Center for Earth Ethics

Freedom to Be: Report on Dialogues About Freedom of Religion or Belief and Indigenous Peoples
2025-04-29 12:30 - 13:45 (America/Los_Angeles)
We’re thrilled to invite you to the release of our new report, “Freedom to Be: Dialogues on Freedom of Religion or Belief for Indigenous Peoples,” on Tuesday, April 29!This report highlights key findings from CEE’s “Freedom to Be” dialogue series that brought together Indigenous leaders from around the world to discuss Indigenous spiritual practices and land conservation, legacies of discrimination against Indigenous Peoples, and the threat of modern development models on Indigenous lifeways.

At the launch, an official side event for the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, you’ll hear from:– Dr. Albert Barume, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples– Dr. Nazila Ghanea, Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief– Carson Kiburo, Executive Director of the Jamii Asilia Centre in Kenya– Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, former Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief

Samira Siddique, director of strategic initiatives at CEE, will summarize the report, and Roberto Múkaro Borrero, CEE strategic advisor, will moderate. CEE Executive Director Karenna Gore will introduce and close the program.

Dr. Albert Barume; Kasike Roberto Múkaro Borrero; Dr. Nazila Ghanea

Karenna Gore; Carson Kiburo; Dr Ahmed Shaheed

Samira Siddique

Ecological Costs of War
2025-05-14 10:00 - 11:30
On Wednesday, May 14, 2025, at 10 a.m. EDT, join the Center for Earth Ethics for a 90-minute webinar on the ecological costs of war. In partnership with the Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEOBS), the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, and the Diocese of San Diego, this program will bring together four experts to discuss the ecological dimensions of the devastation and suffering caused by war. The panelists will explore global questions surrounding ecocide, earth ethics and military policy, as well as regional examples of environmental reconstruction after war.

Panelists include Doug Weir (Director of CEOBS), Dr. Christina Bagaglio Slentz (Associate Director of Creation Care Office for Life, Peace, and Justice for the Diocese of San Diego), Dr. Olena Melnyk (Research Associate at Bern University of Applied Sciences), and Elaine Donderer (Project Manager at the Arava Institute). Samira Siddique (CEE Director of Strategic Initiatives) will moderate the conversation. CEE Founder and Executive Director Karenna Gore will introduce and close the program.

Elaine Donderer is a professional consultant and project manager in the disaster risk reduction and nature-based solution space. Committed to creating transboundary environmental collaboration amidst political fragility, she envisions hazards as gateways to innovation, conceptualizing ecological challenges as transformative opportunities for more integrated natural system dynamics. Her experience spans research, consulting and project management across sustainable design, hydrology and humanitarian action. Having recently completed her Master’s in Disaster Management at Tel Aviv University, the Columbia exchange and Maastricht University alumna has held numerous scholarships in earth sciences.

Karenna Gore is the founder and executive director of the Center for Earth Ethics and visiting professor of practice of earth ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Karenna formed CEE in 2015 to address the moral and spiritual dimensions of the climate crisis. Working at the intersection of faith, ethics, and ecology, she guides the Center’s public programs, educational initiatives, and movement-building. She also is an ex officio faculty member of Columbia University’s Earth Institute.

Dr. Olena Melnyk is an associate researcher at Bern University of Applied Sciences (Switzerland), honorary professor at the Royal Agricultural University (UK), and associate professor at Sumy National Agrarian University (Ukraine). Her research focuses on environmental impact assessments of wartime activities in Ukraine, soil remediation following mine clearance, climate policy, renewable energy sources, environmental safety criteria, sustainable resource management and post-war sustainable development. Since the onset of the war in Ukraine, her projects addressing environmental and conflict-related issues have garnered about 700,000 euros in support from governments in the UK and Switzerland, as well as from philanthropic organizations and industry partners.

Samira Siddique is the director of strategic initiatives at the Center for Earth Ethics. She has extensive research and advocacy experience on global climate change justice, including the humanitarian politics of climate adaptation in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. Previously, Samira was a Mellon Foundation Fellow in Climate and Inequality at the Climate Museum. She has also been a visiting scholar at the New School’s Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility and the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh. For her research and advocacy work, she was awarded a Public Voices Fellowship with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the Op-Ed Project, and a National Science Foundation graduate research fellowship.

Dr. Christina Slentz joined the Diocese of San Diego in July 2022 as the first full-time employee dedicated to directing the ministry of creation care. She brings with her leadership experience from her service in the United States Navy, as well as an academic background on the social impact of environmental degradation. In the spirit of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ encyclical, Christina seeks to bring the issues of environmental degradation and the dire need for good stewardship to light, unpacking dynamics of injustice and systemic forces that drive our estrangement from God, nature and one another, degrading our communal gift of creation.

Doug Weir has undertaken research and advocacy on the polluting legacy of armed conflicts and military activities since 2005. After working on conflict pollution and the toxic remnants of war for many years, in 2018, he established the non-profit Conflict and Environment Observatory (CEOBS) to monitor and raise awareness of the environmental and derived humanitarian consequences of conflicts. He has contributed to a wide range of domestic, regional, and international initiatives on conflict and the environment, and CEOBS’ current research focus is on Sudan and Ukraine

Advocacy Speaker Sail Aboard the Clearwater | "The Rights of Nature: Reimagining Our Relationship with the Earth"
2025-05-31 10:30 - 13:30
Join CEE Founder and Executive Director Karenna Gore on the Sloop Clearwater to explore a growing paradigm shift in how we view the natural world. The idea behind the Rights of Nature is simple but powerful: instead of treating nature only as property, we recognize natural entities—like rivers, forests, and mountains—as being alive, and having agency and rights. In this talk, Karenna will speak to the history of this novel legal strategy, and explore what it could mean for the future of environmental protection. The talk is a practical introduction to a growing global movement that’s reshaping how we think about law, ethics and our place in the natural world.

This sail is pay-what-you-can—registration is required. Please plan to arrive at the Dyckman Marina 30 minutes prior to the start of the sail for boarding. All guests should dress for the weather in layers and with sturdy shoes and are recommended to bring sunscreen, a hat, a full reusable water bottle, and any snacks you may need.

"Spirit of Place": A Hudson Valley Climate Training
2025-06-13 14:00 - 2025-06-14 20:00 | The Ashokan Center, 477 Beaverkill Rd, Olivebridge, New York, 12461, United States
The Center for Earth Ethics is thrilled to bring our faith, spirituality and climate training to the Hudson Valley this June. The Center has hosted Faith and Climate trainings since 2016. When both nature and society face many threats, community, spiritual connection, and bioregional knowledge are indispensable. This convening is a vital opportunity to come together, learn from leaders and one another, and renew our commitment to the challenging work ahead.

This training, designed for leaders and active members of all faiths and traditions, will support participants in responding to the climate crisis, with a focus on ecology and biocultural heritage of the Hudson Valley. The program will address climate science and policy, bioregionalism, local watershed and foodshed issues, and environmental justice initiatives. We will share skills to offer spiritual support and pastoral care, co-create ritual and ceremony, communicate science through an ethical lens, and learn from the land and water. The program will run from Friday afternoon through Saturday evening with an optional stay through Sunday morning.

The training will be held at The Ashokan Center, New York State’s oldest environmental education center. Adjacent to the Ashokan Reservoir in the Catskills foothills, The Ashokan Center hosts cultural, educational and community programming in its historic buildings powered by 100% renewable energy. Our program will integrate the outdoor classroom, forest and stream of this special site. Miles of hiking trails, kayaks, and a wood-heated sauna are available to participants, alongside a fully vegetarian, high-quality menu. Participants may stay onsite or commute from home. Learn more about the Center’s facilities.

Although preference will be given to people connected to faith and spiritual communities in the Hudson Valley, the training is open to all who feel called to apply.By application; apply at the link below.In person only; onsite lodging available. Please contact us at info@centerforearthethics.orgwith any questions. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis.

Faith For Climate, Brasilia
2025-08-13 17:00 - 19:00
CEE is honored that Executive Director Karenna Gore will be a participant at the “Memorial of Indigenous People” event on Wednesday, August 13 at 5 pm in Brasilia. This spiritual and ethical gathering—a call for climate justice, global ethics and hope in defense of all forms of life—is part of Brazil’s journey toward COP30 later this year.

Taking place ahead of the Global Ethical Stocktake, the forum will feature over 100 Indigenous, Afro-Brazilian, interfaith and youth leaders, in addition to:

Marina Silva – Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Brazil

Karenna Gore – Executive Director, Center for Earth Ethics (CEE)

Ana Toni – Executive Director of COP30

Guilherme Syrkis – Centro Brasil no Clima

Moema Salgado – ISER

Sérgio Xavier – Fórum Brasileiro de Mudança do Clima; COP30 Envoy

Sônia Guajajara – Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Brazil

Co-sponsors include Centro Brasil No Clima, Memorial Dos Povos Indígenas, Forum Brasileiro De Mudanca Do Clima, Secretaria de Cultura e Economía Criativa, ISER, The Climate Reality Project, Fé no Clima and the Center for Earth Ethics.

Katrina 20: Faith, Climate & Justice | A Moral Witness Dialogue
2025-08-28 14:45 - 17:00 | TEP Interpretive Center, 5909 St Claude Ave, New Orleans, Louisiana, 70117, United States
On August 28, 2025 at 2:45 PM, join GreenFaith USA and the Center for Earth Ethics in New Orleans for Katrina 20: Faith, Climate & Justice, an interfaith gathering marking the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Part of the UNFCCC and Brazilian government’s Global Ethical Stocktake leading up to COP30, this free public event will explore the moral and spiritual dimensions of the climate crisis through the lived experiences of Gulf South communities.

Co-moderated by Karenna Gore of the Center for Earth Ethics and Jacqui Patterson of the Chisholm Legacy Project with opening and closing reflections from a special nationally recognized guest, the panel will feature faith and frontline leaders who have spent the past two decades rebuilding, resisting environmental racism, and envisioning a just future.

Participants include:

Bette Billiot – Community Organizer, Leadership Team Member for LA Liberation & Sovereignty Collective, Co-Director of Bayou Youth Leadership Project

Toi Carter – Louisiana Just Recovery Network Executive Director, MS Gulf Coast Katrina Survivor

Dr. Angela Chalk – Founder and Executive Director of Healthy Community Services

Reverend Tyrone Edwards – Plaquemines Parish Councilman, Former Member of Black Panther Party, Voting Rights and Climate Organizer Activist, Zion Travelers Cooperative Center Founder

Scott Eustis – Community Science Director, Healthy Gulf

Anthony Giancatarino – Taproot Earth Co-Director/Strategy Partner

Chenier “Klie” Kliebert – Imagine Water Works Founding Director; Creole Indigenous Climate Leader

Ms. Sharon Lavigne – Executive Director and Founder of Rise St. James

Gregory N. Swafford – Healthy Gulf Southeast Louisiana Organizer; Katrina Class of St. Augustine, Founding Director of Culture of Cleanliness

Darrilyn Turner – Zion Travelers Cooperative Center Executive Director

Music performances by local jazz musicians will open the dialogue, and MS Poet and director of the Cosmic Poetry Sanctuary Artis Burney will draw the event to a close.

Local food will be provided by Sweet Anoni’s catering.

COURSE | SU 190: Climate Ethics (Online)
2025-09-16 18:45 - 2025-10-14 21:15
ONLINE9/16, 30 & 10/7, 14 Tuesdays (6:45-9:15pm EST) Instructor: Karenna GoreCost: $150

Climate Ethics is a framework for examining the moral issues that have arisen within the global climate crisis, and the implications for what to do about it. It includes framing questions such as: how do we respond to the reality that communities hurt first and most intensely by the crisis are generally those least responsible for causing it?; what are our responsibilities to future generations?; what values shape our relationships with other-than-human species and the elements of nature?; what are the threats and opportunities of proposed technological solutions?; what are the laws and social norms that undergird the status quo?; how can we create positive change? The course will provide basic literacy in climate science and case studies of impacts, but it focuses on an understanding of the drivers of human behavior that are shaping our shared biosphere. Recognizing that the climate crisis is about more than data, science, and technology (as important as they are), Climate Ethics explores how to draw from values, culture and spirituality to heal and protect the life-support system of the Earth.

BIPOC Climate Justice Summit
2025-09-21 09:30 - 16:00
On Sunday, September 21, the Center for Earth Ethics is co-sponsoring the 5th annual BIPOC Climate Justice Summit: Power Shift, an all-day public event launching NYC Climate Week at Columbia University. This year’s summit convenes frontline communities, organizers, researchers, funders and public servants to build collective power and advance transformative climate justice.

This summit aims to catalyze global collaboration to drive progress on climate justice, particularly across the following themes:

The Power Shift | Elevating frontline leadership, movement diplomacy and community mandates in the lead-up to COP30 and beyond.

The Knowledge Shift | Confronting extractive systems of science, law and philanthropy while uplifting collective wisdom and decolonized knowledge.

The Policy Shift | Exploring how local and federal governments can redistribute power through participatory governance and justice-centered decision making.

The System Shift | Grounding climate justice in reparations, mutual aid, land back and regenerative practices led by BIPOC communities.

Mutual Aid as Strategy | Highlighting mutual aid not as charity, but as a foundational, reparative practice and organizing model for a just climate future.

Through dynamic panels, interactive booths and creative activations, this gathering aims to ignite alignment across sectors and build momentum for the shifts needed to deliver climate justice. The summit is led by the HBCU Green Fund, Donors of Color Network and ACE Observatory, with Columbia University as host partner.

Beyond COP30: Leadership for a New Era
2025-09-24 08:30 - 09:20 | Lavan Midtown New York, 641 W 42nd St, New York, New York, 10036, United States
On Wednesday, September 24, CEE Executive Director Karenna Gore will appear as a featured speaker at Beyond COP30: Leadership for a New Era, hosted by TED Countdown and Futerra. She will join Lindsay Levin, co-founder of TED Countdown, and Tulio Andrade, chief strategy officer of the COP30 Presidency, for a dialogue on the leadership and imagination required to meet this pivotal moment.

EVENT DESCRIPTION:

The climate crisis has never been just a scientific or political challenge — it’s a test of our imagination, courage and conscience. In an era when conversations have grown too insular and institutions are faltering, COP 30 comes at a time of profound disruption, but also possibility.

​Join Lindsay Levin, co-founder of the global climate initiative TED Countdown, for a conversation with guests about the stories we tell, and the leadership required to navigate the complexity of this moment. Together, we’ll explore

​How do we speak about the future in ways that invite connection, belonging and shared purpose?

​How might Brazil’s vision of a Global Mutirão — a collective uprising of care and action — take root?

​Why is the Global Ethical Stocktake so important – and how can we each play our part in it?

​Speakers

​Karenna Gore, founder of the Center for Earth Ethics, and co-leader for the North American Dialogue of the Global Ethical Stocktake

​Tulio Andrade, Chief Strategy Officer, COP 30 Presidency

Season of Creation Interfaith Gathering
2025-10-01 12:00 - 13:00 | The Interchurch Center Chapel, 61 Claremont Avenue, New York, New York, 10115, United States
On September 1, 1989, Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrios I issued a prophetic message on the urgency of care for the environment, marking the first annual “Day of Prayer for Creation.” The message was taken up, and in the decades since, a Season of Creation has been observed across many Christian denominations worldwide between September 1 and October 4 (the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of all animals and the environment). Over the last two years, a seminar in Assisi attended by leaders from nearly all major denominations has been working to institute the Feast of Creation formally as a shared major feast in liturgical calendars across the Christian world—the first such achievement since 1456. This year also marks the ten-year anniversary of the late Pope Francis’ landmark ecological encyclical, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home.

The Interchurch Center, in 2025, will honor and participate in this process by adding a Season of Creation Interfaith Gathering to its own calendar. We recognize that, as inspiring and important as the Feast of Creation will be among the Christian churches, the integrity of creation is a bedrock for interfaith collaboration and fraternity far more broadly, and we take the opportunity to recommit our diverse religious communities, hand in hand, to moral and institutional responsibility to the Earth of which we are a part.

The gathering—on Wednesday, October 1, 2025, 12:00-1:00 pm—will be hosted by Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute (GEII) and the Interfaith Center of New York (ICNY), in collaboration with the Interchurch Center’s Committee on Ecumenical, Interfaith, and Community Concerns (CEICC) and Union Theological Seminary’s Center for Earth Ethics (CEE).

Wednesday, October 1, 202512:00-1:00 pm EasternThe Interchurch Center Chapel61 Claremont AvenueNew York, NY 10115In-person and livestreamed: YouTube link to follow

Book Talk | "Sacred Resistance: Eco-Activism and the Rise of New Spiritual Communities"
2025-10-21 17:30 - 19:30 | The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, 3041 Broadway
Join the Center for Earth Ethics and Union Theological Seminary’s Eco-Justice Caucus at UTS’s Burke Library for a dialogue and discussion with Mark Clatterbuck, editor of a new volume from Orbis Books. With a forward by Winona LaDuke, “Sacred Resistance” weaves together “five deep and rich case studies of spiritually-based eco-activism written by those engaged in the struggle.”

Please enter at the northwest corner of 120th and Broadway.

Fall 2025 Faith Sector Forum: Building Hope & Safety in a Changing Climate
2025-11-05 09:30 - 13:00 | Rebuild By Design
Faith organizations play a central role in supporting New Yorkers during crises, yet many lack access to the tools and training needed to plan for future risks. The NYC Faith Sector Climate Adaptation Working Group, convened by New York Disaster & Interfaith Services (NYDIS) and Rebuild by Design, invites faith leaders and partners to a focused discussion on how the faith sector can work together to prepare for these growing challenges.

This convening will introduce the Faith Sector Climate Adaptation Toolkit, developed through site visits, trainings, and conversations with leaders in all five boroughs. The toolkit offers practical resources to strengthen preparedness, communication, and advocacy. Participants will engage in panels and breakout sessions to share experiences, identify needs, and explore ways to build collective capacity for a safer and more resilient city.

Science and Spirituality: An Ethical Stocktake Dialogue to Inspire COP30
2025-11-05 13:00 - 14:30
Why do we deny or ignore what both science and other ways of knowing teach us about the climate crisis? How can we learn from spiritual traditions and practices to live in balance with nature?

Join the Center for Earth Ethics and Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology online on Wednesday, November 5, at 1 p.m. (ET) for “Science and Spirituality: An Ethical Stocktake Dialogue to Inspire COP30.” Part of the Global Ethical Stocktake—an initiative of the COP30 presidency led by Minister of the Environment and Climate of Brazil, Marina Silva—this dialogue will inform the GES report for COP30 and amplify the newly released Living Earth Community website.

Key Questions

The Global Ethical Stocktake seeks answers to five strategic questions. Each dialogue must address at least one of them:

Why, even when aware of the risks, do we deny or ignore what science and traditional knowledge tell us about the climate crisis?

Why do we maintain models of production and consumption that harm the most vulnerable and contradict the goals of Mission 1.5°C?

What can be done to ensure that wealthy countries accelerate their transitions and contribute financially to the most vulnerable?

What cultural or spiritual traditions and practices from your community teach how to live in balance with nature?

How can we mobilize more people, leaders, businesses, and nations to support fair and ethical change? What values can inspire this mission?

Host: Karenna Gore | Executive Director of Center for Earth Ethics

Moderator: Mary Evelyn Tucker | Co-Director of Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, Living Earth Community

Participants:

Lyla June Johnston | Musician, scholar and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages

Ursula Goodenough | Professor Emerita of biology at Washington University in St. Louis; Author of “Sacred Depths of Nature.”

Melanie Harris | Professor of Black feminist thought and womanist theology at Wake Forest School of Divinity; Director of Food Health and Ecological Well-Being Program

Mirian Vilela | Executive Director of Earth Charter International Secretariat, Executive Director of the Center for Education for Sustainable Development at University for Peace

Steve Kolmes | Editor of Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development; Professor Emeritus of environmental studies at University of Portland

Live Interview | Karenna Gore on the Young Turks
2025-11-06 20:30 - 21:00
CEE Executive Director Karenna Gore joins The Young Turks this evening to discuss the Global Ethical Stocktake, COP30, climate ethics, and more!

Tune in tonight at 8:30 PM ET at TYT.com!

Climate Wisdom from COP30 | Empowering Communities, Protecting the Planet
2025-11-14 17:00 - 19:00
On November 14 at 5 p.m. ET, CEE’s Karenna Gore will join a live COP30 panel discussion in the Climate Wisdom series, hosted by the Brahma Kumaris Environment Initiative. This session will feature insights and experiences from global leaders, including Maureen Goodman, Kumi Naidoo and Golo Pilz. Panelists will share practical examples of innovation, collaboration and policy progress emerging in the COP—and first-hand accounts of the transformative wisdom needed to tackle the most pressing challenge of our time.• Maureen Goodman, Director Brahma Kumaris, UK • Kumi Naidoo, President, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty • Karenna Gore, Director, Centre for Earth Ethics • Moderator: Golo Pilz, Adviser Renewable Energy Brahma Kumaris
