* EDUCATION
1. View our EVENTS page to see how we are attempting to raise awareness through presentations of how the changing climate is impacting our lives.
2. Viewing the rest of the pages of this website will also provide extensive information about what is happening to our world and how we can restore the damage.
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* FACILITATE CONVERSATIONS
Facilitating conversations can take many forms. Two of those forms which we include in this section have involved writing. Those identified below are Promoting Discussion Groups and Letters to the Editor. We have been very fortunate within our organization to have recognized a wealth of talent and passion.
1. PROMOTING DISCUSSION GROUPS
Our regular meeting of InterFaith Creation Care South Metro (ICCSM) is an informal discussion group. Check out the ABOUT page in this website to learn more of meeting time and location.
Preparing a study guide for a formal discussion group is not an easy process. It requires extensive research, time and preparation.
Sharon Thompson a member of InterFaith Creation Care and also a member of Christiania Lutheran Church Lakeville has spent a good portion of her life compiling and writing such a study guide for discussion groups. The title of this guide is called WE HAVE A CHOICE: LET'S JUST DO IT How the Western Worldview of Progress has resulted in Global Inequality and Threatens The Health of the Planet. This is a great education tool to learn how we can and should make our world more sustainable. You can find this study guide at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/b5ds4edlq05kulz/AAAUWfaW96wz5Ny6eH6oWYSTa?dl=0&preview=WE+HAVE+A+CHOICE.pdf .
2. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Contacting our local media with Letters to the Editor often can get our concerns across to those who read local newspapers in print or on line. These are recent attempts by members of our group to use this means.
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Paula Thomsen, a member of Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran Church, Prior Lake and InterFaith Creation Care South Metro, had published the following in the SWNews Media Paper covering Savage and surrounding suburbs on July 8, 2019.
Demand that politicians plan for Climate Change
Hello, neighbors,
I met with my state senator, Dan Hall yesterday. As we were discussing how climate change affected us, Sen. Hall stated that he didn't believe in climate change. Bummer. I am always surprised at people who say this because every scientific source you go to these days (NASA, NOAA, the U.S. government's report on climate change, National Geographic, your weatherman, your kid's science teacher, the national parks, the state parks, farmers in Minnesota, your doctor etc.) is talking about adapting to and stopping climate change. They are way beyond wondering if climate change exists. We can see it in our own backyards.
How could he have missed the debate being over? How could he have isolated himself from the truth so thoroughly when people are talking about it all the time now and we see so many devastating storms, floods, droughts and fires?
I'm sure the dismay and surprise registered on my face, and I had to ask why he believed this. His answer was that he remembers decades ago that scientists had told of a coming ice age, and because that didn't happen, he didn't believe their predictions anymore. Then he said he went to a meeting a few years ago where 300 scientists stated that climate change was a hoax! I couldn't believe it, but he looked very sincere. When was this meeting? Where was this meeting? Who were the scientists? When I asked who put on the meeting, he seemed a bit flustered and said it was a meeting sponsored by the Heartland Institute.
Oh, my slippery crooks!
"The Koch brothers' Heartland Institute?!" I said. He didn't answer. The Koch brothers are a family that privately owns Koch Industries. This is the second largest privately owned company in the U.S., and the Koch brothers are worth around $99 billion! How do they make money? Oil!
The Koch brother's have spent millions of dollars (They can easily afford it) on spreading lies about climate change because our nation's addiction to oil makes them stinking rich, and my own state senator had fallen for it.
Please take the time to watch John Oliver's show "Astroturfing" and you'll learn how some greedy companies are creating fake grassroots groups to spread their lies.
Then demand that politicians have a plan to stop climate change!
SWNewsMedia Editor's note: State Sen. Dan Hall, R-Burnsville, confirmed in an interview that he thinks human's role in changing climates is small and he is skeptical of climate science in part because researcher's predictions and use of terms such as global warming have changed over time.
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Bill Middlecamp, a member of The Well: A United Methodist
CLIMATE CHANGE in our own BACKYARDS
On Sunday May 19, at St. Thomas Becket Catholic Church, the InteFaith Creation Care of the South Metro (ICCSM) hosted the lecture "Climate Change in our own Backyards" by U of M Professor Emeritus Dr. Mark Seeley. Approximately 200 people attended. Several local organizations and individuals displayed information and answered questions about the steps we all can take to preserve the life-sustaining qualities of our environment.
Dr. Seeley's career has been in measuring the climate, designing and building instruments, and collecting the data that show the direction and the degree to which the environment is changing. He has received many awards for his contributions to agriculture and education.
We learned that the governmental definition of Climate Normals is thirty-year averages published every ten years. The Normals for both temperature and moisture have been rising each decade at a rate exceeding ancient climate changes by thousands. What took tens or hundreds of thousands of years in natural change is happening in a decade because of human causes, and the pace of change is accelerating. This knowedge is from hard data, not models.
Dr. Seeley noted that Minnesota is experiencing higher rates of change than most states, especially in our northern half. He shared some of the both good and bad consequences of our warmer and wetter climate changes in winter survival of insect and plant pests, a longer growing season and shifting hardiness zone, more freeze-thaw cycles (more potholes and unreliable outdoor ice rinks), more frequent heat advisories, more cooling, extreme weather events, and issues related to increased runoff. We are grateful for his guidance.
The ICCSM is committed to the God given mandate to be good stewards of Creation. We accept that nine out of ten scientists agree that humans are changing the creation in harmful ways, that we have the ability to mitigate this change, and that inaction causes suffering for the poor today and threatens the future for all.
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Bill Middlecamp also submitted the following to SunThisWeek's newspapers October 17, 2017
"WE HAVE THE DUTY TO ACT:
What an amazing run of weird weather the world is experiencing! Records are being broken across the globe. Hurricane Harvey's rain was double the annual water usage of California in one storm. Devastating flooding is happening in more places. Intense storms in the west, followed by intense heat and drought, are resulting in more destruction by wildfires. Wildfire is natural, but not like this. Years ago, science concluded that more heat in the climate would result in more intense weather, and that is clearly happening. Look at how the probabilities are changing. The very rare has become commonplace.
Lives and treasure are being lost. This touches all of us. There are no winners. There is no limit to how bad it can get if we continue to ignore the effects of human activities. Some would call me extremist for saying that, but you can see weather weirdness for yourself, right. Society needs to change. We have a reason and a responsibility to act. Change does not have to be hard, but it will get harder the longer we delay. Change does not have to hurt, but the harm grows with each day of inaction. Those who argue the opposite have a financial interest for maintaining the status quo. They are not doing us any favors."
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Bill Middlecamp also submitted this Letter to the editor at Sun This Week and it was published in the Burnsville/Eagan edition of 12/22/2017.
"WHY WOULD ANYONE OPPOSE CLEAN POWER?
To the editor:
ECM's local Blaine newspaper recently reported opposition to a planned solar installation on a closed construction-waste landfill site. Why would local residents be opposed?
Solar panels and wind turbines are beautiful to some, and ugly to others. In reality, these are no more or less ugly than an office park or a corn field. All are human enterprises. The beauty in the eye of the beholder is what one sees in the meaning of the enterprise. Is it an economic benefit or hindrance? Does it increase or decrease one's freedom?
I see burning fossil fuels as a cancer because the sooty particulates cause lung and heart problems, the mercury vapors get into our babies bodies to cause nerve and brain damage, and the heavy metals and acids at extraction sites are destroying freshwater stream and lakes. That's a price we all pay today for dirty energy.
Worse than that is the threat to our individual futures from the side effects of greenhouse gas. The reradiation physics of this results in rising oceans, weird and worse weather threatening food and property, and vast destruction of marine life. The data on this are clear. Combustion power plants, refineries, and combustion cars are an ugly threat to my freedom for my family to live a healthy life today and a threat to all future life.
Clean energy is a beautiful thing that allows us to live comfortably with abundant energy, with better health for all, with a better prognosis for our children's futures, and lots of great new jobs to boot. These things are very precious to me. I would love to live next to a solar or wind farm. It would warm my heart every morning while it warms my home, cooks my food, and carries me down the road to the future and beyond."
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* ADVOCACY Advocating for sustainable legislation. Our Mission statement says "We educate and facilitate conversations to build support for sustainability policies at the local, national, and international levels."
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CLIMATE ACTION IN CONGRESS ADVOCACY: Meeting With US Representative Angie Craig
ICCSM participated in the ZOOM conversation coordinated by Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light (MNIPL) between 60 representatives from faith communities throughout Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District and our U.S. Rep. Angie Craig on March 2nd, 2021. The conversation addressed Climate action in Congress and how we all wanted Rep. Craig to help address this concern and for the powerful reasons identified by seven speakers representing some of those communities. Our leader, Chris Erickson, represented the 34 members of our core group of ICCSM very well with his comments. Some of the individual churches we represent also gave comments. Marcia Lewis from Presbyterian Church of the Apostles, Burnsville, had a great short video of the children from her church answering questions on Climate. These were Chris's comments. After that you will see some screen shots from the meeting.
"We are
people of faith here in the South Metro area of District 2. We are members, not
of one congregation, but of a larger faith community encompassing 17 different
churches. We are Lutherans, Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists and
Episcopalians, all bonded together in a love for our community and a spiritual
calling to care for God’s gift to us of our planet home. We are members of
Interfaith Creation Care South Metro.
We have jointly
sponsored and engaged in respectful conversations about how our climate impacts
our health, our investments, and our duties to the vulnerable among us. We have
learned what we can do individually to support a healthy environment. But what
we have learned the most is that our strength is multiplied by working
together. We need effective leaders, grounded in good science and the ability
to influence a collective sphere of industry, agriculture, financial and
educational institutions.
We represent a voting community that wishes our political leaders to act responsibly and for the betterment of ALL their constituents to help restore our ailing planet so it can be enjoyed for generations to come."
Bill Middlecamp a member of The Well: A United Methodist
LIONS CLUB ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECTS: WHERE TO START
Kay Erickson a member of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church
MINNEAPOLIS IS USING ELECTRIC BILLS TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE
Dr. Paula Thomsen is a member of Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran Church Prior Lake and Interfaith Creation Care South Metro. Volunteering with the EcoFaith Network of the Minneapolis ELCA she was one of many who spoke before the Minneapolis City Council (Ways and Means Committee) on December 4, 2017 urging the raising of the utility franchise fee to raise funds for climate and energy programs for the city. It was passed and the city will see $2 million to be used. Paula's presentation is below.
"Good Afternoon, I'm Dr. Paula Thomsen and I am a Minnesota
I was raised to respect and appreciate God's creation. It saddens me to see the ways that dirty energy destroys our water and air quality, has a damaging effect on our health, and unfairly hurts poor communities. I feel strongly moved to work toward making affordable, clean energy available to all Minnesotans.
As I have learned more about this issue and the future that my family and friends are going to experience, it was easy to get very discouraged. Happily this spring I went to clean energy talk at my church, and what an appropriate place it was to hear this good news:
We have not only a growing clean energy economy, but also a great opportunity for all Minnesotans to save energy through energy efficiency.
See the StarTribune article titled "Minneapolis is using Electric bills to Fight Climate Change" in the Resources Page of this website under articles for more information. You can also view the YouTube video of the full Ways and Means Committee meeting at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN0WwBVl17g .
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FAITH IN ACTION: CLEAN ENERGY
Rick Flater, Kay Erickson, Nancy Carlson, Chris Erickson and Curt Carlson all members of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church Burnsville and other fellow members of Interfaith Creation Care South Metro (ICCSM) supported an effort presented by fellow member of the ICCSM Paula Thomsen from Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran church Prior lake to challenge the Minnesota
The Interfaith Creation Care South Metro sought signatures from church members during January of 2018 to be included in the list with a letter explaining why this was important.
"To Minnesota Policymakers:
We, the undersigned, represent tens of thousands of people in every corner of Minnesota. We write to you not as Democrats or Republicans but as community leaders whose mission is to unite and inspire people to work for the common good. We do this driven by the belief that all of us are enough to share in God's abundance and love and are called to act in the world to nurture that abundance and love.
We write to you because we believe there is a critical choice before us. Will we unite behind a vision of universal access to clean energy? Will we champion the systemic changes that are necessary to transform our unsustainable energy economy? Or will we continue to delay a just and complete transition to clean energy, trusting instead that disparate individual choices and the half measures sanctioned by market forces somehow will be adequate?
We need you to build on this success. We ask that you to raise the Renewable Energy Standard to ensure that 50 percent of electricity in our state comes from sources like wind and solar by 2030. We urge you to do this for reasons that are both theological and practical.
Every faith tradition calls on God's children to act powerfully as stewards of God's creation. As stewards, we care for and shepherd an inheritance only God could give us. As stewards, we treasure our inheritance and pledge to pass it on to future generations. Every faith tradition rejects consumption for its own sake and rejects the idea that humans can extract resources without limit or regard for God's creation.
Practically, we know the bold step of increasing the Renewable Energy Standard will help address racial and economic justice questions we face every day in our communities. It will create 1,500 jobs annually, spur economic development statement statewide and save money for vital institutions like churches and local businesses. In underdeveloped parts of our state, including low-income communities, communities of color, and rural communities, these benefits carry a compelling promise of economic revitalization.
Many of the people we pray with every week worry about the future of God's creation, locally and globally. What's more, they worry that a deeply divided Legislature will not act boldly to address their concerns, feeding a cycle of cynicism and a disheartening sense of powerlessness that is not of God.
W believe in a God of possibility and hope. We believe in a God of renewal and healing. That belief inspires us to engage the members of our faith communities and to engage you in meaningful and spiritual dialogue about the choice before us. We look forward to working with you to make our state healthier, more whole place.
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* INSPIRATION
Our Mission statement talks about inspiring our faith communities to action. This can be done in a variety of ways.
Chris Erickson one of our leaders of InterFaith Creation Care South Metro also is the head of the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church Burnsville Creation Care small group. Driven to better identify to Prince of Peace our small group's mission and how it is interconnected with that church's mission Chris prepared this statement. It was posted on the POP facebook page and the Blog/Stories & News page of the POP website for January 24, 2020. It is well worth your read.
Earth, Our Home:
A Gift and A Responsibility
God gifts us a home to live in, rich in diversity and
potential for all who dwell therein. God also gives us the responsibility for
tending to that home, managing its resources for the enjoyment of generations
to come. We are each living organisms within that whole. What we each do or
don’t do impacts upon the others.
Those who are able are additionally responsible to advocate
for the others who are vulnerable: the poor, children, elderly, and the rest of
creation. It has become apparent that we are not doing a good job of this.
“Whatsoever you do (or don’t do) for the least of these, you do (or don’t do)
for me,” says Jesus in Matthew 25.
The Poor
These are the least able to mitigate or defend against
flood, drought, and the rising costs of scarce resources. The poor who are blown
about by the ravages of forced migration have no safe place to anchor and
rebuild. They are doubly assaulted by
the resistance of the prosperous (affluent?) to live equitably and sustainably.
The Elderly
These include those whose health defenses are compromised
against the rising assault of poor air, poor drinking water, inadequate heat or
cooling, or respiratory illness. They
may even face the inability to stay in their own homes because they cannot afford
needed energy efficiency upgrades.
The Children
Isn’t it our moral imperative as parents to seek to make the
world a better place for our children’s children? “Which of you, if his son
asks for bread, will give him a stone?” Matthew 7:9. What hope do we leave them that they will be
able to enjoy the same pleasures and wonder that we experienced as children?
What burdens do we leave for them to bear because we are unwilling to change
our behavior?
God gives us a choice; to tenderly care for what we have
been given and share it with those who have less, or to callously pass by on
the other side of the street, leaving the vulnerable to fend for themselves.
The Talmud states “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the
world’s grief. Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now. You are not
obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”
Marsha Lewis is a member of Presbyterian Church of the
Apostles in Burnsville and also a member of InterFaith Creation Care South
Metro. She worked with her Pastor Gwin
Pratt to present a sermon at her church Sunday, September 22, 2019 after the
Climate Strike called “The Family of
Things”. For reasons of space
only the beginning of the pastor’s sermon is included below followed by Marsha’s
contribution. The sermon is based on
Luke 10:25-29.
Pastor Pratt. “This past week has been filled with news and
stories about the youth lead Climate Strike.
With Greta Thunberg at the front. What a spectacle Friday was!!!! Four million people!! 4,600 events!!! 150
countries!!! Today we want to continue
the conversation. A lot has been said
about all that is being lost due to the climate crises. Greta and others have named the facts of our
crisis and the culpability of “the adults in the room”. Especially politicians and presidents who
deny there is even a problem. Marcia
Lewis has a suggestion. Marsha has been
a leader in this congregation and in the community in seeking to address
climate change and call it out as THE issue facing our world. Her approach in this sermon is to name and
celebrate the beauty and wonder of all that is still with us of all that we
still can save.”
Marsha Lewis. “I’d like you to meet just a few of the neighbors,
the wonders of creation that I have learned about and grown to appreciate and
love.
You’ve all seen the monarch butterfly. One of the only butterflies to migrate. This
almost weightless bit of orange, travels up to 3000 miles every fall from as
far north as Canada to a special forest in Mexico only to return north in the
spring. How can that be? Only the last generation of monarchs in the
fall journeys south, and those individual butterflies will not return in the
spring. They spend the winter in an
almost dormant state, clinging to trees in the mountains of Mexico, susceptible
to storms, to cold and to predators.
Then in February they begin the journey back north. As they enter Texas, they mate, find milkweed
– the sole host plant for the monarch caterpillar – lay their eggs and
die. That generation hatches, the
caterpillars become eating machines, they pupate forming those beautiful green
chrysalises with the gold beading; they transform, emerge and take flight,
continuing the journey north a few hundred miles where the cycle repeats. The third and perhaps even a fourth
generation arrive in MN in May where the cycle continues until fall. How do these 2nd, 3rd
and 4th generations even know where to go? And how can it be that the fall “super”
generation lives 6-8 months and travels 2-3000 miles when the life cycle of
most Monarch butterflies is only 5-7 weeks?
What kind of
phenomenal mystery creates a creature like this?
We’ve all heard the buzz about honey bees and how they are
dying off in large numbers. But how they
live is a true wonder of nature. In the
honey bee community, gender determines what role each bee plays in the
hive. And guess what, ladies…..the queen
bee selects the gender of her offspring after she determines what roles need to
be filled. The worker bees fly out to
gather nectar, and when they find it, they return to the hive to spread the
message to the other workers. How do
they communicate – no, not by buzzing! But through the waggle dance, a kind of
figure 8 movement that tells the other bees both the location and the distance
of the nectar from the hive. Bees can
detect ultraviolet light, so they always know where the sun is, even as the
time of day passes. The angle of the
dance tells the workers which direction to fly, and the length of the waggle,
tells how far away the nectar is. Might
we say GPS?
What kind of
unfathomable force creates a creature like this?
Have you ever been near a lake when a loon gives that
piercing warning call? You look up and
scan the sky looking for the predator, likely an eagle or an osprey. It may be several seconds or even half a minute
before the predator appears. How did the
loon know the predator was coming several seconds before it could be seen? Birds communicate alarms with each other,
even across species. A wave of warning
calls can move through an area at more than 100 miles an hour so that
vulnerable birds can be alerted to take cover.
Even small animals like chipmunks and squirrels heed the bird
alarms. Perhaps even the size of the
predator is coded into the alarm calls.
You might think a tiny chickadee would be very wary of an eagle, but not
so. Larger birds are the prey of larger
predators. On the other hand, a small
pygmy owl puts chickadees on the high alert.
If you have watched a busy feeder, you’ve probably seen the alarm system
In effect, perhaps without knowing it.
At times, all the feeding birds vanish, an indication a hawk or falcon
or other bird of prey might be stalking the area. Other times the larger birds like cardinals
and blue jays take cover and the chickadees nonchalantly continue feeding. Birds seem to know when they might not be on
the predator’s menu at that moment.
What kind of Being
creates an interwoven system like this?
Then there are the trees.
You are probably thinking, “Sure animals have their ways of
communicating, but plants? Come on.” A
German forester believes that trees communicate and care for each other. Perhaps you have read his book The
Hidden Life of Trees. The
author, Peter Wohlleben, believes that trees in a forest are connected through
underground fungal networks. They use
these networks to share water and nutrients with each other, and also to communicate
distress signals about drought, disease, or insect attacks, signals which cause
the other trees to alter their behavior.
Hmmm, can’t you just imagine the older trees, standing tall, side by
side, chatting together about their aches and pains – just as we humans so
often do, in what my friend calls an “organ recital”. And what do the fungi get in return in this
symbiotic relationship? A sort of fee
for service. They get to consume 30% of
the sugars the trees photosynthesize from the sunlight. Fungi, in the dark soils of the earth, get
nourishment from photosynthesis. There
is more. Trees care for their
young. How can that be? Have you ever wondered how young saplings can
survive under a thick canopy of mature trees where no sunlight reaches and few
weeds even grow? The young trees thrive
because the mature trees, the elders, pump sugar into them through the root
network, caring for the young, ensuring the survival of the next
generation. Think about that. Trees stand together, support one another,
share distress and alarm signals, feed their young. And just last week I saw an article about
researchers learning that trees give off electrical impulses, similar to our
heartbeats, as they pump water and sugar through their systems. You’ll never walk through the woods in the
same way again.
What kind of
inconceivable Energy creates something like this?
Then there are those amazing woodpeckers – how do they keep
their brains from becoming scrambled eggs?
Imagine the poundings their brains endure every day of their lives. Just listening to their tapping gives me a
headache! Football helmet designers have
surely taken note of the physiology of woodpeckers. What protects their brains from injury? Their tongues! That’s right, woodpeckers’ tongues are long
muscles that attach on the top of their bills and wrap around their skulls to
insulate their brains from the pounding.
That’s pretty ingenious but it is just one of their protections. Our Creator is a master of detail. Woodpeckers have Arnold Schwarzenegger necks,
they have elongated rather than round brains, and they have spongy skulls, all
features designed to reduce and disperse the effects of the pounding. And it works – up to 99% of the shock of their
pounding is harmlessly absorbed.
What Mastermind
creates something like this?"
These beauties….
These wonders…. That thrill our spirits… and break our hearts…. With their
splendor.. These… and more…. We must save.
And who …. Oh who…. Shall we save them for? I have an answer:
Pictures of Children are then shown.
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Chris Erickson is one of the leaders of InterFaith Creation Care South Metro (ICCSM) he is also the leader of Prince of Peace Creation Care Small Group of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Burnsville. Chris's passion is music. He sings, plays multiple instruments and composes. He has composed many songs that he has set to Youtube. This song was published December 1, 2018. The song and message is easy to follow by singing along to the lyrics on the screen. The message is that we have a choice you and I and it is up to us to take a stand to work hand in hand to preserve this beautiful gift of God's Creation. The song is titled TOGETHER WE CARE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_gSt_hIMBE&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=URLUVD
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