Sunday Evening Conversations on Creation Continue…
The CTK Creation Care Team invites you to a monthly environmental education web meeting series whose theme in 2021 is Healthy Planet = Healthy People = Healthy Economy.
Please register for this event. Contact Lisa Brenskelle with any questions.
Hurricane & Flood Safety
Sunday, July 18, 6:00 p.m., online
In July, join Jeff Lindner, Director of Hydrologic Operations, Harris County Flood Control District, as he discusses how to stay safe in a natural disaster. Jeff’s presentation will cover the various hazards that impact a region during a hurricane landfall, including wind, rainfall and storm surge flooding. Jeff will then go on to address how to prepare for these hazards so that you and yours can stay safe. Time will be provided for discussion with the audience after his talk.
Plastic Free EcoChallenge
July 1 – 31, online
Plastic pollution now contaminates the deepest trenches in the ocean, high mountain peaks, and even the air we breathe. Plastic has entered the food chain, killing wildlife, and causing the average person to each one credit card’s worth of plastic each week. To learn more about this issue & take action to affect change, join the Lutherans Restoring Creation – Gulf Coast team for the online Plastic Free EcoChallenge in July. You select the challenges you’d like to accomplish during the month and when/how you do them. Join us
Summer Creation Education:
Rocks Rock!!
Sunday, July 18, 10:00 a.m.
Join Inda & Neal Immega at the picnic table outdoors to learn about rocks, and polish a beautiful stone to take home.
Climate Change, Carbon Neutrality and You
Everyone has a carbon footprint, i.e. the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted to support their life. Rising GHG emissions are causing climate change. Calculate your household’s carbon (i.e. GHG emissions) footprint with this household carbon calculator.
Scientists have determined that the world must be carbon neutral by 2050. Carbon neutrality means that all of your GHG emissions are offset by investments you make in projects that “soak up” your emissions – thereby taking responsibility for your personal impact on the climate.
Of course, you’d first want to reduce your GHG emissions as much as possible, particularly because scientists have also determined that all of us need to reduce our carbon footprints by 45% by 2030. Switching to renewable sources of electricity, buying an electric vehicle, and limiting consumption of beef, lamb & cheese, are among lifestyle choices to reduce carbon footprint.
But, once you’ve made lifestyle changes, you will still emit GHGs. So, to get to carbon neutrality, you’ll need to purchase carbon offsets. There are many carbon offset programs from which to choose. To support local eco-systems, you might want to consider the Texas Coastal Exchange. Or, for Reliant customers, you can purchase carbon offsets via a monthly fee added to your bill which simultaneously gives a donation to EarthShare of Texas. My personal favorite is a carbon offset program at The Arbor Day Foundation. And, there is no need to wait, the more we can reduce and offset emissions today, the less destruction climate change will cause.
GreenFaith Certification Achieved!!
In 2017, the Creation Care Team received GreenFaith certification for CTK. To achieve certification, the team had to fulfill requirements for creation-focused worship services, religious education on creation for all ages, interfaith & multi-generational creation-focused activities, environmental justice education & interactions with local environmental justice leaders, and communications about our activities. In addition to these requirements, we also had to complete 25 actions or awareness building activities in the areas of energy, transportation, food, water, waste, toxins and grounds. Work to achieve GreenFaith certification began in 2013, two years after CTK entered into covenant with Lutherans Restoring Creation and the Creation Care Team was formed. Participation in GreenFaith built the foundation for a number of creation-focused activities now routinely offered by the CTK Creation Care Team for the congregation, in all areas originally required for GreenFaith certification. We continue to use what we learned during the certification process to guide our ongoing efforts to incorporate care for creation into the full life and mission of CTK, in worship, education, discipleship, advocacy/public ministry, and stewardship of building & ground