UPROSE Festival Celebrates Justice and a Regenerative Economy

“We are taught to leave the Earth even better than we found it.”

Kadjahtou Balde shared this Muslim perspective on regeneration and community practices during the interfaith panel on climate justice and a just transition organized by the Center for Earth Ethics. The panel was hosted by climate justice organization UPROSE during their “Climate Justice Lives Here!” community festival on September 28 at Pier 4 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. 

In addition to Balde, founder and executive director of Faithfully Sustainable, the discussion featured Rev. Dr. Samuel Cruz, senior pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church and associate professor of religion and society at Union Theological Seminary, and Brooklyn-based Reform Rabbi Andrue (Andy) Kahn. CEE Executive Director Karenna Gore and Director of Strategic Initiatives Samira Siddique moderated the conversation. 

We need to consider what it means to provide for those who are coming—those who are not yet here.

The event highlighted how diverse faith traditions can support a just transition and how front line communities advance the movement for climate justice. Gore grounded the interfaith dialogue by emphasizing a collective vision that “takes the well-being of all into account.” 

Rabbi Kahn spoke about perspectives in the Jewish community, highlighting how Jewish integration into “white, patriarchy, capitalist culture” has impacted some traditional values. “We lost a lot of our internal senses of responsibility to each other from an economic regenerative sense,” he said. He advocated for a collective response to reintegrate these values and find new paths to collaborate with other communities toward a just transition. 

To illustrate, he shared a story from the Talmud about a man who planted a carob—a fruiting tree that takes many decades to bear fruit. When a stranger asked why he did this, he replied that “there were carob trees here when I was born, and there was carob for me to eat. I want there to be carob for my descendants when they’re born, so I plant trees now, even though I will never eat the fruit.” He encouraged participants to excavate currents in their religious traditions that “consider what it means to provide for those who are coming—those who are not yet here.”

Rev. Dr. Cruz acknowledged that “the Christian faith tradition has been complicit with damage that we’ve caused to our Earth.” To forge a better path forward, he looked to interfaith collaboration, excavating resources in the tradition that “condemn the capitalist system,” and challenging “the hegemonic nature from my tradition, Christianity.” “In the Latino community,” he said, “we talk about people having multiple religious affiliations…we don’t emphasize hegemony in our religious traditions.”  “You have to listen to the people at the bottom in order to really get the solutions that you want.” His comments highlighted a central theme in the panel: centering marginalized voices and grassroots action to create equitable solutions.

It's not about just sustaining [nature] and allowing it to be as it is. We are taught...to leave it even better than we found it.

Balde highlighted Islamic teachings that embrace going beyond sustainable solutions to regenerative action: “It’s not about just sustaining [nature] and allowing it to be as it is. We are taught…to leave it even better than we found it.” This ethos is essential in implementing regenerative ecological and community practices. Local, ground-up initiatives that directly engage communities, like community gardens, are “[the] types of solutions…that we need to keep bringing more out to society.” 

While panelists stressed religious organizing and interfaith collaboration, speakers warned against the weaponization of religious traditions by systems of violence and oppression. “One of the things that we’re working on right now in the Jewish world, particularly on the left,” said Rabbi Kahn, “is trying to figure out precisely how it is that we have contributed to the colonial projects in America that have been devastating on the environment here and elsewhere.” 

“No matter what faith you’re a part of, utilizing a particular faith to commit destruction…is never okay,” Balde said about Israel’s war on Gaza. “What we’re witnessing in Gaza is an environmental issue. There is mass destruction on an unimaginable level—happening to a society, to a community, to people, to kids, to land. And that is happening in the name of religion.”

In closing, Gore stated, “sometimes you can distill values in common across traditions.” This sentiment prioritized interfaith dialogue, which can offer new and diverse perspectives to address the climate crisis and facilitate a just transition. 

Picture of Taylar Enlow

Taylar Enlow

Taylar Enlow is the intern for communications and events at the Center for Earth Ethics.