ECO JUSTICE FOR ALL DIALOGUES
Taking action on climate chaos:
An Interfaith dialogue from various traditional religious perspectives
Thursday, August 10, 2022 10-11am ET Online
Join us for this lively online discussion with Q&A

This EJFA Dialogue is presented as a part of the
6th Annual Interfaith Awareness Week
August 7-13, 2022, 8am-8pm PDT
Coordinated by the World Interfaith Network
Bringing together 40 Interfaith groups from around the world.

About our Dialogue speakers

Daniel Capper, Ph.D., is a recently-retired Professor from the University of Southern Mississippi, where he taught Asian religions, comparative religions, and research methods. Trained at the University of Chicago in the field of science and religion dialogue, his interdisciplinary studies explore environmental ethical interactions with the nonhuman natural world comparatively as well as among American Buddhists. Capper’s many publications include the books Learning Love from a Tiger: Religious Experiences with Nature, Roaming Free like a Deer: Buddhism and the Natural World, and Buddhist Ecological Protection of Space: A Guide for Sustainable Off-Earth Travel.

Rev. Susan Hendershot has served as president of Interfaith Power & Light since 2018. Rev. Hendershot went on to graduate school at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia where she received her Master of Divinity degree from Candler School of Theology. After graduate school, she moved to Iowa, where she was ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and served as a pastor in local congregations, focusing on social justice. Rev. Hendershot also led faith-based nonprofit organizations and served as the first Heartland Field Organizer for the ONE Campaign on global poverty. Just prior to her current role, she served as the executive director at Iowa Interfaith Power & Light, one of the state affiliates in the Interfaith Power & Light network. Rev. Hendershot believes that climate change is a moral issue, disproportionately impacting those who are most vulnerable in our world. She gets her motivation and inspiration from her two sons. Rev. Hendershot is based in Washington, DC.

Ibrahim Ozdemir is a professor of philosophy at Uskudar University, Istanbul, Turkey. He is the Dean of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and is the founding President of Hasan Kalyoncu University, Gaziantep. His PhD dissertation was entitled: The Ethical Dimension of Human Attitude Towards Nature, which was the first dissertation by a Muslim philosopher on environmental philosophy and ethics. His books include Rumî and Confucius on Meaning of Life, The Ethical Dimension of Human Attitude Towards Nature, and Globalization, Ethics and Islam. His diverse background as a researcher and teacher includes environmental philosophy and ethics, ecology and religion, practical ethics, philosophical counseling, critical thinking, and Islamic philosophy. Ibrahim Ozdemir was a member of the drafting team of the Islamic Declaration for Global Climate Change. Presently, he was assigned as a member of the core and draft team to write and finalize Al-Mizan: A Covenant for the Earth to be presented to the UN.
We Stand for Religious Freedom
The Temple of Understanding has long championed the freedom of religion and the separation of Church and State, as declared in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Religious freedom also means freedom from the imposition of religion.
We stand with multiple interfaith colleagues and organizations, including Religions for Peace-USA, the Parliament of the World’s Religions, Interfaith Alliance, GreenFaith, and more, in our concern about encroachments on religious freedom directly resulting from the recent Supreme Court decision and states’ subsequent actions on reproductive rights. 
UN General Assembly declares access to clean
and healthy environment a universal human right
We are celebrating the UN declaration on the human right to a clean and healthy environment, voted in on July 28th. In the words of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet: “Today is a historic moment, but simply affirming our right to a healthy environment is not enough. The General Assembly resolution is very clear: States must implement their international commitments and scale up their efforts to realize it. We will all suffer much worse effects from environmental crises, if we do not work together to collectively avert them now,” she said. Ms. Bachelet explained that environmental action based on human rights obligations provides vital guardrails for economic policies and business models. “It emphasizes the underpinning of legal obligations to act, rather than simply of discretionary policy. It is also more effective, legitimate and sustainable,” she added. Read more here.
Can Harnessing Blue and Thematic Bonds Build a Sustainable,
Regenerative Ocean Economy?
The Temple of Understanding co-sponsored this event at June's Oceans Conference. Key recommendations for action coming out of it, and reported to the Secretariat, include:
1. Continue to evaluate new unique structures and remain engaged with issuers, underwriters, MDBs and
NGOs on scaling capital deployment to the Blue Economy
2. Use of artisanal aquaculture as a way of diversifying jobs for artisanal fisheries
3. Develop radical partnerships for comprehensive approaches – NGOs, academic institutions,
development banks, commercial banks, development organizations, economists, scientists, and marine
spatial planners, as well as the full spectrum of stakeholders in place, with strong engagement of
Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
4. Continue to promote blue bonds as a viable financial mechanism and the importance of setting up
effective mechanisms for project eligibility and for measuring success that build good science into
accounting.
5. Center the value of human rights in the evaluations of the impact for blue bonds for ocean conservation.

Watch our latest
ECO JUSTICE FOR ALL Dialogue
"Wake Up America!
North American Environmental Youth Activism"
Recorded on July 14, 2022 10-11am
Dialogue with Mars Vazquez-Plshevsky - Fridays for Future, NYC, Lydia M. - Our Children's Trust,
Liv Schroeder- Zero Hour
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