February 2020 Newsletter


In this Clergy Letter Project update, you’ll find the following seven items:

  1. The Climate Crisis Letter is Live:   Have You Signed?;
  2. Astrobiology News for February 2020:  Celebrating a Noted Climate Scientist during Black History Month;
  3. Scientists in Synagogues Program Accepting Applications;
  4. Review of The Hidden Life of Trees;
  5. Evolution Weekend 2020;
  6. New Year, New Attacks on Evolution; and
  7. Teaching about Climate Change:  A Special Discount for Members.

1.   The Climate Crisis Letter is Live: Have You Signed?


Our Climate Crisis Letter has now gone live!  As of this writing, more than 500 clergy members from nine countries have signed on.  Is your signature there?  Please check.  If it’s not yet listed, please reply to this note and I’ll get you added.

______ Yes, by all means, I want my signature added to The Climate Crisis Letter.

     Name and Title:
     Congregation/Denomination/Religion (optional):
     City, State, Country:

Additionally, we’ve created a separate page for individual to add their personal thoughts about the climate crisis.  Take a look at what your colleagues have written and I’m certain you’ll be as moved as I am.  Then add you own comment!  Simply write a sentence or two and send it to me at mz@theclergyletterproject.org and I’ll get it posted.

Remember that membership voted overwhelmingly for The Clergy Letter Project to create and promote a climate crisis letter.  I hope many of you take the additional step of helping to promote that letter.  There are (at least) three things, in addition to signing the letter, that you can do to help.

1.  I wrote an essay about the importance of The Climate Crisis Letter that I hope you read and share.  Wide readership can help our Letter gain needed attention.

2. I’ve drafted a note than can be sent to local interfaith councils asking for their support for The Climate Crisis Letter.  You can read my draft here.  Please adapt it for local use.  While I can send it out, it will have more power coming from someone local.  In other words, your efforts will be far more impactful than anything I might be able to do!

3. Please reach out to friends and colleagues asking them to sign on.  In case you find it helpful, I’ve created a flyer that you can distribute.  You can access the flyer here.  Again, when colleagues hear from someone they know and trust, the response is far more likely to be positive than when they hear from me!

Thank you for anything you can do to help move this effort forward.  Climate change is indeed a crisis and clergy, working together with scientists, can help create forward momentum and impact public policy.


     

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2.  Astrobiology News for February 2020:  Celebrating a Noted Climate Scientist during Black History Month


In this month’s Astrobiology News, Clergy Letter Project consultant and Adler Planetarium astronomer Grace Wolf-Chase celebrates the life and work of Warren Washington, an award-winning climate scientist.  She also brings you more fascinating citizen-science projects.

In light of this year’s theme for Evolution Weekend, along with events around the U.S. celebrating Black History Month, I thought I’d combine the two and feature prize-winning climate scientist, Warren Washington, in this month’s news.  Washington was the second African American ever to earn a doctorate in atmospheric science.  Last February, Washington, who has advised six presidents (Jimmy Carter through Barack Obama) during his long career, received the 2019 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (commonly referred to as “the Nobel Prize for the environment”).(1)

Now 83 years old, Washington began his work in the early 1960s, at a time when computers were first being applied to the study of Earth’s climate.  Recently retired, Washington worked for the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) for 54 years.(2)  He was one of the first developers of atmospheric computer models that used physics to predict future states of the atmosphere.  As his research progressed, Washington improved these models by adding the effects of oceans and sea ice.

Washington is the recipient of many awards for his outstanding research, and he has also been honored for his efforts mentoring students and fostering diversity in science.  His atmospheric models were used extensively in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,(3) for which NCAR scientists (including Washington) and colleagues around the world shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.  In 2010, President Obama awarded Washington the National Medal of Science, "for his development and use of global climate models to understand climate and explain the role of human activities and natural processes in the Earth's climate system and for his work to support a diverse science and engineering work force."  May Washington’s lifelong efforts to understand climate change, and to promote diversity in science and engineering, continue to inspire others to progress and action!

Although I’ve been promoting Zooniverse citizen science projects such as SnapshotWisconsin.org FloatingForests.org, NotesfromNature.org and PenguinWatch.org to complement this year’s theme for Evolution Weekend, I also encourage you to check out projects like the Zooniverse African American Civil War Soldiers Project or the Zooniverse Antislavery Manuscripts Project.  These projects are improving our knowledge of the brave African Americans who fought in the American Civil War, and documenting the anti-slavery movement through the end of the war and the abolition of slavery.  If you are participating in these or any other Zooniverse projects, could you please send me a brief email me to let me know why you chose a particular project, and whether you’re using the project as an individual or in a group venue?  This will be enormously helpful to me and the Zooniverse team in evaluating our efforts to reach new audiences – thanks so much!

Until next month,

Grace Wolf-Chase, Ph.D. (gwolfchase@adlerplanetarium.org)

1 .  https://www.colorlines.com/articles/pioneering-black-climate-scientist-honored-top-prize-field
2.  http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/staff/wmw/
3.  https://www.ipcc.ch/

 

   

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3.  Scientists in Synagogues Program Accepting Applications


Sinai and Synapses, directed by Clergy Letter Project member Rabbi Geoff Mitelman, has received funding to run a third round of its very successful “Scientists in Synagogues” program.  The program is designed to provide participants opportunities to explore the most interesting and pressing questions surrounding Judaism and science.  The program provides funding ($3,600) to implement a local project and covers all expenses associated with an opening workshop scheduled for 23 June 2020 in New York (a workshop, I hasten to add, at which I will be participating!).  You can read more about the program and learn how to apply by visiting the Scientists in Synagogues web site.  The deadline for applications is 2 April 2020 so hurry!

 

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4.  Review of The Hidden Life of Trees


I’m delighted to say that Clergy Letter Project member Rev. Joseph Shook has again heeded my call for Newsletter content from members!  As he has before, he’s offered readers a review of a book that is likely to be of interest to members:  Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees: How They Feel, How They Communicate.

As Joe notes, “The Hidden Life of Trees could be read as a companion to the recent Climate Letter produced by the Clergy Letter Project.”   You can read Joe’s full review by clicking here.

    

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5.  Evolution Weekend 2020


I want to thank all of you who have or will participate in Evolution Weekend 2020.  I know that a fair number of you participated but are not listed as participants on our official Evolution Weekend 2020 web page.  The frustrating thing is, although I know you exist, I don’t know who you are!  So, please check our official list and see if you’re on it.  If you’re not, please drop me a line and let me know; I’ll get you added immediately.

Additionally, if you delivered an Evolution Weekend sermon feel free to send it to me and I’ll add it to our ever-growing list of sermons.

Finally, it’s not too late to participate.  If you decide to do so, perhaps by sharing The Climate Crisis Letter with your congregation or school group, let me know and I’ll add you to our list.

     

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6.  New Year, New Attacks on Evolution


As happens every year, the month of January brings new attacks on the teaching of evolution.  A bill that would have undercut science education in general and evolution education in particular was introduced in South Dakota in mid-January.  This bill was virtually identical to those introduced in previous years.  I’m delighted to say that this year the effort was defeated rather quickly, reported by the National Center for Science Education.  Still alive, however, is a move in North Carolina to remove any mention of the Paleolithic from the social studies curriculum meaning that human evolution would not be permitted to be discussed.  Again, the National Center for Science Education has the details.  They also reported on the move in Brazil to incorporate intelligent design into the country’s public school science curriculum.

    

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7.  Teaching about Climate Change:  A Special Discount for Members


Our good friends at Living the Questions have just produced an exciting curriculum for teaching about the climate crisis.  Entitled “ProFuture Faith:  The Prodigal Species Comes Home,” the package consists of an eight-session DVD and internet-based course that “bridges the gap between head and heart, science and faith.”  It features Clergy Letter Project member Michael Dowd, an eco-theologian, author, and TEDx speaker who many of you know well.  You can read more about this product by clicking here.

I’m delighted to say that Living the Questions is offering a 20 percent discount to Clergy Letter Project members.  Simply use the discount code CLP2PFF at checkout to obtain your discount.


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Concluding Thoughts

This has been a busy month for The Clergy Letter Project.  In addition to Evolution Weekend, we crafted a powerful Climate Crisis Letter, began gathering signatures worldwide, and increased the number of signatures on our original Clergy Letters to over 17,200!  But the fact remains that there is more to do.  Please reach out to colleagues and ask them to join our effort.  Unlike other organizations, The Clergy Letter Project doesn’t ask for your money – it merely asks you to share information about a set of causes you care about.  It’s that simple.  And yet it’s that important.  Take a minute, contact a colleague, build a bigger movement.

Finally, as always, I want to thank you for your continued support and as I do every month, I urge you to take one simple action.  Please share this month’s Newsletter with a colleague or two (or post a link via any social media platform you use) and ask them to add their voices to those promoting a deep and meaningful understanding between religion and science.  They can add their signatures to one of our Clergy Letters simply by dropping me a note at mz@theclergyletterproject.org.  Together we are making a difference.

                                                                        Michael

Michael Zimmerman
Founder and Executive Director
The Clergy Letter Project
www.theclergyletterproject.org
mz@theclergyletterproject.org