Dear Parishioners and Friends of St. Martin’s,
The St. Martin’s Care for God’s Creation Committee (CfGC) writes to provide you information and background about St. Martin’s efforts to address the emergency of climate change and the related environmental crisis, as well as a call to action and education.
The 80th Episcopal General Convention in July 2022 urged action: Deputies and bishops at the 80th Episcopal General Convention affirmed a series of environment and creation care measures on July 11, 2022. It included support of A020 to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The agreed-upon goals included achieving net-zero carbon neutrality by 2030, committing to the pressing work of environmental justice, and encouraging members to take concrete action to reduce the effects of climate change. More information can be found in this Episcopal News Service article.
In alignment with these goals, St. Martin’s has been on the forefront of taking many of the steps advocated by these resolutions. We became a fully net-zero carbon church site in 2021 and are now working to reduce our campus’s water consumption and increase soil sequestration. Aided by two generous grants from Episcopal Community Services, we have also begun a land-based ministry, including our Seeds of Justice program, which has allowed us to work with community partners and learn about urgent environmental and cultural issues, including traditional ecological knowledge, watershed health, and the practice of cultural burns.
This has set in motion a growing effort to look around us and take concrete actions to reduce the effects of climate change (D064). In that spirit, the Care for God’s Creation Committee would like to draw your attention to open pit mining. Removing more of the earth’s dwindling supply of topsoil and prime farmland must be adequately analyzed and monitored for environmental impact. While mining aggregate material for purposes of construction, bridges, and roads is necessary, we must weigh and address the consequences of leaving land contaminated, depleting groundwater and endangering aquifers, and increasing significant amounts of carbon output in the process. Environmental impact reports are required to inform the public and identify possible ways to minimize those effects and describe reasonable alternatives to those projects.
In January 2022, the Yolo Board of Supervisors approved another major open pit mining project covering more than 320 acres of some of the best agricultural land in the county. The Shifler property is located west of Woodland along Cache Creek. Once the Class 1 Yolo Loam soil is removed, it will not regain its original quality of crop production or capacity to sequester carbon, which slows climate change. (USDA Soil Survey for Yolo County) The submitted environmental impact report is considered by some experts to be seriously deficient.
More information on this project and its status is available through http://YoloLandWaterDefense.org
In conclusion, we hope that you will join in the efforts of St. Martin’s as a parish to address climate change and environmental justice as well as to serve the needs of our own parishioners through worship, fellowship, and caring for each other in God’s love.
Ann Liu and Alessa Johns
Co-Chairs of Care for God’s Creation
