Ways to Observe Earth Day in 2024

BY STM CARE FOR CREATION MINISTRY

1. What's our responsibility as Catholics to act on climate issues?
   What the film Climate Change as Religious, Ethical and Political: Reflections with Emphasis on U.S. Catholicism presented by Daniel Dileo, PhD, Creighton University, and consultant with Catholic Climate Covenant. This powerful film should be required viewing for all Catholics to understand our moral responsibility to act for ourselves, for all humanity, and for our common home.
   
   
2. Feeling hopeless in the face of climate change?
   Read Katharine Hayhoe’s book, A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World or watch her presentation.
   
   
3. Reread the Pope’s Laudato Si and his exhortation Laudate Deum.
   Pray and reflect using the Laudate Deum Examen.
   
   
4. Join our friends at St. Peter Claver Church for a musical Earth Day celebration.
   Honor creation and join in the Claver Community Sing, Sunday Apr 21, 11:30. To be held outside if possible. Sponsored by the SPC Team Earth/Social Justice Team and SPC’s fabulous musicians. “Wear your most colorful/festive clothes to lift our spirits even higher (and give us a good photo op!).”
   
   
5. Update your STM Eco Home Assessment Guide.
   Tune up your practices and commitments. The Guide can be found on the STM Care for Creation webpage.
   
   
6. Plan your summer yard and garden.
   Replace fertilizer dependent (and water hogging) turf with native pollinator friendly alternatives. Plant native flowers to support pollinators. Choose your plant materials with care: make sure the seeds and plants are not treated with neonicotinoids (neonics or NNIs), insecticides that are harmful to pollinators. Consider rain barrels to capture rain for use in your gardens. Visit the Capitol Regional Watershed website for grant information and designs for residential landscaping and rain gardens.
   
   
7. Take inventory of your use of single use plastics.
   Keep your food containers, plastic bags, plastic water bottles, etc. for one week. Visualize that countertop pile times 52 weeks to get a sense of your plastic impact. Now think of how you can avoid using these plastics at all – by using reusable dishes and containers, by refusing plastic bags. Recycle what you do receive – in the county recycling pickups, or by taking clean (no food residue) plastic bags to drop off sites at participating stores. Buy only products that display the BPI certified logo. (For example, if you buy ice, make sure the wrapper displays the BPI certification logo. That wrapping is recyclable at big box stores) Better yet, avoid plastic altogether! Embrace compostable and permanent, reusable items.
   
   
8. Prepare for your summer lake time.
   View A Sea Change for Superior , a production of PBS North, this film documentary explores the impacts of climate change on the greatest of the Great Lakes.

We are always looking for ways to give you, our parishioners, the opportunity to share your experiences! If you would like to submit your story, please email Brennan at  bhall@morecommunity.org. 


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