Por SAM LITVIN<\/p>\n
Church and religion are rarely thought to be the place for leadership on science. Yet from Francis Bacon to Pope Francis, the church included many people who are passionate about nature and science, and are sometimes a catalyst for change. This seems to also be the case with the St. Dunstan\u2019s Episcopal Church in Del Cerro where a group of parishioners, headed by Mary Potter, became concerned with climate change and social justice and began a reading group a year ago in the midst of the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Charles Keeling and Roger Revelle at UC San Diego Scripps Institute of Oceanography first discovered climate change. It is the result of manmade greenhouse gasses added to the atmosphere that result in a rising average global temperature. This was shown to be a cause of extreme temperatures and weather across the globe, causing property damage, human movements across borders, food production disruption and mass deaths. The effects were proven to be human caused due to a direct correlation to increase of man-made greenhouse gasses and the fact that natural climate change takes millions of years where as this climate change is taking decades, without a natural cause to account for the rapid change.<\/p>\n
After a year of becoming educated about the causes and effects of climate change through shared readings and weekly discussions, the St. Dunstan\u2019s parishioners realized that it is time to act and do more. But how do you do this? Going after a global problem in a local way is a lot harder than it sounds. This is why Potter and the rest of the core group of 12 members out of the initial 48 decided to start a series of community meetings with invited speakers. Each month a speaker will address a specific issue, starting off with \u201cClimate Change\u201d in September, \u201cEnvironmental Justice\u201d in October and \u201cRacial Justice\u201d in November.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have all become so much more passionate. It\u2019s here, it\u2019s now and we are behind the eight ball\u201d said Potter when asked if becoming more aware helped her to act. \u201cClimate change is no joke, it is in our laps and we have to educate ourselves about them (tactics)\u201d<\/p>\n
The invited speakers will include Jennie Patton, a Recycling Specialist from the Environmental Service Department of San Diego on Sept. 8. Sept. 15 will host Jennifer Ott-Rol on use of single use plastics, also from the San Diego Department of Environmental Services. Sept. 22 will be Physical Geology professor Lisa Chaddock of the San Diego Community College talking about planting a native garden in St. Dunstan\u2019s. Last but not least in the series will be Jules Jackson of Wild West Talks of Imperial Beach on Sept. 29. She will be covering climate change and border pollution in rivers and oceans.<\/p>\n
These meetings will be held in the St. Dunstan\u2019s sanctuary and the goal is to make people more aware and engaged through information on science and tactics that every person can take do.<\/p>\n
Potter said that for her, before doing this research, \u201cthe \u2018why\u2019 [of climate change] was lacking. Truly the depth of the \u2018why\u2019 wasn\u2019t explained.\u201d Once she learned the \u2018why,\u2019 she became motivated and decided to do more. \u201cWe have to get in and do action and we need to know why we\u2019re doing them.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is what she hopes will happen: People of all ages will come to the discussions and walk away with action items they can take home and begin the change.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re dropping the bucket, we need to do a lot more,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n