Ryan: What first inspired you to get involved with environmental issues, and specifically with the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change.
Dan: I would have to say that my children inspired me to become engaged in environmental issues. Specifically, my oldest son Benjamin, when he was about 10 years old, organized a group of his friends to clean up a local stream. He did this without prompting or without any suggestion on our part. When I asked him why he wanted to do this, he said because it was a mess and needed someone to clean it up. It was a simple as that: he saw environmental pollution and decided it was his responsibility to do something about it.
Like computers and video games, I think kids of his generation get environmental injustice and environmental degradation because they are exposed to it at a very early age.
As I reflected on his actions and as I learned more about climate change, I decided that I wanted to do something about this issue to help make their world, their future less dangerous.
Having worked in the Catholic Church all my life, I wanted to find a way to work on climate change within. Fortunately, the US Catholic bishops offered a roadmap for reflection and action with their 2001 statement, Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good. And having worked at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for over a decade, I had the contacts in the dioceses, a good understanding of Church structures and potential to make a difference within this community of faith.
I was given the opportunity to form the Catholic Coalition and jumped at the chance.
Ryan: What role do you see college students playing in the fight to stop global climate change and promote sustainability?
Dan: The key to solving the climate crisis for everyone, including college students, is mindfulness: an awareness of the problem and a day-to-day commitment to use less energy, take care in distinguishing our wants from our needs, and finding ways to help others along this path.
In my experience college students “get” climate change. So that’s the easy part. The harder part is acting on that knowledge.
In addition, I think students are in a great position to influence the administrations of colleges and universities. For a Catholic college or university, students can help push the administration to recycle, conserve energy, cultivate open space and the like. But just as important is to urge the administration to see these activities in light of its mission as a Catholic institution which, in my view, demands that it do these things because good stewardship and being mindful of the poor (those who have contributed the least to the problem of climate change but are suffering its worst impacts) are core tenets of our faith.
Ryan: What is one measure college students can take to make climate change a major focus on their respective campuses?
Dan: I would say form or join a Catholic campus ecology club. Link this with campus ministry and with the school’s sustainability office, if it has one. As I said, I think students—especially in numbers—can have a great impact. But I hope that the ecology club isn’t formed because it’s trendy to be green but because it is a requirement of our faith and linked to the mission of what it is to be a Catholic institution.
Ryan: How can people of faith have a unique impact on environmental issues?
Dan: I think that people of faith must examine their faith’s teaching on the environment which, in all major religions, have core values that urge restraint, living within the limits of finite resources, sharing those resources, protecting those resources for use by future generations. In my experience, too many in the environmental community focus solely on plants, animals, and ecosystems and, sadly, many also believe that humans are simply in the way of a thriving planet. People of faith ought to have a different outlook and share a different message: one that says that we must be concerned about people and the planet. The issue is not human impacts on the environment, but how faithful humans are to caring for the environment and each other.
Ryan: You organization has been very effective using social networking tools such as Twitter to spread your message. What has make the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change so effective online?
Dan: It’s good to hear that you think we are effective. It seems to me that the key to social media is consistency and a daily practice of sharing messages and being engaged in the medium. Fortunately, we have a staff person who’s primary responsibility is to keep our Facebook, Twitter and other sites updated each day.
The other important reason we use social media is that it is a quick and easy way to reach more people than we otherwise would. The Coalition staff is one full-time and two part-time people. So we rely on social networking to get our messages out. We also work closely with our national Catholic partners (various Catholic organizations) to leverage their connections, constituents and programs. In this way our staff is expanded and our reach broadened.
Finally, there is so much happening in the Catholic world on this issue. From Pope Benedict to Catholic families, people and institutions are engaged. We hope to be a conduit of this good news. In many ways, it is impossible to keep up with all that is going on.
-Ryan
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