One of the most pressing areas people of faith must concern themselves with today is creation care, which is stewardship and nourishment of all that God has created. Mindful focus on God’s creation, including identifying and eradicating threats to our sacred home is a necessity. If we are not actively and intentionally working to address threats to our environment, we are missing an enormous opportunity. That is why United Women in Faith used its annual convention, held in May during Clean Air Month, to urge state and federal legislators to take action to ensure clean air.

When more than 1800 members of United Women in Faith convened in Orlando for the organization’s assembly, May 20-22, we launched a postcard campaign to our respective senators and governors. The campaign is sponsored by United Women in Faith and the Breathe Again Collaborative.

We are telling elected officials that we want investments in clean renewable energy and clean transportation, especially for electric vehicle school buses which affect children’s health. We urge them to pass legislation funding more clean energy. We are specifically asking governors to support climate justice funding by working to access federal funds.

Why? Of all issues we can focus on, why this?

There are few aspects of creation care as significant as addressing air pollution. While focusing on challenges to the environment is the right thing to do, it is also the moral thing to do. That’s because quality air is essential to maintaining and protecting the public’s health. Air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) data shows that almost all of the global population (99%) breathe air that exceeds WHO guideline limits and contains high levels of pollutants, with low- and middle-income countries suffering from the highest exposures. How can we expect to live healthy lives when we are breathing dirty air?

According to WHO, air pollution is contamination of the indoor or outdoor environment by any chemical, physical or biological agent that modifies the atmosphere’s natural characteristics. Vehicle exhaust, household combustion devices, industrial facilities, pollen, mold, dust and even forest fires are common air pollutants. Pollutants of major public health concern include particulate matter, carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide. Outdoor and indoor air pollution cause respiratory and other diseases and increase mortality risks.

 What’s more, the impact of dirty air is not evenly felt. Air pollution, like so many other things, disproportionately impacts communities of color, persons living in poverty and persons in urban communities. Those communities are least responsible for air pollution even though they suffer disproportionately because of it. The American Lung Association noted that due to decades of residential segregation, African Americans tend to live in heavier traffic areas, leaving them more exposed to pollutants from traffic. Additionally, if one thinks about the tools that facilitated white flight from urban areas, it was our transportation system, with highways ripping apart communities. Those living near highways are more likely to breath dirty air.

 Even when one controls for socioeconomic status and geography, people of color in the U.S. still breathe more particulate air pollution on average, according to a study by researchers at the Environmental Protection Agency-funded Center for Air, Climate, and Energy Solutions. “The findings expand a body of evidence showing that African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and other people of color are disproportionately exposed to a regulated air pollutant called fine particulate matter (PM2.5).” Additionally, exposure to PM2.5 can cause lung and heart problems, especially for those with chronic disease, younger people, older people and other more vulnerable populations, according to Science Advances. 

 Those are areas that Christians cannot and should not ignore. Because we must concern ourselves with the challenges of this world, the climate emergency is critically important. We do have hope in a variety of policy proposals.

 In November 2021, President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act became law. It includes provisions for environment-related investments in processes such as more electric charging stations, accessible public transportation and addressing extreme weather due to climate change. Additionally, the Build Back Better Act earmarks $555 billion toward renewable energy and transportation incentives. Although the bill has yet to go into law, we must remain diligent in urging our elected leaders to vote in favor of it.

Ultimately, there is an urgent need to transition to renewable energy that prioritizes public health for frontline communities, women and children, communities of color and workers for whom the current energy economy has impacted their health and livelihood. But we cannot make progress unless we see this as part of our Christian duty. I’m clear that it is; I invite you to join me in expanding our understanding of what we are called to do today, tomorrow and into the future.

Women, children, and youth are already being disproportionately affected by the climate emergency. The UN reports that 80% of people already being displaced by climate change are women. And when natural disasters hit, women and children have been 14 times more likely than men to die, more vulnerable to gender-based violence, and afterward, there has been as much as 20-30% increase in trafficking. Therefore, we must be actively involved in advancing solutions to the climate crisis.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Aug. 2021 report warned that limiting global warming to close to 1.5 degrees Celsius or even 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels “will be beyond reach” in the next two decades without immediate, rapid, and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

The good news is that we still have a chance to turn the tide on the climate crisis: we can reduce emissions at an individual and corporate level. To do this, we need to understand our carbon footprint. It’s called carbon footprint because most of the planet-warming pollution is carbon dioxide. The energy sector accounts for nearly three-quarters of worldwide emissions, followed by agriculture. The primary source of emissions comes from the energy sector, and chiefly from fossil fuels – coal, oil, and increasingly natural gas, used for electricity and heat generation, followed by transportation and manufacturing. In fact, the past IPCC report noted that we must completely eliminate fossil fuels by 2050, and move towards renewable, lower energy demand, change dietary habits and consumption, and protect and restore natural ecosystems.

But how we respond is vastly different based on where we are from and how much pollution we have created in the past and currently. About 60% of GHG emissions come from just 10 countries, while the 100 least-emitting contribute less than 3%. The 10 countries include China, the United States, the EU, India, Russia, Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, Iran, and Canada. Some countries have polluted the least but are experiencing the worst effects of the climate emergency because of countries like the United States. 

Though the U.S. is 4% of the world’s population, we have emitted 25% of cumulative emissions. In fact, we have the highest emissions per capita. The top 10 largest emitters, especially the largest historic emitters, must do more to not only reduce their own emissions but also to finance and support the mitigation efforts of countries least responsible. This will allow us to help countries least responsible for the climate crisis with reparations for loss and damages, and resources for adaptation and resilience. 

For those whose countries are the historic emitters we have a responsibility to amplify not only how the climate crisis is impacting our own domestic communities, but the realities of our sisters from countries least responsible but most impacted, from Kiribati, Fiji, the Bahamas, Tuvalu, Mozambique, Samoa, the Philippines, Kenya, Sri Lanka, to name a few.

While the 10 largest emitting countries must take drastic actions, all countries and all people can be part of turning the tide on the climate crisis.

READ: A Lovesong for the Longhaul: UMC Pastors on Hurricane Ida Aftermath

One concrete step we can take is to reach out to our government leaders and urge them to commit to eliminating fossil fuels as energy sources and to transition completely to clean renewable energy sources like wind and solar. We need to urge them to transition from fossil fuels to just energy sources that do not cause harm or cause communities to relocate because of rising sea levels. Instead, we can envision and advocate for a world where there is equitable energy access, where women are not dying because of smoke inhalation from cooking or being raped while getting water or kindling. We can advocate for an energy economy that is not extractive but just; where we are stewards, not pillagers, of creation.

Advocacy can take many forms, and it can occur amid a global health crisis. In April 2021, more than 300 United Methodist Women leaders from 40 states had 80 visits with Congressional members. Our group urged our elected leaders to quickly transition to renewable energy that is centered on justice and equity. We also met with car manufacturer Ford at their headquarters and dealerships. Some members even went to Chevron’s headquarters and met with staff. In each meeting, we urged a just transition to renewable energy.

At the personal and communal level, we can determine our carbon footprint by using an online carbon footprint calculator. Good calculators where one has a large carbon footprint and avenues for modification. Advocating for energy policy change is key, but I can also turn off the lights, replace lightbulbs with LEDs, ride public transit, compost, eliminate waste and plastic use, and reduce the amount of meat I eat on a weekly basis.

Another crucial thing we can do is to talk about not only the climate crisis but the climate solutions with our family friends, schools, colleagues, companies, and our government leaders.  

The current climate crisis is doing incredible harm to God’s creation. Women of faith have an opportunity to be like the widow in the parable with the unjust judge. The widow did not get justice because the judge thought she was right, but because she was persistent. Even when we get discouraged, we should persist in demanding that our government officials, fossil fuel companies, churches, and communities do their part to address the climate crisis. In the process of calling nations to account while also reducing our own emissions, we have the possibility to do as John Wesley advised: to do no harm, to do good, and care for creation.