Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker: “Religious Ecology and Cosmology: Responses to Environmental Challenges”

Opening Keynote by Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker on “Religious Ecology and Cosmology: Responses to Environmental Challenges” at the “Religion & Ecology Summit” at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) on March 11, 2016. For more, visit: http://www.ciis.edu/academics/graduate-programs/ecology-spirituality-and-religion/event-religion-and-ecology-summit Summary of talk: With the Pope's Encyclical there is a new opening for religious cosmology, ecology, and justice to come together for our common home. We will explore this and offer some reflections on East Asia. With the relentless industrialization and modernization of East Asia in the last several decades environmental problems have multiplied. The quality of air, water and soil in China, Korea, and Japan has deteriorated at a rapid rate. While many of the responses to this crisis have come from science and policy there is also a need for an ethical and spiritual response. What can the religious traditions of East Asia offer? Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker is co-director of the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale where she teaches in an MA program between the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Divinity School. With John Grim she organized 10 conferences on World Religions and Ecology at Harvard. They are series editors for the 10 resulting volumes from Harvard. She co-edited Confucianism and Ecology, Buddhism and Ecology, and Hinduism and Ecology. She has authored with John Grim, Ecology and Religion (Island Press, 2014). They also edited Thomas Berry’s books including Selected Writings (Orbis, 2014). With Brian Swimme she wrote Journey of the Universe (Yale, 2011) and is the executive director of the Emmy award winning Journey film that aired on PBS. She served on the International Earth Charter Drafting Committee and was a member of the Earth Charter International Council.