CRC Ecojustice

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Comment by Stephan Lutz 13 hours ago

It is sad to see that many African leaders are seeing Copenhagen as a place to get money blaming climate change on the west and therefore seeking monetary compensation. Even though the west has contributed significantly to global climate change, there is no doubt that countries like Kenya are responsible for their own environmental degradation and shifting the blame to the west is a way of not really taking ownership and responsibility for their own lack of leadership in this issue. It is only when when the current Kenya leadership takes responsibility of it's own environmental issues (deforestation, soil degradation and loss of water supply, loss of biodiversity, corrupt environmental policy institutions, etc..) that we will see some positive change. The church needs to play a key role here in holding the government accountable for this.

Comment by Dave Timmer on October 19, 2009 at 4:03pm

Shameless plug alert: just wanting to make sure you all are aware of a great organization for you to support. A Rocha. http://www.arocha.org/us-en/index.html

I don't know of an organization that better addresses the issues we discuss in this group. I know there are a few of us on this group who are very involved in their work.
There are hubs in several countries so I recommend supporting the one in your country.

Comment by Steve Eichhorn on October 14, 2009 at 8:42pm

Working without a building. Renting space from a High School. Multi-use facility.

Comment by Crystle Numan on October 9, 2009 at 10:09am

Kathy: Our church has an industrial dishwasher - it's fantastic! A load takes 5 minutes, maximum. We also use it on Sunday to wash the cups after the coffee fellowship. I think we were able to get it used - you might be able to ask around at a food service store. They are pricey, but I think if you costed it out vs. disposable, that could help to explain it to your church. (Even though the cost is more than just buying the disposable).

We also have city wide composting, so here, if we used paper plates, they would be composted, not put in the garbage.

Comment by Kathy Jelsema on October 8, 2009 at 11:25am

Our church has fellowship dinner together every Wednesday evening. We serve about 160 people a hot meal, salad bar, and ice cream sundaes. We are trying to decide what is the best way in terms of environmental stewardship, as well as financial stewardship, to serve these dinners. Currently we have decided to stop using any styrofoam or paper plates and cups and are instead washing and drying by hand all the dinner plates, salad bowls, and ice cream bowls, and then washing cups and silverware in residential grade dishwashers (i.e. takes at least half an hour to run a load). As you can imagine, it takes a lot of time to wash and dry all these dishes and bowls by hand every week, especially having just one sink to wash them in. We have thought about investing in a commercial grade dishwasher, but are not sure if this is really the best solution or not. Are there any other churches in this situation? What have you done to be green, and at the same time be able to serve a good hot dinner? Are dishwashers really the way to go, or would switching back to paper prducts (not styrofoam) be better?

Comment by Catherine Cooper on August 5, 2009 at 11:52am

Continuing the discussion on electric cars, the Ontario government is giving a company that makes batteries for electric cars $16.7 million. Here's a link to a short article about it: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/ontario-promises-funds-for-electric-car-battery-firm/article1241585/. At the end of the article a few people have posted interesting comments about some of the problems with plan, although I don't know enough about the debate to say whether they are accurate.

Comment by Catherine Cooper on August 4, 2009 at 10:14am

Thanks Pieter! That's really helpful and interesting!

Comment by Pieter Hemmo Hoekstra on August 4, 2009 at 9:34am

Hi Catherine,
It isn't the first ZEV in the USA, GM made one about 10 years ago. Unfortunately these vehicles have a nasty underside, the carbon footprint of an electric car or a hybrid is just as large as a Humvee over the first 5-10 years of its life, mainly because of the expensive and toxin laden batteries. The most environmentally friendly thing we can do is drive less, drive smarter, and take care of the vehicles we have. I am no saint in this area, as I love to drive fast. The smartest/greenest car on the road now is a mid 90's toyota! they were averaging 30mpg, and the energy used to build it is already there!.

Comment by Catherine Cooper on August 3, 2009 at 9:07am

Nissan has unvelied its first electric, zero-emissions car, which will go on sale next year in the US, Europe, and Japan. Here's a link to the new story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8180333.stm

Does anyone know if this will be the first zero-emissions car available in the US?

Comment by Randy on June 2, 2009 at 2:57pm

I highly recommend that the Eat Well Food Tour make a stop in Ames, IA on their way West toward Sioux Center. Ames is not a CRC colony like Pella or Sioux Center, but it is a key place in the good/local/natural foods movement, which has a significant faith component here. The folks mentioned below are our CSA farmer and a Sustainable Ag. faculty member at ISU who also was on the ministry board of Areopagus.

They should contact Gary Guthrie of Growing Harmony Farm CSA (ghfguthrie@hotmail.com) and Mary Wiedenhoeft (mwiedenh@iastate.edu)
Peace,
Randy

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