As we make presentations at various communities around Southern California, we have accumulated quite a lot of resources which are useful to faith communities, particularly those in the greater Los Angeles area.

specific recommendations for communities that are just beginning their journey

• Environmental Suggestions for Large Events at churches, community halls, scout troops, etc.
• Environmental Audit for churches, temples, community halls, and small businesses
• Environmental Change-Making -- our book.  How to create a group like Environmental Change-Makers in your neighborhood.

Explanation of peak oil, climate change, and economic contraction -- Their simultaneous occurrence will shape all human experience in the coming years and decade.  Planning for one without the other two will only lead to more wasted resources, and futile efforts without long term viability.

• Explanation of peak oil, climate change, and economic contraction
• More on our understanding of the economy: right sidebar here. 
• Why local, urban food production is imperative in this time, and is essential to maintaining peace, particularly in our cities.
• executive summary version: What is Power Down, and Do We Have To Do It Now? (ECM handout)
• Energy Futures diagram by David Homgren; explanatory text
• Resources for powerdown solutions
• Understanding The Great Turning

• How Global Warming will affect the poor of various continents - great chart on page 45-46 of this pdf
• Details of our work with localizing the Millenium Development Goals
• "Entry Points," a Christian Century article about the welcoming approach of ECM co-founder, the Reverend Peter Rood
• Environmental Suggestions for Large Events at churches, community halls, scout troops, etc.
• Environmental Audit for churches, temples, community halls, and small businesses
• "Solidarity" - an article considering the missing element in today's communities
• Permaculture Ethics: "Earth Care, People Care, Fairshares" is the ethical foundation of David Holmgren's Permaculture philosophy
• "Movimiento de Transición (en español)" - our page, links list, and handout for many of our secular resources in Spanish
• What to do at a gathering?  See what we've done at our past meetings.

an interfaith pledge to reduce carbon emissions at your community site by 50% in 10 years

• The Genesis Covenant
• 50% in 10 years, How Do We Get There? tips and resources by Joanne Poyourow
• Genesis Covenant:  "Honoring all Creation at Church Meeting and Conference Events" (Word doc)

Interfaith and spiritual

• California Interfaith Power and Light - "a religious response to global warming"
• National Religious Partnership for the Environment
• 350.org's campaign via faith communities. 
  • 350 also supplies a resource list, but we caution you that it will only focus on the single issue of climate change.  We encourage you to simultaneously consider peak oil and economic contraction which will limit some of the "solutions" posed by the climate-change-only thinkers.
• Simple Living Network - "Learning to do more with less"
• Simple Prosperity, by Dave Wann
• "To Remake the World," inspiring essay by Paul Hawken

Buddhist

• The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology, by Thich Nhat Hanh -- specifically addresses engaging in urgent action on global warming & economic destruction, and the personal transformations needed to address the crisis
• Joanna Macy
• Gardening at the Dragon's Gate: At Work in the Wild and Cultivated World by Wendy Johnson -- beautifully introspective writing on spirit and ecology, told through garden experience at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center in Northern California

Catholic

• "Environmental Justice" article by Joanne Poyourow with Jacqueline Welsh
• ‘It is manifestly unjust that a privileged few should continue to accumulate excess goods, squandering available resources, while masses of people are living in conditions of misery at the very lowest level of subsistence. Today, the dramatic threat of ecological breakdown is teaching us the extent to which greed and selfishness — both individual and collective — are contrary to the order of creation, an order which is characterized by mutual interdependence.’
  • -- Message of Pope John Paul II for the 1990 World Day of Peace on the theme “Peace with God the Creator, Peace with All of Creation”. 8 December 1989
• "among the basic problems which the international community has to address is that of energy resources and the development of joint and sustainable strategies to satisfy the energy needs of the present and future generations. This means that technologically advanced societies must be prepared to encourage more sober lifestyles, while reducing their energy consumption and improving its efficiency."
  • -- Message of Benedict XVI for the 2010 World Day of Peace on the theme “If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation ”. 1 January 2010
• "the issue of environmental degradation challenges us to examine our life-style and the prevailing models of consumption and production, which are often unsustainable from a social, environmental and even economic point of view. We can no longer do without a real change of outlook which will result in new life-styles"
  • -- Message of Benedict XVI for the 2010 World Day of Peace on the theme “If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation ”. 1 January 2010
• We strongly urge Catholic communities to reach beyond the "St Francis Pledge," and to make a commitment to concrete emissions-reducing action and new lifestyles.

Christian (evangelical)

• Evangelical Environmental Network and Creation Care -- "Worshiping God.  Loving His people.  Caring for His Creation."

Christian (interdenominational)

• The National Council of Churches open letter about the environment
• "Why church people should be at the forefront of the global warming issue" by Bill McKibben.  scroll to second half of the Christian Century article here

Episcopal

• white paper to [District 8]
• "To Serve Christ in All Creation" a study guide and discussion course based on the Pastoral Letter from the Episcopal Bishops of New England. (pdf) 
  • note: if you are planning to use this course, you can replace New England climate information with California information here
• Camp Stevens in Julian, California (near San Diego) includes on-site food production in Permaculture gardens, and teaches environmental sessions such as cob building and organic vegetable gardening

Hindu

• Yamas and niyamas (doc) with a perspective on the environment by Joanne Poyourow with Vidya Chaitanya

Jewish

• Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life - "Protecting Creation, generation to generation"
• Ecology & the Jewish Spirit: Where Nature and the Sacred Meet by Ellen Bernstein ed. -- a beautiful collection of essays, very pertinent
• A Spirituality of Resistance: Finding a Peaceful Heart and Protecting the Earth by Roger S. Gottlieb -- addresses the spiritual difficulty of being on a perpetual campaign where one might not see results in one's own lifetime

Muslim

• "Environmentalism and Islam"

Native American

• Keepers of Indigenous Ways - "a Tongva-based / inter-tribal volunteer organization" within the Los Angeles basin

Pagan

• Starhawk's Permaculture Resources

“A child born in a wealthy country is likely to consume, waste and pollute more in his lifetime than 50 children born in developing nations.”

-- George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, UK, quoted in Guy Dauncey, Stormy Weather, p.25

“… the United States has the world’s largest Footprint at 9.57 hectares (23.7 acres) per person -- a sustainable Footprint would be 1.88 hectares (4.6 acres)”

[That means that if everyone on the planet consumed the way Americans do, it would take 5 planets to provide for it all.]

from Consumption of world resources at “Ecological Footprint of Nations, 2004“, United Nations.