UU Ministry for Earth is your go-to source for actions, tools, stories, and connection to the global environmental justice movement. Explore the major issue areas UUMFE focuses on, using a racial and economic justice-informed framework of environmental justice.


Climate Change

Photo by Peter Bowden. Image shows a large, interfaith gathering in resistance to the West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline.
Photo by Peter Bowden. Image shows a large, interfaith gathering in resistance to the West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline.

There’s no denying that climate change is happening, and is human-caused. There’s also no denying that those on the front-lines of the climate crisis are among those who have contributed least to creating the problem, such as island nations, Indigenous peoples, and those who directly depend on the land for sustenance.

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ALL CLIMATE CHANGE POSTS

Ecology & Rights of Nature


Ecosystems are communities of interacting living beings and natural systems, and the Rights of Nature is a framework for respecting the rights of “all beings to the freedom they require to realize their full potential in the larger web of existence.” This calls us to work for ecosystem conservation and restoration, biodiversity, clean air and water, and the rights of animals.

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  • World Wildlife Fund 2016 Living Planet Report: global populations of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles declined by 58% between 1970 and 2012. This report details these findings, and actions needed to preserve & restore biodiversity.
  • What is “Rights of Nature”?: a great summary of the Rights of Nature framework with links to additional resources, from the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, a global network of organizations and individuals committed to supporting legal systems that recognize, respect, and enforce Rights of Nature

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ALL ECOLOGY & RIGHTS OF NATURE POSTS

Food Justice


Food justice involves ensuring that all people have access to nutritious food, that those who work in the food industry are free from exploitation and earn a living wage, and that food is grown, sourced, and consumed in ethical ways.

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Front-Lines Solidarity

Joe Brusky via Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0

An environmental justice framework centers the needs, voices, and leadership of those who are most disproportionately affected by environmental degradation and climate change, including Indigenous and low-income peoples, people of color, island nations, and youth.

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Social Justice & Human Rights


When cultures value profit over people, those who are already marginalized suffer the worst effects: from water and air pollution to toxic waste disposal to natural disasters to forced migration due to droughts, floods, and other climate impacts.

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ALL SOCIAL JUSTICE & HUMAN RIGHTS POSTS

Sustainability

Francesco Pasqualetti via Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Sustainability means living within the ecological limits of the Earth’s ability to regenerate, meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations. Pollution, overconsumption, poverty, escalating inequality, habitat loss and biodiversity decline, and climate change all make our current global society fundamentally unsustainable.

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ALL SUSTAINABILITY POSTS