Follow directions: outline 3 reasons why to be an environmental steward, write a 200-400 word summary on the environmental stance of two religions, and write a 400-600 word reflection essay on environmental stewardship.
I’ve attached stewardship pdf
Here are some links
Religion effects environmental actions:
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170206-religion-can-make-us-more-environmentally-friendly-or-not
Pew Research Religion Views on Climate Change: http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/22/religion-and-views-on-climate-and-energy-issues/
Podcast on Religion and Environment: http://radiowest.kuer.org/post/climate-change
Environmental stewardship refers to responsible use and protection of the natural environment through conservation and sustainable practices. The ethical responsibility of stewardship for environmental quality is shared by all those whose actions affect the environment.In this project, we will explore what it means to be an environmental steward, both with a secular and a theological perspective.
Secular Environmental Stewardship
There are 3 types of environmental stewards: doers, donors, and practitioners.
Doers help out by taking action on the ground. For example, the doers in an oil spill would be the volunteers that go along the beach and help cleaning up the oil from the beaches.
Donors help by donating money, land or other resources. They can do anything from donating their money, to hosting public events to raise funds. They are typically governmental agencies or philanthropists.
Practitioners work to steer agencies, scientists, stakeholder groups or other groups toward a stewardship outcome. They work on a day-to-day basis to steer governmental agencies, scientists, stakeholder groups, or any other group toward a stewardship outcome.
Together these 3 groups make up environmental stewards and with the help keep the ecosystem running healthily. Anybody can be an environmental steward by being aware and knowledgeable of the world around them and making sure they do as little as possible to negatively impact our world. Without these groups, it would be difficult to get any sort of sustainability in our increasingly industrialized world.
With what was discussed above, outline 3 reasons why people (or business or organizations) would want to be an environmental steward.
Role of religion in Environmental Stewardship
In many theologies, stewardship is a belief that God, or divine being, created the universe and all that is within it, and humans are responsible for taking care of this world. Religions throughout the world have ties in environmental sustainability through stewardship. For example, in Christianity, people are called to take care of the earth. In Buddhism, karmic journeys keep people responsible for the caring do the environment. In the Muslim faith, it is taught that man is a steward of creation.
Read this article on how religion effects environmental actions – http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170206-religion-can-make-us-more-environmentally-friendly-or-not
Research two theological or religious groups and their position on environmental stewardship. Write a 200-400 word summary for both theological groups you research.
Sources to help you in your research:
Collections:
Yale – Collection of Official Statements on Religion and Ecology
Faith Climate Action: Religious Statements on Climate Change
Religion and Ecology at the Ohio State University: Official Religious Environmental Statements
Earth Ministry: Faith Statements on the Environment
Green Faith: Interfaith Partners for the Environment
Christianity:
Baptist:Churches Policy Statement on Ecology
Mormon:Environmental Stewardship and Conservation
Catholic: In Spring of 2015, Pope Francis’ published the encyclical Laudato Si’
Hindu: Declaration on Climate Change
Islamic: Declaration on Global Climate Change
Buddhism: Dalai Lama’s A Buddhist Concept of Nature
Jewish: Rabbinic Letter on Climate
Does official religious positon effect the real attitudes of people in America? Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan public opinion research group, has researched this idea. In 2010, Pew research found only a modest effect of religion on attitudes about environmental protection (see here). A more recent 2015study found the following:
When it comes to people’s beliefs about climate change, it is the religiously unaffiliated, not those who identify with a religious tradition, who are particularly likely to say the Earth is warming due to human activity. Hispanic Catholics, like Hispanics in general, are more likely to say the Earth is warming due to human activity. White evangelical Protestants stand out as least likely to have this view. However, in multivariate statistical modeling, the major religious affiliation groups did not differ from the religiously unaffiliated in views about climate change. Political party identification and race and ethnicity are stronger predictors of views about climate change beliefs than are religious identity or observance.
See more on this research here: http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/22/religion-and-views-on-climate-and-energy-issues/
Listen to this podcast by Katharine Hayhoe to see why science and religion are not in competition. http://radiowest.kuer.org/post/climate-change[Katharine Hayhoe is a climate scientist and Evangelical Christian in Texas, she has a really good YouTube channel with these two relative videos: Religion has nothing to say about climate change, right?and The Bible doesn’t talk about climate change, right?Write a 400-600 word reflection essay on Environmental Stewardship and the role of religion.
