Tools for Action and Advocacy for Climate Change
At the end of May, President Obama joined New Jersey Governor Christie to tour the Jersey Shore seven months after Superstorm Sandy struck the North East. The President’s visit to New Jersey demonstrates concern that climate change threatens communities with long-lasting and potentially highly destructive effects. Seven months after Sandy there is still work to be done on cleanup and on economic and infrastructural recovery. Religions for Peace has a toolkit that provides religious communities and religious leaders material to educate their communities about climate change and to advocate in their local community and in the national political scene for adequate and appropriate responses to climate change.
The need for religious communities to be adequately educated and equipped for advocacy concerning climate change is greater than ever. This need is more pressing in part due to increased public awareness and the opportunity for religious communities to engage in public education and action.
Religions for Peace’s climate change toolkit, “Action and Advocacy for Climate Change: A Resource Guides for Religious Communities,” offers religious leaders new ways to respond and activate their communities in the most effective responses to climate change. The climate change toolkit is especially useful for multi-religious cooperation. Cooperation on action and advocacy on climate change between the United States’ religious communities has enormous potential that largely remains untapped.
RFPUSA is in a unique position to engage in this national climate change conversation as its many affiliates are well positioned throughout the country. Since its creation in 2004, RFUPSA has been involved in engaging religious leaders of all faith traditions in multi-religious cooperation to transform conflict, promote peace, and advance sustainable development. The climate change toolkit is just another example of RFPUSA’s resources to equip and educate religious communities and religious community leaders with the necessary knowledge and advocacy tools to make a difference in their community and across the nation.