Governor Roy Cooper has announced his strong opposition to offshore drilling and seismic blasting along North Carolina’s coast. “Our coast is part of our identity,” he said, speaking to the press at Fort Macon State Park near Atlantic Beach Penny Hooper, NCIPL Leadership Council Chair, was in the room for the Governor’s press conference. She was among representatives of faith communities, businesses, fishing families, beachgoers, and conservationists that have all joined together to protect our coast from drilling operations even as some political leaders push to let oil companies drill…
More Wind Energy, Not Less
It is becoming a national trend for politicians to “divide and conquer” by attacking the wind industry while supporting other forms of clean energy. This is fracturing the renewable energy community as folks are being forced to take positions that do not support one another. As Director of NCIPL, I pray that we do not take sides and instead continue to support all sources of renewable energy without pitting one against another. NCIPL is a member of the NC Sustainable Energy Association (NCSEA). Below is their statement on HB 589 and a summary…
Rising Up with Richmond County
“Biomass” may sound like a clean idea, but it actually means cutting down and turning trees into fuel pellets to be burned for energy — creating more carbon pollution than coal, accelerating global warming, and driving climate chaos. North Carolina’s former governor opened the floodgates to the wood pellet export industry. It tears down the very trees that capture carbon pollution and protect people’s health and quality of life, making wood pellets for export where they are burned in power stations to generate electricity. Enviva, the world’s largest wood pellet…
Now what? Staying Engaged and Grow the Interfaith Climate Movement
We were already living in a time of profound consequence. President Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement means that while the needs of our endangered climate are increasing, the response to global warming is diminishing at the national level. Our actions now, as climate conscious people of faith, matter more than ever. There are a few things you can do right now to help maximize our collective impact as North Carolina’s statewide multi-faith network committed to addressing climate change as a moral issue: Engage your interfaith climate conscious…
The People’s Climate March — Called to Respond
Multi-faith pilgrims on a moral high road unified to honor God’s creation at the Peoples Climate March last month on the National Mall. The event, which came as a crescendo in a week of climate action, drew 200,000 people from every state, with broad support from more than 400 sister marches in the U.S. and around the world. Interfaith Power & Light was represented by more than 40 state affiliate groups. NCIPL led North Carolinians as part of the “Keepers of Faith” contingent. We expressed our deep concern from our…
Science Must Matter to People of Faith
Crowds are gathered on this Earth Day in Washington, D.C. and in cities across the country to march for science and protect the deeply held value of truth and facts. They are marching to defend the vital role science plays in our communities and our world. They are marching because science is not partisan; it is not liberal or conservative. And they are marching to demonstrate that our nation values the scientists and the scientific agencies working to make our world safer, cleaner, and healthier. Why should a science march…
Let NC Legislators Know You Care about Creation
NC Interfaith Power and Light’s lay and faith leader network is at the General Assembly on April 6 until 4 p.m. for their Advocating with Compassion Day. Even if you cannot be there to meet with your elected officials, please contact them to hear their visions for NC’s future and to express your support for new and existing clean, renewable, and energy efficient policies. Please call your elected leaders in the state legislature and let them know you are aware that NC Interfaith Power and Light is having this advocacy day…
Speak Out Against Anti-Climate Executive Order
This week, Donald Trump issued an executive order to turn back the clock on the climate progress we have made over the past decade. In addition to directing the EPA to dismantle the Clean Power Plan, this sweeping executive order also attempts to undo methane standards for oil and gas operations, stop federal agencies from considering the impact of climate change in their decisions, and open up federal lands for coal mining. The issues and impacts of climate change go to the heart of our spiritual values and our call to…
2017 Lenten Guide — Fourth Sunday
For this year’s Lenten Guide, each member of the Council staff chose a verse from a favorite hymn to write about. We will post their reflections throughout Lent, for Ash Wednesday, each Sunday and throughout Holy Week. Spirit of Life, come unto me. Sing in my heart all the stirrings of compassion. Blow in the wind, rise in the sea; Move in the hand, giving life the shape of justice. Roots hold me close; wings set me free; Spirit of Life, come to me, come to me. “Spirit of Life”…
Sol Train Connects Climate and Faith with Solar Power
Many people want to take meaningful action on climate change but don’t know where to start. Taking a big step, like switching to solar, doesn’t have to be hard. Any change is easier when you have a guide to point you the right way and when your community is on the same journey. NC congregations are hosting events from Winston-Salem to Wilmington to help individuals and communities find out if solar is right for them. NCIPL has partnered with two mission-driven, locally-owned solar installation companies, and at each event stop…
The Pipelines We Need and the Ones We Don’t
Last week President Trump signed executive actions to advance the construction of the Keystone, Dakota Access, and Atlantic Coast Pipelines. In the face of clear scientific consensus that our dependence on fossil fuels is jeopardizing our climate and threatening vulnerable communities around the world, it is unconscionable to build more oil pipelines for the benefit of a few wealthy oil companies. As people of faith we are called to care for future generations. They are depending on us to safeguard their rightful inheritance of a safe and livable planet. In the three-minute…
Advent Guide: Fourth Sunday, December 18
Excerpted from How Will We Welcome the Prince of Peace? An Advent Guide for Lectionary Year A from the NC Council of Churches. Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. Then Isaiah said: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore…
NCIPL Webinars — December 5 and 7
Now, more than ever, we need you to put your faith into action. On April 29, under the banner of the People’s Climate Movement, people of faith will join partners from environmental, environmental justice and student groups, labor unions, and many others for a major climate mobilization in Washington DC. Register for a webinar to learn more — Monday, Dec. 5 at 5:30 pm Register for a webinar to learn more — Wednesday, Dec. 7 at noon The same content will be covered on both webinars; a recording link will…
NC Council of Churches Stands with Standing Rock
Many of us have been following with great interest the resistance of Native Americans in North Dakota to the Dakota Access Pipeline. For the crime of defending their lands and waters – not to mention the climate of all of us — the camp at Standing Rock has been met with militarized policing in the service of private gain. All over the world – in the forests of Brazil, in the boreal forests of Canada, and here, in the Indian lands of North Dakota – it is only the bravery…
First in NC: Screening of “Before the Flood” in Raleigh on November 3
Join North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light and the NC Council of Churches for a first in North Carolina screening of “Before the Flood,” a film by Academy-Award winners Leonardo DiCaprio and Fisher Stevens. The film follows DiCaprio as he travels to five continents meeting people whose lives have been devastated by global warming and learns how we already have the capacity to solve this crisis. It is more important than ever that people of faith understand what’s at stake, and what they can do. This film covers not only problems,…