Blog post by Marcia Sowles, Legal Advisor for the Office of Peacebuilding and Policy
Fifty-five years ago this month, we celebrated the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, representing a major early step for the environmental movement. On that day more than 20 million Americans participated in events bringing attention to the need to protect our environment. That same year, Congress established the Environmental Protection Agency and enacted the Clean Air Act and National Environmental Policy Act, which required federal agencies to assess the environmental impact of their proposed actions. Other acts followed, such as the Endangered Species Act in 1973, the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (“Superfund”) in 1980, and Oil Pollution Act in 1990. In addition, recognizing that protecting the environment is an international concern, in 2016 the United States signed the Paris Agreement which seeks to curb global warming by reducing the emission of greenhouse gases.
Over the last fifty-five years, the United States has also recognized that the federal government not only has a critical role in preventing pollution and environmental damage, but it can also play a positive role in improving the environment. For example, in the last few years, federal grants from the Department of Transportation supported clean energy-saving electric buses and other forms of mass transit. Grants from other federal agencies helped urban areas by planting trees and community gardens, retrofitting low-income homes to make them more energy-efficient and funding solar energy programs. Other grants helped rural areas by supporting soil conservation and clean-energy projects. In short, although there have been bumps in the road in which federal funding for environmental programs declined, overall progress had been made since the first Earth Day.
Unfortunately, the new Administration has taken a series of actions which reverse this progress. The acts include:
- Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement again (the first Trump Administration withdrew in 2017, but President Biden rejoined the agreement in 2021).
- Defunding or eliminating programs that promoted a transition from fossil fuels to renewable clean energy.
- Rolling back 31 EPA regulations protecting our air, water, and endangered species. The Administrator of the EPA Lee Zeldin described this action as “the greatest day of deregulation of our nation” and proclaimed that “[w]e are driving a dagger straight into the heart of climate change religion.”
- Directing federal agencies to consider ways to ramp up timber production on public lands.
- Firing employees of the EPA, U.S. Forest Service, U.S Fish and Wildlife, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Park Services and other agencies.
- Terminating environmental justice programs, which seek to correct the disparate impact of the location of environmental hazards in minority communities
This upcoming Earth Day will occur in a moment when hard-won environmental gains are being challenged. Although the EPA Administrator purports to “drive a dagger straight into the heart of climate change religion,” his statements cannot change the scientific facts supporting climate change and the existing threats to our environment. Nor can his statements change our religious beliefs on our obligation to protect God’s creation. If anything, these backward steps by the Administration call upon us as stewards to renew our efforts to act to protect the environment. Facing these new threats to environmental protection, we should renew efforts to advocate for the environment, taking this Earth Day and the Easter season as inspiration.
Actions we each can take, from the local to the national level, include:
- Write your legislators about your concerns using our legislator lookup tool.
For ideas about what you can advocate for, you can use this template from Earth Day about renewable energy - Send a letter to Lee Zeldin, Administrator of EPA, Mail Code 1101A , 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20460 or email him at Zeldin.LZeldin.Lee@epa.gov. You can also track and provide comments on proposed regulations revoking current regulations at https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/get-involved-epa-regulations#comment.
- Participate in a local Earth Day event or rally or join a clean-up event.
- Volunteer at a National Park – many national parks have opportunities to volunteer. Volunteers help to maintain or rebuild trails or can in some parks serve as a campground hosts.
- Plant a garden with native plants. Native plants will have characteristics that are suited for your local environment, can provide food and habitats for local pollinators and wildlife, and can help with water conservation if you live in a drought-prone area. Here is a link to find the plants native to your area.
- Support organizations that plant trees, like the National Arbor Day Foundation or New Community Project. Trees help fight climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide, filtering pollution, providing a habitat for diverse plants and animals, and provide shade (which can be especially important in urban areas during heat waves). (See https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-priorities/build-healthy-cities/cities-stories/benefits-of-trees-forests/)
There are also actions that you can encourage your congregation to take. These include:
- Plant a community garden or butterfly garden
- Make creation care/environment a focus of a Sunday school class. Jamie McBride, Program and Public Relation Director at Camp Brethren Heights, has developed an excellent curriculum that can be used for such a class.
- Host a book discussion on the environment. Here are some books available from Brethren Press:
While it can feel like there are an insurmountable number of attacks on the environment right now, there are a variety of actions we can take to renew our efforts to protect creation this Earth Day.