Earth Care – Give of Yourself: Ecology

We consider ecology part of theology. We want to be stewards, protectors, and defenders of all creation.

United Methodists believe all people have basic rights and concerns: the right to live in a community free of toxic and hazardous substances; the right to clean air, the minimization of chemical use, responsible land use, and more. Working together, we look toward a healthy future.

Get involved:

• Recycle Favorite Tee Shirt
• Befriend Canning Garden
• Join Eyeglass Recycling
• Conduct An Energy Audit
• Handle e-Waste Properly
• Recycle Aluminum Cans
• Get Your Carbon Footprint
• Teach Our Children

Ultimately, stewardship of the natural world begins at home with us - our use of resources, the lifestyles we cultivate, and the economies we support.

Read more at: http://www.rethinkchurch.org/article/give-yourself-ecology

Earth Care: Warm Weather Is Upon Us!

The warm weather is finally upon us and our thoughts have turned to gardening. Here are some great ideas that will help you keep your garden green while keeping the local environment green, as well.

The decrease of America’s water resources due to disappearing lakes and reservoirs, population growth, and drought has increased the need for more efficient ways of using water. Outside water use accounts for approximately 80% of water used during the summer months.

Plant Selection - Start with Indigenous Species

One of the best ways to enjoy a green garden is by planting what are known as indigenous species – those that are natural to the area. These types of plants have learned to naturally deal with our climate, soil, and pests, so they thrive without too much help from us. Don’t forget to mulch!

Lawns can be high consumers of water use and maintenance

Consider reducing the lawn area of your yard and selecting grasses that require less moisture. Raise your mower height to ensure survival during drought or extreme heat and do not bag clippings to help retain moisture. Know when to water your lawn. The best time is 6:00 to 8:00 a.m. when evaporation is at a minimum.

Remember it is up to you to take actions to protect God's Creation.

For more hints to reduce you summer footprint, check out the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Kemper Center

Earth Care – Earth Day 2011

“All creation is the Lord’s, and we are responsible for the ways in which we use and abuse it." - UMC Social Principle

For over 40 years, Earth Day (April 22) has inspired and mobilized individuals and organizations worldwide to demonstrate their commitment to environmental protection and sustainability.

How are you being a good steward of creation? What are you going to do today, next month, this year to be a good steward?

It can be simple:

• Change out a light bulb,
• Eat more local food
• Use reusable shopping bags
• Switch to paperless bills
• Pack a waste-free lunch

There are hundreds of simple things you can do to make a difference. Evangelize a little, share the good word; we all need to do more watch out for creation. Make you plan, commit to it. Consider posting you act of green at "A Billion Aces of Green" on the Earth Day Network. Together we can make a difference. www.earthday.org

See you at the Earth Day Festival in Forest Park, Sunday April 17th. www.stlouisearthday.org

Earth Care: The Christian Challenge of Caring for the Earth

Throughout our history, some have looked after their environment with great care making sure that they could pass their land on to their children and grandchildren in even better shape than they received it. Others have exploited their environment for their own ends without thinking of the future consequences, or have been polluters of the air, the land or the seas doing damage which in some cases has been irreversible. We are aware of the contaminated land and rivers which remain a legacy of our industrial revolution.

The relationship between us and the Earth which is often presented is one of stewardship. That we are stewards of creation brings in fundamentally the notion of responsibility, first to God as the one whose stewards we are - we are to look after the Earth, not as we please, but as God wants it looked after. Second, we have responsibility to the rest of creation as ones who stand in the place of God.

Within creation there is enormous potential to assist us in the task; the pursuit of scientific knowledge and the application of technology are an essential part of our stewardship. A clear understanding of the responsibilities we have been given coupled with trust in God’s presence and trustworthiness is the mixture that makes stewardship both exciting and challenging.

How easy is it to reduce consumption?

Here are just a few simple ideas to reduce your oil consumption. You’ll help our environment and save a few dollars.

Walk or ride your bike: Avoid using cars and if you must, always try to carpool. Transportation accounts for 40 percent of our petroleum consumption and is easily one of the biggest areas we need to improve upon.

Enjoy the outdoors: Avoid buying new sporting equipment, since oil makes up nearly 25% of rubber. Used equipment is often just as good and will reduce demand for oil needed to make new rubber.
Use reusable bags: Avoid disposable plastic. Plastic bags are a huge waste for very little benefit. Nearly 10 percent of U.S. oil consumption, approximately 2 million barrels a day, is used to make plastic products alone.

Drink tap water: Avoid beverages bottled in disposable plastic, they make up nearly 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year, so get a reusable bottle and fill it up.

Go to the movies or stream them on Hulu: Avoid buying new DVDs/Blu-Rays, as oil is a key ingredient in their production, packaging and shipping.

Head to your local library or read online: Avoid using a printer and buying printed material including daily newspapers. Printing doesn't just waste paper, nearly 100,000 gallons of ink each day is used on daily newspapers alone.

Read more at www.weekendwithoutoil.org

Earth Care: Prayers For the Gulf

The slow-motion tragedy of the gulf oil spill lays bare our collective failure as caretakers of God’s good creation. While unknown thousands of barrels of oil leak into the rich and diverse ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico, how are we as Christians called to respond? While it is easy to express anger and cast blame at the companies who owned, operated and profited from the deep sea exploration, we must also reflect on our own complicity through our endless demand for cheap oil.

So much remains unknown: How long will the oil flow into the gulf? How far will the oil slick spread? How damaging will the spill be to fragile wetlands and the flora and fauna in the region? How will the spreading oil slick jeopardize the future of thousands of watermen and those who depend on the Gulf for their livelihoods?

In the face of these uncertainties, we turn to the One who is certain – the One whose creative and recreating power is stronger than any of our human folly. May we heed the call of the Scriptures, humble ourselves and pray that God will forgive our sins and heal the land.

Please keep the Gulf of Mexico, the spill, the Gulf Coast, and all of God’s creation in your prayers as we deal with what some are calling the worst environmental disaster of our time.
Read more at www.umc-gbcs.org/gulfcoast

Earth Care – Save a Buck, Save the World

You don’t need to go broke to go green. In fact, you can help the planet and your budget at the same time.

Unplug - When you leave a microwave, a television or any other appliance with standby power plugged in, it's draining electricity. Combined those things can consume as much as 10% of the electricity in your home. Grouping things into a power strip by room so that when you go to bed or leave town, you can flip the strip off, cutting power completely.

Make the switch - Replacing standard light bulbs with those squiggly compact fluorescent ones will cut consumption by 75% and last up to 10 times longer. A six pack will save you $200 over their lifetime.

Get off the bottle – If you don't like the taste of tap water, or maybe you don't trust it, install a filter for your drinking water. Filters will cost you less than 20 cents for a gallon of water. You’ll save $1 a bottle or about $4 per case.

Making a few changes in the way you household runs is easy and can save you money. It can also help save our planet.

Read more at Money Magazine . . .

What is Stewardship?

In ancient times, a steward was a servant who managed the resources of a household. Stewardship today means wisely managing the bounty of God’s Earth household. Modern English reflects this ancient Greek understanding of stewardship.

The word ecology at its root refers to the reasoning or logic of the household—the Earth household. Economy refers to the rule of the household.

Today, we are the stewards of God’s Earth household. The Christian tradition teaches that the land belongs to God, and we are called to care for it. To do so, our economies must reflect our
understanding of the rules of nature revealed through our knowledge of ecology. Healthy stewardship integrates knowledge of the natural world with economic and social systems that ensure the long-term sustainability of the whole of Creation, including the people within it.

Everyday Stewardship
Individual Actions
• Use CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs) to reduce energy use
• Bike or use public transportation to go to work once a week
• Use water-saving devices in sinks, showers and toilets
• Use reusable shopping bags
• Unplug appliances when not in use
• Slow down, it's more fuel efficient to drive at slower speeds
• Write, call or visit your elected officials to ask them to strengthen environmental laws

For more information check out The Eco-Justice Program office of the National Council of churches website: www.nccecojustice.org

Earth Care Column: “Be good stewards of the earth”

Did you ever wonder why it’s so important to recycle? Consider this: being environmentally "green" is more important than ever, and recycling is one of the simplest ways that we can protect our environment.

Recycling has the following benefits: It preserves natural resources, thus reducing the need to mine the earth for new raw materials ($208 million of reusable materials are dumped in Missouri landfills every year!) It saves energy by reducing the need to mine and refine new raw materials ( the energy needed to replace reusable materials dumped in Missouri landfills every year is enough to power 262,000 Missouri homes for a year; that’s about a $500 million energy bill!) It saves landfill space, which helps keep waste hauling rates lower (as local landfills fill up, haulers will have to take trash to landfills further away, thus increasing the cost of transporting each load.)

Recycling isn't just environmentally "green". The recycling and reuse industry is also a significant driver of economic activity in the St. Louis area, employing nearly 16,000 people with an annual payroll of $639,910,000.

This message has been brought to you by the Social Justice ministries

Earth Week Update #5 - Stewardship

Think about your relationship to this Earth which has been your home, and will continue to be for you and your descendents. What will be your own personal “stewardship legacy” regarding this magical and amazing sphere? Will you be a part of leaving it cleaner and more abundant, or will you be a part of the continuing degradation of its water, air, soil and other resources?

Together we can make a difference. Earth car is not something for someone else to do someplace else. It is for us where we are, at home, at work, at church and wherever we go.

The General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church
The Economic and Environmental Justice Program calls the church and society into a greater faithfulness to the biblical vision of wholeness and justice for all of God’s creation. From global warming and environmental racism to worker justice and poverty eradication, the program seeks to restore right relationships among ourselves, others and the created world.
http://www.umc-gbcs.org/site/c.frLJK2PKLqF/b.2808983/

Earth Ministry
Earth Ministry works in partnership with individuals and congregations to respond to this great moral challenge through education, modeling sustainable lifestyle choices, and organizing for social change through environmental advocacy. While rooted in Washington State, our resources are utilized across the U.S. and internationally
http://www.earthministry.org/

20th Annual St. Louis Earth Day Festival - Sunday, April 26, 2009
Every year, St. Louis Earth Day stages what has become the oldest and largest Earth Day celebration in the Midwest on the forth Sunday of April in historic Forest Park. This premier event draws more than 25,000 attendees and 250 vendors through common interests in environmental education, celebration, and stewardship.

http://stlouisearthday.org/