Spirituality and Ecological Hope

The elections are over, but there remains much to do.  What we urge here is what we wrote in our November 7 post.  These weeks before January, when a new government will be sworn in in Washington DC, present a critical period for our voices to be heard — by the president-elect and members of Congress.  Change we can believe in will not come if the voters who turned out in record numbers to ask for, to demand, change now go home and wait for it to come.  Democracy is not only about elections, but also the ongoing participation of its citizens in the work of the political process.

So we urge you to get organized – in your churches, neighborhoods, schools, and community organizations — to prepare topics and talking points regarding specific aspects of our ecological crises, especially those with a local hook, to be raised with your House and Senate members, or as a basis for writing letters to the Obama transition team.   According to the official Barack Obama website, the web tools used to build the campaign will remain to serve the enormous online community that came together to support him.  You might want to stay tuned to find ways to make your voices heard.

You can also bring your concerns to the attention of the public, the media, and therefore politicians through public events, through media work, such as calling in to local radio and TV talk shows or getting local leaders to appear on them, writing letters to the editor (one of the most-read sections of any newspaper), or having experts and local leaders in your area submit Opinion pieces to local newspapers.  Letter-writing campaigns (much more effective than petitions or email) along with visits to local offices of House and Senate members are also important.

Use the search engine on this site to find posts and links that can help shape your questions and demands.

Among our concerns:

• what policies do they propose to reduce CO2 emissions — at least 80 percent by 2050 as recommended by leading scientists?
• what policies do they propose to replace fossil fuels with truly renewable energy sources that do not harm the ecosystems of the planet (as corn and soy-based ethanols do)? what are their positions on nuclear energy and so-called ‘clean coal,’ both of which pose severe threats to the environment?
• what policies do they propose to promote local organic farming and reduce our reliance on food transported thousands of miles to our dinner tables?
• what policies do they propose to reorient the economy away from consumer goods and towards ecologically sustainable economies that reduce pressure on the earth’s carrying-capacity?
• we are living beyond the means of the earth to support the human ecological footprint? what do they propose to reduce that footprint in a time of rapid population growth?

You can easily make up your own list. But what is important is to try to get clear, specific answers to your questions and to make clear to them that these are issues that their constituents will be watching closely as they begin work in Washington in 2009.