POSSIBLE ACTIONS FOR INDIVIDUALS

The following is a mere beginning list of suggestions. For more ideas, please see the list of websites in this packet—and visit them!

As citizens:

• Research and join the League of Conservation Voters (www.lcv.org) devoted to evaluating environmental credentials of candidates and voting records of incumbents.
• Identify the local or state level group involved in evaluating the environmental voting records of local elected officials.
• Ask your state representatives to set a renewable energy standard
• Attend candidate forums and ask informed questions about energy policy
• Run for local or state level office where action on climate change is currently more politically possible.
• Write letters to editors of newspapers and magazines.
• Advocate for energy efficiency, energy conservation building practices, and responsible fuel choices in the operations of your local government and schools. 
• Follow this news: Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph Leiberman (D-CT) are expected to reintroduce their “Climate Stewardship Act” (CSA) next year, as are the sponsors of a similar bill in the House. The CSA calls for a reduction in emissions of heat-trapping gases to 2000 levels by the year 2010, and creates a market-based system of tradable allowances to achieve this reduction. The UUA Washington Office will provide updates on this legislation via action alerts and website.
• VOTE!

As consumers:

• Pay attention to larger items FIRST, then take on smaller projects.
• Buy the most fuel-efficient car that meets your real needs, then also carpool and combine trips.
• Purchase your next home near mass transit line to reduce or eliminate auto travel.
• Opt for mass transit, bicycles, and other lifestyle changes.
• Consider replacing your refrigerator if it is over 10 years old.
• Choose a power company offering renewable energy.
•  “Green” your household consumer purchases, i.e, buy compact fluorescent light bulbs—research online (see Resources—Websites).
• Support eco-labeling and product certification efforts.
• Landscape with carbon-sequestering trees.
• Participate in consumer boycotts and recycling efforts.
• Buy produce from local organic farmers and eat less meat.

As family members:

• If you are moving, choose a place to live that reduces the need to drive
• Set concrete goals for reducing your automobile travel
• Make your next vacation an “eco-tourist” trip.

• Listen to and support what your children are bringing home from school about environmental issues.
• If no one is talking about global warming, raise the subject and begin a family study process.

As workers:

• Present management with proposals for conserving energy (and saving money!).
• Change your small business in a green direction as an owner/employee.
• Create a strategy to move your large business in a green direction as a manger/employee—greater impacts worth the extra effort.
• Shift to organic farming and set aside land for wildlife on your family farm.
• Choose an environmental job or career.
• Start a workplace discussion group (see www.nwei.org) to raise awareness

As advocates, conservationists, activists:

• Join an action alert network.  Many of the environmental organizations listed under web resources have advocacy alerts. One good advocacy organization with a focused climate change campaign in New England, Pennsylvania and Texas is Clean Air, Clean Water at www.cleanwateraction.org. In other states, contact Greenpeace USA: www.greenpeaceusa.org. For more on advocacy see SAI Resources on the Seventh Principle Project website, www.uuaspp.org
• Join the board of a local organization working on a critical issue related to transportation, sprawling development, air or water quality, energy use.
• Join, support and engage in activities with one of the many organizations working “on the ground” at sites around the world—locally, nationally or internationally.
• Start a book group or discussion group to discuss global warming in your community, host a film series.
• Sign up for regular email action alerts to learn about the UUA’s advocacy efforts and find resources for getting involved. Visit www.uua.org/uuawo for more.

As teachers and religious educators:

• Integrate environmental themes into your curriculum at any level or in any area.
• Spread the word, talk about these issues and what can be done.
• Support educational programs in schools, senior centers, and at civic meetings.
• See Resources—Websites in this packet for guides.

As investors:

• Research and invest in green companies and environmentally screened funds. 
• Get involved in decisions of pension funds and other institutional investors.
• Take a shareholder petition or resolution to the annual meeting of a corporation in which you are a shareholder; OR purchase stock in a corporation you want to influence, then take a petition.

POSSIBLE ACTIONS FOR MINISTERS:

Congregations look to their ministers to provide religious and spiritual leadership for the challenges of our times. That is especially true for environmental issues, since the predominant secular approach to the environmental crisis has kept the theological and spiritual context in the background. The more you articulate to the connection between the our faith and the Earth, the more likely your congregation will come to know at the deepest level that working to protect the Earth is a religious issue.

• Preach on the issue of Global Warming from a spiritual perspective, then launch a congregational study group on the issue after that service.

· Make a priority of Earth-honoring worship to celebrate the interconnected web of life, to nourish and sustain spirits, and to inspire efforts to go forth to heal this broken world. Don’t wait for Earth Day to draw the connection between Earth, spirituality, and justice. The Seventh Principle Project’s worship guide Honoring Earth” is an excellent resource for sermons from a variety of perspectives.

· Regularly refer to an Earth-spirit connection in your sermons, newsletter column, and other spiritual practice activities. Whether just in passing when addressing other issues or in an entire piece focused on nature or the environment, your attention to the connection is crucial.

· Encourage use of Earth-related topics in covenant groups and other spiritual practice activities in your congregation.

· Offer an adult education class on eco-theology or Earth-based spirituality during this year of study and action. This will supplement and reinforce any other courses on the science of global warming, eco-justice, or sustainable living.

· If your community has an interfaith group for environmental issues, participate and invite members of the congregation to join you. With our inclusive UU theology, we can help create a welcoming space for un-churched seekers to participate. The visibility you gain by participating in the community can also bring new members to your congregation.

POSSIBLE ACTIONS FOR CONGREGATIONS:

This much is clear: global climate change will not be resolved by individual actions alone; we must gather our collective creativity and commitment, and use our congregational capacity for collaborative efforts. The Seventh Principle Project’s Green Sanctuary Program is a comprehensive approach to actualize a new congregational relationship with our planet. There are four program elements providing a framework for action with or without formally enrolling in the program. The program elements include:

Worship and Spiritual Practice

· Encourage your minister and worship committee to incorporate Earth honoring elements into your regular worship. The new Seventh Principle Project worship guide Honoring Earth is an excellent resource.

· If your congregation has an active covenant group program, propose that one or more eco-theology, earth-based spirituality, simplicity, or the spirit-nature connection be offered as covenant group topics.

· Celebrate the turning of the seasons with inter-general events that invite reflection on our connection with nature.

Environmental Education

· This year especially, nature and environment topics should be built into the children’s religious education program. See the Seventh Principle Project’s RE guide Nurturing the Earth-Spirit Connection for information and resources if you need suitable curriculum materials.

· Throughout this year, schedule regular forums, videos, book groups, and other events to help the congregation learn about the impacts of global warming and the effect on marginalized communities.  Include the scientific studies as well as the social and economic impacts.  Consider bringing in alternate views, trusting that everyone has the capability to decide how they feel about the issues and what they should do in their personal lives.

· Offer discussion opportunities for exploring the moral implications of our middle class lifestyles and imagine a collaborative solution from a spiritual perspective that would provide justice for all species.

· Provide opportunities in the congregation to share feelings of gratitude, hope, fear, reluctance, and even anger about the damage to Earth and the impending changes that will be required in our lifestyle. Joanna Macy’s material on The Work that Reconnects is an excellent resource (www.joannamacy.net) for this. 

Environmental Justice

· Based on your study of actual and projected social impacts of global warming, consider taking action on a particular issue affecting a community being impacted either in the U.S. or in another country.

· Join or create an interfaith group in your community to take on an environmental justice project OR initiate an environmental justice project with a congregation you already work with on something else.

Sustainable Living

· Work with Interfaith Power & Light (IPL)Movement, a religious response to global warming. State level IPL’s in many states help congregations and individuals reduce carbon emissions. (See Resources--Websites.)

· Encourage members of the congregation to take a pledge to act individually to decrease their energy consumption and choose more efficient transportation methods. Calculate the energy savings from these actions collectively to measure the congregation’s contribution to reducing global warming.

· Initiate projects that will make it easier and/or more convenient for members to conserve energy, for example, sell compact fluorescent lightbulbs at coffee hour. 

· Learn about your local energy provider’s conservation and alternative energy programs. If there is a choice of energy sources, sign up for renewable sources.

· Implement a project such as bike to church or Sunday carpools to encourage use of alternative transportation for Sunday worship and other church activities. 

Take the next step toward becoming a UU Green Sanctuary (www.uuaspp.org).