Climate and environmental justice related content

Help keep our neighborhood clean! – Groveland Parking Lot Clean-up

Plymouth owns the Groveland Parking lot. Join other members to pick up trash in this lot on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10 to 11:30 AM. All supplies and directions are available at the front desk in Jones Commons.

Perhaps we will integrate SSCO’s and Plymouth’s trash pick-up activities.

Plymouth is a certified Climate Justice Congregation

Please see the communication below regarding our recertification as a Climate Justice Congregation from Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light.
Dear Plymouth Congregational Church:
CONGRATULATIONS! For another year, you join an elite group of congregations in Minnesota engaged in climate justice action. We are glad to certify you again as an MN Interfaith Power & Light Climate Justice Congregation.
As you know, your commitment has never been more vital. 2024 revealed a hotter global average temperature than 2023, which was the hottest year in 125,000 years. Despite this, U.S. political leadership has withdrawn our country from the Paris Climate Accord, gutted the Environmental Protection Agency, and reversed course on renewable energy in favor of fossil fuels, which are the primary cause of climate change.
In the face of this, being a climate justice congregation makes a huge difference. Educating congregation members, speaking up at public utility commission hearings, starting composting programs, turning used plastics into benches, installing bike racks and solar systems, advocating for wild rice and electronic waste recycling with elected officials– these are some examples of what Climate Justice Congregations accomplished in 2024. In addition, MNIPL activated thousands of Minnesotans of faith to care for the earth, speaking against the tide of those who would destroy our planet.

CEJ News, Spring 2024

Celebrating our Climate Action: Plymouth has been re-certified as a Climate Justice Congregation by MN Interfaith Power & Light!

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Earth Sunday Guest Speaker

Michael Noble – Climate Policy Change Champion

Michael Noble will speak on a life in climate policy, with special emphasis on how progress in Minnesota has remained steady while the power of money thwarted meaningful federal action for 32 years. He will describe the game-changing momentum of the new energy provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act and the 100 percent Clean Electricity Standard recently passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Walz.

Michael is executive director and a founder of Fresh Energy, a nonprofit public policy energy advocacy organization. Stepping down this spring after 30 years to support generational change, under his leadership Fresh Energy persistently and effectively advocated for clean energy policies and systems in the state, region, and nation, advocacy that has driven bold public policies on the path toward an equitable carbon neutral economy.

Climate and Environmental Justice Speaker Series

Monday, March 13, 6:00-7:00 pm via zoom
Solar Opportunities for Your Home

Are you interested in shifting to solar energy for your home? Considering adding solar panels to your roof or possibly subscribing to a solar garden instead? Join us to learn the basics of solar energy, get resources to determine if solar is right for your home and find out about financial incentives for installing solar. Join the Clean Energy revolution!

Speaker: Diana McKeown, Metro CERTs (Clean Energy Resource Teams) Director

Zoom meeting. Please register in advance
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89428555659?pwd=c3pQS01mVjVMTEh4MW1OUm1IRllZQT09

Climate and Environmental Justice Speaker Series

Second Monday of the month from 6-7 p.m. Zoom
All are welcome!

Monday, January 9, 6:00-7:00
The Ukrainian and European Energy Crisis: A Personal View

What is the outlook for Ukraine and Europe’s energy? Join us to learn about Ukraine’s history and the current situation as the war with Russia rages on. Ukrainian Paul Jablonsky has studied the long-term history of Ukrainian-Russian energy dynamics. He will share his insights and answer questions.

Speaker: Paul Jablonsky, President, Ukrainian American Community Center, Mpls

Please register in advance via this zoom link –
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86546130120?pwd=eFMvL1A2S1JERGhKdks5K0hsTGRpUT09

Monday, February 13, 6:00-7:00
Stand Alone Battery Energy Storage: its role in the transition to a zero carbon economy and renewable energy.

How are large scale batteries helping to speed the transition to clean energy? Join us to learn about the work of Power Plus, a major standalone battery storage company working to support energy production from wind, solar and other green technologies.

Speaker: Rachel Walker, Plymouth member and Development team member at Plus Power, LLC.

Please register in advance via this zoom link –
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83570488944?pwd=V25RZXV1dUdGQWRhOGNXS1Bad1pPUT09

Monday, March 13, 6:00-7:00
Solar Opportunities for Your Home

Are you interested in shifting to solar energy for your home? Considering adding solar to your roof or possibly subscribing to a solar garden instead? Join us to learn the basics of solar energy, resources to determine if solar is right for your home and find out about financial incentives for installing solar.

Speaker: Diana McKeown, Metro CERTs (Clean Energy Resource Teams) Director

Please register in advance via this zoom link –
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89428555659?pwd=c3pQS01mVjVMTEh4MW1OUm1IRllZQT09

Come, Let Us Rebuild

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Intersection Returns

In winter and spring of 2021, Plymouth’s Immigrant Welcoming Working Group (IWWG) and Racial Justice Initiative (RJI) offered Intersection, a multi-media book club that included podcasts, documentaries, and articles as well as books. The goal was to learn about racial justice and immigration issues from a historic and current perspective and explore the junctions.

Intersection will return in 2022 with Plymouth’s Climate and Environmental Justice Team joining IWWG and RJI to offer new materials that explore issues unique to each group as well as those that overlap. Intersection will be offered on the 2nd Monday of each month, January through June, 2022, from 5:00-6:30 over zoom. Sessions will provide opportunities to discuss the prework as well as share learnings/reflections.

Materials include:

  • When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Kahn-Cullors & Asha Bandele – a deeply moving and visceral story about the personal history of one of the founders of Black Lives Matter.
  • Caste by Isabel Wilkerson. The selected chapters serve as an overview of Wilkerson’s concept of caste and how it emerged in America.
  • Silent Sacrifice. A PBS documentary film based on the experience of Japanese Americans before, during and after WWII.
  • Bayou Sutra – Orion Magazine.
  • Immigration Nation. A moving Netflix documentary about immigrants in the U.S.
  • Westminster Town Hall Forum presentation by Jose Antonio Vargas about life in America as an undocumented immigrant.
  • As She Rises. We’ve selected 4 episodes of this podcast which focuses on a specific area of the U.S. that is feeling effects of climate change.
  • Bangladesh: A Climate Trap. Video about Bangladesh climate change refugees who are forced to move to the slums in Dhaka due to environmental degradation.
  • Inequity at the Boiling Point. New York Times article.
  • Rising Seas Will Erase More Cities by 2050. New York Times article.

Please register at the link below. Feel free to contact Nancy Siska with any questions.

Register Here

Achieving Drawdown

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