Publications for Sharing

This pamphlet will serve as a practical guide not so much to persuade as to help us find effective ways to talk about climate change, increase public awareness, and counter the political pressure of that “dark money.”

Talking about climate change or other critical problems can be difficult, especially when those who are talking differ markedly in religious views or basic assumptions. As Quakers we seek to be inclusive, not in the sense of embracing the whole range of human belief, but in the sense of recognizing “that of God” in everyone, responding to the other as “Thou” rather than “It.”

Read about the basics of eco-justice–addressing ecological destruction, climate change, income inequality–and what Friends can do.

What do we mean by saying, “Our concern for the Earth is a spiritual one”?

By recognizing this concern as spiritual, we are acknowledging that God’s presence permeates all things. We are also acknowledging that significant changes in how humans treat the Earth and its creatures will not take place until there are significant changes in how we feel about the earth. When the heart is engaged, loving actions will follow.

by Jack Phillips

A guide to develop a vital Earthcare group. Let’s get organized to care for Earth!

Connecting the dots about where our food comes from.

A meditation on the things we accumulate. “And free ourselves we must, if we are to live simply, possess our soul, and preserve the Earth, our home, allowing it as a gift to pass through our hands and onward, even to the seventh generation.”

By Tom Small

Mindful earning, spending, giving, and investing can lower our ecological footprints and promote peace and social justice. Why is there enough money for war, but not for education or protecting the environment? Why is there enough money for real estate and financial market speculation but not for everyone to afford health care? What if the schools had all the money they needed and the Air Force had to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber?

“COMPASSIONATE CONSUMPTION is not about sacrificing or giving up what we need. It is about reawakening to the sacred within and around us and celebrating this awareness in every action—and in every transaction. Our conscious choices change the world.” —Julia Butterfly Hill

The Peace Testimony is a principal tenet of the Religious Society of Friends. Friends have always worked to reconcile conflict and relieve the human suffering of war. While this good work must continue, Friends should also be working on measures to forestall future hostilities. Peace witness and Eco-witness: two sides of the same coin.

Slowing down is a spiritual process, based on reverence for life, ourselves, and each other.

Our society and our own cultural expectations seem to require us to live in “fast forward,” asking more of us than we can sustain over time. We are using ourselves up, and using our planet up.

By Carolyn W. Treadway

Why is sexuality a Quaker Earthcare Witness concern?

Rapid population growth—the outcome of human sexual activity—poses a major threat to our natural environment. Human population has increased from two billion in the early twentieth century to 7.3 billion in 2015, and we continue to add about 80 million persons each year. Each year more people add to the pollution of our water and atmosphere, the degradation of our soils and forests, and the extinction of species.

Do you have a lot of love to give to children and don’t want to add to Earth’s population? Have you considered adoption?

As Friends make life choices, they seek Divine Guidance in what they do. Adoption is a deeply personal choice and commitment for life, made with careful searching and for many reasons, whether to complete a family or to provide loving care for one or more children. Adoption provides a way for large numbers of children to find loving homes. Some Friends have considered adoption as part of their care for the Earth and concern over a growing world population. Parents raising one or two biological children can have more children through adoption without adding to the Earth’s population.

Friends have long been concerned about how we live on our Earth and how we can best support a good life for everyone and all species. Sustainability requires that we use Earth’s resources at a level that provides a reasonable life for all now and maintains the capacity to provide such a life for all coming generations. An existing population must not use up resources needed to sustain human and other life in the future. Ultimately this means we as a people must consider what are the limits to human population size. The question is: what is a sustainable human population on Earth?

Women’s empowerment happens when women and girls are free to control their own lives, to exercise their rights, to be equal members of society. While there has been some progress for women around the world, gaps in critical areas remain in many countries, according to the Population Reference Bureau in its 2015 World Population Data Sheet, which had a “special focus on women’s empowerment.”

How do we listen to Truth which may be revealed by others?
—North Pacific Yearly Meeting, Faith and Practice, 1993.

This pamphlet is intended as an aid to worship-sharing on this sensitive topic.

A primer on Friends witness on population.

“[Humankind] is … faced with a hideous problem in terms of sheer arithmetic…. [A]ny positive rate of growth whatever eventually carries a human population to an unacceptable magnitude.”
(Kenneth E. Boulding, 1964, The Meaning of the 20th Century: The Great Transition.)

“In past times God’s Creation restored itself. Now humanity dominates, our growing population consuming more resources than nature can replace. We must change, we must become careful stewards of all life.” —Sixth World Conference of Friends, 2012

A significant portion of the population growth of the U. S. and Canada is due to immigration. Because of population pressure, political repression, environmental degradation, and economic inequalities, persons in developing nations seek to immigrate to developed nations. Some people in the U.S. see immigration as a threat to their quality of life. The purpose of this trifold is to separate the facts from the fears and address the question of immigration from a spiritual base.

We as Friends seek Divine guidance in all realms of our lives. Couples seek clearness on their calling to spend the rest of their lives together. So too, having a child is a life-changing commitment that merits deep spiritual reflection, not only in regard to the personal sacrifices and rewards included, but also in regard to the larger issues of the society and environment. In the manner of Friends, bringing this reflection to a clearness committee can help in decision-making.

“Profound changes in our understanding of matter and of the earth offer an opportunity to heal the largely unconscious, dangerous Western estrangement from the earth. Within the “New Story” our deepest spiritual aspirations and many central Christian insights can find a vast, full expression enabling us to embrace a deep belonging within the Earth community, and a caring, loving relationship with our home.” —Mary Coelho

by Philip Clayton, Mary Coelho, and the New Story Study Group

The New Story prepares us for further evolution in human consciousness, to become active participants in the creative Earth process. “WHAT does that have to do with me? So what?” That’s how some people respond when told that another tree frog species or primate species in a distant tropical forest is critically endangered or has gone extinct because of humans’ voracious appetites for limited resources.

by Mary C. Coelho and Mary Jo Klingel

Our historic testimonies of simplicity, integrity, equality, and peace call us to reexamine our patterns of energy consumption and see what changes are required of us. We can, in fact, live richly, justly, and simply without the heavy reliance on fossil fuels that upset the balance of nature and will soon be used up. When we bring the necessary changes to our homes and places of worship, to our communities, our nation, and the world, we are helping to preserve God’s creation for future generations.

The United Nations World Commission on Environment & Development suggested in 1987 that sustainable development means, “…to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland Report, 1987).

Life on Earth is not possible without water, but access to clean, fresh water is threatened.

We live on the blue planet; the surface is mostly water.

Humans are mostly (70%) water, and so are all the other living creatures.

Water is the ultimate renewable resource, an essential part of our common resources—the commons.

Access to clean fresh water is a human right, not as some corporations say, a commodity to be sold.

How can we conserve, preserve, and share fairly Earth’s water?

Human-induced climate change threatens to overarch all the human misuses of creation, including rapidly growing human population, habitat destruction, over-exploitation of resources, and introduction of invasive species.