCC report because the published version did not include his points which had been in the original version. Only after threats of legal action did the IPCC agree to take his name off the report.

One interview in this film that especially interested me centered on malaria and disease transmission. A scientist argued that rising temperatures would not lead to the spread of malaria or other diseases carried by mosquitoes. However, I recently read in The End of Poverty that temperature plays a critical role in the development of the parasite that causes malaria. “If the mosquito dies before sporogony is completed, the mosquito never becomes infective. The central ecological point is that the warmer the temperature, the faster the sporogony—and the more likely it is that the mosquito will live to become infective” (p. 198).

Since the airing of this TV documentary, the following disclaimer has been posted on the program’s website:

In August 2007, Mike Lockwood of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory published a study.... He has shown than since 1985, solar activity has run in the opposite direction to global warming and therefore cannot explain rises in average global temperatures. If this study turns out to the true, then the arguments presented in this film lose much of their strength.

In summary, reasonable people can conclude that both greenhouse gases and sunspots may be contributing to climate change, or that only one or the other is involved. Interestingly, I think there is one responsible course of action regardless of the cause. The Power of Community provides the reason—Peak oil. Let me explain my point with two causal statements that begin and end quite similarly.

(1) Burning fossil fuels >> Increase CO2 >> Global warming >> Sea level rises >> Major Disruption
(2) Burning fossil fuels >> Depletion of fuel sources >> Peak oil >> Major Disruption

Even if the first series of events proves inaccurate, the second remains strong. Regardless, the answer to both scenarious is to move away from economies and lifestyles based heavily on oil, coal and natural gas. We should be using our relatively cheap energy to invest in reusable and sustainable energy sources because even if all observed global warming is from solar flares, Peak oil is still a reality that will have different environmental impacts but equally devastating human disruptions.

Previously, I have stated that global warming is not the main reason to take seriously our stewardship of the planet, to care for God’s creation. It is equally true that global warming is not the only reason to move to sustainable energy sources. We must also consider Peak oil. Naturally, the health risks associated with city smog from cars and industrial production are also worth mentioning.

Two other related films that people have shared are Alone in the Wilderness and Off the Grid, both addressing simplicity and sustainability. Alone in the Wilderness is the story of Dick Proenneke, who at the age of 51 headed into an Alaskan wilderness to live off the land for the next 30 years. Proenneke’s range of skills and physical toughness are most impressive, though his story can be replicated by very few of us.

Les Stroud, the protagonist of Survivorman, and his family document their transformation to a more sustainable lifestyle in Off the Grid. Their self-sufficiency is more similar to the Hohnberger family than to Proenneke or their own earlier adventure documented in Snowshoes and Solitude.

The Stroud family buys a large plot of land in Canada and incorporates solar and wind power into their homestead so lights, computers and other appliances can remain a part of their lives. Even though the property was somewhat remote, the family could still drive or ski off their property for groceries and the children’s activities.

Using a helicopter to bring in lumber was not the most sustainable building practice. For that we can look to Proenneke felling, sizing and notching the logs for his cabin by hand. Also cave-dwellers.

Even though much of the Stroud’s experience is beyond the realm of possibility for the majority of us, I think we can apply more lessons from them than from Proenneke’s solo life. Changing light bulbs and unplugging our TVs when not in use are common practices. The next step for many of us is to incorporate solar and wind power into our existing homes, even if we cannot relocate to the wilds of Alaska or Canada. These are steps that could potentially limit global warming and will definitely be useful given the limited supply of natural gas, coal and oil.

To learn more about these topics, search for sustainability, peak oil and off the grid at Google, Wikipedia and Amazon. You can also find info in almost any issue of Mother Earth News. How’s that for creative advice?

Sampling of Writings on Global Warming and Peak Oil (AEA and Pack Light)

Adventist Review - Letter to the Editor

2008-01-21T08:56:00.000-08:00

Because the following Letter to the Editor has gone unpublished, I thought I'd post it here. Elements of this letter have appeared in some of my other AEA musings.

Dear Adventist Review Editor:

I appreciated Roy Adam’s important discussion of the environment in his November 8, 2007 editorial, “Sweat the Small Stuff.” As Seventh-day Adventists, we celebrate creation and its Creator every Sabbath. We also understand that planetary health affects personal health, a traditional SDA value. Yet, I have encountered a strong antipathy for “environmentalism.”

For example, I recently asked a group of Adventists what words they associate with “environmentalist.” The responses included liberals, pointless, new age, liars and fear-mongers. Not one word was spoken with a positive tone of voice. Because old labels build emotional walls, some God-fearing ecologists have adopted the term “creation care.” Regardless, I can understand why some of my non-Christian friends think that Christians have little concern for the environment.

Maybe we need to spend more time caring for God’s creation rather than simply defending its divine origin. Let’s keep doing the critical small stuff, which collectively makes a significant difference, and we should also continue posting excellent statements of belief about our Father’s world (www.adventist.org/beliefs/statements/index.html).

And what else? Could our colleges and universities partner with A Rocha? Matthew Sleeth, M.D., A Rocha’s USA director, teaches that keeping Sabbath is one of the most significant ways to care for our earth. Might our church or ACS properties hold bins for community recycling? Could Unions or the GC add an Officer of Corporate Social Responsibility? How about a green issue of the Adventist Review?

Sincerely,
Jeff Boyd

The Power of Community

2008-01-16T19:50:00.000-08:00

Tonight some friends invited us over to watch The Power of Community, a short documentary about how Cuba responded to the collapse of the Soviet Union during the Special Period. Because Cuba had to re-invent itself after losing cheap oil imports, it is an example for the rest of the world of how to cope with Peak oil.

While the film does not go into much depth in any one area, it does reveal how Cuban's had to change their approach to food production, transportation, education, and nearly all aspects of society. It was both sobering and beautiful.

I give it two thumbs up as an intro to Peak oil, permaculture, and community planning.

And I'll reveal my ignorance by sharing that I hadn't heard of permaculture until recently when Caleb mentioned it to me. If you ask him nicely, he just might write an article about it here.

Rumor is that these films address similar issues: How to Save the World, The End of Suburbia, and The Crude Awakening.

The Future of Food

2008-01-15T07:40:00.000-08:00

Once a month my wife and I host Social Consciousness Movie Night where we watch documentaries and movies about human rights, health, the environment, politics, international affairs, and other issues.

This past Saturday night the living room was full of people who’d come to watch The Future of Food, which points the spotlight on GE foods, gene patenting, government farm subsidies, and the impact of corporate powers on food production. I appreciated the international flavor of the documentary; this issue is bigger than just the U.S.

Organic food (especially locally grown) is presented as a sustainable alternative to modern food production practices.

After the film ended, we talked for quite a while about our personal thoughts and questions. The discussion moved from food allergies to Leviticus 19, from Soylent Green to King Corn, from the price of organic food to the problems of chemicals, from the need for a local CSA to questions about starting a garden and finding heirloom seeds, from concerns about bone meal to the effects of corn-syrup.

We came to this 4-part conclusion about food purchasing:

Locally grown organic food is the best option for personal and planetary health. This could be from your garden, a for-profit organic farm, or community supported agriculture.
Organic food at the local grocery store or co-op is the next-best option.
Non-organic food purchased at a farmer’s market is good because it reduces emissions from transportation, supports the local economy, and gives a larger share of the income from produce to farmers rather than to all the intermediaries.
Processed, preserved, and production-style food at the grocery store is the least beneficial option for both the environment and for our health.

Looking for a local farm or CSA? Check out www.localharvest.org. We had two good CSAs in Colorado, but there don’t appear to be any in this area. If you have one near you, count your blessing and support them with your time, money and hugs.

Are you interested in learning more about health, gardening, and/or farming? Two other documentaries we’ve enjoyed are King Corn and Super Size Me. And these look interesting—How to Save the World, Project Garden, My Father’s Garden, Fed Up, Genetically Modified Food: Panacea or Poison, Bad Seed, and Sweet Remedy. And I’m embarrassed to say that I have not yet seen The Real Dirt on Farmer John.

Also, as spring approaches I’ll be posting two articles here about organic gardening. Honestly, I know very little about gardening, so I'm going to interview two Adventists with actual experience. It has been many years since I pulled weeds from our family garden or picked strawberries with migrant workers in Oregon.

And the big question… Would a social action movie night work in your community? When we did this in Colorado, almost all attendees were our non-Christian friends. Here, everyone who comes is SDA. Who could you invite? What issues would you want to discuss as a community? What would be your first three films?

NOTE: Purchasers of the documentary receive a 2nd DVD with excellent special features. This bonus disc does not come with Netflix or Blockbuster rentals. Though a new edition was released in 2007, I have only seen the original (2004).

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ONLINE RESOURCES

Meet Your Meat - watch this

2008-01-14T09:15:00.000-08:00

Hot chicks get debeaked, turkeys hanging upside down from hooks get punched by poultry workers, and the rest of the story behind your Thanksgiving dinner.

Fast fact: Americans today eat as much poultry in a day - A SINGLE DAY - as they did in an entire year in 1930.

Adventists Making a Difference - Dr. Stephen G. Dunbar

2008-01-07T20:20:00.000-08:00

Dr. Stephen G. Dunbar is an educator, a conservationist, an environmental activist, and he's a Seventh-day Adventist. Dr. Dunbar is a professor of Marine Biology at Loma Linda University's School of Science and Technology.

A particular area of interest for Dr. Dunbar is the conservation of endangered Hawsbill turtles in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras. He views conservation and preservation of nature as explicitly God-honoring activities.

In an interview with Adventist Environmental Advocacy, Dr. Dunbar describes his professional pursuits at Loma Linda University, his love of marine biology, and his efforts to protect endangered species.

Adventist Environmental Advocacy: Please tell us about yourself: background, family (if you're willing to share a little), education, and how you became involved in your current academic area of interest.

Stephen G. Dunbar: I grew up in the small town of Mississauga, Ontario (Canada) always enjoying the outdoors and animal life. It was as a young boy in Grade 5 that I also became intensely interested in art and began drawing everything from clouds to cartoons, but especially enjoyed drawing animals. It was at that age that I decided that I would be a wildlife researcher.

I continued to enjoy both sciences and art in British Columbia through my high school and college years, where I majored in Biology. I started college at Walla Walla College and eventually transferred to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, close to home. I finished my BSc there and then went on to complete a BEd in high school science education. At the time, it appeared as though my hope for wildlife research would not become reality. However, I did not settle into the public high school system well and felt that teaching at that level was not to be my calling.

After mission stints with my wife in both Fiji and Korea, I decided that I would return to University for graduate studies. It was providential that I ended up being accepted to three universities in Australia and accepted a MS position at Central Queensland University. Within a year of research there, I was upgraded to the PhD program and finished up there in about four and a half year. All the while the Lord was providing far above and beyond our wildest expectations.

Just about the time we were to leave Australia to return to Canada (without any plans for work), I received a letter from the Department of Natural Sciences (now called the Department of Earth & Biological Sciences (EBS)) at Loma Linda University informing me that they were in need of a marine biologist and asking if I would be interested in thinking about the position. By the good hand of God, I joined the faculty in EBS in Sept. 2002 and have enjoyed developing a program of marine research there since that time.

AEA: The Department of Earth and Biological Sciences is a relatively new addition to Loma Linda University in the School of Science and Technology. How did this department come about, and what is its goal and function within LLU?

SGD: Actually, the name EBS is new, but the department is one of long history at LLU. The original biology graduate program was started in 1962, initiated by the basic science faculty of the School of Medicine. LLU was broadening beyond strictly medical programs, and they wanted a non-medical doctoral program in biology.

The program grew from there, adding geology in 1978. In 1967 La Sierra College and Loma Linda University joined into one university, with biology and geology spread over the two campuses. It remained more or less that way until 1990, when the administration decided the difficulties of running a two campus university were not worth it. Graduate biology and earth science programs became centered at Loma Linda at that time, as the Department of Natural Sciences, and later changed the name to Department of Earth and Biological Sciences.
(L. Brand, pers comm)

We are very sure that the Lord has kept this department going, even through some very lean times at the university, because we are conscious of and careful about the work we do and our purpose of being a light in the scientific community; being both careful and credible scientists and also people who hold to the tenants of our faith as SDA’s.

AEA: Please describe a bit of the work you do at LLU as a researcher and educator.

SGD: My work at LLU is a mix of research (~60%), teaching graduate level marine biology-related courses (~10%) and supervising graduate students (~30%). I enjoy the mix of challenges and the ratio of research to teaching to supervising is just right! Of course, my research means more than just being in the field or lab; it also includes writing grant proposals, writing manuscripts for submission to international, scientific journals and attending conferences all over the world. But of course, my favorite part of the job is the research in the field, especially my work in Honduras and previously in Fiji.

AEA: One of your areas of specialization, the study of Hawksbill turtles and Green turtles, involves fieldwork in Honduras' Bay Islands. What is the focus or the goal of the work you do there?

SGD: The work with the turtles also started as a matter of providence, as well! I had received some contracts to do some rapid assessments of coral reef areas off Roatan in October, 2005. However, when we arrived down there to do the work, we were faced with hurricanes Wilma, Alpha and Gamma. Since many of the dive operators were unable to dive, we were put in contact with Larry Stevenson and his family at the Reef House Resort on the sheltered side of the island. After diving through the hurricanes, Larry asked me if I would be interested in starting a conservation/research program with turtles they were buying back from local fishermen.

By January of 2006, I had come to the conclusion that almost no research on turtles had previously been done in Honduras and by March we were starting up the Turtle Awareness and Protection Studies (TAPS) program to begin researching sea turtles in the area and begin conservation work among local communities on the islands.

Since that time, we’ve also developed the Protective Turtle Ecology Center for Training, Outreach and Research, Inc. (ProTECTOR), a non-profit organization that is now tasked by the Honduras Ministry of Environment with overseeing all sea turtle research, conservation and education outreach across all of Honduras.

We are now also involved with nesting turtle monitoring and hope to launch satellite tags on several turtles in the coming year. Pretty much everything we’re doing down there is new to Honduras and we’re very much pioneers in sea turtle research in that country. It’s all VERY exciting!!

AEA: Considering that Hawksbill turtles are highly endangered, and given relatively recent interest in their protection, how does the future look for the Hawskbills?

SGD: It’s true. Hawksbills are critically endangered and there numbers are declining rapidly. Still we’re seeing signs in other turtle species from places like Hawaii and Mexico, that populations can rebound if there are concerted, well-planned conservation efforts that integrate local communities into the fabric of the conservation program. It takes time and a lot of work with local groups, but it’s very possible to reduce the number of turtles taken for food, killed for shell curios and the number of eggs illegally harvested on the nesting beaches. We’re really just getting started down there, but the work is starting to gain momentum and we’re becoming known for what we’re doing.

AEA: Readers might also be interested to know that they can adopt a turtle and name it. How does that work?

SGD: We started the Turtle Adoption Program early on as a way to do two things: have people involved in the conservation effort. People actually enjoy being involved with a cause that is bigger than the things they do locally. The other was to help us raise funds for the research. We’ve just launched our new ProTECTOR website and people can go to the Turtle Adoption page there. They can find the site at: www.turtleprotector.org and get all the details there on how to assist us in the conservation of this and other turtle species throughout Honduras.

AEA: Your work with the turtles has also included cooperation with local fishermen and business people as well as governmental agencies in Honduras. What is your relation to them, and what are their sentiments toward conservation efforts for the turtles?

SGD: Yes, you’re correct. As I stated before, the whole thing started with Larry Stevenson at the Reef House Resort. But now we’re working with the dive operators on the islands to begin a diver’s turtle monitoring program where visitor divers keep track of turtle sightings while they’re out on dives. We’re also working with local communities on Roatan and on the Pacific coast of Honduras to develop alternative income streams so they can begin to move away from relying on turtle products for their livelihoods.

In general, people are excited about the work and the prospects of moving into more sustainable forms of income earning. I’ve always pushed for the idea of replacing outdated and destructive fishing practices that reduce biodiversity with systems that provide sustainable livelihoods that integrate conservation, societal needs and income. We’re working toward that.

AEA: In addition to turtles, your work includes marine invertebrates as well as manatees (fascinating creatures). What is the nature of your research in those areas?

SGD: I really began working on marine invertebrates. I worked on species of hermit crabs for my PhD studies in Australia and I still have a deep respect and interest in these amazing little creatures – they’re fascinatingly complex. In fact, one of my own PhD students, Wendy Billock, is currently working on what we’ve termed “Contextual Decision Hierarchies” in hermit crabs and finding some very interesting results.

Anywhere I travel for research, I try to get at least a few projects running with hermits. These animals amaze me since they occur in virtually all seas and from the supra-intertidal down to 5000 feet deep. Another aspect of hermit crab biology is their fossil history. There are only a few records of hermits found associated with their shells in the fossil record. We wondered why.

One of my MS students, Janelle Shives, is just finishing work on the behavior and physiology of hermits during burial and has found some very interesting behaviors and the ability of these crabs to undergo anaerobic respiration while buried. I also enjoy working on crabs of almost any kind and April Sjoboen, a just-completed MS student has looked into the changes in fatty acids in the hepatopancreas of the common shore crab along the S. Cal. coast.

I’ve also had a student working on the physiology of barnacles from the Salton Sea.

My MS student, Marie-Lys Bacchus, completed the initial research on manatees this past summer. She spent two summers down in the Drowned Cays of Belize tracking manatees in what are called “resting holes”. We’re just working on publishing that work, but you can find some stories on the Vancouver Aquarium website at: http://www.vanaqua.org/aquanews/field/earthwatch2006.htm

Of course, now I have and am looking for students to work on sea turtle research in Honduras. Melissa Berube is the first MS student in the world (as far as we know) to work on turtles in Honduras. You can find out more about her work on the ProTECTOR website at: http://turtleprotector.org/team2.htm

AEA: Considering conservation efforts at large concerning marine wildlife, how are things going? What are the successes, the setbacks, the goals?

SGD: The work in Honduras is going well. Thankfully, we have great support, all the way from the Reef House Resort on Roatan (see: http://www.reefhouseresort.com/index.html ) to the Ministry of Environment and other government Departments. These Ministries and Departments realize the great need for research and conservation in Honduras if they’re to remain credible in the eyes of the world, as far as conservation goes.

There are suggestions that Honduras may actually have higher biodiversity than Costa Rica, but so little work has and is being done there, it’s hard to say for sure. The local communities also recognize that populations of everything from corals to turtles are decreasing in their lifetimes, but they don’t know what to do about it. They’re very excited to look into alternatives to using up their natural treasures and we’re very excited to work with them.

Another very supportive group is the international sea turtle conservation and research community. I’ve been so encouraged by the enthusiasm of so many people who are excited about the fact that someone is opening up this area of research in this country. This network has been great.

Certainly, some of our successes include the confirmation of nesting hawksbills on Roatan. There have been anecdotes for years, but no one could say for sure when the last time was they saw a hawksbill nesting there. We finally confirmed that this past August and now will put out even more effort this summer to see if there are more nesters in the area.

Another is the tagging of Olive Ridleys and being involved with the egg hatchery program on the Golf of Fonseca (the Pacific coast). We’re excited about the research work there this summer. One of our big goals was to be the main turtle research center for Honduras. We were hoping to get to that position within 4-5 years. However, it has all happened so fast – within less than a year of getting our government research permits. Now we’re being asked to go all over the country to establish research and education.

I can think of only three setbacks we’ve had so far: 1. We do sometimes run into misunderstandings of some communities and community members who think we’re coming in to take away their way of making a living. However, this is usually quickly reversed when they realize that we are there to help them develop more sustainable, long-term means of benefiting their own families and communities. We emphasize that the family and community can only survive if they have a healthy environment to thrive in.

2. We’re saddened when community members continue to kill turtles, usually because they don’t understand or don’t believe they have alternatives. Most people aren’t killing turtles just to spite conservation efforts. Still, we need to work to get the message to these people that there are better ways to live than to reduce the natural resources of the country beyond retrievable levels.

3. Research funding is, at this stage, always an issue. We’re very much hampered in what we can accomplish without significant funding support. We’re always in need of educational materials, research equipment, student support, and community assistance for training local people. We’re confidant that as the research picks up steam and people become more aware of ProTECTOR and what we’re doing, we’ll begin to attract funds – and that day can’t come too soon!

AEA: If you were able to say one thing to the highest elected officials of the United States--the President and Congress--concerning conservation or ecology, and if you knew for certain that they would listen and act, what would you say?

SGD: I’d say, “There’s a desperate need to increase research and support funding for conservation efforts, on all levels. The problem is that too few people, even at the highest levels of governments, understand that biodiversity is so intimately linked with the ecology and economy of EVERY nation and therefore affects ALL of us! The majority of people still see biodiversity as something for Biology students to study and feel it has little, if anything, to do with them in their daily lives. We need the funds to make the message very clear – biodiversity and ecology are about all of us; humans living in sustainable relationships with their environments.”

AEA: Any final thoughts you might have for a primarily Adventist audience who are interested in dialog and action on issues of ecology and conservation?

SGD: Yes. I’d like to invite Adventists everywhere to become involved in environmental projects at levels they are able to. Part of our historical problem as SDA’s is that we’ve look at the planet as a “temporary stop”, not our “Final home”, when in fact, it certainly will be. I don’t see anywhere in the gospels permission to dismiss our responsibilities as caretakers (the original commission), just because Jesus will one day come. We have to remember that Christ does not promise to save us out of this earth, just because we abuse it and trash it. We’ve been inactive for far too long – it’s time to realize that God’s love extends to all creation and that “to make man whole” (LLU’s mission), also means to help to make the environment in which people must live whole, too!

Photos in order of appearance: A radio transmitter being fitted to a turtle’s shell; The front and rear flipper tags applied to a small Hawksbill for identification; A recently released Hawksbill with radio tag attached; LLU graduate student, Melissa Berube listens for radio signals from tagged turtles.

All photos copyright (c) 2007 SGD, rights reserved

SDA "Health Message" could save the world in '08

2008-01-03T11:01:00.000-08:00

The Seventh-day Adventist Church emerged from a period of religious reform. Adventist pioneers played a significant role in the reformations of the mid-to-late 1800's. The 19th Century Adventist reform movements particularly stressed the connection between healthful diet and lifestyle and longevity and improved quality of life and even pointed out the connection between physical and spiritual well-being. While modern science has substantiated much of the Adventist reformers' message (something that Adventists are quick to point out), the teachings were novel in their day.

Out of the Adventist health reform movement, whose champions included John Harvey Kellogg of Kellogg's Corn Flakes fame, grew the Adventist health message, which stressed holistic health practices and mind-body-spirit interconnectedness. Adventists also railed against alcohol and tobacco use, the latter being given credence with increasingly strict laws prohibiting smoking in public and now even private locations.

The Adventist Church established sanitariums to provide cutting edge health care and training in healthful living. To this day, health care remains a vital part of the Seventh-day Adventist mission in countries around the world.

A key tenet of the Adventist health message has been (and still is) advocacy of a vegetarian diet. Adventist pioneer and author Ellen White, herself a longtime meat eater, advocated vegetarianism as the healthiest dietary practice, most notably in her book Counsels on Diet and Foods. Though meat has (perhaps erroneously) been considered by many a necessary part of a balanced diet, vegetarianism is clearly linked to longevity according to a study of 34,000 California Adventists. National Geographic featured the research in a special article on longevity and it's causes.

Bucking Vegetarianism?

Despite scientific and anecdotal evidence that a vegetarian diet promotes better overall health and longevity, trends among Adventists today lean increasingly toward meat consumption. Perhaps the trends reflect cultural norms, perhaps in part a pushback against legalistic emphasis on the morality of vegetarianism, or perhaps the rapid increase of food service industries in the last fifty years. Whatever the case may be, Adventists in 2008 are becoming more comfortable with meat-eating.

However, according to a 2006 UN Food and Agriculture Organization report on the environmental impact of livestock, meat consumption is more environmentally devastating than the emissions from motor vehicles! The livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent – than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation.

The bottom line?
McDonald's has a more severe negative impact on our earth than Chevy trucks do!

The FAO report demonstrates that meat eating does more damage to our earth than cars do! According to the FAO:

When emissions from land use and land use change are included, the livestock sector accounts for 9 percent of CO2 deriving from human-related activities, but produces a much larger share of even more harmful greenhouse gases. It generates 65 percent of human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of CO2. Most of this comes from manure.

And it accounts for respectively 37 percent of all human-induced methane (23 times as warming as CO2), which is largely produced by the digestive system of ruminants, and 64 percent of ammonia, which contributes significantly to acid rain.

Livestock now use 30 percent of the earth’s entire land surface, mostly permanent pasture but also including 33 percent of the global arable land used to producing feed for livestock, the report notes. As forests are cleared to create new pastures, it is a major driver of deforestation, especially in Latin America where, for example, some 70 percent of former forests in the Amazon have been turned over to grazing.

The implications of the FAO findings are hard to overestimate: meat consumption has severe impacts on our earth in terms of climate change and land, water, and air pollution and degradation.

Acclaimed author John Robbins, the son of Baskin Robbins Ice Cream co-founder Irv Robbins, has written extensively on the ecological impact of livestock, poultry, and meat consumption. His books include The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life And Our World and Diet for a New America: How Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness, and the Future of Life on Earth.

Robbins--whose books have garnered praise from Friends of the Earth, PETA, The Wasthington Post, triathlete hall-of-famers and many, many others--presents carefully researched data contrasted with the claims of poultry, livestock, and dairy industries. The extent to which industries falsify or exaggerate data in order to minimize negative publicity is appalling! Robbins suggests that following a vegan diet would even go farther in curbing climate change than would driving a hybrid vehicle - and he provides data to back it up!

While you probably won't hear Al Gore decrying meat consumption (his family has owned cattle ranches for several generations) the Web is full of sites promoting vegetarian and vegan diets, not only for their health benefits, but also for their ecological benefits.

Perhaps it is time that Adventists reclaim our health message and the promote its benefits for our health and our earth!

The UN FAO report on livestock can be viewed in its entirety here.
The National Geo interactive article featuring SDA's is well worth the time!

post script: Despite being ribbed often by non-sympathetic meat-eating friends, the author adheres to a vegan diet and enjoys excellent health, thank you.

Theological Impossibity of global warming?

2007-12-23T08:54:00.000-08:00

Michael Covarrubias, a contributor to the Spectrum Blog, takes issue with an article by Joseph Farah, who says that global warming is theologically impossible because of God's promise to Noah not to destroy the earth by flood.

Farah contends that

"It is so presumptuous and haughty of believers and non-believers alike to think man is in control of the destiny of the planet God created for us. If it were so, would he not have warned us? With all of the prophecies in the Bible, should we not expect to be told that such matters are actually in our hands? Why would we be told exactly the opposite throughout scripture?"

Read all of Michael Covarrubias' thoughts on the article at the Spectrum blog here.

Motivation for Creation Care is More Than Heat

2007-12-21T09:26:00.000-08:00

Avoiding global warming should not be our primary motivation for caring for the planet.

Creation care is much bigger than temperature, as significant as it may be. At AEA we are united in our purpose to respect our Father’s world and to care for it as responsible stewards. This is true regardless of whether or not humans are causing the present warming trend.

Even if global warming were completely false, we would still need to deal with:

Increasing rates of breast cancer and respiratory diseases from industrial pollution (NIEHS, WHO).
The negative health affects of insecticides, herbicides and GM foods.
Mercury in fish and other sources (EPA Advisory).
The over-fishing of sea creatures (Wiki).
The effects of modern farming methods (Frog deformities & Dead zones).
Destruction of Habitat of God’s amazing animals (U of M).
An unsustainable economic system dependent on continual growth which is currently fueled by cheap oil (Bhutan).

The list just goes on and on. Even though global warming is currently in the spotlight, we must remember that the environmental movement is much bigger than this one topic. Thankfully, most of our efforts to counter the release of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, if done wisely, are beneficial to life on this planet regardless of the source of warming.

Why am I addressing this today? I have previously noted some of the evidence against human activity as the main cause of global warming, and these issues were again in the news this week—Small group of US experts insist global warming not man-made (NewsMax.com). After I’d finished the first draft of this post, my father-in-law shared a U.S. Senate report of 400 scientists who dispute man-made global warming. Apparently, they have not seen the proof presented on this blog (jk).

Let’s consider all evidence with a balanced mind. This green movement is not dependent on proof that global warming is caused by cars, cows and consumption. These are important issues for reasons other than warming, reasons that were apparent back when some scientists feared global cooling.

We know two things: Humans are mucking up the place (pollution and ecological degradation), and it’s going to get warmer before our story here gets a breather (Revelation 16:8). Establishing causation is not our most important battle. It’s also true that God doesn’t appreciate people who mess up his planet, whether environmentally, politically, militarily, socially or in any other way (Revelation 11:18).

And if someday it is “proven” that human economic activity is not causing the climate change we are witnessing, let’s not throw the baby of creation care out with the global warming bath water. That baby is far too precious.

We will continue to discuss global warming on this blog because it is a significant issue of our time. However, I want to stress that this is an open movement where multiple views on any given topic are welcomed and expected.

By: Jeff Boyd

PERSONAL NOTE: My two favorite references in this article are Bhutan and We Cannot Serve Two Masters.

Adventist Perspective -- Nick Jensen

2007-12-20T06:16:00.000-08:00

Nick loves the great outdoors, whether he's climbing, jeeping or taking pictures. So what are his thoughts on the environmental movement? Here's an excerpt from his blog (copied with permission):

The environment and global warming are quite the hot button issues of the day. I think it's impossible at this point for any American not to have an opinion on these issues. Let me start by saying I am a Seventh-day Adventist Christian. I think that brings a unique point of view to the world around us. As recorded in the Bible, Adam & Eve's task in the garden of Eden was to care for the garden and all the living things within it. Even though man is fallen and no longer in the garden, I believe God still expects us to care for the world around us and the living things in it. I am also an outdoor enthusiast. I am a hiker, a backpacker, a rock climber, and an outdoor photographer. I have a desire for the natural world and the wild places in it to remain beautiful for me to see, and as a professional photographer, I also have a financial stake in this. Outdoor photographs of a ravaged landscape have but a limited market. Yet I also believe there is also hypocrisy and extremism in todays environmental movement, as well as a bit of arrogance. Some of you may disagree with me along the way, and that's okay. But stick with me, and you'll see my point.

Curious where he's going with this? Read his entire post here: Environmental Issues.

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-19T11:26:00.000-08:00

From the folks at Adventist Environmental Advocacy.

Unintended Consequences – Corn & the Zone of Death

2007-12-18T08:02:00.000-08:00

A few years ago, corn was the poster child for sustainable energy; now it makes headlines that sound like lousy movies. The basic argument said that filling our cars and trucks with corn-based ethanol would reduce our dependence on foreign oil by providing a domestic source of renewable energy. But new technologies often have unintended consequences. (Picture with insightful article from Greener Magazine blog.)

The first consequence was higher food prices. As the demand for corn has risen more than supply, its price has necessarily increased as well. This has pushed up the cost of food around the world, further eroding the ability of poor families to consume sufficient nutrition. It now appears that other plants such as switchgrass and sugar cane are preferable for ethanol production because they require less energy to be converted into biofuel and because they are not food staples like corn. Obviously, sugar is edible; it is just not consumed at the same level as corn.

The price of other foods has also been affected by the increase in demand for corn. Farm land previously used for growing a wide variety of crops has been increasingly used to grow corn. Given a constant demand for wheat, soybeans and other crops and a diminishing supply from farmers as they've switched to growing corn, these prices have had to rise—supply and demand.

Recently, a second unintended consequence has been in the news—a dead zone currently covering 7,900 square mile of the Gulf of Mexico. You may be familiar with this problem, but I hadn’t heard of it until I wrote an informal paper on organic farming last year. Dead zones are areas where oxygen levels are too low to support aquatic life. While four periods of low oxygen levels have been discovered at the mouth of the Mississippi before the invention of modern farming methods, the size of the Gulf’s dead zone has been increasing with the ever larger amounts of nitrogen runoff from American agri-business.

Why does growing corn exacerbate the problem? “Corn is more ‘leaky’ than crops such as soybean and alfalfa — that is, it absorbs less nitrogen per acre. The prime reasons are the drainage systems used in corn fields and the timing of when the fertilizer is applied” (Corn boom could expand ‘dead zone’ in Gulf, MSNBC.com, 17 Dec ’07).

So what can we do? First, we should advocate for non-food sources for ethanol production. Second, we can buy organic produce. Organic farming methods have been shown to result in less nitrogen runoff. Organic food may appear more expensive in the grocery store, but that is simply because we do not immediately see the costs associated with modern farming—depleted top soil, diminished fishing industry, etc. Third, we can find ways to reduce our driving. The less we drive, the less fuel we use. Producing and burning fuel will always have some environmental impact, so a change in lifestyle is ultimately more important than a change at the pump.

By: Jeff Boyd
-------------------------------------

ADDITIONAL READING

Cheap no more (The Economist, 6 Dec ’07)
Corn ethanol, super fuel or hype (Greener Magazine, 20 July ’06)
Crops & Gardening - Organic Farming (Hobby Farms, Jan/Fed ’07)
Ethanol and food price volatility (Econbrowser, 22 July ’07)
Ethanol demand threatens food prices (Technology Review, 13 Feb ’07)
Ethanol fuel from corn faulted as ‘Unsustainable Subsidized Food Burning’ (Health and Energy)
Facility to make ethanol from sweet sorghum (Energy Answers blog, 15 Dec ’07)
Frog deformities linked to farm pollution (New Scientist, 25 Sep ’07)
Hidden costs of corn-based ethanol (Christian Science Monitor, 21 May ’07)
Study: Organic farming more efficient (Live Science, 18 July ’07)
The rising tide of corn (Washington Post, 15 June ’07)

Adventist Business -- Lakeland Mills Demonstrates Green Manufacturing

2007-12-14T11:35:00.000-08:00

Robert Jensen, who co-owns Lakeland Mills with Calvin Hunt, sat down with AEA to talk about “green business.” Bob would rather not give interviews; he says it’s not about him. I respect that, but apparently not enough to let him get out of the interview. You can read more about Bob and the Something Else Sabbath School class in the December 2007 issue of the Lake Union Herald. [Disclosure: Bob is my father-in-law.]

Robert Jensen (L) and Calvin Hunt (R) in front of the main paper recycling bin.

While most of us at AEA are not in favor of runaway commercialism and consumerism, I’m guessing we’re thankful for our beds, chairs and dressers. That’s Bob’s business. Lakeland Mills manufactures rustic log furniture, primarily out of cedar and pine. Since logging and manufacturing are significant environmental issues, I thought it would be worth my time to talk with Bob about how Lakeland Mills is engaging the three R’s—reduce, reuse, recycle.

REDUCE
Two of the main inputs at the mill are lumber and electricity. Let’s consider lumber first. The level of production is directly tied to the amount of wood purchased, so reducing this raw material would severely limit the mill’s ability to satisfy demand and hire local laborers.

Rather than limiting timber inputs, Lakeland Mills found a way to reduce the number of trees felled for their production. The indoor log furniture is primarily made from leftover pine plywood cores.

Plywood is made by laminating layers of veneer, which are thin, broad sections of wood. These sections are made by rotating large trees like rotisseries while shaving off a continuous layer with a blade the length of the tree section. However, the machinery has a minimum diameter that it can shave. Once the tree has been skinned down to a few inches, it is no longer useful for making plywood. These discarded cores are generally used for mulch, but the mill buys them from plywood manufacturers to make rustic furniture.

The cedar used in the mill’s outdoor products comes from a different source. Log home manufacturers cut down trees with substantial diameters. Since trees are not uniform in diameter from bottom to top, only the lower, thicker part is useful for building.

The thinner upper sections that cannot be used in home construction are the pieces Lakeland Mills buys to build their outdoor products. Fencing companies also purchase these sections.

Another significant way that Lakeland Mills is reducing its footprint on the planet is through minimizing energy use. A recent investment in a soft start/frequency changer is already saving electricity and money.

Generally, more electricity is needed to start appliances, machinery and lights than is required to keep them running. A soft start helps reduce this initial surge of power. In the case of the mill’s power requirements for the dust collection system, starting amperage has been reduced from 280 to just 25.

Once the machinery is running, the frequency changer helps to further reduce energy consumption by running motors at less than 100% of capacity. This means that the dust collection motor can efficiently operate using only 20 horsepower instead of 40 and can run on 25-30 amps instead of 43.

What does this mean in economic terms? In the first month of running the soft start/frequency changer, the electricity bill was $500 less than the same month of the previous year. With such a positive start, Lakeland Mills is planning to purchase two more soft starts.

Yvon Chouinard, founder of leading eco-friendly clothing maker, Patagonia, explains that production will always take a toll on the environment. Regardless, it is industry’s responsibility to minimize this impact as much as possible (Let My People Go Surfing). Lakeland Mill’s use of left-over wood products that reduce the need for logging and its effort to minimize electrical usage are significant examples of taking this responsibility seriously.

REUSE
One practice that blends the line between reducing and reusing is Lakeland Mill’s method of heating the preproduction wood drying area.

Rather than selling all of the sawdust collected from production activities to dairy farmers for animal bedding, the mill burns most of the sawdust to heat and dry raw wood materials. Any excess heat in the drying area is pumped into the production facility, which further reduces the heating bill.

By using waste (sawdust) from one aspect of the business to save costs and inputs in others (heating in both drying and production), Lakeland Mills demonstrates that reuse is relevant in manufacturing.

I did some research to see if burning wood is more eco-friendly than burning coal or natural gas. Multiple sites produced the same answer—wood is better (Is Burning Wood Greener Than Burning Gas?, Burning Wood, How to Burn Wood Right, Biomass).

RECYCLE
PCA, the maker of cardboard used for shipping Lakeland Mills’ finished goods, used to buy clean cardboard from the mill to be recycled into new boxes.

Shortly after PCA stopped paying for recyclables, the mill began working with another local business that recycles dirty paper and cardboard as well as plastic. A second local vendor recycles the mill’s limited metal waste.

These recycling efforts are making a difference. Whereas the mill’s garbage used to be picked up weekly, now it is taken away when the bins are full, which is every six to eight weeks.

Because recycling in the community is quite inconvenient—a semi visits town twice a month for a combined 6 hours of presence—the mill allows employees to bring in their personal recycling. Even church members are showing interest in dropping off their recyclables since the business hours and location are convenient. “In our society, people are programmed for things to be convenient,” notes Bob.

CONCLUDING WORDS OF WISDOM
In addition to these major green initiatives (some would simply call them good business practices), the mill does many other smaller things like using water-based, non-toxic finishes and canceling unnecessary catalogues. Bob points out that even though some changes require an investment, “all of these [green activities] have had a financial benefit to us, obviously.”

Bob has many important thoughts on business, personal choice and stewardship. He points out that, “It doesn’t matter what your views of global warming or Al Gore are. It’s all about stewardship, not living life by default but by decision. Stewardship is about conscious decisions about how you manage the things and resources in your life.”

“An efficient use of resources is an intelligent thing to do—where we drive, what we drive, what we wear, how and where we vacation, what and how much we eat.”

Regarding the role of government in environmental care, Bob emphasizes that “Individuals can do it more efficiently and more intelligently. Collective individual efforts add up to a significant difference. Don’t look to Al Gore or the government to make the difference. You can’t wait for the government to change fuel mileage; change yourself. The bottom line—it comes down to individuals, which is the way the kingdom of God works. In Christianity, don’t look to the evangelist or organized religion to do all the work.”

However, government does play a role. Bob points out that government incentives to recycle (such as money for pop cans now) would change behavior overnight as compared to regulations on fuel mileage.

Bob finished the interview with a call to personal responsibility in all areas of life. “Ignoring your sphere of influence is wrong. You may have little influence over the war in Iraq, but how peacefully do you live with your family and neighbors?”

By: Jeff Boyd
-------------------------------------

GREEN BUSINESS RESOURCES

Books:

Corporate Social Responsibility (Philip Kotler, 2004)
Cradle to Cradle (William McDonough, 2002)
Green to Gold (Daniel Esty, 2006)
Harvard Business Review on Green Business Strategy (2007)
Let My People Go Surfing (Yvon Chouinard, 2006)
Raising the Bar (Gary Erickson, 2006)
World, Inc. (Bruce Piasecki, 2007)

Online Resources:

Co-op America – Green Business
GreenBiz – “Business. The Environment. The Bottom Line.”
Green Business Starter Kit – A more extensive resource list at my website.
Grist – Business
Treehugger – Business

Articles:

Don’t get mad, get Yvon (Grist.com, Amanda Little, 22 Oct ’04)
Editorial: Short-term pain for environmental gain (StarTribune.com, 7 Dec ’07)
Recycling is first step to 'green' business, panel says (The Coloradoan, Hallie Woods, 12 Dec ’07)
The green machine (Fortune Magazine/CNNMoney.com, Marc Gunther, 31 July ’06)
Study details how U.S. could cut 28% of greenhouse gases (NYTimes.com, Matthew Wald, 30 Nov ’07)

Need evidence of climate change?

2007-12-13T13:34:00.000-08:00

Brawn and Brain combine to create clean energy

2007-12-12T17:31:00.001-08:00

A team of 10 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) cyclists used bicycles to power a supercomputer conducting research on nuclear fusion Tuesday in order to complete the largest human-powered computation in history.

Riding bicycles attached to electrical generators, the students not only saved energy by using human power to run the SiCortex SC648 supercomputer, they used the computer to conduct research promoting alternative energy, as well. Several students on the MIT Cycling Team research nuclear fusion, a potentially promising source of energy that would provide an environmentally-friendly alternative relative to currently used nuclear fission power that produces dangerous radioactive waste.

A large part of their research is conducted using supercomputers that can model plasmas at nearly 10 million degrees centigrade. The bicycle powered computer ran a modeling application written by Greg Wallace, a graduate student at MIT and an avid mountain biker.

The MIT Cycling Team joined forces with the Massachusetts company specializing in energy-efficient supercomputing. The MIT cyclists powered the supercomputer drawing 1.2 kilowatts of electricity, riding non-stop for almost 20 minutes. A conventional supercomputer might require ten times as much power to perform the same calculations.

"By harnessing the energy creation processes of the sun, our research opens the possibility of limitless energy," said John Wright, a member of MIT's Plasma Science & Fusion Center and an avid cyclist. "But we still need to do our parts individually, such as by using energy-efficient computers in our research."

The team will head to Kansas City, Kansas, this weekend to defend their 2006 USA Cycling Cyclo-cross National Championship title.

Report courtesy Cyclingnews (www.cyclingnews.com)
Image courtesy Xconomy (www.xconomy.com)

Speaking out against mindless consumerism

2007-12-05T11:04:00.000-08:00

The holiday rush is well underway, and with it a sharp spike in consumer spending. Watch Reverend Billy (America's favorite fake preacher) and his gospel choir do street ministry on Black Friday, 2007, speaking the truth about the Shopocalypse, and preaching the good news of freedom from consumption.

Adventist Academics and the Environment - John T. Baldwin, Ph.D.

2007-11-30T11:21:00.000-08:00

Meet Dr. John T. Baldwin, Professor of Theology at the Adventist Theological Seminary in Berrien Springs, Michigan.

In September of 2005, Dr. Baldwin spoke to the Michiana Adventist Forum on the topic of Adventism and responsible stewardship of Nature. The Sabbath afternoon conversation sought, in Dr. Baldwin's words, to "encourage renewed commitment to faithful stewardship of and appreciation of the present environment."

Drawing from a rich background of Adventist belief, Baldwin noted that, "If any group of people should be excited about ecological issues and the pressing environmental crisis, it should be Seventh-day Adventists, particularly in view of our deep commitment to the biblical doctrine of creation."

Incorporating in turn insights from Scripture, scientific data, Greek philosophy, and Adventist theology, Baldwin moved toward a clear Seventh-dayAdventist Theology of the Environment.

The presentation offered a three part approach to the environmental crisis, and an Adventist Christian response to it:

1) Part One: to review briefly selected aspects of the current environmental
crisis through the lense of Hurricane Katrina, and through a personal description of an
environmental challenge in Africa experienced by Titus Matemavi, in order to underscore the
need for a theology of the environment,

2) Part Two: to reflect upon five aspects of the biblical
doctrine of creation and related issues as the basis for an Adventist theology of the environment,
and

3) Part Three: to share some practical steps which we, as Christians, can take to address the
environmental crisis.

Adventist Environmental Advocacy applauds the thoughtful, scholarly presentation of environmental stewardship put forth by Dr. Baldwin, and is pleased to be able to offer the full text of Dr. Baldwin's presentation here.

The Beauty of Creation and the Sabbath

2007-11-29T17:52:00.000-08:00

Well, this is my first post here. Let me begin with a handful of “I” statements. I’m thankful that Jared and Caleb started this blog and have invited me to join in the conversation. I realize that this first (long) article is just preaching to the choir. I'll try to rant just this once. I believe God is calling each of us to make A Better World. Let the dialog continue…

I could be wrong, but it is my perception that we Adventists spend a significant amount of time trying to prove truths. The idea seems to be, “If I can leave you no logical options other than the truth or doctrine I am teaching, then you will necessarily decide to join me in this belief. Together we can then convince others.” We can get animated in our proving and disproving, but we don’t always live with the same level of fervor. What if half of the beauty of truth is in experiencing it, not just knowing it?

Let’s consider two related environmental examples—creation and Sabbath. With the first topic, creation, we want to prove that the visible world was in fact created by God. The universe has an Intelligent Designer. We proceeded from God, not soup. The Geoscience Research Institute has spent thousands of hours and dollars to discount natural processes as the source of life and to find evidence to support the young-earth hypothesis, and most (or all) of our colleges and universities offer an Origins class. I'm not saying these are bad; I just mean that they reveal our priority—proof.

Despite this emphasis, I have met many people in my local churches that are opposed to the environmental movement in word and indifferent to it in lifestyle. Like Chantel, I hear, “Jesus is coming soon, so why does it matter?" Once the rubber hits the road where we need to live the points we prove, we are less than perfect at being practical. We are unanimously comfortable with the proposition, “God created Earth.” But the conversation shouldn’t stop there. If it is from God, and God said it is good, and God gave us stewardship over it, then it follows that we should be fairly serious about keeping it good. To proof, let's add preservation.

With our understanding of origins and stewardship, Christians should be the first environmentalists. We shouldn't need a doomsday scenario like global warming to wake us up to our role as caretakers of our Father’s world. Blogs like this one and organizations such as A Rocha, Creation Care and Restoring Eden are growing as they do this very work.

Let’s consider the second example of experiencing truth rather than just proof-texting it—the SD in SDA. It is my perception that our first priority on this issue is to show that the seventh day is still the Lord’s Day and still part of God’s expectations for us. This is quickly followed with biblical guidelines for proper observance—go to church, don’t work, etc.

This seems to be a pretty good start, but proving a biblical point does not necessarily mean we’ve made it present truth, good news for today. What might happen if we invited people to share in the goodness of the day with us before pointing out the theology behind it? If it has to be proven to be appreciated, maybe we’re missing the point.

Voices in the church have attempted to teach the physiological and psychological benefits of rest, but more can be done. For example, one individual who is teaching the relevance of Sabbath is the conservationist, Matthew Sleeth, M.D. He is the author of Serve God, Save the Planet and the director of the U.S. branch of A Rocha.

As Sleeth began to notice the effects of environmental degradation on the health of his patients, he made a few changes. The family now inhabits a house the size of their old garage. They live on 1/10th their previous income and produce about four pounds of trash a week instead of the 40 or so pounds that the rest of us generate. According to Sleeth, the most important change was leaving his medical practice “to focus on the most pressing health issue of all time: Earth care” (Alternet). [More at Serve God, Save the Planet & Chelsea Green Publishing.]

Dr. Sleeth, a non-Adventist Christian, teaches that “one of the first steps… in creation care is to begin to take a day of rest” (Conservation). While disagreeing with his conclusion that the specific day of observance is spiritually irrelevant, I think we have a lot to learn from him on the environmental practicality of a Sabbath well observed.

Catholic Online (Oct ’07) published an interview about his early steps to sustainable living:

“I starting [sic] keeping the Sabbath,” he said. He and his family agreed to avoid shopping on Sundays and making unnecessary trips in the car. That resulted in staying home and doing things together as a family as well as carving out time for personal reading and reflection. This method of Sabbath-keeping also drastically cut their family’s consumption of energy every Sunday.

If all families “kept the Sabbath” in a similar manner, Matthew said, we would use 14 percent less electricity as a country – and improve the quality of our lives!

Sleeth explains that “if Americans did no work, no shopping, and no driving one day a week, we would instantly produce fewer greenhouse gases, use billions of gallons less fuel, and be closer to sanity and to God. The Sabbath is God's gift to man, 52 times a year” (AlterNet, 23 Apr ‘05).

If you’re like me, you drive to church most weeks. While I don’t advocate adding a “rule” about not driving on Sabbath, contemplating eco-friendly activities is worth our time. Carpooling to church makes sense; it builds community and cuts down on emissions. What else?

Sabbath observance has significance for our planet. Let’s look for ways to live the day in ways that show appreciation for the world God has given us and for the neighbors he has put in our lives.

Sabbath is beautiful. Creation is beautiful. Truth is practical.

Adventists making a difference - Chantel Davies

2007-11-27T13:38:00.000-08:00

Meet Chantel Davies, a Ph.D. candidate, and member of the Edinburgh Adventist Church in Scotland. Chantel loves New Zealand Rugby Union, motorbikes, reading all sorts of books, enjoys gardening and botany, and is learning Japanese, and writes a blog entitled Nomad. Below, Chantel shares a bit about the efforts being made to bring environmental issues to the fore in Edinburgh.

Chantel writes:

I have to say progress is slow. The attitude of "Jesus is coming soon, so why does it matter" prevails, though some people are beginning to understand why we need to be faithful caretakers of something that was gifted to us a long time ago.

Last year I prepared a youth day dealing with environmental issues and social justice. Some folks have thought about it since then, but little has changed or been achieved. Nevertheless, I and a few others continue to do what we can, where we can. The SDA youth of Scotland have produced a magazine (The AYE), with some articles discussing Christian responsibility to the environment. The magazine was printed on recycled paper as well!

I think the biggest step forward has been to have environmental issues put onto the agenda for the church board. We're now discussing ways to make the church "greener". It'll take time, but every little bit helps. Saving money appears to be the greatest incentive, but it has to start with something.

The church has begun a program of recycling papers, plastics, and metals - (above) Receptacles for compost material minimize the church's environmental impact (below right )

I've created a compost heap at the back of the church, and informed those who prepare meals on Sabbath that vegetable waste is to be composted. So far, so good. I'm also developing the church garden to grow a range of fruits and vegetables using organic methods, thus cutting out chemical use (and ultimately waste). In the long run this will help reduce packaging, as we have a meal at church every Sabbath, and the level of waste hurts my eyes) none of it is recycled.... yet!

Once the garden is up-and-running, we'll have a supply of fresh, organic food to use or sell to the public. There is a small, but dedicated group of us committed to ethical, eco-friendly living, and I'm sure if we persevere it will spread amongst the church.

Majora Carter on "Greening the Ghetto" and environmental justice

2007-11-25T09:30:00.000-08:00

Majora Carter founded Sustainable South Bronx in 2001 after determining that the environment and the local economy could be positively manipulated to alleviate poverty and public health problems simultaneously, and that project based initiatives were needed to demonstrate their viability.

Carter connects poverty alleviation & the environment - in ways that benefit both concerns, demonstrating Clean-Tech solutions for our most persistent urban public health & global climate concerns.

By creating positive physical environments, demonstrating cool and green roof technologies, working to replace an under-utilized expressway with local-value driven development, and the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training program - creating a skilled green-collar workforce with personal & economic stakes in their urban environment.

Listen to Majora Carter speaking with NPR about her experiences in South Bronx, New York, and her vision for transforming her community here.

If you prefer watching to listening, in this outstanding, passionate, intelligent video, Carter describes how community initiatives are turning America around starting with South Bronx.

Watch This

(some content courtesy of wikipedia.org)

Why Should Christians Care for Creation?

2007-11-25T09:25:00.000-08:00

A thoughtful look at the Scriptural directives on Creation Care, this video is courtesy of A Rocha, an international conservation organization working to care for God's world.

New Aussie PM confronts climate change

2007-11-25T08:13:00.000-08:00

Recently elected Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia's Labor Party vows to take decisive action on global warming, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Former Aussie Prime Minister John Howard refused to sign the Kyoto pact, something that Rudd has promised to reverse. During his first news conference since taking office, Rudd promised "action, and action now" on climate change.

Rudd's stances on global warming and Australia's military in Iraq are a clear departure from the policies of ousted PM Howard. During Howard's eleven years in power, he was a close ally of George Bush in the War on Terror, and enacted policies that reflected America's interests.

In contrast, Rudd plans to pull Australia's 55o combat troops from Iraq, and has already opened dialogue with government officials about the mechanics of signing the Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Reflections on an environmental discussion in church

2007-11-19T09:53:00.000-08:00

Grace Kim, member of the Calimesa SDA Church, and wife of Pastor Isaac Kim, leader of Calimesa's Young Adult ministry, shares her thoughts on a recent Sabbath School discussion of the environment. Grace's blog, "My life naked", features her thoughts on life, faith, society, and more.

Concerning environmental discussion, Grace writes:

Environmentalism... Not the most comfortable word to chew on. We all define the word that makes it convenient to our lifestyle. Yesterday, Sabbath school introduced what this word means to Adventists. We love the outdoors: hiking, Adventist campgrounds, etc. Most of us don't litter and we try to recycle. Sometimes we have a beach cleaning for our sabbath activity. Is that all the stewardship we hold of this Earth? How many of us fight to conserve national parks and marshes from becoming targets of a track home community? Do you even really care if the some random bird is endangered? Is it wrong to not respect my front yard landscaping? What do you pick and choose to preserve?

Read the rest of Grace's thoughts on Adventists and the environment under the title, "Are You Green" here.

Greening Adventist Universities

2007-11-16T12:32:00.000-08:00

Southwestern Adventist University's SIFE (Students In Free Enterprise) team produced this video on energy conservation.

The following video, created for the Andrews University Energy Conservation Committee, illustrates how simple actions can make a big impact on energy conservation. Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan.

Edwards: Global Warming Action = "Moral Test"

2007-11-04T08:52:00.000-08:00

As the Democratic race for the presidential nomination heats up, John Edwards is drawing support from environmental groups, calling global warming the "great moral test of our generation." Speaking to the Associated Press, Edwards targeted Big Oil as a primary cause of inaction.

"Why have we not addressed the issue of climate change and global warming?" Edwards said. "I'll tell you why, no question about it: oil companies, gas companies, power companies and the lobbyists in Washington, D.C. We have to have a president who will stand up to these people."

Christian Response

While evangelical Christians have been very slow to agree that global warming is immanent problem that demands our attention, Christians in increasing numbers are beginning to speak out on global warming and demand that the government take action.

Where science and faith converge, a clear case can be made that stopping global warming is indeed a moral imperative. Science provides the data, and faith offers the response.

If, as Jesus said, there is no greater command than to love God with all our hearts, and to love our neighbors as ourselves (see Matthew 22:35-39), then we have clear directives on how we might respond to global warming.

Global warming poses a threat to God's creation. Scripture indicates that the Earth is the Lord's and everything in it (Psalm 24:1,2). To Christians who take the idea of creation seriously, it follows that caring for creation is a means of honoring God. Our treatment of the creation reveals something of our attitude toward the Creator.

Not only does global warming threaten creation, it threatens the people of the Earth - particularly the poor. Droughts, extreme temperatures, and unpredictable weather cause the most devastation to those with no recourse - no running water, no air conditioning, and no means of purchasing produce when droughts occur. Scripture also speaks clearly about the need to care for our neighbors, particularly the poor and the weak (see for example Psalm 82:2-4).

The practical effect of combating global warming is twofold - it has to do with honoring God's creation, and caring for humanity. When acting on global warming is called a moral imperative, Scripture would concur in that stopping global warming demonstrates both love for God (honoring Him for His creation), and loving people (protecting the poor and weak and caring for our neighbors).

Bloggin' the 28 - Salvation

2007-10-05T11:05:00.000-07:00

The following article excerpt is the twenty-third installment in a series of blog posts by several thoughtful Adventist writers, bloggers, pastors, and theologians on the 28 fundamental tenets of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. (Readers will note that the installments of this series do not follow the chronological order of the 28 beliefs.)

Over the course of the last two months, this series of posts (dubbed Camp Meeting 2.0) organized by the Spectrum Blog has been moving through all 28 fundamental beliefs seeking to answer the following question:

How do each of our Seventh-day Adventist fundamental beliefs translate into habits or actions today?

This edition again features Ryan Bell: forward-thinking activist, pastor, and writer from Hollywood, CA.

Ryan comments:

"Wikipedia defines naturalization as “an act whereby a person acquires a citizenship different from that person's citizenship at birth. Naturalization is most commonly associated with economic migrants or refugees who have immigrated to a country and resided there as aliens, and who have voluntarily and actively chosen to become citizens of that country after meeting specific requirements.”

This, it seems to me, is a perfect description of baptism. Baptism is an act (a rite or a sacrament, we would say) whereby a person leaves behind her citizenship in “this world” and becomes a citizen of “the kingdom of God.” Remember that “kingdom” is also explicitly political language. To follow Wikipedia’s definition a little further, baptism is associated with migrants or aliens who have immigrated and resided there as aliens and who have chosen to become citizens of that country after meeting specific requirements. This is the reasoning that enables Paul to say, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).

Immigration refers to the physical and spatial act of moving from one country to another and naturalization refers more to the process of transference of ones loyalties and commitments to a different “lord,” whether that lord is a Constitution or a way of life or a King or Queen. Additionally, citizens inevitably go through a process of resocialization in the new location. This I would argue is the process of discipleship."

Be sure to read the entire article and share your comments at Ryan's outstanding blog, Intersections.

Bloggin' the 28 - The Holy Spirit

2007-10-05T10:55:00.000-07:00

The following article is the twenty-second installment in a series of blog posts by several thoughtful Adventist writers, bloggers, pastors, and theologians on the 28 fundamental tenets of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. (Readers will note that the installments of this series do not follow the chronological order of the 28 beliefs.)

Over the course of the last two months, this series of posts (dubbed Camp Meeting 2.0) organized by the Spectrum Blog has been moving through all 28 fundamental beliefs seeking to answer the following question:

How do each of our Seventh-day Adventist fundamental beliefs translate into habits or actions today?

In this edition of the bloggin' the 28 series, blogger and sharp social critic Tompaul Wheeler discusses the implications of our belief in a Holy Spirit for contemporary life.

Tompaul comments:

"The thing about the Holy Spirit is that He’s no genie who can be summoned on command. While Jesus promised that all who pray for the Holy Spirit will find their prayers answered, He never promised that He’d do the same thing every time, just like we remember it.

The Holy Spirit moves in different ways for different people, for different generations, different cultures, and different situations. The Spirit is unpredictable. The Spirit isn’t always flashy or dramatic, with rushing wind, earth-shaking excitement, or a flood of Amens. Pentecostals believes the Spirit can practically be summoned at will. Us Adventists have tended to the opposite extreme, underplaying anything that smacks of spontaneity. Indeed, we’ve too often thought we had the Spirit in a can: The Spirit moved on the Bible writers, and the Spirit moved on Ellen White, and there ya go folks--don’t mess with it, and certainly don’t mess with my interpretation of it.

In her introduction to The Great Controversy, Ellen White wrote, “Yet the fact that God has revealed His will to men through His word, has not rendered needless the continued presence and guiding of the Holy Spirit. . . . Since the ministry of the Holy Spirit is of vital importance to the church of Christ, it is one of the devices of Satan, through the errors of extremists and fanatics, to cast contempt upon the work of the Spirit, and cause the people of God to neglect this source of strength which our Lord Himself has provided. . . ."

Read all of Tompaul's astute insights into this doctrine at The Wheeler Spin (as opposed to the Wheel Spinner, I'm sure).

Bloggin' the 28 - Salvation

2007-10-05T10:49:00.000-07:00

The following article is the twenty-first installment in a series of blog posts by several thoughtful Adventist writers, bloggers, pastors, and theologians on the 28 fundamental tenets of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. (Readers will note that the installments of this series do not follow the chronological order of the 28 beliefs.)

This series of posts (dubbed Camp Meeting 2.0) organized by the Spectrum Blog is working through all 28 fundamental beliefs seeking to answer the following question:

How do each of our Seventh-day Adventist fundamental beliefs translate into habits or actions today?

Here, writer, editor, and graphic designer Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson discusses the ways that the Adventist doctrine of Salvation transcends theology and affects our lives in the here and now.

Sharon writes:

"My Sabbath School class recently studied Stuart Tyner’s excellent book, Searching for the God of Grace. I owe much of this article to Tyner, because through that book I discovered for the first time that grace is central to our Adventist belief system. You’d think I would have known. I’ve been in the Adventist community all my life, after all. I took my first breaths at an Adventist Hospital, and I’ve been through the mill—Angwin, Loma Linda, the mission field, Home Study International, boarding academy, Pacific Union College, and even a self-supporting institution somewhere along the way. And yet I had never before understood grace, that essential core of our doctrine of salvation.

It’s not because I haven’t been listening all these years. I have been listening, but grace hasn’t been talked about much. What I heard was something else—something less reassuring, more complicated, and ultimately discouraging. What it sounded like was, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” or “In order to receive salvation, we must…” For a generation or two, whether by negligence, distraction, or carelessness, Adventism lost its focus on grace. That nucleus, that fundamental center of our faith slipped out of its place, and some of us grew up without it, without understanding that grace is what transforms the rituals and laws of our religion into a vibrant faith. Grace is as essential to our faith as water or light to life, and some of us have never experienced it."

You can find the full text of Sharon's assessment of Salvation theology at the Spectrum blog.

Bloggin' the 28 - The Church

2007-10-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

The following article is the twentieth installment in a series of blog posts by several thoughtful Adventist writers, bloggers, pastors, and theologians on the 28 fundamental tenets of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. (Readers will note that the installments of this series do not follow the chronological order of the 28 beliefs.)

This series of posts (dubbed Camp Meeting 2.0) organized by the Spectrum Blog is working through all 28 fundamental beliefs seeking to answer the following question:

How do each of our Seventh-day Adventist fundamental beliefs translate into habits or actions today?

Here, Pastor Ryan Bell of the Hollywood Adventist Church discusses Adventist ecclesiology and its implications for the Church in the 21st Century.

Ryan writes:

"The Seventh-day Adventist Church has historically had a weak ecclesiology. This is due, in part at least, to the church’s eschatology, which made the church virtually irrelevant. Adventism arose as a movement, drawing attention to the nearness of Jesus return and preaching a message of personal preparedness for ‘the day of the Lord.’ The early Millerites had no intention of forming a new denomination.
Even after being expelled from their local Baptist, Methodist and other churches, these Adventists did not expect to organize a church. Questions of what it meant to be the people of God on this earth were far from their minds. Indeed, for nearly two decades after the Great Disappointment, the little band of Adventists resisted organization, claiming that organization was the first step toward becoming Babylon. Eventually, the need to sustain the work into the future made it necessary to organize and so, in 1863, the Seventh-day Adventist Church officially formed.
Still, ecclesiology did not register on the theological radar for over a century! It wasn’t until 1980 in the 3rd version of the Fundamental Beliefs that the church finally articulated it’s ecclesiology."

Read the full, well-articulated article at Ryan's blog, Intersections.

Bloggin' the 28 - Growing in Christ

2007-09-11T11:40:00.000-07:00

The following article is the nineteenth installment in a series of blog posts by several thoughtful Adventist writers, bloggers, pastors, and theologians on the 28 fundamental tenets of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. (Readers will note that the installments of this series do not follow the chronological order of the 28 beliefs.)

This series of posts (dubbed Camp Meeting 2.0) organized by the Spectrum Blog is working through all 28 fundamental beliefs seeking to answer the following question:

How do each of our Seventh-day Adventist fundamental beliefs translate into habits or actions today?

In this installment of Bloggin' the 28, Pastor Trevan Osborn applies the newest of the fundamental beliefs, "Growing in Christ," to contemporary Christian living.

Trevan writes:

"I found it very interesting that the belief places a huge emphasis on the death of Jesus while barely referencing how he lived his life. There is no doubt that the Cross stands as the central event in the life of the Christian but if we forget about his life, we can lose sight of how we are supposed to live as Christians today. Unfortunately, I believe this happens all too often and is why so many Christians seem to be missing the point when it comes to following Jesus. By only focusing on the sacrifice of Jesus, Christianity can devolve into little more than a self-help religion that’s all about “me and Jesus.” However, when we focus on both Jesus’ life and death, we find that while the sacrifice of Jesus is intensely personal and life changing, that life change compels us to live a life of service and sacrifice for others. The new belief definitely stresses the importance of living in love and sacrifice but I believe it’s power and effect would be greater if it focused a little more on Jesus’ life as opposed to only his death."

Read the rest of this article at Trevan's blog, Divergence.

Bloggin' the 28 - The Second Coming

2007-09-11T11:29:00.000-07:00

The following article is the eighteenth installment in a series of blog posts by several thoughtful Adventist writers, bloggers, pastors, and theologians on the 28 fundamental tenets of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. (Readers will note that the installments of this series do not follow the chronological order of the 28 beliefs.)

This series of posts (dubbed Camp Meeting 2.0) organized by the Spectrum Blog is working through all 28 fundamental beliefs seeking to answer the following question:

How do each of our Seventh-day Adventist fundamental beliefs translate into habits or actions today?

In this edition, writer and Editor of the Signs of the Times Australia/New Zealand, Nathan Brown contemplates the implications of our belief in the Second Coming of Christ.

Brown writes:

“Lianne struggled with the idea of God,” Don DeLillo’s narrator says of one of the characters in his recent novel, Falling Man. “She was taught to believe that religion makes people compliant. This is the purpose of religion, to return people to a childlike state. . . . We want to transcend, we want to pass beyond the limits of safe understanding, and what better way to do it than through make-believe.”

It’s a contemporary restatement of an oft-repeated criticism of religion—and perhaps of Christianity in particular. There is a perceived tendency for this kind of faith to draw believers away from life here and now toward a longing for some better life in the hereafter, however that may be defined. The criticism is that the focus on another realm of life becomes a form of sanctified escapism and renders the believer of less benefit to the world and society in which they now live. In this line of thinking, the promise of the “sweet bye and bye”—to borrow from the traditional hymn—tends to dull the believer’s sensibilities to the joys and sorrows of living now, perhaps most famously critiqued by Karl Marx in his religion-as-“the opium of the people” comment.

Often believers have left themselves open to such criticism, even at times cultivating, preaching and practising these kinds of attitudes. There are many stories of sincere believers, who have been overwhelmed by the quest for holiness or the imminent end or the world and withdrawn themselves from all active life to ensure their perfection or readiness."

Read the full text of Brown's article at the Spectrum Blog.

Bloggin' the 28 - The Sabbath

2007-09-11T11:17:00.000-07:00

The following article is the seventeenth installment in a series of blog posts by several thoughtful Adventist writers, bloggers, pastors, and theologians on the 28 fundamental tenets of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. (Readers will note that the installments of this series do not follow the chronological order of the 28 beliefs.)

This series of posts (dubbed Camp Meeting 2.0) organized by the Spectrum Blog is working through all 28 fundamental beliefs seeking to answer the following question:

How do each of our Seventh-day Adventist fundamental beliefs translate into habits or actions today?

Brian Swarts, author of the fools' GOSPEL looks at the ways our understanding of Sabbath can impact our lives, even in areas such as ecology, economics and politics.

Brian writes:

"The biblical story shows that Israel struggled with Sabbath practice much as we do today. There is an amazing story about an Israelite king (Josiah) where we read that the religious leaders had actually lost the scrolls of Torah that contain many of God’s most important instructions on Sabbath practice. The Israelites had drifted so far away from genuine Sabbath practice that they actually “lost” God’s original instructions on Sabbath. These scrolls were “discovered” when Josiah ordered a long overdue cleaning of the temple. Their discovery sparked a revival in Israel. I am convinced that rediscovering true Sabbath practice today would also spark a revival.

Nearly 1,000 years later we still find the Israelites struggling with Sabbath practice. According to the prophet Amos, the Israelites were participating Sabbath festivals and offerings but God told Amos that these practices detestable and meaningless because although they had all the trappings of Sabbath, they had none of the substance (Amos 5)."

Read all of Brian's insightful commentary at the fools' GOSPEL here.

Bloggin' the 28 - the Nature of Humanity

2007-08-31T14:47:00.000-07:00

The following article is the sixteenth installment in a series of blog posts by several thoughtful Adventist writers, bloggers, scholars, and theologians on the 28 fundamental tenets of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. (Readers will note that the installments of this series do not follow the chronological order of the 28 beliefs.)

This series of posts (dubbed Camp Meeting 2.0) organized by the Spectrum Blog is working through all 28 fundamental beliefs seeking to answer the following question:

How do each of our Seventh-day Adventist fundamental beliefs translate into habits or actions today?

Preacher and Vanderbilt seminarian Sherman Haywood Cox II tackles domestic abuse in his exploration of the doctrine of the Nature of Humanity.

Sherman writes:

"Juanita Bynum is shown on the news. We see a prominent, strong, black woman beaten by her husband in public no less. I have known about domestic violence, I knew it was a problem, but before doing this research, I did not know how big of a problem. Approximately 1/3 of American women report that a close partner has physically or sexually abused them during their lives. “It is estimated that 503,485 women are stalked by an intimate partner each year in the US.” “Family violence costs between 5 billion and 10 billion dollars annually in medical expenses, police and court costs, shelters and foster care, sick leave, absenteeism, an non-productivity.” These numbers particularly become ominous when we take into account that domestic violence is often unreported. This is certainly an epidemic. Because of the relative silence in this society, it is a quiet epidemic."

Read all of the article and share your thoughts at Sherman's blog, the Sabbath Pulpit.

Bloggin' the 28 - The New Earth

2007-08-31T13:57:00.000-07:00

The following article is the fifteenth installment in a series of blog posts by several thoughtful Adventist writers, bloggers, scholars, and theologians on the 28 fundamental tenets of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. (Readers will note that the installments of this series do not follow the chronological order of the 28 beliefs.)

This series of posts (dubbed Camp Meeting 2.0) organized by the Spectrum Blog is working through all 28 fundamental beliefs seeking to answer the following question:

How do each of our Seventh-day Adventist fundamental beliefs translate into habits or actions today?

Pastor, Community Leader, and writer Monte Sahlin considers how belief in the New Earth affects our lives in the here and now.

Monte writes:

"Much of conservative Protestant/Evangelical theology focuses almost entirely on the individual’s personal relationship with God and the hereafter. The most important thing in this approach to Christian faith is to be "saved," meaning to be with God in some ethereal sense in the hereafter. The risk, to quote my dad, is a religion that "is so heavenly-minded as to be no earthly good." It revolves around a profound disconnect between the known and knowable world and the world in which God lives. The spiritual sphere is separated from the real world we all experience.
This paradigm has been dominate in Christendom since the triumph of Constantinian values over the Jewish heritage of the Jesus movement. It is the source of much theological and ethical mischief, including dualism, the most monumental failure to "connect the dots."

Adventist faith is different from this dominant theology in a very significant way. Adventist faith takes seriously Revelation 20-21, which suggests that the ultimate destiny of humanity is with God on this Earth, not with God in some insubstantial and wholly other place. The end of the story for Adventists is here on this Earth in a society in which God reigns fully and all suffering, disease, disaster, poverty and injustice is gone."

Read the rest of this thought-provoking article and add comments at Monte's blog, Faith in Context.

Bloggin' the 28 - Spiritual Gifts

2007-08-31T13:49:00.000-07:00

The following article is the fourteenth installment in a series of blog posts by several thoughtful Adventist writers, bloggers, scholars, and theologians on the 28 fundamental tenets of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. (Readers will note that the installments of this series do not follow the chronological order of the 28 beliefs.)

This series of posts (dubbed Camp Meeting 2.0) organized by the Spectrum Blog is working through all 28 fundamental beliefs seeking to answer the following question:

How do each of our Seventh-day Adventist fundamental beliefs translate into habits or actions today?

Marcel Schwantes considers how Spiritual Gifts affect our daily living as Christians. Particularly, Schwantes focuses on the interplay between leadership and Spiritual Gifts.

Excerpted from his article:

"Today's church is going through a crisis in leadership. Leaders of the old guard often resist change in fear of loss of status or position. Moreover, leadership practice is changing. Hierarchical models are disappearing in favor of egalitarian and holistic models. This crisis is opening up the door for new leaders to rediscover the nature and calling of the church as an authentic community, a missional people in a hostile land. Out with the leadership cults, in with the leadership cultures. This shifting is led by Holy spirit-fueled, compassionate and emotionally-intelligent leaders gifted for creating individual, group and systemic change.

Today, this gift is best exemplified in leaders who can demonstrate a heart attitude that shows they are lovers of God and lovers of people. As leaders prove their sincerity and commitment to honest community, seculars and postmoderns will take the risk of trusting them enough to be a part of that community of faith. This takes stepping out of comfortable molds, forsaking political posturing and inviting the breaking of bread with those who do not share the same (Adventist) customs, doctrines or look or talk the way we do. It is a gift enveloped in love, or it is no gift at all."

Read the rest and share your thoughts at Marcel's blog, Reinventing the Adventist Wheel

Bloggin' the 28 - God the Son

2007-08-31T13:40:00.000-07:00

The following article is the thirteenth installment in a series of blog posts by several thoughtful Adventist writers, bloggers, scholars, and theologians on the 28 fundamental tenets of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. (Readers will note that the installments of this series do not follow the chronological order of the 28 beliefs.)

This series of posts (dubbed Camp Meeting 2.0) organized by the Spectrum Blog is working through all 28 fundamental beliefs seeking to answer the following question:

How do each of our Seventh-day Adventist fundamental beliefs translate into habits or actions today?

In this installment, writer Trudy Morgan Cole considers the doctrine of God the son, and applies our understanding of God's son to contemporary living.

She writes:

"The Jesus I met in Sabbath School and in Bible classes was the Great Physician, the Friend of Sinners, the Lamb of God. But He was also a little like Superman banished from Krypton, or like Zeus on one of his amorous visits to a mortal woman. This Jesus was omniscient, omnipotent, and supremely confident in His divinity. Humanity was a costume He wore, but at any moment He could snap His fingers and call ten thousand angels to subdue His enemies – though He chose not to. His body was human, and capable of weariness and pain (though perhaps not of sickness – I remember junior Sabbath School arguments about whether Jesus ever had a cold). But His mind was in constant, effortless contact with Heaven, never subject to doubt or uncertainty or fear – or any of the weaknesses that make us truly human.

I am fairly sure that my Sabbath School and church school teachers did not intend to transmit the heresy of Docetism; they were simply so anxious to underline the divinity of Christ in a world that mocked it, that they unintentionally backpedaled and downplayed His humanity.

Read the rest of Trudy's insightful post, and add your comments at her site, Hypergraffiti

Bloggin' the 28 - Marriage and the Family

2007-08-10T11:03:00.000-07:00

The following article is the twelfth installment in a series of blog posts by several thoughtful Adventist writers, bloggers, scholars, and theologians on the 28 fundamental tenets of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. (Readers will note that the installments of this series do not follow the chronological order of the 28 beliefs.)

This series of posts (dubbed Camp Meeting 2.0) organized by the Spectrum Blog is working through all 28 fundamental beliefs seeking to answer the following question:

How do each of our Seventh-day Adventist fundamental beliefs translate into habits or actions today?

This installment is a collaborative effort by two Adventist thinkers: Siroj Sorajjakool is a professor in Loma Linda University's Religion Department, and Carrol Grady is a thought provoking author. They offer dovetailing thoughts on the Adventist Doctrine of marriage and the family.

Sorajjakool writes:

There is an inner longing in us for that ideal family where love, respect, honor, and responsibility form the core values. Where our inner needs are fulfilled. Where there is harmony. Where family members constantly support and nurture one another. Where everyone is fully committed to standby in misery and happiness. Where there exists complete acceptance and love. Where family members take the time to really listen. These are the yearnings of the soul for the Divine within the boundary of human relationships. These yearnings and longings are a part of us from creation. They are the essence to which we were created for. They are the stuff of the soul that needs to be recognized and honored.

Grady adds:

In addition to procreation (“Be fruitful and multiply”), companionship (“It is not good for man to be alone; I will make a helper suitable for him.”) and a reflection of the Trinity’s relationship (“Let us make man in our image.”), in our fallen world I believe marriage serves as a school where we can learn to understand God’s love for us and model His love to each other and to our children.

Marriage, at its best, draws us out of our self-centeredness; becoming one-flesh, we learn that our partner’s needs and desires are as important as our own. If we stick with our marriage through difficult times, God uses them to teach us many lessons and mold our characters. Becoming parents, we learn to forego sleep, surrender personal plans, and expend financial resources for the sake of a helpless, squalling mite of humanity we helped create.

Read the full text of this fresh, insightful look at marriage and family relationships at the Spectrum blog here.