Quaker Earthcare Witness

By Carol & David

The QEW fall meeting was their usual mix of connection, surprises, and the inevitable conundrums posed by a nation-wide Zoom meeting. The event was planned by Friends on the west coast who posted the schedule using east coast times. For us in the central time zone that was challenging. All the committees met at one time using breakout rooms, which was fine unless you wanted to meet with more than one committee. Tech support, however, was first rate moving Friends into and out of breakout rooms and highlighting speakers in the plenaries very smoothly.

It is always wonderful to meet with Friends who share a common concern; in this case earth care, although QEW is focusing more now on people of color and the legacies of slavery and colonialism. Earthcare helps us all, of course, and exploitation of the earth hurts everyone, but when the pipelines are built they come through Native American territory in the countryside and Black neighborhoods in the cities. It felt good to share the news that the Memphis community was able to stop the Byhalia pipeline last summer.

Carol attended the United Nations working group to get a clearer picture of how Quakers interact with that body. QUNO (Quaker United Nations Office) is a venerable wider Quaker organization that facilitates dialog among delegates without taking sides. The QEW presence is instead an advocate for earth care and has had some success nudging the conversation in Quakerly directions. The UN publishes climate reports regularly and delegates are engaging the topic.

David met with the Population Working Group which spends a lot of time writing pamphlets and position papers supporting smaller family size. They are currently working on a piece to submit to the Friends Journal. The group is aware of how it looks for older people to ask younger people to do this, but they hope more information will help. The good news is that family size has begun to decrease all around the world.