By Faygle Train
The San Francisco-Bay Area is a special one. The first Chinese fortune cookies with predictions were baked here, the first Levi’s jeans were manufactured here, and it’s one of the top 50 most visited cities in the world! But not all ‘Fog City’ facts are fun ones. San Francisco and the state of California are also suffering the effects of human-caused climate change.
Sea levels are rising, leading to floods. Of the 474 flood days since 1970, scientists report that 69% of them were caused by humans. Temperatures are rising, hurting two thirds of the fruits and nuts grown in the United States (https://thebolditalic.com/a-california-market-by-climate-change-what-does-that-look-like-2d72a4582b54). On top of all this, there’s an increased risk of forest fires! But the area is also a success story: Since 1990, San Francisco has reduced citywide emissions by 36%! We were thrilled to learn that part of this success comes from Christian seminaries.
Santa Clara University offers courses with professors like Dr. Sarah Robinson-Bertoni. She teaches classes such as Ways of Understanding Religion: Climate Change, Religion, and Our Common Home along with Comparative Religion and Environmentalism. Other professors teach related sustainable content. Take Professor David Pinault’s course on Religion and Animal Suffering or a class with Paul J. Schutz, Ph.D. on Religion, Science, and Ecology or on Sustainable Theologies.
On SCU campus is the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. It has an Environmental Ethics Fellowship and teaching material on Ethics and Pope Francis’s Encyclical Letter Laudato Si written by David E. DeCosse and Brian Patrick Green. You can also find the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship on campus. They have actively supported over 115 clean energy access projects all over the world!
In Berkeley, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary offers many courses, like Earth Ethics as Justice Ethics and Climate Justice: Theology and Action in Relationship, both taught by Dr. Cynthia Moe-Lobeda. Her courses can help inspire Christian creation care. GTU is a special institution in other ways: they are one of few seminaries across the nation involved in the Seminary Environmental Certification Program. They even have a brand-new concentration in Climate Justice!
San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo offers a course on Environmental Ethics with Professor Dr. Carol Robb. Her course connects Christian ethics to environment, public policy, and biodiversity.
Even the Archdiocese of San Francisco provides information on their website to Catholic churches about Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical, Laudato Si, and resources for how Catholics can go green.
Bay Area schools are uniting religion and ecology to save the planet. The big question is… will you support them?
