Community Groups Go to Court to Clean up LANL
Santa Fe, New Mexico — Citing significant violations of the Clean Water Act at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), an alliance of nine New Mexico community organizations and two individuals today filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy and the Los Alamos National Security, LLC. (a copy is available at www.amigosbravos.org/lanl.php) This morning at the state capitol building in Santa Fe, the community groups said it was time for LANL to address the substantial contamination problems that are migrating off the lab’s property. More...

Desert Rock Power Plant, proposed coal fire power plant near Farmington, NM would greatly increase CO 2 emissions in New Mexico. Some Navajo People are opposing the plant, even though the Navajo Nation has agreed to have the plant. A coalition of groups including NM Interfaith Power and Light is working to oppose a tax incentive for the plant that will come to this legislative session. Click here to learn more.

Why: A global energy company and Diné Power Authority want to build a dirty, coal-fired power plant in northwest New Mexico, when the Four Corners area already has two of the most polluting power plants in the country!The proposed Desert Rock power plant would release mercury and other toxic contaminants into the environment, polluting waterways and threatening human health. It would also significantly increase global warming pollution in New Mexico, at a time when states should be working to cut back these dangerous emissions, emitting another 12 million tons of CO2 into the air every year. The people of the Four Corners region would bear the burden of the plant’s environmental impacts—even though the power would be exported to Las Vegas and Phoenix. The Navajo Nation would receive less than 5 percent of the projected electricity output from Desert Rock. Many Navajo citizens still have no electricity in their homes. The project builders lost at the legislature this year and have already had cities, counties, and Navajo Chapter houses pass resolutions against the plant, but they keep pushing this bad plant. For more information on the project see the Sierra Club’s website (http://riogrande.sierraclub.org/campaigns/desert_rock_power_plant/desertrock_power_plant.htm#Draft_Impact_Statement) or the project website (http://www.desertrockenergy.com/)

Step It Up Congress! Rally held in Old Town Albuquerque April 14, 2007.
Click here for photos.

“E’07” Announces Legislative Priorities
The “E’07” Coalition—an informal working group of more than a dozen New Mexico environmental advocacy organizations, has announced its legislative priorities for the upcoming 2007 NM Legislature. These priorities are the Land, Wildlife, and Clean Energy Act and the NM Environmental Health Act. For more information please click here.

LANL Water Watch: The Partnership for Earth Spirituality joined a coalition of groups to issue an intent to sue Los Alamos National Laboratories for failing to monitor and control decades worth of surface water pollution that threatens the drinking water of the region. LANL Water Watch announced its intent to sue at a news conference held on the banks of the Rio Grande in Albuquerque, Tuesday, May 24. For more information click here.

Two Important New Books on Earth Spirituality, by Joan Brown, osf.
Evening Thoughts: Reflecting on Earth as Sacred Community, Thomas Berry, Sierra Club Books. San Francisco. 2006

I placed a pre-order for Thomas Berry’s newest book in June when I knew it would be available in the fall. When the book arrived a month ago, I opened it like a precious birthday gift. Some books, written later in life by favorite authors, hold thoughts that have already been expressed countless times or are mere compilations of previous works.

Evening Thoughts, a compilation of essays from various years and occasions, however, expands and deepens ideas articulated in earlier writings and opens the reader to new insights into the ecological crisis and its spiritual dimensions. While Berry’s concern and alarm are prevalent throughout the pages, his writing inspires and invites us to create a true and deep partnership within the Earth Community.

Berry’s invitation is especially pertinent in this season of Peace on Earth. “What we look for is no longer the Pax Romana, the peace of imperial Rome, nor is it simply like Pax Humana, the peace among humans, but the Pax Gaia, the peace of Earth and every being on the Earth. This is the original and final peace….”

The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, David Korten, Kumarian Press, Inc. Bloomfield, CT and Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., San Francisco. 2006.

David Korten is probably most known for his bestseller, When Corporations Rule the World where he exposed the dark side of global corporate economy and helped spark a global resistance movement. His latest book is a further investigation into the dark side of global corporate domination and consolidation of power that he calls “Empire.”

Giving an historical overview of empire, Korten, who is an economist, imparts information and deep patterns that underpin our current global situation. He claims no simple answers to 5000 years of “human misdirection,” but he also believes that a positive direction and human future is within our means, if we as a species can choose it.

This book is read two ways, word for word and between the lines. Between the lines one breathes in the influences of Thomas Berry, Joanna Macy, Riane Eisler and Korten’s own vast life experiences which permeate the chapters. The prelude to the book begins with the Preamble from the Earth Charter, setting the context for the choices that are laid upon civilization’s doorstep. The title is taken from Joanna Macy who coined the term, “The Great Turning.”

“Future generations, if there is a livable world for them, will look back at the epochal transition we are making to a life sustaining society. And they may well call this the time of the Great Turning.”

Korten, an elder himself, was compelled to write the book for various reasons, one which is included in the dedication. “…..and George Bush, whose administration exposed to full view the imperial shadow side of the US democracy, stripped away the last of the illusions of my childhood innocence, and compelled me to write this book.”

“Global Warming Film Unites Preachers and Politics.” A September 11, 2006, wire story from Reuters by Carey Gilliam describes a new film, The Great Warming, intended to have a political impact on global warming this election season. Sponsored by the National Council of Churches of Christ, Presbyterians for Restoring Creation, and leaders of the National Association of Evangelicals and funded by Swiss Re, the giant reinsurance corporation, the film is to persuade conservative Christian evangelicals and other people of faith to demand resolute political action to deal with greenhouse gasses. A national rollout to theaters begins in October, along with the distribution of study guides and sermon suggestions by the sponsors. For the full story, click here.

Interfaith Statement to the 4th World Water Forum. The Partnership, in the person of Joan Brown, osf, board president, participated in the World Water Forum held in March, 2006, in Mexico City. The statement, “Water: Essential for Justice and Peace,” was signed by various religious organizations and, notably, the Hopi Villages “Run for Respect for Water and All Life,” which the Partnership cosponsored while run participants were in Albuquerque. Click here for a pdf file containing the complete text. Click here for a report on the forum.

Gaia theorist James Lovelock on how the Earth’s environment has passed the point of no return. In a January 16, 2006, article in The Independent (UK) that has been drawn from his new book, The Revenge of Gaia, Lovelock states, “Before this century is over, billions of us will die, and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable.” The question we must ask now is, Can we still make peace with our planet? How do we not despair?

World Council of Churches Statement on Climate Change. Delivered December 9, 2005, to the United Nations delegates at the first meeting, in Montreal, of the parties to the Kyoto Protocol, now in force. “What we suffer from is not simply a technological, economic, or ecological crisis, but a spiritual crisis.”

Partnership board member Charles E. Little, “Can Religion Save God's Green Earth?” October 6, 2005, lecture at the University of New Mexico. On the uneasy association of organized religion with the environmental movement, and the potentials for an ecumenical “re-spiritualization” based on the preservation of place.

Bill Moyers, “Penguins and the Politics of Denial.” October 1, 2005, keynote address at the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference. A look backwards and forwards on journalism, Christianity, and the mugging of the environmental movement.

Georgetown University theologian John F. Haught, “Report on Intelligent Design.” A Sept 23, 2005, paper written for Kitzmiller v. Dover, the Scopes Trial of the 21st century. Why ID is religion, not science, and why it is “appalling theology.”

Swarthmore College Associate Professor Mark I. Wallace, “The River God.” An essay drawn from his book, Finding God in the Singing River: Christianity, Spirit, Nature (Fortress), released March 4, 2005. “We need today a conversion of the heart to a vision of a green earth.”

Church of England, “Sharing God's Planet: A Christian Vision for a Sustainable Future.” Presented on February 17, 2005, the Anglican statement deals (largely) with global warming and the necessary religious response. The main text is 39 pages (with appended material, 72), but well worth printing out.