 Keepers of the Earth live in our studio. Hello everyone, my name is Lynn Weaver. Welcome to another episode of In the Studio. Today our topic is going to be the Davis 2016 Interfaith Conference on Climate Change. And joining me here are two other guests. They are both organizers of the conference and we have Carol Warren. Welcome. Thank you. And Lynn Nettler. Welcome. Thank you all for joining us today and I'm really looking forward to learning more about the conference. Lynn, can you tell me when, where, how to register for this important conference? Oh, I'd be very happy to. It's taking place on March the 5th, a Saturday. The doors open at 8.45 and the conference begins at 9.30 and goes all the way until 3.30. Not to worry, there's lunch included. And the location is St. James Catholic Church this year. This is our fourth annual and we rotate locations so we've been at different faith communities different years. Yes. So the Catholic Church is right near the Veterans Memorial. Yes. Theatre and complex. And let's see, you asked also how to register. If you go to cooldavis.org and scroll down the news blog you can find the article on it and all the information you need. Okay. It's there. So cooldavis.org and all the information as well as how to register will be there for you. Thank you so much. Now Carol, why this conference and why this is an important partnership in a way between a the interfaith community in Davis and the climate change concerns? Well, I believe that climate consciousness and faith have, have really been meeting each other over the years. And it's becoming more of a connection I think as people of faith realize that as we believe that the planet and its beauty and its resources are a gift of the creator, then people of faith are feeling a strong and increasing obligation to protect the planet and to try to do everything that we can to make sure that this great gift is passed on to our children in the same or even a better condition than what we received ourselves. What is the mission of this conference beyond the obvious, you know, reasons about the concern for climate change? Why do we want to include also the churches, the multi-interfaith to this, to be interested in this topic? I think that's a good question for you, Lynn. Well, first of all, I want to clarify that while it is an interfaith conference, it is very open to the public because we're we're meaning for anyone at all to attend. We have so many speakers and workshops that are of interest to anyone with the least concern or even budding interest in the topics of climate change and how we might look at it on a personal scale or on an advocacy scale so anyone is welcome to attend. So that's very important. That's very nice. I'm glad you clarified that. And secondly, this is put on by our YOLO Interfaith Alliance for Climate Justice and there are so far 11 faith groups who have joined it and are helping to plan it, but we are wide open. We're trying to bring in more and more faith groups as one way of bringing together people who are frankly alarmed at what is happening on our planet and trying to find ways that by putting our energy together we might be more effective in protecting our planet. This is great. And so far have you had a very good response from the communities and the church communities as well? What I can say is in our four years each year our conference has brought more people in attending and more faith groups have joined each year. So to me that feels like we're building a larger number of people who are saying we're concerned. How can we get to work on it? Yes. Now I was reading about the key speaker of the conference and I would like perhaps our viewers to know a little more about this. Will it be Carol? Carol. We're really excited this year to have sister Joan Brown as the keynote speaker. Joan is a Franciscan sister from the community in Rochester, Minnesota, but she's been living in Albuquerque for a number of years and her work job is as director for Interfaith Power and Light. She recently received an award from the White House, one of four people to receive an award as a champion of change for her work on the climate issue. And she was an observer for the Franciscan Federation at the Paris Climate Talks just recently concluded. In December. Yes. And made several presentations to the nongovernmental organizations participating there. So we're very excited to have her. She grew up on a farm in Kansas and so from a very early age I think sister Joan made the connection between our care for and good stewardship of the earth and the water and animals to being able to provide people with what they need. And so she's connected to this issue at a very heart level. And I think that's something that people are really looking for today. All of us can read the scientific journals. We can see a lot of the bad news about what's happening. And that can be something that just sort of freezes us. We feel overwhelmed and we don't know what to do. And we're looking for ways to connect at a deeper level with other people. That's a very good point that you're making there because the scientific facts and the projected impacts of what the climate change is doing to the earth still feels rather remote to a lot of people and cerebral in a way. So give me an example if you about how you feel that our Joan feels or everyone feels about our experience of this climate changing. Well I have a granddaughter. Yes. Who is 11 years old. And I think about the way things will have changed if we don't act by the time that she's my age. I worry about her future and will there be mass migrations of people? Will the place where she lives be very different and heaven knows after the drought we've been having? What will the water situation be like? How is her life going to change based on my action or inaction in this present moment? And I think that's one of the things that people feel a little overwhelmed about and really want to connect with others to work on. How do I do this? How do I change my lifestyle? How do I involve my spirit in this work? Carol gave us an intro to the next question that I have. How can we give me an example of what we can do at our level to help with the changing climate? I mentioned that to maybe I didn't mention but there is no meat Monday or one of the meatless Monday. Yes. But that's an example you know give out eating meat one day a week and this was done in the Middle Ages before. Yes for other reasons. Actually in our conference the afternoon is devoted to workshops and that's the action part of the day. Okay. So we'll hear some stories in the panel of what those panelists are encountering in their successes and challenges with climate work. But the afternoon is for us and we can choose one of two of ten workshops and they're divided. Some of them are very practical working on your own life and thinking very immediate things that we can do in our own lives on a practical nature so making our homes more efficient looking at our transportation thinking about our consumption our stuff our ways that we're wasting and there are great workshops on how to address some of those issues and you can choose which one calls to you because you think you could do a little better in those areas. Some of the workshops are an advocacy you're saying it's I'll work on myself but I'm trying to reach my legislator and I don't think I'm effective can you give me some help yes we can we have a good workshop in that arena or you know other ways that you can reach out in a larger scene and the last of them are actually time for reflection and we've built in some places where you can go to be with others and reflect on what this experience of living in a time of climate change is like and how we can bring that into our hearts and souls and spirits and then live in this world in an effective way it's so we've got choices like that for you it sounds very inspiring and extremely useful I hope so yes so just very quickly Lorraine are you going to sing this song at the conference singing the song at the conference and I'll be encouraging others to sing right along with me because we're all keepers of the earth and I think it's really important oh that's wonderful you you just the song is beautiful thank you the way you sing it is beautiful and once again we're talking about the March 5th 2016 interfaith climate change conference on climate change taking place here in Davis at St. James's and I want to thank you all of you for taking part for the work you do for the community and good luck with the conference again you'll go to cooldavis.org you'll find all the information that you need there again thank you for joining us you've been watching in the studio my name is Lynn Weaver if you'd like to stream this program well first of all it it broadcasts on Davis community television channel 15 but you can also stream it by going to dctv davismedia.org or you can also watch some of our other programs we have fantastic guests and our topics are very interesting from all of us here thank you for watching and see you next time