By Faygle Train
People tend to associate Canada with nature, camping, and strong environmentalism. Unfortunately, Canada is experiencing the climate crisis just like other countries are. The problems look different from West Coast to East Coast, but one thing is the same: it’s time to act.
In the Greater Toronto Area, the largest metropolitan area in Canada with nearly six million residents, human-caused climate change can be seen in all seasons. The GTA experienced catastrophic flooding in winter 2018, and ice storms cut off power for weeks in Scarborough. Toronto summers are not faring much better. Canada is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, according to a 2019 federal government climate report. Toronto is already seeing around 120 heat-related deaths each summer – doctors fear this number will rise. And only a few years earlier, in 2013, severe weather events cost the City of Toronto $1.3 billion in damages and repairs!
With such significant threats to human welfare and city wallets, are people fighting for the planet? Yes – religious leadership across the GTA!
The Toronto School of Theology, an ecumenical consortium affiliated with University of Toronto, offers numerous environmental faith courses. For example, Professor Dr. Dennis Patrick O’Hara, who specializes in ecology and theology, teaches Approaches to Environmental Ethics. TST offers other courses, like Ecology and the World Religions, and even practical courses like Eco-Theology Faith and Practice or Eco-Theology, Eco-Spirituality and Eco-Praxis with Sister Mary Rowell and Sister Linda Gregg. They run courses from Villa St. Joseph Ecology and Spirituality Centre in Cobourg, Ontario. There, students and locals alike can learn about the intersections of nature and faith, along with the important of social and eco-justice.
Shoresh Jewish Environmental Programs is another amazing Canadian eco-justice initiative. They actively demonstrate, across the GTA, how sustainability is a Jewish value. For example, they grow organic vegetables at the Kavanah Garden, harvest fruit, nut and berry plants designed to promote pollinators like bees at Bela Farm, and provide nature-based content for Toronto-based Jewish schools and synagogues.
TorontoMuslims is yet another faith organization stepping up for our common earth. In 2017, they ran Waste-Free Ramadan, during which they distributed 10,000 reusable water bottles at local mosques!
Finally, Toronto was blessed to host the Parliament of the World’s Religions in November 2018. Many speakers shared messages about faith and ecology working in tandem. For example, Indigenous leader Bob Goulais spoke about the Anishinaabe people and their prophecy about sharing their eco-wisdom with the world. At the Parliament, ICSD’s own Deputy Director Phillipa Friedland hosted a popular symposium on Religion and Renewable Energy where she highlighted the Faith-Inspired Renewable Energy Project in Africa and moderated panelists like Dr. Azza Karam (UNFPA), Father Joshtrum Kureethadam (Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development), Father John Chryssavgis (Archdeacon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate), Rabbi David Rosen (AJC), Maureen Goodman (Programme Director at Brahma Kumaris), and Christine MacMillan (Commissioner of the World Evangelical Alliance).
Toronto faith schools and leaders are stepping up to save the planet… Isn’t it time we joined them?
