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  • Evangelical Environmental Network: The Last Straw

    Up to 12 billion tons of plastic trash end up in God’s oceans. Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN) maintains that trash is an affront to the glory of God. Trash eventually ends up someplace, and that someplace belongs to God. In order to put a stop to this waste, EEN has created The Last Straw Campaign Pledge. This pledge urges individuals to decline straws at restaurants and other food/beverage establishments, and avoid purchasing for home use. Additional steps of advocacy that one can take include asking local restaurants to only provide straws when customers request them and asking elected officials at the local and state levels to phase out the use of plastic straws, and single-use plastic.

  • Season of Creation Week 1: A Culture of Relationships That Heals our Throwaway Culture

    For each week of the Season of Creation, the World Council of Churches offers a resource for celebrating creation. The first week focuses on the throwaway culture that society has created and urges individuals to instead focus on just and sustainable practices. The document includes a call to prayer, a scripture reading, a hymn, and a responsive reflection.

  • Earth Day statement from ELCA presiding bishop

    The Reverend Elizabeth A. Eaton, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), issued an Earth Day statement on behalf of the ELCA. A salient excerpt from the statement is shown below:

    "The effects of the warming climate are felt in nearly every corner of the globe. These include increased migration, food insecurity due to changing agricultural landscapes, national security issues and health problems. As bad as it is for all creation, the most vulnerable people around the world are suffering the most. Yet they have contributed the least and, as noted in the United Nation's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,[iii] are ill equipped to adapt to or mitigate the effects of a changing climate to build resilient communities."

  • Hazardous Waste, Race, and the Environment

    This statement was approved by the 207th General Assembly Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 1995. The predominant theme focuses on the impact that hazardous waste has on individuals who are suffering from poverty and minority groups. The final section provides suggestions for taking action.

  • Climate Change

    The World Council of Churches calls individuals to modify their consumer lifestyle for the greater good - to improve shared environmental conditions for all and with less negative impact among the poor. This excerpt provides a sense of urgency to act to reverse the threat of climate change:

    "The urgency of the threat of climate change requires our generation to take immediate action and go beyond simple declarations and statements. New alternative models of life are called for. We challenge all people to move towards a style of life that derives its quality from the attentive enjoyment of nature and human relationships, from mutual care, dependence, trust and solidarity instead of the illusions of individual autonomy and material wealth, from spirituality and feelings of community, connectedness and intimacy instead of one-dimensional self-centredness. We draw strength from insights gained from the rich, community- oriented and simple lifestyles of indigenous and other marginalized communities. We are conscious of the significant contribution these communities, with their low carbon economies, deliver to the stabilization of the climate. We recommend the creation of 'just, participatory, sustainable and sustaining communities' for mutual support and call upon the churches and authorities to join them on this journey with reflection and practical support."

  • Economic globalization and ecology

    In this message, the World Council of Churches (WCC) focuses on how economic globalization affects the environment, with a specific focus on economic justice. The following excerpt provides a succinct summary of what WCC strives to achieve in this area:

    "In this context of growing inequality, concentration of power, social exclusion and ecological destruction, people are longing for life with dignity in just and sustainable communities. If that goal is to be attained we need to work for equity as basic fairness that also extends to other life forms, respect for diversity as recognition of the complementary of, for example, cultures species, religious traditions, accountability as a way of being responsible towards one another and Earth itself, participation as the optimal inclusion of all involved, sufficiency as a commitment to meet the basic needs of all, and subsidiarity as determining the most appropriate level for decision-making, supporting the downwards distribution of power."

  • Sustainable Weddings in Columbus

    Weddings are typically large events to celebrate the union of two people. Regardless of how beautiful the celebration is, weddings can still generate a lot of waste. In fact, the average wedding can generate 500 pounds of trash. Recently, there has been a movement to have local sustainable weddings that cut environmental impacts significantly.

  • Pope Francis' Speech on UN World Environment Day

    Pope Francis's speech on the United Nations World Environment Day emphasizes the importance of world solidarity to counter what he deems a current culture of waste. One prevailing message is the danger of consumerism. The pope extends a challenges to forgo excessive wealth in exchange for living a more simplistic lifestyle, which can help combat world health and hunger issues.