Spirit in Action
ICE Fights Global Warming - Interfaith Community for the Earth
Dan Dieterich is a founding member of ICE - Interfaith Community for the Earth, an organization formed to fight global warming and promote ecological well-beling. ICE is a member of Wisconsin Interfaith Power & Light. Working at the local level, ICE is a good example of how a small group of folks can harness their energy, in community, to bring about the big changes our world needs.
- Broadcast on:
- 19 Aug 2012
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[music] Let us sing this song for the healing of the world That we may hear as one With every voice, with every song We will move this world along And our lives will feel the echo of our healing [music] Welcome to Spirit in Action. My name is Mark Helpes Me. Each week, I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, creative action, and progressive efforts. I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service, hoping to inspire and encourage you to sync deep roots and produce sacred food in your own life. Let us sing this song for the dreaming of the world That we may dream as one With every voice, with every song We will move this world along One of the gifts of doing this Spirit in Action radio program Is all the connections and news of world healers that come my way. Back in June, I went again to the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair And met up with some more great folks doing beautiful work for the earth And we've got one of them with me here today. Dan Dietrich is a member of a Stevens Point Wisconsin-based group Called "The Interfaith Community for the Earth" And they're a good example of what a small group of inspired and dedicated workers can do To be part of energizing their city for the good of the planet. Before we get Dan Dietrich on the phone, Sheryl Wheeler, A recent song of the soul guest, is getting us in the right frame of mind With her song "Pointing at the Sun," Sheryl Wheeler. Speeding sailing, speeding through the firmament And the firmament is speeding somewhere too So beautiful, the mystery we gaze aloft in the wonder At all the pieces we can see, at all the stars we're under And here on Earth we praise what God has done Every church proclaims the only one And some elephants have lives to run And all the plants are pointing at the sun Who I'm aware of, and how I'm with, I don't have a whisper of a clue Do fishes ever look beyond the taint theory? And somehow come to play creation too I don't expect to understand the questions so beyond this The mystery is majesty humbling in wonders And here on Earth we praise what God has done Every church proclaims the only one And some elephants have lives to run And all the plants are pointing at the sun The atoms zip around too fast for us to see If somewhere we are zipping that way too Then some colossal junior high school nerve might be Adding one to one and getting two And here on Earth we praise what God has done Every church proclaims the only one And some elephants have lives to run And all the plants are pointing at the sun And all the plants are pointing at the sun And all the plants are pointing at the sun That was Cheryl Wheeler pointing at the sun And right now Dan Dietrich joins us by phone from Stephen's point Dan, I'm so pleased to have you here for spirit in action Thank you much Mark, I'm looking forward to talking with you And it was so delightful to meet you at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair What's the full name? It's renewable energy and sustainable living Yes, of course you were there staffing a booth for ice I see the interfaith community for the Earth Right, mm-hmm, having this wonderful little discussion with you there I knew that there was some follow-up that I needed So first of all, let's spell out what ice is What's the interfaith community for the earth? We are a nonprofit educational organization Started five years ago here in Stephen's point, Wisconsin We started out as members of 13 different faith communities Our goal is, well this is our statement of our philosophy We are people of many faiths working together to educate ourselves and others As we advocate sustainable practices for the well-being of the earth We're a group that was founded in order to deal with climate change And as we're talking today and there is such drought throughout the entire state of Wisconsin I think it brings some emphasis to what we're working on What are the 13 faith communities? Where do they lie on the spectrum? Our members are from a wide variety of different religions We have people who are Baha'i People who are Unitarian Universalists People who are Catholic I myself am a Presbyterian We have members who are Muslim While we have many other faiths We have people who are Methodists Or members of the United Church of Christ We have wide diversity And it changes from time to time We had at one time a very active member who was Aqankar Which is what's her religion She has since passed away unfortunately But we have a wide variety of religions and we're open to people of any religion And you said you started with 13 different faith communities As I grown changed what's happened It has changed quite a bit We've had people from other faith communities join us We've had again people pass away who are members of faith communities People were active at the very beginning We had a gentleman who was Buddhist Who was very active in the founding of our organization And since it's gotten ill and it's not as active as he was He still helps us with some things But it's not as active on our board So there's always an evolution with any organization But we are open to people of all faiths And for that matter we're open to people that we call seekers Who are not a member of a faith community But are spiritual and seeking their way in life Of course you know the name of this program is Spirit in Action So I particularly focus on faith as it's lived out in the world Of course I don't think that anybody has to be part of a religious community To have deep spiritual leadings in any direction I certainly would never cut anybody off or demean them in any way for that On the other hand, this organization, the interfaith community for the earth ice Which I think is a great name It specifically focuses on faith Why faith? Good question Because we've decided that in order to deal with one of the greatest moral issues of our time Global climate change, global warming We need the power of faith We need people in the various religious communities around the world To get together, to give the moral force of religion to our efforts on the environment We come from various faiths But all these faiths believe that the earth is a sacred trust All of them believe that It is our responsibility to all life on earth To deal with this climate crisis that we're facing And how would in character what you do be different from say what the Sierra Club might do? We happen to have some members who are very active in the Sierra Club as a matter of fact It is different in that for one thing it's a local group It is just for our little area here It is people who know one another well We get a better understanding of various faith perspectives on what we are doing I've been very impressed by the high perspective on the environment It's quite a strong focus of their religion As it is of the Unitarian Universalist religion For example, but also of the Muslim religion So we get different perspectives on it We get a unity from people of a wide diversity of religions getting together We form a community and this I think enables us to work well together And we have again the moral force of religion on our side So I think that that is what helps us It helps us in deciding what kinds of things to concentrate What topics to deal with and approaches to take to them So wide variety of benefits I think to this business of having people of many faiths joining together You know, a lot of people I imagine very easily Dan Could think of religion and environment in oppositional terms That is to say that there's a number of people on the fundamentalist end And certainly not all of them by any means Who take a kind of an adversarial You know, what we're here to do is tame the earth What we're here to do is dominate where the boss is And that the environment or the earth is here to serve us How do you think of that within your group? Do you personally or the interfaith community for the earth as a whole? I think that people's perspectives on the environment are evolving And I think this goes for people who are fundamentalists as well There are, as you undoubtedly know, many fundamentalists now Who have got a very great concern about the environment Those who believe that we are going to be passing away very soon any day now And therefore, the concern about the environment is a waste of time And the quicker the environmental degradation happens, the closer we are to the end time Those people are obviously not going to be working with us to mitigate the environmental disaster But a great many people are seeing this as a matter of when God created the universe Again, for those religions that have a belief in God and some religions do not Especially some eastern religions, but for those that do We tend to believe that at the creation, the intention was for the well-being of all God's creatures And that we are, as stewards, doing God's will In helping God to sustain the world and bring it forward So I think that it's not an opposition between people of the right and the left I think it's a growing awareness of what God's will is for the world Do you do some kind of religious study underpinnings for your action? Or does every group just come with whatever they have as their background? Is there a study guide that comes from this faith perspective? We have not done a religious study as a group We begin each of our board meetings with a prayer and it rotates through our board So we get a number of different faith perspectives presented in those prayers We have had panel discussions at which people of various faiths have gotten together And presented their faith's perspective, individual perspectives on the environment And why they are involved in the work of the interfaith community for the earth So that has happened We have not though in-depth studied all religions as a group Individually we may, I've done a lot of reading myself about a variety of religions And found that very useful to me in understanding my own religious perspective But as a group we have not done that yet, we may So what are some of the activities that you've done? How have you lived out, maybe at the beginning, maybe now I assume this is morphing over time? The evolution of the interfaith community for the earth has been fascinating It began with a step-it-up rally I don't know if you remember back to 2006 when Bill McKibben called for the first rally worldwide Actually to call attention to climate change It was called the step-it-up rally, the first one was I think the second one also was But he urged people to gather on church steps in order to proclaim the importance of global climate change And our responsibility for responding to it Our pastor at our church had invited people to meet on our church steps We got the word out to people of all different faith communities in our community And a lot of people showed up on our church steps and we had a demonstration, we had a march And we got the names of the people who showed up on those steps We were very delighted to meet them, many of them we hadn't met before, hadn't worked with before And after that we began meeting, again our pastor invited people to get together And just talk a little bit about forming an interfaith environmental coalition The first meeting we had 19 people, again a couple of Catholic congregations 2 ELCA congregations, Presbyterians, Methodists, variety of things And then we also started meeting and talking about what we wanted to do We had a total of nine meetings during which we worked on what our organization might do And could do and should we form it and how to form it And came up with our mission statement that I read to you earlier After that we decided, okay, we've got a group, how are we going to continue this education of ourselves and the community And we began with the documentary "The Power of Community" at the local library Talking about Cuba's response to the sudden loss of oil and markets following collapse in the Soviet Union And then we went on to a variety of things, and our community were very interested in sustainable agriculture A major focus of a lot of people, so we, for example, that same year, 2007 Had a preservation primer, or primer, depending on how you pronounce it Introduction to canning, freezing, drying fruits and vegetables Had five speakers at our local public library, brought people in on that I'm involved myself with another group called "Wild Ones, Native Plants, Natural Landscapes" It's an educational group about increasing biodiversity, by encouraging people to use Native plants in their yards, in their gardens, in their prairies, whatever So I gave a little talk about sustainable yards and gardens We had somebody come in, his name is Gerald Iverson, his national coordinator Of alternatives for simple living, and we brought him into the community That year we again had another step up rally, we had a session on verma composting I'm using worms, that kind of thing, planting your garden, this sort of thing Why a variety of things dealing with gardening and food and sustainability in that sort of area? Stephen's point is also an eco-municipality, and in 2007 was just getting started on this So we had a city-wide meeting, again at the public library, about the eco-municipality Where are we? It was the first anniversary of our getting that started, and how was that going? We followed that up with our first panel at the MREA, Energy Fair That was again about spiritual dimensions of caring for the earth We had people from various religions presenting that We had the International Day of Climate Action, we had an ecologist Alan Haney talking about climate change And we had quite a large number of people show up for that And listen to his perspective on what does the research say about climate change? In 2010 we had the film A Chemical Reaction, shown here, which was a fascinating film It deals with the impact of lawn chemicals on the water and on people's lives and how we can handle that sort of thing Also in 2010 we ran a half-page ad in our two local newspapers, the Stephen's Point Journal and the Portage County Gazette And the title on the ad was The Earth is Holy, and it was designed to raise people's awareness of climate change And we had a long list of people from throughout our community who signed it and indicated their concern about climate change And we also had a list of their faith communities, what communities they were members of Co-sponsored a screening of the film Six Degrees That Could Change the World, talking about global climate change, trying to raise people's awareness about it Those are just some of the things that we've done over the years We've been an active organization, we're not a very large organization, we're not enormous, but we have been very busy We have a lot of people committed to this cause Most recently we've been very much involved with the greenhouse project here in Stephen's Point We have an organization called Farm Shed and they're working on sustainable gardening And we're lending our support to that, volunteering, helping them with labor and with money To see if they can get that going, to help people learn more about how to grow their own food How to market their food to commercial outlets, that sort of thing So it's been quite an interesting journey You know, you said Stephen's Point is an eco-community Is this on the order of the natural step? I think Ashland did that, for instance, that's one of the first places in Wisconsin to do it What does this imply? Does the government actually operate differently because it's an eco-community? Yes, I think you're exactly right, and that's the group that we're following their model The term we use for is an eco-municipality It involves the government working to reduce its use of non-renewable energy And to lower its carbon footprint And it does follow that guideline, and we have spent quite a while reading their books and their materials And trying to go in that direction And so if someone came to Stephen's Point, could they tell that Stephen's Point is a special oasis of care for the Earth? They would see some indicators here. It is a journey, and we have not arrived at the end of it yet But they would notice, for example, that we have electric buses here We have buses working on renewable energy We have other things going on in the community that are designed to help us get to where we ought to be as a community Again, the efforts on sustainability are pretty dramatic here as compared with many other communities That's because of the Central Rivers Farm Shed and all the efforts they've put into sustainability in our community as well So many elements within our community are working together on this You know, if people know about Wisconsin from outside, they would probably assume that Madison is the liberal hotbed The one that's going to be cutting edge in terms of environmental work Stephen's Point is not that same hotbed perhaps, or maybe I'm just misunderstanding what the community is like Is this from a liberal end that this is coming, or is it just mainstream? Well, from a political perspective, Stephen's Point is rather liberal, yes, along with Milwaukee and Madison We are a fairly liberal community, but we are very much an environmental community, very much concerned about that Part of it I think has to do with the fact that the Midwest Renewable Energy Association is located five miles east of town And that has the largest and oldest energy fair in the nation and is focusing on renewable energy and concentrating on training people To install solar collectors and put in hydronic heat in their house and have solar thermal collectors, photovoltaics That's their emphasis, so this has been something that has been here for a good long time in Central Wisconsin The fact that we have the nation's finest college of natural resources at the University of Wisconsin, Stephen's Point is also a reason why we focus so heavily on these matters We have people working on biofuels, and a lot of people here are very concerned about this and are working hard on it We talked earlier about, I guess, the rising role of people on the more evangelical or perhaps fundamentalist conservative Embracing environmental concerns, has that shown up within your group? Are there members of your group who are on that evangelical fringe? I don't know of any offhand, we did have some people sign that ad that went in the newspaper about the importance of global climate change and our response to it So there was some support from the community then, those people have not shown up on our board yet, I am hopeful that they will I've had a wide range of guests and topics related to the environmental over the seven years that have been doing northern spirit radio programs and specifically spirit and action I've had Calvin DeWitt on the Redenakashima Brock, it contributes in that area Dr. Ken Strong, he's from the Chicago Theological Seminary and he lectures on eco-justice I also have musicians both for spirit and action and for Song of the Soul whose songs speak about the need to care for creation and raise our compassion for the plants and animals who are our neighbors after all And now might be a good time to listen to one of the great troubadours of Wisconsin's environment, Ken Longquist, and his song inspired by a San County Almanac, his song is "The Woods Are Well" [Music] Under the leaves of the forest stream the bear and the bobcat aller can see The Al gives a hoot as if to tell Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, the woods are well Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, the woods are well For the prairie to the pine, solers turn to autumn And through the marshland to the hills, Blues a bit who will end And in the woods now deep and still, Spring is not forgotten Seasons must turn and turn again The flight of the geese on the cold North wind 'Cause dear in the thicket's hide again, My sin squirrel in a good old cudoule, the woods all out. Under the night of the silvery, There comes a cry from a lonesome moon. And the alga's a hood is if to tell, Oh, the woods all out, Oh, the woods all out. Oh, well. The woods are well by a recent song of the soul guest, Ken Longquist. A song as much of aspiration as actuality. I'm visiting for today's spirit and action program with Dan Dietrich of Interfaith Community for the Earth, a group in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Of course, Dan, when I think of the kind of connection to the Earth's spirituality on this continent, I think of the various Native American communities and the way they lived in better balance with the land and woods. At Stevens Point, after all, is not all that far from the Menominee Nation tribal forest seperon shano, which should be an inspiration to all of us about a better way to care for and profit from the woods. Does the Interfaith community for the Earth and its members do you draw on that kind of Native American spirituality as well? To some extent, we certainly do. I have been working at getting a friend of mine who is a member of the Wildlands Native Plants Natural Landscapes involved with the Interfaith community for the Earth as well. He's a Native American and very knowledgeable about their religious practices and especially about their environmental consciousness. He is a good man. I hope to get him on our board someday soon. But again, we have read lots about Native spirituality and had prayers, et cetera, involved with our board meetings on occasion. There's been a large amount of controversy, I think, over the last ten years about climate change and about global warming. Is it caused by people or is it just part of the natural warming cooling of the Earth like the ice ages? I take it that there's no doubt in your mind, but that it's linked with human emissions of carbon. Right. Is there that controversy? Do you see that as being an important issue in terms of education of the public? I believe that controversy is manufactured and it's manufactured by the oil industry. It's manufactured by those who have a lot to gain from having people believe that climate change is not caused by human beings, but it's instead caused by volcanoes or whatever it might be, some spots. I believe that about 95 to 98% of the climate scientists around the world are in complete unanimity on this business of climate change being human caused. This is not really a question. It's a fact for which there is solid scientific evidence. We are having to deal with climate change deniers who have been misinformed and very deliberately so by organizations which are funded by the oil industry and find it in their best interest or the coal industry or whatever it might be, find it in their best interest to have the general public believe that this is all a ruse, it's a fake, it doesn't exist. But the fact of the matter is it does and we're all experiencing it on a daily basis already and in the years ahead it's only going to get worse. So either we wake up and deal with the reality or we continue to be put to sleep by the people for whom it's in their best interest that we not be awake and active as stewards of this planet. If you just tuned in, you're listening to Spirit and Action. I'm your host, Mark Helpsmeet for this Northern Spirit Radio production, our website, northernspiritradio.org. You can come to the site, find seven years of archives, listen to or download all of our seven years of wonderful people doing great things for the earth and for people in general, for the animals. It's people doing good on this earth and I try and trace particularly the faith roots of that. So I'm very honored today to have with me Dan Dietrich who is part of Interfaith Community for the Earth, I.C.E. What a great group to fight global warming ice. They're affiliated with the Wisconsin Interfaith Power and Light. That website is wisconsinipl.org and then you can track your way to Dan Dietrich and the Interfaith Community for the Earth. His wife, Dan Dietrich is head of the local organization. You can call them if you wish at 715-344-1063. Again, that was 715-344-1063. Of course, I'll have these links on my site, northernspiritradio.org. While you're there, please post a comment. It's so helpful to have your feedback and you can leave a donation. There's many ways to connect to our many wonderfully working guests. Again, Dan Dietrich is here with us today for Interfaith Community for the Earth, I.C.E. We're talking about the work they're doing for the earth. Theologically, Dan, you as a Presbyterian perhaps don't have exactly the same theology as your Muslim members or your Baha'i members or whatever. As a Presbyterian, how have you been taught? Did you start out being environmentalist? Is this something that's 50 years long in your life or is it 10 years? I started out in a very religious family. It was a Catholic family. For high school, I went to a Catholic seminary and one year of college was in a Catholic seminary. I then left the Catholic faith not long after I was married and eventually found my way to the Presbyterian faith. I've now been involved with our local church here in Stephen's Point for the past on our 15 or so 20 years and there's someplace. I'm a deacon. I'm an ordained deacon. I'm ordained elder of the church. I am the moderator of our board of deacons on our church. So that's my faith journey up until this point. The Christian's perspective in general, I believe, on the environment is that of stewardship, that creation puts a responsibility on us and that responsibility is one of care for the creation. There are materials in the Old Testament talking about will be to him who places house next to house and drives all the environment away. There is some of that going on, I believe, right now we are overpopulating this planet. In my point of view, and this is a point of view widely shared, I believe, we have a responsibility to future generations and to the environment today to use our resources wisely so that they will be available for future generations and this is a moral responsibility. God created the world for good, not to be destroyed. What we have to figure out is how do we accomplish God's desires in the world. That's my perspective based on my religious teachings that I've had. You use the word stewardship and I'm certainly with you. That's totally my perspective. A lot of people look and say, no, right there in the first chapter, second chapter of Genesis, God gives man dominion over the earth. You're not a dominion guy, I guess. Well, we have dominion in the sense that we unquestionably have enormous power over the earth and we have demonstrated that in a variety of ways including the current global warming that's going on. So we have power, there's no question about this, but that power is supposed to be used for what I believe to be good purposes for what God wants us to do and therefore stewardship is the way we exhibit that power if we are following God's will. That's my take out. I think it's somewhat of an easy sell in our society to talk about organics, for instance, because that's going to relate to our health. That's poisoning us, our kids. Sometimes it's a harder sell to get people to back off from what John DeGraft described as affluenza. It's kind of endless feeding frenzy. We've got to buy more. We've got to do progress consists of always having 5% more than you had last year. Is there a way that ICE or you particularly cope with that part of the American mentality? We are very aware of it. No question about that. And the way we are coping is individually deciding what we can do to lower our carbon footprint. How can we in our own lives and our own families lives reduce our use of things so that other people will have a better life as well. I have read affluenza. I have watched the video and shown the video at my church of affluenza. I think it's an important document. I think in our faith communities we can spread that word and in larger communities we can spread it as well. I'm hopeful that through ICE we are also going to get that word out because I think that the members of ICE would agree that our function in life is not to be consumers, but is instead to be human beings who benefit the entirety of God's creation. There are some groups that teach a kind of prosperity theology. If you either act as God wants or if you have the right frame of mind, you can be richer and you can have it all. I think that that kind of theology doesn't look at if I have more what does that mean other people have. It assumes kind of a limitless universe rather than a spaceship earth. How does that relate to your personal theology or maybe theology of the Presbyterians or perhaps theology of the interfaith community for the earth? Well, I don't claim that the interfaith community for the earth has a theology. We have a variety of them, but we meld in this one area, I think. As far as how my own approach to theology deals with that, I think my model is Jesus and I don't recall him being extremely wealthy. His story is not a story that turns on the fact of his having enormous prosperity. I don't recall what he did. As I recall, his approach was to worry about the least among us and to be concerned for the children, for the widow, for those who are poor. That is the same approach which I believe the Muslim faith advocates that we are concerned, not with getting more and more and more, but making sure more and more people have what they need to live good worthwhile lives. I don't know where that theology comes from, and it certainly doesn't to me sound like a Christian theology from my perspective, but that's where I come from. From my perspective, and I think you know I'm Quaker, one of the central tenants or it's something that has evolved within Quaker circles is what we call a peace testimony. And one way that we've thought about concerns with the earth is peace with the earth, peace with the other species. There's also the realm of resource wars that are going to be pending as water becomes more scarce. You know, as more of the earth becomes desert, people fight over the last scraps of land that are still verdant. Is there any peace orientation within interfaith community for the earth, or perhaps again your personal or Presbyterian perspective? How important is peace as part of this? While the interfaith community for the earth is not primarily about issues of war and peace, the members of the interfaith community for the earth are all concerned about that issue. I personally am very concerned about the fact that our country has been going from war to war, seems to be very much a militaristic country, and this is something which I don't think is in accord with the teachings of Jesus Christ. I believe in giving to Caesar that which is Caesar's, but I don't believe that means we have an obligation to destroy other people and kill it random, or for that matter, not at random, but intentionally. We have a lot of work to do in the area of peace. I admire the work that the friends have done in this field for many, many years, and I think all of us can learn from that. One of my very first interviews seven years ago was with someone who lived off the grid. She told me seven years ago that they got their household down to two bags of garbage per year. That really involves reducing one's ecological footprint on the earth. Is that the kind of thing that you also deal with with respect to ICE or personally? Are you willing to come out and on the radio here right now, Dan, tell us how many bags of garbage you produce per year? I haven't the faintest idea how many guys I produce. Probably more than two, can we say? Definitely more than two. But I do remember when I was going to school in Champaign, Alabama, Illinois, I had a friend who also was working very hard to simplify, and he didn't have garbage pickup, so he asked me one time whether I would take his garbage from him for the past month, and I said, sure, and he gave me a very small paper bag, mainly filled with Kleenex, as I recall, everything else he had found a way to recycle. And we are very conscious recyclers here. We do not have as much garbage as many people produce, but we still have garbage that goes out at our house. We built our house to be energy efficient. It's a passive solar home. We've got solar thermal collectors in back of the house. We reduced the size of the house from what we were living in before. We have made it as energy efficient as we possibly can. We are working at this whole business of being good stewards. We've got a long way to go. I realize that. I think we all do. But I think we're moving the right direction, and I hope I can help other people who want to do that move in the same direction. I think you've got a lot of community-supported agriculture, more local food being produced around Stevens Point, where you live. Definitely. Has there been an effort to do the local eating challenge, trying to eat within 10 or 100 miles of where you live? Has that been happening locally as well? That is definitely the direction that the Central Rivers farm shed is moving. The idea is we want to have a sustainable community here, where we can sustain ourselves with the food that we grow locally here. We're fortunate to live in an area which has got wonderful agricultural land here. We are going that way. I don't know if people who have actually succeeded and never eat anything that is not growing within 10 miles. But I know a lot of people who are moving in that direction and very consciously purchasing food from our farmers market, which we have here in our area, or purchasing food through their CSAs or community-supported agriculture. We ourselves, again, have our own little gardens that we've got going. That helps us with our sustainability, to some extent. Of course, one of the challenges we have. You're in Wisconsin. I'm in Wisconsin. Stevens Point and Eau Claire do not have nine months of growing season here. We're quite limited. So if farmers market or your community-supported agriculture, they're actively producing food within a handful of months. How do you deal with that when you're trying to be environmentally responsible? How do you make your food local for you in Stevens Point when we've got such a limited growing season compared to Jackson, Mississippi? The technique is called canning or drying or freezing. And we have had workshops on all of these techniques for preserving food. We have master preservers here, some of whom are very much involved with our organization. We have people who are putting up greenhouses in order to extend the growing season and having two seasons instead of one in which to grow their food during the year. We know of people around here who are doing that. So we're doing what we can and moving the right direction again, not there yet for most of us, but we're working on it. It may seem a little bit ironic, but global warming means that we've got a larger growing season in Wisconsin than we used to have, which maybe makes it more possible for us to reduce our carbon footprint by reducing how far we have to import food from. There's good things about it in bad. There's no question about it. And we are blessed in many regards here in central Wisconsin in that we are going to be having the environment of Tennessee here pretty close, the heat of Tennessee. The question is, well, we have the water that would be necessary. What's it going to do? From the experts that I've heard, there are going to be species that no longer live here, such as balloon. There are going to be trees such as the tamarack, which can't grow because it's going to be too warm. So it's not unmitigated, wonderfulness, even the fact that we are going to have a little bit more warmth, maybe a longer growing season. It doesn't necessarily mean that we are going to be the food basket here. There's also the drawing down of the aquifers, and that is going on right now. It has been for years. We are in an area of the state, as you may know, that was once called the Central Desert. And then when they discovered the aquifer underneath Central Wisconsin, they changed the name to the Golden Sands region. And we have pivot irrigation systems everywhere here. They are very productive. They work well. Lots of nitrogen put into the soil and lots of corn, lots of soybeans, lots of other produce, all depending on that aquifer. The aquifer is going down. So the question is, how long can we depend on that, and what can we do to reduce our dependency on an aquifer? There are so many different aspects of this that are so important. Of course, it's grasping at straws, if you will, because if you try and fix one thing, certainly another problem can be caused by that. Exactly. We switch to wind power. We start killing birds or creating noise pollution, et cetera. It's not a simple solution, but it's so wonderful that you're doing this work to improve it. One of the reasons that I wanted to interview you, Dan, and find out what Interfaith Community for the Earth was doing as a local organizing faith community, extended faith community in Central Wisconsin. I wanted to figure out if there's some kind of lessons that you've learned that we could pass on to other people, other people may want to be organizing in the same way. Are there any lessons that you can pass on? Is there something about how the organization works, or what motivates it, or what sustains it, that other people could perhaps benefit from having your knowledge? Again, an excellent, excellent question. I wish I did have some really sage advice for you. The thing that we did that I'm proudest of is that we formed a community. We call ourselves the Interfaith Community for the Earth, and we are a community. I have very close friends now of a wide variety of faiths who are involved with this work with me. I think that's the direction to go. We are a 501(c)(3) organization, and we haven't got the paperwork back from the state that we've applied for it, but we've been around for six years, and yet we haven't got that paperwork, but it's not the paperwork that's important. What's important is that you have the foundation of people who have a common interest, a common commitment to the environment, and form a community. So, my advice to anybody out there, this is not a tricky thing to do if you're at all interested in forming a similar Interfaith activity or organization, rather. The best way to do it is get the word out through the faith communities that you've got, make sure that people know you're open to those who are spiritual seekers as well, and bring people around the table to share some food, for example, and talk, open up to one another, and see if you can get things moving. I think this is a model that can be replicated in hundreds of places if people are committed to doing something about global climate change. I'm grateful that you folks there in Stephen's Point, Wisconsin have taken the lead locally to find a way forward to plant these seeds for our future. Make such a difference. You're an inspiration to us, and I thank you so much for joining me, Dan, for Spirit in Action. Thank you so much. That was Dan Dietrich of ICE, Interfaith Community for the Earth, affiliated with Wisconsin Interfaith Power and Light, their website, wisconsinipl.org. And find more links on my northernspiritradio.org. We'll send you out for today's Spirit in Action with one more inspirational song by a fine, wonderful, wilderness walking man who died a couple years back, walking Jim Stoltz. His friends and family shared his music on my programs a couple times, and I'm passing on one of them to you, One Land, One Heart by Jim Stoltz. ♪ I'm a woman, I'm a man, I'm a child of the land, and her step to this earth, no matter where I stand, I'm a rich one, I'm a poor one, I'm the orphan locked outside. I'm a family that you always have, walking at your side, I'm a beggar, I'm a thief, I'm one who still believes, I'm a farmer kicking dust, but still I'm planting seeds, I'm the promise, I'm the light, I'm the good that lights your eye, I'm the spirit in the wind, I'm the fire that never dies. One Land, One Heart, and we're all in this together. One Land, One Heart, one green plant forever. ♪ I'm the old, I'm the young, I'm a song that seldom sung, I'm a student, I'm a teacher, I'm a mother's native tongue, I'm a sparrow's piercing note, the arms within your coat, I'm a spark within the darkness, that lights the flame of hope. One Land, One Heart, and we're all in this together. One Land, One Heart, one green plant forever. ♪ ♪ On the river, on the mountain, on the weather, twisted tree, on the fire and the flood, on the heartbeat of the sea, on the flower and the desert, on the edge of the brick, on the law of the bergileins, and the death that makes you think. One Land, One Heart, and we're all in this together. One Land, One Heart, one green plant forever. ♪ I am China, I am Kenya, every nation you can name. But I'm more than just a country, a flag about on replay. I'm a Buddhist, I'm a Hindu, a Muslim, and a Jew. I'm a Christian and an atheist, I'm a god inside of you. I am black, I am white, I'm the dog that's taken flight, I'm the healer and the patient, I'm a soldier by all rights, I'm a prisoner, I am free, I'm bound in unity, I'm a patriot of earth, I'm dreaming harmony. One Land, One Heart, and we're all in this together. One Land, One Heart, one green plant forever. One Land, One Heart, and we're all in this together. One Land, One Heart, one green plant forever. One Land, One Heart, and we're all in this together. One Land, One Heart, one green plant forever. One Land, One Heart, and we're all in this together. One Land, One Heart, and we're all in this together. What a powerful song of connection to the earth and to all the people of the earth. One Land, One Heart, by Walken Jim Stoltz. Jim's music for the earth was featured on a spirit and action program over a year ago, but today Dan Dietrich was our spirit and action guest. Next week we're going to be visiting with Mel White. You may or may not have heard of Mel White, but he was ghostwriter for a number of nationally known fundamentalist folks like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Billy Graham, including surprisingly for their autobiographies. When Mel accepted his sexual orientation as a gift from God, he did a major turnaround and began working to expose the deceptions and manipulations of Christian fundamentalists that harness and fans so much hate of gays and others. Next week I'll be talking to Mel White about his work with the organization he founded, Soulforce, and his book, Holy Terror, Lies the Christian Right, tells us to deny gay equality. I'll see you then for spirit in action. The theme music for this program is Turning of the World, performed by Sarah Thompson. This spirit in action program is an effort of Northern Spirit Radio. You can listen to our programs and find links and information about us and our guests on our website, northernspiritradio.org. Thank you for listening. I am your host, Mark Helpsmeet, and I welcome your comments and stories of those leading lives of spiritual fruit. May you find deep roots to support you and grow steadily toward the light. This is Spirit in Action. ♪ With every voice, with every song ♪ ♪ We will move this world along ♪ ♪ With every voice, with every song ♪ ♪ We will move this world along ♪ ♪ And our lives will feel the echo of our healing ♪ You