December 12, 2017

Marin Interfaith Climate Action (MICA) invites our members to join and promote the Interfaith Earth Day Challenge.  Together, by Earth Day, April 22, 2018, we can achieve the goal of reducing over 100,000 lbs. of our own collective CO₂ output.  By doing so, we will be expressing our deep gratitude for the gift of creation and our commitment to inspire greater care for our planet by actually changing some of our own habits.

To achieve this goal of carbon reduction we are fortunate to have the experienced leadership of Resilient Neighborhoods (RN).  Teams guided by RN have reduced, and continue to reduce, their carbon footprint as a way of effectively dealing with the causes of the global warming that is having an increasingly disastrous impact on our planet.

The Earth Day Challenge is an opportunity to learn, to encourage and be encouraged, to incorporate painless, eco-friendly practices in our daily lives. The understanding and practices that are shared will serve us through the coming years of environmental challenge as we continue to confront the consequences of global warming.  Together as faith communities, we could celebrate Earth Day with grateful pride.  This is a special spiritual legacy we can all be glad to give.

Here is our plan:

• Form Resilient Neighborhood teams of 5 to 9 households by the end of January.   
• Each team participates in an RN-conducted 5-session program during February-March, where members learn to calculate their current household carbon output, or carbon footprint, then select actions from five areas (shopping & food choices, waste & recycling, water usage, transportation, and home energy) to reduce their footprint by at least 5,000 lbs., or 25% of starting emissions. 
• Collect results by early April for a public announcement at an Earth Day 2018 event.

In the seven years since its inception in 2011, Resilient Neighborhoods has found that each household can reduce between 5,000 and 11,000 lbs. of CO₂.  It is possible, then, to achieve our goal with a participation of 9 to 20 members, or a minimum of three RN teams, and from this initial success, we can continue to build future participation.

Are you interested in participating by joining a RN team and/or encouraging others?  Are there other members of your congregation or community who may want to participate?  Would you like us to help you set up an informational meeting for your members?

Here are some teams already being formed that will begin in January or early February.  It is possible to join one of them that may be close to you:

Mill Valley Library

Thursdays, 7:00 - 9:00 pm

1/25, 2/8, 2/22, 3/15, and 3/22 

San Anselmo Library

Tuesdays, 7:00 - 9:00 pm

1/30, 2/13, 2/27, 3/13, and 3/27  

Novato Team

Tuesdays, 7:00 - 9:00 pm

2/6, 2/20, 3/6, 3/20 and 4/3  

Please contact one of us to sign up for a team or get additional information.  You are also encouraged to visit the RN website:  http://www.resilientneighborhoods.org

We have an opportunity to take some meaningful climate action together and to demonstrate that our diverse spiritual traditions call upon us to address the existential threat of climate change.

Contact us.  Join us. 

The MICA Project Team

• Katherine DaSilvaJain, <kdsjain@yahoo.com>  
• Ralph Purdy, <rlpurdy869@gmail.com>
• Pat Carlone, <pcarlone@hotmail.com>

To find out more about Marin Interfaith Climate Action, please contact Pat at Pcarlone@hotmail.com

Our Vision

Our vision is a world in which human activities foster climate justice and ecosystems sustainability.

 Our Mission

 Our diverse spiritual traditions call us to be agents for climate justice.  We address the existential threat of climate change through:

• environmental education and action within our religious communities
• advocacy for climate legislation
• collaborative actions with other environmental organizations