Take Action

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Signing “A Pagan Community Statement on the Environment” is a good start. But we can’t stop there. We must turn our compassion into action. Here are some ideas for realizing the ideals expressed in the Statement. These are just some suggestions. You may disagree with some of them. Find one or more that work for you. Add your own suggestions in the comments below.

The views expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of the drafters or signatories of “A Pagan Community Statement on the Environment”.

Many of the ideas and language above were borrowed from Patrick Robbins’ article “Twenty Things You Can Do to Address the Climate Crisis!” , “A Pagan Anti-Capitalism Primer” by Alley Valkyrie and Rhyd Wildermuth, the writers at the Pagan Activist blog, and other sources. Thanks to all of them.

11 thoughts on “Take Action

  1. I hope you will print out the letter and signatures and send them to every Senator and House member. Add a note that we are Pagan and we VOTE. That should get their attention.

  2. I wish you hadn’t included going vegan in this list. I have a masters degree in nutrition and there are a number of reasons why going vegan is a bad idea. However, eating pastured animal products will support carbon sequestration. Properly grazed pastures sequester more carbon than forests and more quickly. It is industrially farmed meat that is damaging for the environment. What we need is correct pasture rotation and integrated farming methods. By this logic we should be draining swamps because they produce methane. From long experience, I know I’ll get screamed at by any vegans who happen to read this, so I’ll just put a list of links here for those who are interested and go away quietly.

    On carbon sequestration and habitat restoration
    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150214184521.htm
    http://www.ecoresults.org/success_stories.html
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9eOPMIsIbo
    http://managingwholes.com/
    http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ss574
    http://grist.org/article/2009-08-07-debunking-meat-climate-change-myth/
    http://www.carbon.org.za/credible_carbon_projects/spier_mob_grazing.htm
    A Google search for “carbon grazing” leads to many more links

    1. When the vast majority of animal products come from factory farmed animals, then yes, going vegan is exactly what we need to do. I’m sorry but most nutrition courses (even the ones taken by MD’s) are incredibly biased towards the animal agriculture industry and should not be trusted when it’s designed by professionals who refuse to acknowledge the harm that animal foods cause in our bodies and the planet. No amount of pasture rotation is going to rid us of the incredibly damaging affects of the massive amounts of land needed to graze animals, that could otherwise be used for food. This not only leads to environmental degradation, but also to the extreme food shortages we are experiencing around the world. We need to stop being selfish with figuring out some kind of “eco” or “humane” way to raise animals for food (impossible) and just do something that is easy, safe, healthy, sustainable, and truly effective, which is ditching animal products altogether.

    2. Integrated farming and pasture rotation is not a solution if we are to continue producing flesh for consumption at the rate we do. The amount of land, water and plant food needed to raise the lives we eat is NOT sustainable. Optimal nutrition can indeed be gained from a plant based diet…..a supplemented one if you aren’t very careful about how you eat will do just as well. There is also the issue of changing attitudes……this planet and the lives on it are not here for us…..they are here with us. At some point we need to see ourselves as the caretakers of that and not just the takers from it x.

  3. http://wh.gov/iKkdp This is a petition with the Whitehouse.gov site seeking the President to phase out fossil fuels for alternative paths. It would give him a Kennedy-esque style of 1961 Moon Shot Mission Program power to implement this strategy for the nation. Would it be possible to sign and share and support?

    John Patrick Hill
    Chicano-Earth Medicine Artist

  4. A note: I have shared this in various pagan communities, organizations and groups of which I am a part – and while I have seen signers from those groups, I have also received feedback that required email leaves some uncomfortable and unwilling to sign, for fear their contact info will be harvested and misused.

    Numbers here may also be naturally underreported due to self out-selection by pagans who are fearful to identify themselves as such publicly, due to shame or outright danger (of lost jobs, family rift, or outright assault) if their religion were identified openly.

    1. jl, thank you for sharing the statement and for letting us know about the responses. Please advise peopme that many signatories use craft names or other pseudonyms. Also, it is easy to create an separate email account for Pagan-related matters like this, so their identity will be protected.

  5. Dear members of the pagan community,

    I possess a small farm in Hungary (near the austrian border) and I am looking for co-investors and humans, who like to live on that small spot (1 ha land) with a grove, a pond and meadow as well as a horse stable and so on in a constructive, loving way.
    I would like to found a small community of likeminded persons.
    Production of herbs, healing mushrooms, fruit-products (juice, wine; spirits), cheese;
    a mercy refuge for animals is thought of; timber tree houses for the kids; health workshops/seminars for guests etc.
    I would love to receive some messages to my letter and could send then pictures of my small farm. Details to the possible work on my project then in a Mail exchange or via Skype. Blessings of tender new beginnings –
    Katharina

  6. I’d like to invite people who read this far to check out http://www.MountainsandWatersAlliance.org. In southern Minnesota, we’re calling on the spiritual powers of the other conscious beings in nature, to protect and restore the earth. And we have a place to live together, grow food, care for the natural world, all of that. Don’t be put off by the Zen part, we’re compatible with pagans.

  7. This is worth looking into everyone: Extinction Rebellion
    Meeting in NYC if you can make it this Sat, Jan. 12 2019 YES NOW!
    Google it or google “Daniel Pinchbeck” for more info. This is something any one who is human needs to act. Going extinct again may not be something that has to bother us deeply, but if we have kids who will have to experience great unpleasantness and suffering….it may be worth our time to take some compassion and energy pills and get to work.

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