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It seems fair to say that Karenna Gore knows as well as anyone that elective politics can be arduous, gridlocked and ultimately disappointing. Also that she鈥檚 got a bit of a family connection to the issue of climate change.

So Gore鈥檚 current job, directing a nonprofit called , isn鈥檛 surprising. That the Center is based at Union Theological Seminary, however, bears more reflection.

鈥淚 actually never intended to work in climate change,鈥� Gore, who toiled for her father鈥檚 campaign in the contested 2000 presidential election, told a rapt audience during a talk she gave at Teachers College鈥檚 Spirituality Mind Body Institute Winter Intensive in January. But the year she started work at Union 鈥� initially directing its Forum conference and lecture series 鈥� the United Nations held a summit on climate at which then Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, lamenting the inability of governments to act, called on civil society to mobilize on the issue. Gore, who had earned a master鈥檚 degree at Union in 2013, realized that interfaith dialogue could tap a powerful source of motivation 鈥� particularly if it reached beyond the typical focus on just Christianity, Judaism and Islam 鈥� and convened her own 鈥淩eligions for the Earth鈥� conference at Union.

Humanity has to reorient itself toward nature, and many indigenous ceremonies occur in a natural setting. Yet these faiths are often disrespected, which says a lot about why we鈥檙e at this pass with the environment.鈥�

鈥� Karenna Gore

鈥淗umanity has to reorient itself toward nature, and many indigenous ceremonies occur in a natural setting,鈥� she said. 鈥淵et these faiths are often disrespected, which says a lot about why we鈥檙e at this pass with the environment.鈥�

Gore quoted the late theologian and civil rights advocate 鈥檚 observation that 鈥淥ne of the deceptive aspects of mind in man is to give him the illusion of being distinct from and over against but not a part of nature,鈥� and that this conceit enables him not only to exploit the natural environment but 鈥減lunder it, and rape it with impunity,鈥� becoming 鈥渕ore and more鈥� alien on the earth and fouler of his own nest.鈥�

Citing a 1967 paper by the Princeton historian Lynn Townsend White, Gore said that the victory of Christianity over paganism was a critical turning point in humanity鈥檚 co-existence with nature.

鈥淵ou value what you鈥檙e taught to notice and relate to,鈥� she said. 鈥淧eople had been taught to greet the sunrise at a river. And then in the Middle Ages that鈥檚 banned and called satanic. The relationship to nature is broken, at the same time as the rise of mercantilism.鈥�

The Vatican subsequently empowered Christian European explorers to vanquish and subdue native peoples, Gore said, reflecting the view that some human beings are subjects and everything else is an object. The slave trade reflected the same mentality, she said and so does America鈥檚 current obsession with constant economic growth and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the ultimate measure of our society鈥檚 success.

鈥淩obert F. Kennedy once said that GDP measures everything in life except everything of real value,鈥� Gore said, including the depletion of natural resources, the comfort and happiness of most people, and work in the home, which has not been monetized and is almost exclusively performed by women.

We need to seek other measures, like Bhutan鈥檚 happiness index, to change the conversation,. If we don鈥檛, we鈥檒l be up against the same thing with each discussion of pipelines and the opening up of the Amazon rain forest.鈥�

鈥� Karenna Gore

鈥淲e need to seek other measures, like Bhutan鈥檚 happiness index, to change the conversation,鈥� Gore said. 鈥淚f we don鈥檛, we鈥檒l be up against the same thing with each discussion of pipelines and the opening up of the Amazon rain forest.鈥�

Gore concluded with the assertion that 鈥渆co-ministry is the great hope of our time.鈥� That work includes civic actions such as the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline Protests that arose against plans to run an oil pipeline through the Standing Rock reservation.

鈥淭here is racism in the placement of toxic facilities 鈥� they often go where 鈥榩eople don鈥檛 count,鈥欌�� she said. Standing Rock was 鈥渁 great coming together of protectors, not protesters 鈥� an example of how environmental justice and civic engagement are calling us to the front lines.鈥� 鈥� Joe Levine

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