One Faith Leader Says Love Is The Key To Climate Action

Rev. Mariama White-Hammond at Bethel AME Church, where there are solar panels on the roof

Heather Goldstone is the science editor at WCAI, the Cape and Islands NPR Station. She holds a Ph.D. in ocean science from M.I.T. and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and spent a decade as an active researcher before leaving the lab to become a writer.

February 25, 2019

Updated July 03, 2023

When it comes to climate change, there’s a lot of overlap between what scientists tell us we need to do and what faith leaders say we should do.

Last May, more than 100 scientists and 500 religious leaders from Massachusetts signed a joint appeal for climate action and launched a coalition to formalize those common interests and goals. The faith leaders continue to speak out.

“The study of ecology is the study of relationships,” said Reverend Mariama White-Hammond, one of the architects of that partnership. She is pastor of New Roots AME Church in Boston and a fellow with the Green Justice Coalition. She recently spoke at Woods Hole Research Center.

“Climate is an important part of that,” she told Living Lab Radio. "Science is pointing to a problem in our relationships.”

White-Hammond sees the issue of climate change as a crisis of inaction. It’s a spiritual crisis and not a scientific one, she said.

Further, the conversation about climate change must be about love, she said.

“We've got to cut our consumption at levels that, for some of us, feel unimaginable,” she said. “What would make you do that other than a deep feeling of love for your great grandchildren and for your neighbors?”

White-Hammond said her desire to bring love into the conversation comes from her knowledge about what makes people act.

“I’ve just never seen them do [something] because they read an article and got a mathematical equation,” she said. “But I have seen parents make sacrifices out of a deep love for their children. I’ve seen communities rally behind each other to save each other.”