Environment

"We act from sound ecological practices to protect and preserve the Earth for both present and future generations." - URI Principle 10
Blantyre CC cleans up Malawi township


By uniting to address the causes and threats to our shared ecosystem, we honor the sacred life that lives in each of us, the water, the soil and in all species.

Examples of our work in this Action Area:

  • During this time of climate emergency, the URI network is stepping up to make a change. URI is partnering with the Faith for Earth Initiative (UNEP) and other local entities to equip Faith Leaders and community members to respond quickly and effectively to the climate crisis. The project will take place in India, Bosnia, and Lebanon in 2021.
  • In the USA, California Interfaith Power and Light CC makes energy and water conservation improvements to their houses of worship, installing solar panels, holding training programs for other congregations, and lobbying state and local governments for stronger climate policies and investments in renewable energy.
  • Forward in Action for Conservation of Indigenous Species (FACIS) introduced a new strategy of bringing people of different faiths to work together to produce organic food through a sustainable farming called "Biointensive agriculture". In the spirit of togetherness, Muslims and Christians in northern Nigeria work together on the same farmland to learn new but simple, eco-friendly methods of farming while also nurturing relationships. So people who were perceived enemies of one another are now friends working to produce organic food to fight hunger and poverty.
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Stories

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Following the Path of Transformation

Multiregion
Environment
Indigenous Peoples
Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation

This is an inspiring message sent by Weston Pew, one of the members of our URI Global Youth CC, to the URI global youth community at the beginning of 2010, as a New Year's Greeting.... "In this universal breath that is this moment we hold the power for absolute destruction or absolute transformation. Each of us feels this possibility from within and I believe that each of us is here right now at this time to access our greatest human potential, our greatest individual gifts and direct them towards the transformation of the greater good. In a sense we are all here as midwives to usher in this new chapter of human existence on earth and within the universe." Weston is traveling on the Sacred Door Trail right as we speak. We look forward to hearing of his experiences when he returns!

Making Sense of Copenhagen

North America
Environment

The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, in December 2009, has come and gone. How to interpret its impact is the question?  Pessimistic voices declare that its goal of a binding agreement among nations failed miserably and that the venue of small and large nations together was far too unwieldy to arrive at a meaningful conclusion.  Optimistic voices are cheered that it happened at all.  That leading polluting nations arrived at a common intent to change and that Copenhagen represented only one stop on a long road, whose next steps are Mexico (2010) and beyond until a binding agreement is achieved.

A Climate Change Call to Action

North America
Environment

The Global Council of the United Religions Initiative (URI) concurs with some 500 leaders of major faith communities of the world who, when gathered at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne, Australia, in December 2009, issued a statement that “recognized that climate change is the single most important issue presently confronting us and all on Earth.”

URI and birds in flight

Multiregion
Environment

Dear friends, I had to stop in awe this morning as a flock of seagulls cavorted in a zig-zagging mass overhead. As I focused on individual gulls, I noticed each one was purposeful and directed, you..