Announcement: Riding the Wind to a Cleaner Environment

2019

April 6-14 Faith Climate Action Week This week, more than 1,500 congregations and hundreds of thousands of people of faith and conscience around the country are joining together to preach, teach, pray, and ACT to protect Earth and all of its inhabitants. Sponsored by Interfaith Power & Light

April 23, 2 pm Learn More About Carbon Offsets as a Tool for Achieving Carbon Neutrality. Rev. Douglas Olds (Presbyterian Church [USA]) will give a 45-minute presentation with time for questions covering pricing, investment options, and vendors for voluntary mitigation of our carbon emissions through offsets. The Chapel at First Presbyterian Church of San Rafael, 1510 Fifth Ave at E St., Sponsored by Marin Interfaith Climate Action

April 23, 2019, 7–9 pm (doors open at 6:15) The Green New Deal: A Game Changer? A bold and visionary set of ideas for climate action getting attention and traction in Washington. Can it gain real momentum and result in meaningful federal legislation for a healthier economy and country? Come learn from individuals on the front line. Program covers: Update on climate policy from Washington DC; The Sunrise Movement and the youth perspective on the GND; What we can learn from the 1930's New Deal; Is the GND imperative? What if Washington does not act?; What are the potential pitfalls and where is the opposition?; What is the role of the public? Speakers: Lucy London, Novato High School Senior; Jared Huffman, US Representative (CA 2nd District) and a member of the House’s Committee on the Climate Crisis and Chair of the Water, Oceans and Wildlife Sub-Committee; Mukta Kelkar, Bay Area Sunrise Movement Organizer; Isaac Silk, Bay Area Sunrise Movement Organizer; Mark Hertsgaard, Environment Correspondent for The Nation and author of Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth. Corte Madera Community Center, 498 Tamalpais Drive, Corte Madera. Sponsored by and register at Environmental Forum of Marin.

April 28, 2-5 pm Drive Clean Marin Free Community Drive Electric Event. EVs available to test drive from Chevy, Nissan, Tesla, BMW and more. EV owners and experts will be available to share best practices with charging at home and on the road and tapping into rebates and incentives. Please join us to learn how you can reduce your carbon footprint by 50% by making the switch to electric! Registration College of Marin parking lot near pool/gym, Kentfield. Sponsored by Organizing for Action, Marin Team

Ongoing Online - Deepening Resilience: Earth-Based Responses to Climate Change. Pagans and Polytheists Building Resilient Earth-Centered Communities The project is setting roots as a community blog project with seven topics over 12 weeks. Topics address spiritual-social-ecological systems, ecological grief and trauma, working with spirits, and building resilient communities that embrace marginalized peoples. Check websites for dates.

May 8, 7-9 pm - Firestorm: Marin County and Climate Change: Climate change continues to intensify the conditions causing the most destructive fires in California’s history. We here in Marin are extremely vulnerable. Featured speakers: Christie Neill, Marin County Fire Dept, VMP Battalion Chief; Patrick Gonzalez, UC Berkeley Climate Change Scientist and Forest Ecologist; Lisa Santora, Deputy Director, Main County Dept of Public Health; Joel Laucher, Senior Advisor, California Dept of Insurance; Kate Sears, Marin County Supervisor; and Todd Lando, FIREsafe MARIN. Moderated by veteran radio host, Peter B. Collins. RSVP to https://bit.ly/2W1hnBR. This event is free to the public. Childcare and Spanish translation provided on prior request. Sponsored by Organizing for Action Marin in partnership withFiresafe Marin, Drawdown Marin, Marin Conservation League, 350 Marin, Cool Effects, Marin Interfaith Climate Action, Sustainable San Rafael and Resilient Neighborhoods. San Rafael Community Center, 618 B Street, San Rafael, CA 94901

May 23, 7-8:30 pm. What Do Our Faith Traditions Teach Us About Right Relationship to the Earth? Panel of interfaith leaders: Rev. Douglas Olds, First Presbyterian Church, San Anselmo; Rabbi Paul Steinberg, Congregation Kol Shofar, Tiburon; Fr. Ken Weare, Saint Rita Catholic Church, Fairfax; Mirza Khan, San Domenico School, San Anselmo; moderated by Susan Stephenson, Executive Director, Interfaith Power and Light, followed by Q&A. The Gathering Space, Dominican Sisters Center, 1520 Grand Ave., San Rafael. Sponsored by Dominican Sisters of San Rafael, California Interfaith Power & Light and Marin Interfaith Climate Action. RSVP to CommunityRelations@sanrafaelop.org

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2018

September 15, 9 am - 4 pm - Elders Awakened, Standing for Our Grandchildren and All Life: Climate Action, Social Justice, and a Flourishing Future, a two-part workshop following the Global Climate Action Summit Sponsored by Conscious Elders Network, First Unitarian Universalist Church, 1187 Franklin St., San Francisco

September 15, 5:30 pm - Global Climate Action Summit Affiliate Event: Getting to Paris Without Stopping in Washington. Time to Lead on Climate in association with Drawdown Marin Diamond Center Gymnasium, 700 College Ave., Kentfield

September 12-14, 2018

San Francisco

August 1, 2018 deadline for feedback City of San Rafael Climate Change Action Survey

Projects & Accomplishments

Larry Strick, Scott Quinn, Louise Lipsey, Jared Huffman, Aline O'Brien, Evan Saunders, Ralph Purdy, Pat Carlone in Congressman Huffman's Office

Current -- 2019 to Present

January

Began discussion on developing an Interfaith Statement on Climate Change and Earth Justice.
Rev. Doug Olds’ institutional carbon audit of First Presbyterian San Anselmo nears completion.
Six member congregations announce conversion to MCE Deep Green 100% renewable energy.

February

Dr. Peter Joseph, Citizens’ Climate Lobby, spoke to our members about the work of Citizens’ Climate Lobby and their Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (H.R.763) now before Congress.

March

Rev. Doug Olds completed the pilot institutional carbon audit at First Presbyterian Church San Anselmo.
Members of the Working Group propose institutional audits for two other member congregations.

Accomplishments in First Two Years

from March 2017 to December 2018

2017

March

Held first meeting.

April

Participated in local People's Climate March

June

First Presbyterian San Anselmo, produced A Prayer for the Planet Requiem, a musical and visual experience, at the church.
Congregation Kol Shofar held a forum on the palm oil crisis with Lindsey Allen of the Rainforest Action Network.
Sleepy Hollow Church produced the Marin Youth Climate Change Summit as its effort to organize Marin youth about climate change.

July

We drafted our Vision and Mission statements, changed our organizational name, and affiliated with the Marin Interfaith Council (MIC) as its Climate Action agency.
First Presbyterian San Rafael made available for viewing the climate film, From the Ashes.
The Westminster Presbyterian Resilient Neighborhoods team, Westminster Protects Creation, contributed a total CO2 reduction of 187,542 lbs.!

August

We participated in the California Power & Light Advocacy Day at the State Capitol and met with staff of key legislatures regarding six important climate-related bills before the Appropriation Committee.

September

First Presbyterian San Anselmo produced The Compassionate Diet.
Westminster Presbyterian produced a well-attended Eco Fair that consisted of 15 booths on a variety of environmental options.
We launched the Interfaith Earth Day 2018 Challenge and set a collective goal to reduce 100,000 lbs. of CO2 by Earth Day, April 22, 2018.

October

Congregation Kol Shofar and MICA co-produced, Be Part of the Climate Solution, from which four interfaith members signed up for a Resilient Neighborhoods team to participate in the Interfaith Earth Day 2018 Challenge. The interfaith members achieved 68% of the Challenge goal of 100,000 lbs. reduction of CO2.
We co-sponsored the Jimmy Carter jamboree

November

Two Westminster Presbyterian members on their Resilient Neighborhoods team pushed the CO2 reduction total to 78% of our goal for the Interfaith Earth Day 2018 Challenge.
Congregation Kol Shofar received California Interfaith Power & Light's 2017 Cool Climate Award for Climate Education.

December

Kol Shofar held a another Be Part of the Climate Solution event, Hope, Urgency, and “Chumamich,” at which Ellen Cohen, President and CEO of Point Blue Conservation Science, shared her experience at the recent UN global climate meetings in Bonn, Germany, relating the challenges and opportunities facing the climate movement.

2018

January

Two additional interfaith members, one from Kol Shofar and the other from First Presbyterian San Rafael, joined a Resilient Neighborhoods team and will contribute to our Interfaith Earth Day 2018 Challenge goal.

Held our first Steering Committee Meeting.

February

A member of MICA joined the Board of Directors for Sustainable Marin.

MICA members attended the Ross Valley Sanitary District (RVSD) Board Meeting to support Advocates for MCE Deep Green, and RVSD became the first wastewater agency in Marin to switch to Deep Green.

First Presbyterian Church of San Rafael converted to Deep Green.

March

Began establishing some goals for 2018, which are as follows:

* Convert 20 member congregations to MCE Deep Green Energy
* Convert 20 households within each congregation to MCE Deep Green Energy
* Involve 20 additional households to participate in Resilient Neighborhood teams.

April

Participated in the Mill Valley Earth Day event, where we announced achievement of our Interfaith Earth Day Challenge goal of reducing our collective carbon footprint by 100,000 lbs. with a total of 123,096 lbs, the equivalent of removing 12 gasoline-powered cars off the road.

Earth Day 2018

Aline O'Brien, Pat Carlone

MICA profiled on The Wild Hunt, the primary Pagan news publication.

May

Began implementing our project to encourage member congregations and households to convert to MCE Deep Green energy (MCE means, Marin Clean Energy, and Deep Green means, 100% non-fossil fuel, clean, renewable sources of electricity)

Held small group dialogue on May 14 with Congressman Jared Huffman about our shared vision for continued work on building local climate leadership.

June

Devoted the June meeting to a presentation by Jim Williams, Associate Professor at University of San Francisco (USF), global thought leader in the area of low-carbon energy systems, who brought us up to date on the current state of our global climate problem, what the science is telling us, and the viable solutions that are being implemented.

July

Agreed to work with Rev. Doug Olds, Presbyterian Church USA, who has done previous work in measuring institutional carbon footprints, particularly with the San Francisco Theological Seminary, to develop a Carbon Action Plan, a praxis for faith communities to take a leadership role in fighting global warming.
Planning for MICA participation in the September 8 and September 15 events related to Governor Brown’s Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco.

New-River-watershed-Trinity-Alps-Prop-Ad

July 27, 2018

Representative Jared Huffman Introduces Historic Public Lands Bill

Sign here to thank him.

August

MICA member Evan Saunders participated in the August 14 California Interfaith Light & Power Day of Advocacy in Sacramento.

September

MICA members participated in the September 8 rally and march
Provided a MICA table for the September 15 Time To Lead On Climate event.

October – November

Continued to provide a working group to support Rev. Doug Olds prepare his Carbon Action Plan for early 2019 pilot at First Presbyterian San Anselmo. The Plan includes both a praxis for an institutional carbon audit and the study of the sacred scriptures and stories of the various faith traditions that provide the moral imperative.
Continued promotion within our member congregations for conversion to MCE Deep Green.

December

Assessment of our organization and resultant goals for 2019.