By Faygle Train
Climate change is hurting New Jersey’s environment and human population.
New Jersey is the sixth-fastest warming state in the US. Higher ozone and smog levels from excessive car and truck use, as well as from boats accessing and lingering in local ports, is worsening asthma for more than 700,000 people. In the 2019 State of the Air report, 10 counties across New Jersey rated F, the worst grade possible for ozone air quality! The rising temperature has other environmental effects, like a growing mosquito season in Atlantic City.
The issue is beyond the air – it’s the water, too. Sandy Hook has had over 530 coastal flood days since 1950, of which 60% were human-caused. Equally horrifying, after Hurricane Sandy, 5.1 billion gallons of sewage spilled in New Jersey!
Leadership is trying to manifest change. This is best seen at Drew Theological School in Madison, New Jersey. Eco-justice must now be covered in every required course, like Global Faiths and the Earth, about how all religions share the environmental crisis! This class is shared by professors Dr. Hyo-Dong Lee and Dr. Laurel Kearns.
Dr. Kearns is committed to the cause: she also teaches classes such as Religions & Food: Feasts, Fasts, Farming and Famine and Christianity and Ecology. Other passionate teachers include Dr. Kenneth Ngwa, who teaches on Water and Survival: By the Rivers of Babylon, about how water in the Hebrew Bible is a political, religious and environmental topic; Dr. Danna Nolan Fewell, who teaches on Grounding the Bible: Land, Water, Food, Faith; Dr. Robert Corrington, a leader on Philosophy of Nature; and finally, Dr. Catherine Keller, with a course called Contemporary Theology: Creation, Cosmos, Climate.
Seminaries like Drew are saving New Jersey – and the planet.
