While increased engagement in climate change (CC) education and solutions by diverse US faith communities over the past two decades is encouraging, recent declines in public confidence about CC science, the falling priority of CC compared to other issues (e.g., the economy, health care), and the success of CC skeptic campaigns have renewed some perennial challenges for faith-based CC education and outreach. Since religious leaders enjoy equal trust among both CC alarmists and skeptics, faith communities remain critical locations for education and action. Religious communities also draw on an impressive witness of denominational, ecumenical and interfaith statements outlining moral and social imperatives to respond to CC impacts on the low income, disadvantaged and vulnerable.
Interfaith Power and Light (IPL) (www.theregenerationproject.org) is the largest, fastest-growing of environmental faith-based organizations (FBO) in the country (active in 31 states; over 10,000 engaged congregations), and one of a few environmental FBO focused on CC. We interviewed and surveyed state IPL directors and coordinators of similar national and regionally-organized FBO of National Religious Partnership for the Environment (www.nrpe.org) members to discover what barriers to acceptance of CC they face; what best practices and messages they employ to educate diverse audiences in the science, moral dimensions and actions addressing CC; what ecological and justice elements they include in their CC education, programming, and solutions; and roles ecologists can best take as collaborators or resource providers. Phone and in-person interviews were used to query challenges and best practices and an online survey used to compare program scope and audiences.
Results/Conclusions
Our inquires suggest that while ecological assessments underlie the moral concerns addressed in environmental FBO education and outreach programs, scientific and ecological dimensions of CC are sometimes downplayed to avoid controversy (or perceived debate) about climate science. Moral dimensions of CC are given greater focus because of greater agreement among FBO members; the ecological bases of moral tenets (e.g., drought harms African farmers, and CC affects drought) are then more easily accepted. Action steps (energy efficiency, conservation, renewables, native landscaping, carbon footprinting, local agriculture, and advocacy) are often emphasized above all, both because these steps empower communities and often lead to financial savings. Faith tradition emphasis on creation care (environmental stewardship) provides a foundation for ongoing ecology education.
Our work suggests that ecology education should emphasize basic science evidence, ecosystem connections and practical solutions that would be best ecological practices even if CC was not occurring.
