Environmental Sustainability News
Take the 40/40/40 Challenge
We are looking for 40+ members of our congregation to commit to big or small lifestyle changes for 40 days, in celebration of Earth Day’s 40th Anniversary in 2010. Join thousands of other UUs in celebrating 40/40/40.
Our Spirit in Nature Path
By Phil Kern
Emerging spring calls us now more strongly to walk our Spirit-in-Nature path. Who among us has walked the path this winter? Or have you, as have I, neglected our plot of nature’s remnant during the cold, gray months? As spring brings new life back to the land, let’s get out and see what changes the growing season will bring among our neighbors in the wild community.
The UUCUV Spirit-in-Nature path is one of at least seven such paths, all modeled on the Mother Path which is located near Ripton, Vermont.
Creation of our path was inspired in part by our engagement in a wide range of environmental activities, which led, in June, 2002, to our becoming the first UU congregation to be recognized by the UUA as a Green Sanctuary. With the support of a $1500 grant from the New England Grassroots Environment Fund, a small but energetic group of us, directed largely by Colin High and Bob Eliason, spent much of the spring and summer of 2001 constructing the wetland boardwalk and kiosk. We then located and repeatedly relocated the paths in the woods beyond and built benches and some walkways over wet places (most of the orange path, unfortunately). Our intent from the outset was that the path would be open to the public as a community resource, and it is included in a small Upper Valley Trails
Alliance/DHMC booklet on public walking paths of the Upper Valley.
The path invites visitors to slow down and reflect on the many inspirational quotations which have been selected from various spiritual poets and the world’s faith traditions and are placed along the way. In addition, the Path Guidebook (one copy in the kiosk and another in the Meeting House library) enables visitors to learn more about our place on the planet. It includes a list of some 170 identified plant species, some of which, both along the paths and around the Meeting House grounds, are labeled with signs, which are placed and removed as the plants’ flowering times succeed one another through the seasons. The Guidebook also includes essays on natural history of selected plants that are marked with numbered posts along the path.
Since the path was dedicated on October 5, 2003 (see the memorial stone at the back of the Meeting House), the Environmental Sustainability Committee has tried to hold quarterly seasonal walks on the path to allow the congregation to keep in touch with our wild neighbors and with one another. In addition, employees in nearby offices and staff and clients of The Family Place enjoy having access to the path during their work week. We hope to see you on the path and at a “spring-cleaning day” once things dry out a bit.
Earth Day Celebrates a Big Birthday
This year, we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day. Inspired by Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin in 1969, and organized by Denis Hayes, the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970 featured events attended by 20 million Americans. Those passionate about many different environmental issues came together in realization of their shared values.
Nelson later said the first Earth Day persuaded U.S. politicians that environmental legislation had a substantial, lasting constituency. Many important laws were passed by Congress in the wake of the 1970 Earth Day, including the Clean Air Act, laws on wild lands and the ocean, and the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Now observed in 175 countries, and coordinated by the nonprofit Earth Day Network, it has become an International Day of Action aimed at changing human behavior and environmental policies world wide.
As we face an Earth so altered by the climate crisis that we know our children and grandchildren will come to live in dramatically altered social and economic conditions, let us hold tight to this sacred day, and redouble our conviction and commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by any and all means available to us.
Environmental Sustainability Committee
Colin High (Chair), Mardy High, Claudia Kern, Phil Kern