Category: Timely

  • Following Spirit, Despite Fear: Remembering John Woolman in the Vanguard Campaign

    by Eileen Flanagan. On October 7, Delaware Valley Quakers and other members of Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) will gather on a suburban street in front of a large white home with black shutters and a manicured lawn. One of us will be designated to assure the waiting police that…

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  • Photo by Kathy Barnhart. She writes, “Chinese Houses, California Poppies, Lupines, Tidy Tips amidst the oak trees make such a wonderful palette. This area in Shell Ridge Open Space Preserve [CA] is tended by a large group of volunteers, encouraging native flowers and plants and weeding out invasives. What a gift they have given to all!”

    Spring is Here: Time to Plant Native Plants

    By Jim Kessler. Native plants are adapted to the local area and its climate. Unfortunately, many of our beautiful non-native garden flowers provide little or no food for honeybees, native pollinators, songbirds, and other wildlife. Non-native plants have the potential to become invasive species, weeds that spread rapidly…

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  • April Earthcare Engagement for Your Community

    April marks the beginning of yearly meeting gathering season for many of us in North America. We’re sharing a few resources to help strengthen the connection between Friends in your region and Quaker Earthcare Witness. Please consider taking the following actions as you prepare for your summer events: 1. Invite a …

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  • Quaker Earthcare Witness News & Updates

    by Shelley Tanenbaum. Quaker Earthcare Witness’ primary goal is to nurture a spiritual transformation in our relationship with the living world. Our efforts include projects, events, and other resources, all aimed at reaching a wider circle of Friends and like-minded individuals and organizations. Over the past two pandemic years, we…

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  • Vanguard Customers Have an Important Role to Play, so Don’t Move Your Money (Yet)!

    by Eileen Flanagan. As soon as Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) announced that we had joined the international campaign to pressure Vanguard to become a climate leader, we started hearing from Quakers and others who were Vanguard customers that they were eager to move their money to funds that are…

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  • Mist and mountains

    Greetings on the Solstice!

    I love this part of the winter holidays—when our sense of wonder and light corresponds to the natural pivot point of the solstice. Since June in the northern hemisphere, days have been getting shorter and shorter, with the shortest day today, on December 21. From this point on, days will…

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  • Cedar Green holds up greens as part of mutual aid project

    Our Wishlist: 7 Ways to Get Involved

    Hello Friends, Our Quaker Earthcare Witness network is filled with gifts. Friends offer their time, financial resources, prayers, experience, expertise, and connections to help our growing community care for the Earth and each other. Here are a few ways we’re hoping you can continue to generously share your gifts this season.

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  • Green grassy hill with path to the top and blue sky with pink clouds

    Another World is Possible: An End of Year Message

    There is Light all around us. It shows us another world is possible. Let’s open our eyes to see it. When we follow the teachings of nature, we can restore habitat—this happened in Yellowstone National Park when wolves were reintroduced to the ecosystem to restore the natural balance. When we remember…

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  • People vs Fossil Fuels

    People vs. Fossil Fuels: Build Back Fossil Free Actions

    A Fossil Free Future From October 11 to 15, thousands of people will take action at the White House, participate in civil disobedience, and demand that President Biden choose a side: People vs. Fossil Fuels. Indigenous people, pipeline fighters, water protectors, young people, scientists, faith leaders, and more are saying…

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  • Climate Change 2021 IPCC Report with colorful image of lines that create Earth's country's borders superimposed over bright background

    Human-Caused Climate Change is “Unequivocal”

    by Shelley Tanenbaum. If the catchword for 2020 was “unprecedented,” then 2021 follows as “unequivocal.” That is how the 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports scientific evidence that human activities are the cause of climate change, that the climate will be getting worse for several decades, and that…

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  • Painted blue banner with text "No Pipelines on Stolen Land" hanging on large machinery

    Stop the Line 3 Pipeline

    “People are giving everything they have to defend this beautiful place and to stand up for future generations. Young people are stepping up to the plate, their future is on the line. This is an extension of the fight that is happening all over Mother Earth, protecting the last beautiful…

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  • Blond child in blue shirt, hat and red pants sits at base of huge redwood

    Wildfire Lessons: QEW’s Work in 2021

    By Shelley Tanenbaum. Dear Friends, Last year’s wildfires were different than in years past. In California, forests have evolved to not just live with fire, but to thrive because of it—fires clear brush and release seed for the next generation. Mature trees survive mostly intact. Yet this past…

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  • Smoky purple skies behind green trees

    Engaging with Ecological Grief

    By Gayle Matson. Recently a Friend in my Quaker meeting spoke movingly of her sadness upon visiting a favorite place that had been ravaged by fire last year. Many of us can relate to that shock and dismay of discovering that a landscape or ecosystem we dearly love has…

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  • Quaker Advocacy on Sustainable Energy & Environment: Interview with FCNL’s Clarence Edwards

    Clarence Edwards leads Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)’s work on sustainable energy and environmental policy as Legislative Director. He brings to FCNL extensive experience in government relations, issue advocacy, and strategic communications. Clarence joined Quaker Earthcare Witness for our April Steering Committee Meeting. Here Clarence answers questions from…

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  • Build Back Fossil Free

    By Hayley Hathaway and Ruth Darlington. “If we’re going to Build Back Better, we need to do better. And that starts by putting Indigenous people and their voices first, before any [fossil fuels] project is put in place…It is our Indigenous right to protect what little we have left,” shared…

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  • What I’m Learning From the Pandemic

    By Shelley Tanenbaum. EVERY YEAR WE Friends ask ourselves, “How has truth fared for Thee?” It is a way of refreshing ourselves, of self-evaluating personally and in our Meetings. It gives us an opportunity to change course and to respond to emerging leadings. What if we see the coronavirus pandemic…

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