Student Engagement in Climate Justice
Fewer Plastic for Lent 2023 Week 1: Assessment
Each week during Lent the Green Justice Seminary Team will be sharing one step you can take to reduce your impact on Creation as a Lenten practice and will be taking these steps alongside the rest of the seminary. Thank you for joining us on this Lenten journey to reduce our plastic consumption and practice loving our neighbors impacted by plastic production and plastic waste around the world.
The first step in using fewer plastics is to evaluate your plastic usage. Most plastics are single-use packaging and only about 5% of the plastic we put in the recycling is actually recycled…
No Plastic for Lent: The Connection Between Climate Justice and Plastic
As the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (PLTS) community prepared to participate in the ELCA Young Adult Ministries’ #NoPlacticsforLent initiative this Lent (or our slightly less ambitious version “#FewerPlasticsForLent”), we wanted to take a deeper look at the impacts of our plastic usage. While it’s well known that plastics are bad for the environment – we’ve all seen devastating photos of plastic “islands” floating in the Pacific – the connection between climate justice and plastic is less obvious…
Center for Climate Justice and Faith at COP27
In November 2022, several students and faculty from the PLTS Center for Climate Justice and Faith traveled to Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt for the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27).
Shede Habila joined the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) youth delegation to COP27 as one of eight LWF youth delegates to attend in-person. Shede earned his Certificate in Climate Justice and Faith from the PLTS Center for Climate Justice and Faith in Spring 2022 and is leading a reforestation initiative in his community in Yola, Nigeria. As a member of the Lutheran Church of Christ of Nigeria, Shede has seen the impacts of the climate crisis firsthand and understands the urgency in solving it.
Climate Action and Mitigation Sustainability Initiative in Yola, Nigeria
Where Pastor Shede Habila lives in Nigeria, 90% of the population are small-scale farmers. Deforestation of land for agriculture combined with severe climate change-induced downpours has led to erosion and flooding which threaten the livelihood of the entire community. For his Sacred Action Project for the Certificate in Climate Justice and Faith, Pastor Habila launched The CAMSI (Climate Action and Mitigation Sustainability Initiative) Project. This initiative is designed to inform the local community of the long-term impacts of deforestation and start planting trees as a community in order to combat erosion.
Community Organizing Project: Protagonists of Transformation
When Pope Francis charged young adults in the Catholic Church to “be protagonists of transformation”, Anna Robertson took note. Until July of 2022, Anna served as the first Director of Youth and Young Adult Mobilization at Catholic Climate Covenant and recently completed the Community Organizing for Climate Justice as Love in Action training. For her final project, Anna designed the Common Home Corps, a cohort-based mentorship program to build a youth movement for climate justice within the Catholic Church
