Interfaith Earth Healing Initiative

2008 Interfaith Earth Healing Initiative

EPA Results Graphic EPA says challenge a big success:

Goals met and exceeded.

As can be seen in this EPA Graphic of the 2008 Challenge Collection Event Results, 33 e-Waste Collection Events and 23 Unwanted Medicines Collection Events helped prevent millions of pounds of e-waste and millions of unwanted pills from contaminating the environment.

The Interfaith Earth Healing Inititiative would like to thank everyone who helped make this such a great success.

Read more about Lake Superior Day . . .

Reminder to all citites, groups - The Earth Healing Initiative would love any photos, videos etc. from your events.

Many of you have already done this - so thank you. The EPA has also provided great video.

An Interfaith environmental project for the Great Lakes basin in cooperation with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA).

The Interfaith Earth Healing Initiative is sponsored by the non-profit Cedar Tree Institute in Marquette, MI and is collaborating with the EPA, cities, landfills, groups, state/local governments across the Great Lakes Basin to promote the Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge - and to help arrange interfaith and Native American volunteers and participants.

All faith traditions, religions, minorities, tribes and other Indigenous peoples are encouraged to volunteer for and/or participate in the projects in your area. United States EPA Great Lakes National Programs Office grants are helping to fund this event across eight states in the Great Lakes Basin.

The Cedar Tree Institute (CTI) co-founded the interfaith Earth Keeper Initiative in Michigan's Upper Peninsula that works closely with ten faith traditions on a wide range of environment projects that include college students, at-risk teens, American Indian tribes and others.

The Earth Healing Initiative is developing the same relationship with these faith communities in northern Michigan and others across the Great Lakes.

The faith communities include Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist, Baha'i, Jewish, the Religious Society of Friends (commonly known as the Quakers) and Zen Buddhist.

Lake Superior Climate Change on Front Page USA Today (4-21-08)

An Earth Healing message, thank you and congratulations from Lutheran Bishop Thomas A. Skrenes about the success of the EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge

A Lutheran Bishop who has participated in interfaith Earth Day recycling projects for four years in a row said "the EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge has been a success."

Celebrate - what a great day Earth Day has been 2008," said Lutheran Bishop Thomas A. Skrenes of the Northern Great Lakes Synod (NGLS) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). "The Earth Healing Initiative has been a great success this year."

"Computers have been recycled, pharmaceuticals have been brought together for proper disposal," Skrenes said.

"What a great opportunity it has been to be part of the ecumenical work and interfaith work of assisting others to see the environmental concerns set before us," said Bishop Skrenes of Marquette, Michigan.

With hundreds of thousands of people participating across eight states in the Midwest and Northeast, Bishop Skrenes said interfaith environment projects like the EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge will help ensure a better future for all humans.

"It is a sign of great significance that people can join hands and work together," Skrenes said. "So celebrate - it is a good day for the environment and it is a good day for all of us together."

Bishop Skrenes thanked the EPA, faith communities and "people of goodwill throughout the upper Midwest who have been a part of this work."

"It has been a great day, a great week, a great Earth day 2008," Skrenes said.

"The EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge has been a part of the lives and will be a part of the future of this whole area."

Bishop Skrenes is one of the original nine faith leaders who signed the Earth Keeper Covenant in Michigan's Upper Peninsula in 2004 that lead to many interfaith projects.

Christian Century Article by Jon W. Magnuson:

Great Lakes, Troubled Waters
(Adobe Acrobat Reader required)

CS Issue: Sept. 22-29. 1999

BENEATH THE SURFACE: Pollutants from thousands of miles away show up in Lake Superior, the world's largest freshwater lake, shown here with the Apostle Islands off the tip of northern Wisconsin.

Earth Day 2008

For Earth Day 2008, US EPA challenges residents and communities around the Great Lakes to collect and recycle electronic waste and to properly dispose of unwanted medicines.

e-Waste
Electronic waste includes all those old or broken TVs, cell phones, computer components and similar gadgets that are part of our lives. E-waste contains possibly hazardous materials that can harm human health and the Great Lakes environment if disposed of improperly. In 2005 we discarded an estimated 2 million tons of TVs, computers and other electronic gear. Proper disposal and recycling are necessary to avoid unwanted pollution. When we reuse or recycle e-waste properly, we recover materials for re-use, save energy and reduce the environmental costs of raw material extraction and processing.

Medicines
Traces of medicines have been found in streams and the Great Lakes where we get our drinking water and have also been detected near wastewater treatment outflows. Some of these medicines can lead to reproductive and developmental problems in fish and other animals. We often treat leftover medicine as a common household waste. More than half of people surveyed throw their unused medicines in the trash while a third flush them down the drain. In both cases, the medicines have the potential to be released into our rivers and lakes.

The Challenge
U.S. EPA issues this Earth Day Challenge to residents, businesses and community organizations throughout the Great Lakes basin to plan or participate in collection events of e-waste or unwanted medicines during Earth Week April 19 - 27. Across the Great Lakes region, communities are stepping up, signing on to the challenge and adding their collection and take-back events to the efforts of thousands. This is a chance to see how much we can accomplish together. The Challenge is to collect a million pounds of e-waste for proper management and a million pills of unwanted medicines for responsible disposal during Earth Week.

Help Meet the Challenge

Web design by Middle Ear Media.

2008 Interfaith Earth Healing Initiative

Participating Cities