Ocean-Climate Action: What Is It? Why Does It Matter?

In 2019, the Creation Justice community has grown in our understanding of the need for ocean-climate action. Scroll down to take a look at our year of ocean-climate action in pictures.

Few people realize God's ocean has been "taking the heat" of climate change, absorbing more than 90 percent of the excess carbon dioxide in our atmosphere annually.  As a result, God's ocean is now higher, warmer, more acidic, lower in oxygen, less "productive," less predictable, and contributing to more heat waves as well as extreme storms. Yet, God's marine creation is full of blessing and promise. Through proactively taking caring actions now, the natural capacity of God's marine creation to sustain life will make us all more resilient in the climate crisis.

The Creation Justice community has engaged in education and advocacy to protect God's marine creation.

We have been developing partnerships with the Blue Theology Mission Station in Monterrey, California, as well as aquariums and nonprofit peers who are engaged in an Ocean Protection Coalition. We are studying and teaching the results of the Heartwired to Love the Ocean study, which has identified what most motivates the public to care for God's ocean. We co-hosted faith-based ocean-climate leadership trainings in Sarasota, Florida, Newport News, Virginia, and Boston, Massachusetts.  We  interviewed pastors in the Creation Justice community about ways they understand the ocean as a source a spiritual strength. We have also engaged in advocacy visits with members of:
*the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis
* the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science Oceans, Fisheries, and Weather
* the US House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee
* the Environmental Justice Task Force
* the Oceans Caucus, both in the US House and Senate

To cap off the year, some of our board members and other partners from the Creation Justice community are attending the United Nations 25th Conference of the Parties (COP) climate conference in Madrid, which has been nicknamed "the Blue COP," signifying this COP is focusing on the ocean.

Now, some members of Congress are starting to talk about a "Blue New Deal" that could accompany a Green New Deal.

As we look to 2020 and the way we think about how to approach the climate crisis, it is clear we have turned a corner. There is no thinking about the climate crisis without including God's marine creation as a place that needs healing and restoration, so it can be a source of resilience.