2006 Sacred Trust Forum

October 4, 2006

Featured Speaker: Roger S. Gottlieb, Professor of Philosophy, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Review Editor, Social Theory and Practice

‘Reading Spirit' Columnist, Tikkun Magazine

Review Editor, Capitalism, Nature, Socialism: A Journal of Socialist Ecology

First Baptist Church
90 North Main Street
West Hartford, CT

Past Events

2005 Sacred Trust Forum

October 11, 2005 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

St. John's Episcopal Church

679 Farmington Avenue

West Hartford, Connecticut (Directions)

Printable Registration form (Word)

Keynote Address: Peter B. deMenocal is a Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences of Columbia University. His research uses ocean sediments to reconstruct past changes in climate over timescales ranging from decades to millions of years. At shorter timescales, he has been studying the patterns of climate change during the current Holocene warm period - the last 10,000 years - to address the causes and signatures of natural (preanthropogenic) climate variability. Over longer several-million year timescales, his current research investigates past changes in African climate and their impacts on the evolution and adaptation of African mammalian fauna including early human ancestors. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1991, and an M.S. in Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He is presently one of the Directors of Undergraduate Studies for DEES and is also a member of the Earth Institute Academic Committee. He presently serves on the National Science Foundation Earth System History planning committee and was co-chair of the National Academy of Science "Frontiers in Science" program (2002).

Keynote Address Topic: Understanding the Global Warming Forecast: Using the Past as a Guide to the Future With the start of the Industrial Revolution, humankind began a vast global climate experiment of which we are only now realizing the effects. Combustion of fossil fuels, burning, and land-use changes over the past centuries have led to increases in greenhouse gas concentrations to levels that the earth hasn't seen for over 25 million years. A true though seemingly improbable statistic is that all of the ten warmest years on record have occurred since 1990. Present global average temperatures are very likely warmer than at any time in the past millennium. This lecture provides an overview of global warming science by discussing what we know about the signatures and causes of global warming. Current scientific results are discussed within the context of what we know about natural climate changes that have occurred over past millennia, beyond the relatively short record (last 150 years) of historical instrumental temperature measurements. This longer perspective provides a vantage point to appreciate the uniqueness of the current warming trend, as well as as an understanding of the very large and very abrupt changes that the global climate system is capable of when pushed with sufficient determination.

Program

4:00 p.m. —   Registration/Displays

4:30 p.m. —   Keynote Address

    By Peter B. deMenocal

5:30 p.m. — Workshops­ (Session a)

6:30 p.m. —   Dinner and Free Time for Viewing Displays

7:30 p.m. —   Workshops (Session B)

8:30 p.m. —   Closing Meditation

Cost: $30, includes dinner $20, Students   

Workshops

The sessions and their facilitators are:

Session A

Mysticism and Creation Care: From Rumi to Sir Thomas Merton (Part I) The Rev. Tom Carr, Pastor of First Baptist Church, West Hartford, and Co-Chair of the Interreligious Eco-Justice Network; Ellen Bernstein, author of Splendor of Creation and founder of the Jewish environmental network Shomrei Adamah; and Lynn Johnson, a psychotherapist, practitioner of energy healing and co-director of the Center for Serenity, West Hartford

Greening Our Sanctuaries - Greening Our Homes: How the Unitarian Universalist Green Sanctuary Program Inspires Changes in Congregational and Personal Lifestyles Janet Heller and Ellen Castaldini, Co-Chairs of the Sustainable Living Committee, Unitarian Universalist Society East, Manchester

Looking Ahead: Clean Energy Sources for the 21st Century.  Bob Wall, New England Regional Director, SmartPower Inc.

Smart Growth: Balancing Economic, Human and Ecological Needs in Development Planning Jeanie Graustein, Environmental Justice Ministry Coordinator, Office of Urban Affairs, Archdiocese of Hartford

Session B

Mysticism and Creation Care: From Rumi to Sir. Thomas Merton (Part II) The Rev. Tom Carr, Pastor of First Baptist Church, West Hartford, and Co-Chair of the Interreligious Eco-Justice Network; Ellen Bernstein, author of Splendor of Creation and founder of the Jewish environmental network Shomrei Adamah; and Lynn Johnson, a psychotherapist, practitioner of energy healing and co-director of the Center for Serenity, West Hartford

Citizen Action on Global Warming Roger Smith, Program Associate, Clean Water Action

This Old House of Worship: A Case Study - An Energy Audit of St. John's Episcopal Church Christopher F. Halpin, P.E., Principal, Celtic Energy, Glastonbury , and Energy Consultant to the Interreligious Eco-Justice Network

The Heart Beat of the Earth: A Drumming Workshop John Boiano, Pulse Integration, Vernon

2004 Sacred Trust Forum

October 4,  2004 - 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

2004 Sacred Trust Forum: Religion and the Environment

Mail-in Registration form:WORD format or PDF format (easier to print)

Promotional Information: Faith Community Newsletter Insert  or Notice Board Flyer

Keynote address by: Bill McKibben - Author of 'Enough' and 'The End of Nature'. Bill McKibben writes regularly for The New York Review of Books , The New York Times , Natural History , The New Republic , and many other publications.  Come learn more from this fascinating and provocative author at our Sacred Trust Forum: Religion and the Environment, as he talks on the issue “Crossing Thresholds: The Environment as a Moral Challenge” . Nearly fifteen years ago, in The End of Nature , Bill McKibben demonstrated that humanity had begun to irrevocably alter and endanger our environment on a global scale. This impassioned plea for radical and life-renewing change is today still considered a groundbreaking work in environmental studies. McKibben's argument that the survival of the globe is dependent on a fundamental, philosophical shift in the way we relate to nature is more relevant than ever. McKibben writes of our earth's environmental cataclysm, addressing such core issues as the greenhouse effect, acid rain, and the depletion of the ozone layer. In Enough he explores the frontiers of genetic engineering, robotics, and nanotechnology -- all of which we are approaching with astonishing speed -- and shows that each threatens to take us past a point of no return. McKibben offers a celebration of what it means to be human, and a warning that we risk the loss of all meaning if we step across the threshold.

Price: $30 per person (includes dinner)

Caterer: Kebra Nagast, 248 Sisson Avenue , Hartford , CT (860) 523-1122

Location:

Unitarian Society of Hartford

50 Bloomfield Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105
Tel: (860) 233-9897 / FAX 233-1333

Directions:

Directions to the Unitarian Society of Hartford Meeting House

Schedule:

Past Event:

2003 Sacred Trust Forum

2002 Sacred Trust Forum: View the brochure for 2002's forum (in PDF format)