Bending the Arc

The Earth Day Fair returns to Founder’s Hall at the motherhouse of the Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes (CSA) at 320 County Rd K in Fond du Lac. On April 27, 2024, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the public is invited to interact with Earth-focused exhibitors and participate in various planned activities. 

Get all the event details!

In celebration of Earth Day, CSA hosts Common Ground, a film that unveils a dark web of money, power, and politics behind our broken food system. The film reveals how unjust practices forged our current farm system in which farmers of all colors are literally dying to feed us. The film profiles a hopeful and uplifting movement of white, black, and indigenous farmers who are using alternative “regenerative” models of agriculture that could balance the climate, save or health, and stabilize America’s economy - before it is too late.

Watch the trailer here:

Request a screening and get more information at https://commongroundfilm.org/
 

Trillion Trees Pledge

On Earth Day (May 22) 2024, Gov. Tony Evers, together with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), in celebration of Earth Day today and Forest Appreciation Week this week, announced that the state is increasing its Trillion Trees Pledge planting goal from planting 75 million trees by the end of 2030 to planting 100 million trees by the end of 2030. Gov. Evers and DNR also released the Wisconsin Trillion Trees Pledge 2023 Annual Report today, which shows Wisconsin has planted more than 32 million trees since Gov. Evers signed Executive Order #112 in 2021 committing Wisconsin to the Trillion Trees Pledge, bringing the state more than 40 percent towards its goal just three years into the pledge. Read the full press release.

Access to Solar

On April 23, Gov. Evers announced that Wisconsin is receiving a grant of $62.4 million from the Biden-Harris Administration to help fund solar systems for low- and moderate-income households across Wisconsin. Read the full story.

Funding New Energy Innovations

On April 24, Gov. Evers announced that the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin awarded $7.8 million from the Energy Innovation Grant Program to 28 projects that will expand access to clean energy and invest in the adoption of innovative technologies and processes. Learn more.

Federal Funds Go to Conservation and Restoration

On April 25, Gov. Evers announced that the Wisconsin Department of Administration is set to receive a total of $4.6 million through President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.The award will be directed towards two habitat conservation and restoration projects. Read the full release. 

What will happen next? Consider subscribing to press releases.
 

Catholic Climate Covenant’s 2024 Earth Day program focuses on the growing problem of plastic pollution and complements the secular Earth Day theme of “Planet vs. Plastics”.

Do you know?

• The United States is the world’s largest plastic polluter; every year we produce 35 million tons of plastic waste.
• Every 15.5 hours, Americans throw away enough plastic to fill the largest NFL stadium in the country, AT&T Stadium in Dallas, and the pile grows larger every year.
• Plastic piles up in landfills, litters our communities, pollutes beaches, and breaks down into microplastics that get EVERYWHERE - including inside us?!
• Less than 9% (some say only 5-6%) of plastics actually get recycled in the U.S.
• The production of plastics is a huge source of greenhouse pollution and is expected to overtake emissions from coal-fired power plants by 2030.

In this short video from Environmental Health News, learn how our throwaway culture is connected to plastic pollution and why it has become such a huge problem.  

We must deal with the plastic crisis if we are to control the climate crisis, to improve the health of our air and oceans, and to protect the Earth’s biodiversity and human health. You are encouraged to learn more and avoid adding to the plastic waste crisis whenever and wherever possible.  Learn more by participating in Catholic Climate Covenant’s 2024 Earth Day program - Healing Our Throwaway Culture: A Focus on Plastics. The one-hour program will help your community learn about how plastic production, consumption, and disposal are impacting human and planetary health, and give you strategies for personal, community, and systemic actions. The Earth Day program can be used any day that fits your community’s schedule. Learn more.

In 2022, 175 nations agree to develop a legally binding agreement on plastic pollution by 2024, prompting a major step towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions from plastic production, use and disposal. Read more. The fourth session of negotiations started earlier this week in Ottawa, Canada. Follow this and insist that our U.S. government supports a strong UN Plastic Treaty with mandatory, ambitious, scientifically based, and enforceable control measures and obligations to ensure results and accountability. 
SIGN AND SHARE THIS PLASTIC POLLUTION PETITION

Consider making some personal commitments.

Laudato Si' Action Platform invites Catholic Religious women and men to participate in an inspiring event, “Voices of Faith and Hope: Global; Catholic Religious in the Heart of Climate Action,” hosted by the religious sector of the Laudato Si’ Action Platform and the Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Commission of International Union of Superiors General (UISG).

The event is May 22, and they are looking to feature diverse and powerful stories from religious around the world. Selected stories will be presented as part of the event, providing a platform for sisters to share their journey and inspire others.

SHARE YOUR STORY HERE

Event Details:
Title: Voices of Faith and Hope: Global Catholic Religious in the Heart of Climate Action
Date: Wednesday, May 22
Time: 6:30 AM Mexico City, 8:30 AM New York, 1:30 PM London, 2:30 PM Rome, 3:30 PM Nairobi, 8:30 PM Manila
Hosts: Laudato Si' Action Platform and International Union of Superiors General

Stories that are not selected for live presentation may still be featured on our blog or social media channels as part of the Laudato Si' Week celebrations and beyond.

Please submit your responses by May 10. They will contact you shortly after to notify you of their decision. This is an opportunity to share your story with a global audience and to highlight the critical role of our faith in the ecological movement. 

CSA is a registered “Green Team” with Faith in Place, an affiliate of Interfaith Power & Light. Faith in Place champions justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion; fight for those most impacted by environmental injustice; and believe the environmental movement must be rooted in justice. They offer several free programs, events and resources on their website.

If you missed last week’s virtual earth vigil, you may watch the recording.

Did you know that the City of Fond du Lac is a designated Bird City? Fond du Lac’s Bird City Wisconsin designation is an honor the city achieved in 2012 and has renewed annually since then. This recognition reflects the importance that the Fond du Lac community places on protecting its avian wildlife and the habitat on which they rely. To be recognized as a Bird City, a community must meet criteria spread across six categories: habitat creation and protection, community forest management, limiting threats to birds, education, energy and sustainability, and the official recognition and celebration of World Migratory Bird Day.

Bird City Wisconsin provides highly visible public recognition to municipalities that understand that healthy communities are the sum of many parts, including birds. Bird City Wisconsin supports its communities, including Fond du Lac, in their efforts to protect and manage green space, educate their citizens, build and erect nesting structures, landscape with native plants, and reduce threats to birds like collisions and outdoor cats. Bird City Wisconsin also supports cities’ efforts to generally make urban areas both friendlier for birds and places where people want to live and work.  

Annually, Fond du Lac celebrates World Migratory Bird Day with events during the last week of April and the first week of May.

Birding in Fond du Lac
Thursday, April 25, 6 p.m., Fond du Lac Public Library, McLane Room
Steven Thompson, local bird photographer extraordinaire will share his favorite photos of birds and the best places to bird in Fond du Lac to capture your own stunning images.

CSA Earth Day Fair
Saturday, April 27, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes
Visit the Bird City exhibitor table and sign up for a guided bird walk on the CSA escarpment at 2:15.

World Migratory Bird Reception
Thursday, May 2, 5 p.m., THELMA Sadoff Center for the Arts
Bird art on display by members of the THELMA Visual Artists. Tom Schultz, National Geographic Illustrator will give a presentation about his work and Bill Volkert, WI naturalist will be reading from one of his published books.

Guided Bird Watching
Friday, May 3
6 p.m. walk at Camelot Business Park
Saturday, May 4
7 a.m. walk at the Greenway Arboretum
10 a.m. walk at Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes
1 p.m. walk at Lake Winnebago shore and boardwalk

Build a Bird: Glass Fusion Workshop
Saturday, May 4, 2 p.m., Trista Holz Studios (13 E. 1st St.)
Work with local artist Trista Holz to learn how to stack and fuse glass into your own beautiful work of ornithological art!

Local Galleries Featuring Bird Art
All May
Gallery & Frame Shop (94 S. Main)
Sumercé Artisans (52 E. Division)
Trista Holz Studios (13 E. 1st St.)

No one should be allowed to gamble with water – but that’s exactly what financial speculators are trying to do by trading water futures on the stock market.  Allowing financial speculators to profit off and drive up prices on a resource is dangerous.  

Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Ro Khanna just re-introduced legislation to ban water futures trading.  Ask your representatives to co-sponsor. 

Take Action Here.

U.S. Senator John Barrasso (Wyo.) recently introduced a bill that seeks to block the Biden Administration’s proposal to advance protections for old-growth forests. This bill is an attack on our climate-critical trees and forests and must not pass. Logging will continue to destroy our nation’s oldest trees.

The Biden administration's proposal, called the National Old Growth Amendment, will safeguard mature and old-growth trees across federal lands -- allowing them to continue to store carbon, provide clean water and support wildlife for centuries to come. Read more.

The Barrasso bill will do the opposite. By blocking the National Old Growth Amendment from going into effect, the bill will give the timber industry access to logging in our old-growth forests.

For the ecosystems they support, old-growth trees are gifts that keep on giving. For the timber industry, a tree's value grows until backhoes, bulldozers and saws cut it down.

We're counting on Environmental Action supporters like you to help save America's oldest trees and keep pristine wildlife habitats intact.

Stand up for our oldest trees.
 

Back in 2017, Walmart launched “Project Gigaton,” an ambitious project to eliminate one gigaton (1 billion metric tons) of greenhouse gas emissions from its supply chain by 2030. For reference, that’s the equivalent of taking more than 211 million passenger vehicles off the road for a whole year. This is also close to the amount Japan releases in one year as of 2021.

In February, Walmart announced that Project Gigatron had met its goals-six years early. More than 5,900 suppliers, responsible for around 75% of Walmart’s sales, participated. Companies big and small committed to taking steps to reduce their emissions in one or more of six areas: energy use, product design and usage; packaging; transportation; and waste.

The Walmart Sustainability Hub has been called the “village” for Climate Change aware companies that want to save the planet. The website offers “toolkits” of resources and information for each of the Project Gigaton pillars (Emission, Energy, Agriculture, Waste, Packaging, Deforestation, and Product Use) to help suppliers get started or advance their existing work. They also include a focus on worker dignity and safety.
A March 30, 2024 Fortune article details how the project works and the secrets to Walmart’s success. Read the full story

Walmart says, “Although we have achieved our 1 gigaton goal, we will continue Project Gigaton — because as a society we have a long way to go. Building a net zero emissions future will require a massive transition in our world’s energy and transport systems, materials and infrastructure… We hope Project Gigatron will continue to set the standard for corporate climate action - because a more sustainable supply chain is a more resilient one. A more resilient supply chain isn’t just better for our business, it’s better for people, communities and the planet.”

We hope so too, Walmart! Thanks for leading the way.
 

Today, April 11, the Biden-Harris Administration announced a new action that will save lives by reducing the number of firearms sold without background checks. This final rule implements the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act’s expansion of firearm background checks-the only significant expansion of the background check required since then-Senator Biden shepherded the Brady Bill over the finish line in 1993. The President and Vice President are moving as close as possible to universal background checks without additional legislation.

This New York Times article describes the rule released by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which will require anyone “engaged in the business” of selling guns at a profit to register as a federally licensed firearms dealer. That means sellers must run background criminal and mental health checks on potential buyers. Read the full article.

This is a huge win for gun violence prevention groups like Nuns Against Gun Violence. A few months ago, many of us submitted comments on the ATF site to close this loophole and the exciting news today is proof President Biden paid attention.

Read more about the specifics of the Engaged in the Business rule in this White House Fact Sheet.

The photo here is one I took last September when visiting my daughter in upper Wisconsin. This was a roadside sale (next to a fresh produce and pumpkin stands) that I found absolutely frightening.

During the week of April 15, the Fond du Lac campus of Moraine Park Technical College invites the community to walk through a “Tunnel of Oppression.” Tunnel of Oppression features the emotionally immersive experience of a live interactive theater in a safe environment. Groups can request a facilitated debrief by contacting Leslie Laster at llaster1@morainepark.edu. Some content may be difficult for younger viewers.

April 15-19, 2024
Mon: 10am-6pm // COMMUNITY NIGHT 4-6pm
Tue, Wed, Thu: 8am-4:30pm & Fri 8am - 12pm
MPTC FDL Campus Conference Center
Parking Lot C, Door O-2

This exhibit is free and open to the public. No registration required.
 

UNANIMA International plans a parallel event alongside the first ever UNGA Sustainability Week (April 15-19, 2024).

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) President is calling for all stakeholders to #ChooseSustainability, highlighting that “impactful transformation remains central to the ongoing efforts to advance all three dimensions of sustainable development - social, economic, and environmental - to achieve peace, prosperity, progress, and sustainability for all.”

UNANIMA International invites members and friends to join the parallel event they are organizing called, “Holistic Approaches for a Sustainable Future: Centering Individual, Collective & Planetary Well-Being” on Tuesday, April 16th 12-2 pm CT. This is a hybrid event. 

Read the full concept note here.

Please Register

Black Catholic groups in Missouri will celebrate the late African-American nun and activist with a centennial Mass and honorary presentation, which will be livestreamed for all to join.

This week celebrates the centennial of the birth of the late Sister Mary Antona Ebo, FSM, a Catholic nun who broke barriers for Black women and famously marched with Dr. Martin Luther King as one of the “Sisters of Selma.” A special event on Saturday, April 13 at 2 pm will be livestreamed on the St. Alphonsus YouTube channel for all to partake in the celebration.

Read the full article from Black Catholic Messenger
 

Last week, star CNN Reporter Donie O'Sullivan, had a two-hour conversation with MICAH Reverends Richard Shaw, Joseph Jackson Jr., and Dennis Jacobsen. Part of that conversation discussing MICAH’s “We All Belong Campaign” will be included in a CNN story on White Christian Nationalism featured on Anderson Cooper Show, April 11..

Pastors Richard, Joe and Jake each chair a Team of the “We All Belong Campaign,” designed to Save Democracy, Resist White "Christian" Nationalism, and Build Beloved Community. The Campaign is driven by these Teams: Direct Action, Education, Media, IVE (Integrated Voter Education), and Logistics. The Campaign is coordinated by the We All Belong Steering Committee, composed of MICAH Religious Leaders.

Additionally, last Friday night, the United Methodist Church of Whitefish Bay, WI, hosted nearly 700 people in-person and via live stream for a We All Belong event featuring Jim Wallis. Mr. Wallis shared a message both biblical and agitational. Click here for that recording and please share it broadly!

We All Belong is an important Campaign! You can participate by joining one of the Teams or helping out with data input, phone calls or correspondence.

Contact: weallbelong@wisdomwisconsin.org
Make a donation: https://bit.ly/WeAllBelongDonate
Check out their website: https://bit.ly/WABwebsite 
 

Use their resources:
Talking Points We All Belong
We All Belong Campaign Brochure
White Christian Nationalism Resource List
What is White Christian Nationalism and How Do We Recognize It?
Save the Dates Flyer for the Rally for Democracy!
 

Faith Climate Action Week is 10 days in April during Earth Month - April 19-28, 2024.

This year's Faith Climate Action Week focus film, Common Ground, is a powerful follow-up to Kiss the Ground. Common Ground provides hope for future generations with concrete ways to fix a broken planetary system. The film explores how regenerative agriculture can help heal the soil, our health, and the planet.

“By fusing journalistic expose’ with deeply personal stories from those on the front lines of the food movement, Common Ground unveils a dark web of money, power, and politics behind our broken food system. The film reveals how unjust practices forged our current farm system in which farmers of all colors are dying to feed us. The film profiles a hopeful and uplifting movement of white, black, and indigenous farmers who are using alternative “regenerative” models of agriculture that could balance the climate, save our health, and stabilize America’s economy – before it’s too late.”

CSA JPIC is hosting a FREE in-person screening of the documentary on 
Tuesday, April 23 at 6 pm 
in Founders Hall in the CSA Motherhouse.

This event will not be livestreamed.

REGISTER HERE 

Then on April 24 at 11am, join the Interfaith Power and Light webinar conversation with Gabe Brown - Regenerative Farmer and Advocate from the Common Ground film.

Register for the webinar

April 23 brings a CWR Academy webinar focusing on the importance of our words: How Narrative Drives Change, which will be presented by CWR in partnership with Kino Border Initiative (KBI).

During this session, sisters who have participated in KBI’s Catholic Sisters Walking with Migrants program will share their experiences, and we will also hear the experiences of someone who has been forced to migrate. Sr. Tracey Horan, SP, will then lead a narrative change workshop. We will see how narrative change efforts possess the ability to dismantle damaging narratives, influence public sentiment, and drive policy changes aimed at addressing and eradicating the injustices of systemic racism.

While registration is required, this webinar will be available free of charge to all: both CWR members and non-members. Communicators, justice promoters, congregational leadership, and other colleagues – lay and religious – are all invited to join us. The webinar recording will be made available following the live session.
Please note that How Narrative Drives Change is scheduled to last approximately one hour and 15 minutes, slightly longer than other CWR Academy webinars, which are typically closer to 60 minutes.

REGISTER HERE