The first global warming bill taken up by Congress in more than 20 years passed out of committee yesterday with a vote of 11 to eight. Bill authors John Warner (R-VA) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) staved off attempts by opponents to weaken the historic legislation during a committee mark up session Wednesday. More than 150 amendments were offered in an effort to protect both the environment and the economy.

The city of Austin is undertaking some far-reaching energy efficiency goals for new home construction. Here is an except from the Austin-American Statesman:

By 2015, Austin plans to tighten its building codes so new homes will use 65 percent less electricity and gas than those under construction today. "I haven't seen any other city ... with such a long-term vision as this. It's aggressive, but it looks very doable," said Aleisha Khan, executive director of the Building Codes Assistance Project, part of
the Washington-based Alliance to Save Energy...

The objective of Austin's plan is to make homes "zero-energy capable": energy efficient enough that it is cost-effective to install solar panels or other on-site electricity generation such as wind turbines. Without the energy efficiency improvements, the benefit of on-site generation is lost through leaky ducts and windows.

What social workers--and we must count environmentalists among such--find difficult to understand is that the trashing of the land is always preceded by a trashing of the soul. Pollution and despoilation are always political, ethical, before they ever become environmental. No one trashes, willfully wastes, or purposively neglects to clean up the immediate world of house and yard and field--no one accepts with dread fatality the present disorder--unless there has already been a prior disordering of the spirit.

Local environmental organization Brazos Environmental Action Network (BEAN) will be launching the Sierra Club Cool Cities campaign in College Station in October to urge the City of College Station to cut local greenhouse gas emissions. A Cool Cities ( http://coolcities.us) informational workshop, open to all concerned residents of the Brazos Valley, will be held on the following date/time:

Sierra Club "Cool Cities" Workshop

With Ann Drumm, Dallas Cool Cities Campaign Coordinator

Saturday, October 13th, 2007

9am to 12pm

J. Ringer Library

We are all so excited about the great article in last week's Wall Street Journal on evangelicals and the environment that focused attention on the Christian Life Commission and CLC Policy Director Suzii Paynter.

At Texas Impact, we've had several calls and emails from folks commenting especially on the article's thoughtful treatment of the issue of the sovereignty of God.  

Split Over Global Warming Widens Among Evangelicals

Texas Christians Cite Conflicting Scripture; Staying ‘On Mission’

By ANDREW HIGGINS

I posted this same article on the Texas Impact website but wanted to make sure eveyone sees it so I'm posting it here, too.

Our friend the Reverend Steve Brown of Virginia Interfaith Power & Light forwarded me an op-ed by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ross Gelbspan, who is the retired editor of the Boston Globe and an international expert and voice for change on global warming and energy. Ross is a great friend to Texas and Texas Impact who has travelled down here several times to speak to religious and secular audiences on global warming challenges and solutions. His website is http://www.heatisonline.org/

Ross's op-ed is absolutely required reading for faith communities for a number of reasons, the most important of which is the context for hope Ross continues to operate in. As language about global warming from the scientific community gets scarier, we will need different ways of thinking about the future to keep us from shutting down and giving up. Ross Gelbspan's perspective is one that helps me stay grounded in hope for the long term as opposed to grasping for optimism in the short term.

Climate change may destabilize democracies

By Ross Gelbspan

This op-ed first appeared in the Lowell, Massachusett, Sun.

While senators and representatives diddle over the beginnings of authentic climate change legislation, it is depressingly clear that even our best-intentioned leaders don’t really get it.

Bill McKibben's book The Comforting Whirlwind has been a great resource for a lot of folks in the past few years in understanding the connection between faith and the environment through the lens of the whirlwind narrative in the Book of Job. You can get the book through various online outlets including Quakerbooks and Amazon.

The Cool Cities Information and Training Session last Saturday, August 4th was a wonderful success. The group of fifteen or so attendees was energetic and diverse. Many faiths and backgrounds were represented including Methodists, Catholics, Presbyterians, residents of Killeen, Cedar Park, Westlake, Georgetown, college students from Southwestern and the leader of a local Sierra Club group in a Georgetown highschool.

Dr. Andy Fowler, Texas Impact board representative from the Central Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church; Sue Sidney, President of the Southwest Texas Conference United Methodist Women; and Cynthia Crawford of the Catholic Diocese of Austin discuss the religious community's response to the Cool Cities Campaign.