Action Steps
Action Steps
How can we integrate climate education with personal, communal, and public action? Use the action steps below as a starting point for integrating climate resilience and climate justice into your life.
Personal
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Partner with a local organization to install natural climate adaptation solutions. In coastal areas, these might be oyster beds, sea grasses, or mangroves. In inland areas, it might be native plants and trees.
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Learn about the original peoples of your community: Find federal and state recognized tribes through the National Conference of State Legislatures. Learn about their historical and current relationship with the land. Use this Native Land map to learn about the indigenous caretakers of the land you inhabit, and, if applicable, where their descendants may reside today.
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Develop a personal climate disaster resilience plan. Follow this guide from Week of Compassion.
Community
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Encourage collective action and a sense of community by praying together, adopting a spirit of reference to creation and to one another, creating awareness about environmental migrants, sharing knowledge with other local churches and organizations, fostering dialogue and making space to hear community concerns. (from Climate Refugees: People Displaced by Climate Change and the Role of Churches” from the World Council of Churches)
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Develop a resilience and disaster preparedness plan for your church. Then, invite your congregants to develop a resilience and disaster preparedness plan for their household. These resources are a great place to start:
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Make room for people who might be displaced by disasters. Consider options like: Stocking cots, sheets, toiletries (including menstrual products), and non-perishable food, installing showers in some of your bathrooms, and working with local emergency management so that people know they can come to your building(s).
Advocacy
Visit creationjustice.org/action to learn more about advocating for God’s Creation locally and federally. Using what you’ve learned about the climate risks and needs for resilience in your community, contact your legislators, write a letter to the editor, and organize your community in support of local resilience initiatives.