INSTITUTE PRESIDENT RECEIVES ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AWARD

John Topping receiving Environmental Justice Award John C.Topping Jr., the Climate Institute's President since its founding in 1986, was awarded the William Gibson Award for Lifetime Commitment in Environmental Justice. On Saturday, October 27th, 2007 Pam McVety of the Presbyterians for Restoring Creation (PRC) presented the award, stating that "John's work seeks to empower the poor to give their voices to this issue, and to provide ways for the rich to hear their message." The PRC was founded in 1995 to promote ecological action and environmental justice within the denomination, and in 2006 the Presbyterian Church USA became the first denomination in any nation to ask its members as a matter of faith to commit to carbon neutrality. A ten member Task Force led by Pam McVety laid the groundwork for this decision. John Topping served on this task force and drafted the background paper that supported this proposal. The Award was based both on John Topping's leading the Climate Institute for two decades and his work more recently on the PCUSA energy task force.

The award is the first by the PRC in honor of the late William Gibson, a remarkable leader who spearheaded the movement to unify religious communities and environmental groups to act on justice issues. He initiated the Eco Justice Project and Network (EJPN), that conducted "extensive education and outreach to churches, campuses, and communities in collaboration with others — focused on the big picture of the crisis as well as specific environmental problems along with issues of hunger, energy, lifestyle, sustainable economy, good work, peacemaking, and environmental justice for people of color and women — all in eco-justice perspective." Ultimately, William Gibson viewed eco-justice as "the well-being of all humankind on a thriving earth — an earth productive of sufficient food, with water fit for all to drink, air healthy to breathe, forests kept replenished, renewable resources continuously renewed, and nonrenewable resources used as sparingly as possible...On a thriving earth, human well-being is nurtured not only by the provision of these material necessities but also by a way of living with the natural world that is fitting: respectful of the integrity of natural systems and of the worth of nonhuman creatures, appreciative of the beauty and the mystery of the world of nature...A thriving earth is not conquered but cared for." These values led him to the development of four ethical norms that could be used as a moral guide to individuals: solidarity with Earth and people, ecological sustainability, sufficiency for all, and fair participation. Yet, his most significant contributions may have been: the book, Keeping and Healing the Creation, and then the 1990 PCUSA General Assembly policy statement, Restoring Creation for Ecology and Justice.

Since leading the PCUSA to adopt its pioneering position in behalf of carbon neutrality Pam McVety has spearheaded efforts to have Presbyteries and Churches begin implementing the Carbon Neutrality Policy. A marine biologist who once was the deputy head of Florida's environment agency, Pam McVety told PRC members that the Florida Presbytery, a group of North Florida Churches, in March 2007 adopted a Resolution detailing steps toward implementing the carbon neutrality goal and that First Presbyterian Church of Tallahassee, to which she and her husband, Robert McVety, belong, is beginning active implementation. Achieving the carbon neutral goal was a major focus of the three- day PRC Conference October 25-27, 2007 at the Mo-Ranch Presbyterian retreat in Hunt, Texas. The roughly 130 participants in this meeting included clergy and laity from throughout the US. Interest in aggressive implementation of the carbon neutrality policy was especially strong among representatives of Southern Churches, particularly those from the Atlanta, Georgia area.

In his presentations to the Conference John Topping urged PRC members to work at the state level to topple barriers to cogeneration, the removal of which, he stated, could save US industry and consumers tens of billions annually while slashing greenhouse emissions by as much as 20%. In accepting the William Gibson Award the Climate Institute President commended Pam McVety for her leadership of the Carbon Neutral Effort and two members of the PCUSA National Staff, William Somplatsky Jarman, for spearheading efforts of religious denominations to encourage socially responsible investing by their own funds and those of other powerful institutions, and Andrew Kang Bartlett, for his leadership of the Presbyterian Hunger Project that has promoted innovative ways of reducing greenhouse emissions in food production and use. He also invited Presbyterian Churches and Colleges to link with international efforts with which the Climate Institute is involved such as the Endangered Islands Campaign and the Mexico Climate Protection Program and in the United States with the incipient Tribal Colleges Climate Protection Initiative.

The William Gibson Award is the second award that John Topping has received for environmental justice work. In January 2002 he received the first Martin Luther King, Jr. Social Justice Award for Lifetime Achievement from his alma mater, Dartmouth College.