MDiv and MA students at PLTS who are either enrolled or interested in the Concentration in Climate Justice and Faith gathered at Hope Lutheran Church in El Sobrante, CA in September 2026 for an annual retreat. Following a morning of discussing the impacts of climate change, students embarked on a fieldtrip to the Richmond, CA shoreline for a Toxic Tour where they saw these impacts first hand. A team of passionate staff and volunteers from the Richmond Shoreline Alliance led students and other community members on a tour of a Superfund-qualified site where companies like Zeneca and Stauffer Chemicals dumped their toxic waste – including radioactive materials – into marshlands along the San Francisco Bay for decades. Rising sea levels are pushing these harmful chemicals up into the marsh where they are seeping into the local sewers affecting the low-income communities nearby. The tour was an example of how climate change is exacerbating environmental injustice and how already vulnerable communities are the most impacted. Learn more about the Concentration in Climate Justice and Faith.