Displaying items by tag: southern appalachian environmental justice

Members of the Black Girl Environmentalist Knox HUB will be the featured guests at the July 8 installment of Green Drinks Knoxville at 5:30 p.m. at Alliance Brewing Company, 1130 Sevier Ave. Knoxville. Green Drinks Knoxville

Green Drinks Knoxville explores how black and brown people bear the brunt of climate change

KNOXVILLE — Green Drinks Knoxville welcomes Black Girl Environmentalist Knox HUB for a conversation about environmental justice, community, and why Black-led environmental spaces matter.

The July installment of Green Drinks Knoxville is set for 5:30 p.m. July 8 at Alliance Brewing Company, 1130 Sevier Ave., Knoxville.

Learn about the work of Black Girl Environmentalist, the role of the local hub and co-hub leaders, and explore how environmental and climate issues disproportionately impact Black and Brown communities around the world. Come learn, ask questions, and be part of a meaningful discussion about building a more just and inclusive environmental movement.

Environmental theologian Julie Lehman is the MountainTrue Creation Care coordinator. Based in Asheville, she works with church congregations to improve their environmental stewardship. Creation Care Alliance

MountainTrue Creation Care Alliance fosters faith-based environmental stewardship

ASHEVILLE — Julie Lehman is shepherding positive change across the Southern Appalachians. 

“(Creation care) is a beautiful trend in faith communities, and kind of a new ministry in faith communities because it hasn’t been one of the staples of ministry work that churches do,” said Lehman, engagement manager for Creation Care Alliance. “People are really having fun with creation care, adopting it as one of the essential callings that faith communities have to do in the world.”

Creation Care Alliance (CCA) works to connect faith-based communities in the region to environmentalism through the religious concept of creation care. Creation care can be loosely defined as the practice of engaging in environmentalism through a religious lens – for example, planting a pollinator garden at a place of worship, or cleaning up a stream with a church group. 

In many rural or isolated American communities, churches are still the center of life. The Southern Appalachians are a strong example of this. Lehman is based in Asheville, where the destruction wrought by Hurricane Helene opened doors to her modern ministry practices. The devastation waged on both land and lives marked a crossroads in the climate change debate for many who were affected.  

“Hurricane Helene really helped people to see that you can’t go to one place to be safe from the impact of climate change and that the climate change debate seems to be less (of) a debate,” Lehman said. “I’m sensing a real strong readiness on the part of the people of faith that I work with. People are fully engaged and wanting to tie in what they naturally want to do to help nature with their faith.”