UUFD’s traditional Summer Series will address the theme Coping with the Climate Crisis. We have known that the Earth’s climate is changing for decades. We are in a period of growing awareness and alarm as we experience increasingly severe effects brought on by those changes. The complexities of the short and long-term implications of these changes are staggering and scary. The variety of ways that we can potentially affect the outcome are mind boggling. Our emotions range from denial to despair to hope to dedicated action. How shall we proceed?
Seven thoughtful and environmentally involved members of UUFD and the Durango community will offer their unique thoughts and suggestions for how we can cope.
July 3: Introduction to the Summer Series, Tom Miller
Tom Miller will introduce the series and provide initial context. Tom is a member of UUFD and Team Lead for UUFD’s Environmental Justice Team. A former Management Psychologist, he leads our Environmental Justice Team and is very concerned about the world his grandkids (and theirs) will inherit.
July 9-10 – No service at UUFD; 4 Corners Pine Song Retreat weekend
Saturday workshop: Connecting to Create the Environmental Future we Desire, led by Dr. Heidi Steltzer.
How we approach transformative change for ourselves and our world can shift the nature of what is possible, summoning energy and fostering connection and cooperation. Together we will explore the difficult feelings that arise due to the damaging environmental changes taking place on our planet. We’ll reflect on values that underlie these difficult feelings and explore actions we can take towards changing systems that constrain our future. Through individual and collective commitment to act, we can create a future consistent with our core values.
Heidi is an environmental scientist, explorer and speaker who has invested over twenty-five years studying mountain and Arctic lands to understand how healthy ecosystems provide for human well-being. She is a professor of Environment and Sustainability at Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado.
Sunday Worship: So the People May Live, led by Rev. Munro Sickafoose.
What are we willing to sacrifice for the greater good? How do we give as much or more than we take? What are the boundaries we will not cross, even if we are in great need? The underlying principle to all of these questions is that of self-control; the ability to defer gratification; the ability to place the needs of the whole and the greater good ahead of one’s own selfish interests. How might we do that in our world – and the world to come?
Rev. Munro has recently ended his term as one of our Transitional Ministers and joins us one last time for this special service.
July 17: The Injustice of Climate Change, Dick White
Climate change is inherently unjust. The rich people and rich countries that have benefited from consumption of fossil fuels have contributed disproportionately to causing climate change. The poor people and poor countries that have the fewest resources to adapt suffer disproportionately from the consequences. What can we do as residents one of the rich countries?
Dick is a scientist, educator, climate protection advocate, and former Mayor and City Councilman in Durango.
July 24: An exploration of science and values as integral to environmental leadership, Heidi Steltzer
In a world that is rapidly changing in ways that put many lives and species at risk, we live with immense uncertainty and constant hope. Can climate science provide certainty, steer us away from drought, floods, heat waves and wildfires? Can we know when it is time to act and when it is too late? Heidi will offer an integrated, holistic approach to climate science that she feels is essential to environmental leadership.
Heidi is an environmental scientist, explorer and speaker who has invested over twenty-five years studying mountain and Arctic lands to understand how healthy ecosystems provide for human well-being. She is a professor of Environment and Sustainability at Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado.
July 31: Food, Agriculture, and Climate: Ethical choices matter, Stephen Guy
With collective will, we have the technology, resources, and ability to ‘solve’ the Climate Crisis. The daily, ethical choices we make in our diet can affect how agriculture and food production evolve to more effectively reduce net carbon emission.
Stephen is a member of UUFD. He was formerly on the Agronomy faculty at the University of Idaho and Washington State University.
August 7: Deep time-Deep presence: Practices to Cope with a Changing World, Mary Ocken
Mary Ocken will help us think in terms of Deep Time and Deep Presence practices based on the spiritual practices of Thich Naht Hahn’s ideas around climate change. Mary is a UUFD member and has an eclectic spiritual life drawing on elements from Christianity, Panentheism, Process Theology, Taoism and Buddhism. She is a writer and has facilitated workshops in Eco-spirituality, Ecopsychology, and the New Cosmology.
August 14: Can you address all the complexities of climate change without making yourself miserable and depressed in the process?, Darcy Hitchcock
For over twenty years, Darcy led a sustainability consulting firm, published books on the topic and helped start two nonprofits in the field. She currently publishes a good news blog on environmental topics. She will share her inspired journey from depression and anger to optimism and effective, systemic action.