Climate Change Activism

In the year 2000 NZ Quakers affirmed their commitment to the care of the environment, issuing a Statement on Environmental Sustainability. Friends have been active in environmental issues long before and ever since. Stories of individual Friends' active commitment to the environment can be found here.

More recently, activity has focused on the climate crisis:

We divested from funds invested in fossil fuel industries.
Friends join demonstrations calling for climate justice, and individual Friends are active in campaigning organisations Greenpeace, 350.org, Generation Zero and Extinction Rebellion.
Some Meetings are engaging with their local councils, urging them to consider sea level rise, divest from fossil fuel investment, and implement mitigation measures.
Friends participate in local organisations such as the Nelson Tasman Climate Forum.
In 2020, Quakers issued A Call for Action which expresses, among other things, our commitment to the sanctity of creation, and calls out society's consumer lifestyles which are destroying the natural ecosystems.
A Quaker Climate Emergency Correspondent supports Meetings and individual Friends to engage with the challenges presented by threats to the future, especially climate change.
A leaflet, Quakers and the Climate Crisis, shares five Quakers views, and their stories of climate activism.
In 2017, fifteen Quakers recorded their thoughts about climate change and spirituality. Another Friend, Marvin Hubbard has also written about the spiritual dimensions of the climate emergency. You can read "Beacons for Hope" here.
You can read stories about how various Quakers have attempted to adapt their life styles to fit their vision of the Quaker spiritual values of Simplicity and Sustainability here.

In 2021 Quaker Murray Short presented his thoughts to Friends about underlying beliefs by which we understand and respond to the world: we need to review the dualistic narrative behind our present relationship to the planet; monism (the idea that all things are part of a single whole), the traditional view of most indigenous societies, may encourage taking greater care of it. You can read his booklet, Care for the Planet here.

Emblems of Change:
Global warming has made the earth’s atmosphere more humid, intensified precipitation, and caused glaciers to melt rapidly, according to a 2021 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate change has disrupted the water cycle around the globe, which has led to more droughts, arid land, wildfires, and floods, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.
More frequent and severe natural disasters that result from climate change take human lives, cause homelessness, and threaten people’s health, both physical and mental. Quakers around the world are drawing on their spiritual resources to respond to climate-related calamities.
Read about Quakers' Global Response to the Climate Crisis .

Many Friends in Aotearoa / New Zealand have had a long and deeply-held understanding that the whole of creation is sacred. We have experienced personally the beauty and inter-connectedness of creation.

The time has come for our Yearly Meeting to affirm these leadings of the Spirit as a testimony. We need to recognise the spiritual nature of our responsibility to live with reverence for life. We want to extend our compassion for each other to compassion for all of life.

Each of us is part of the whole of life. All of life is in each of us. We grieve for the parts of our greater being that have been lost. We are driving thousands of species to extinction, causing deforestation, erosion and floods, polluting our rivers, soil, oceans and atmosphere.

Let us recognise the diversity of life, its interdependence and balance. The inherent wisdom of life astounds us. From cells to ecosystems we see a self-organising, self-repairing, co-operative whole. Our human focus needs to be widened to encompass the whole web of life. We need to change from domination to participation. The process will not be easy.

Our belief in simplicity will help us to live full and joyful lives without devouring the earth's resources. We can cheerfully do more with less.

We affirm that we are able to make a difference. Now is the time to act together trusting that the inner Light will open our eyes to the Light within the whole of creation and will lead us to our right place.

To each person life has given a unique being. We call on everyone to use that uniqueness to serve the whole.

We encourage individual Friends of all ages and all meetings to consider and amend our life-styles and to support each other in making the changes necessary as our witness to this testimony.