A song of warning and a call to hope

Turning music into climate action, a new way deforestation kills, and spread light on Sun Day

Two weeks ago, I shared that the U.S. federal electric vehicle tax credit will expire at the end of September. There are a number of other U.S. tax credits for home energy that the current administration is canceling, and projects must be fully installed by December 31, 2025, to qualify for credits—which is why it’s so great that Rewiring America made this handy guide on how to take advantage of these before they’re gone!

“We could cry, or we could electrify. Maybe a bit of both,” they write. “We exist to make electrification the affordable choice for every American. Right now, that means helping you take advantage of these credits before they expire to get the money back you deserve.”

Rewiring America has a tool that helps you plan how to upgrade your home and another tool that helps you find a contractor. And that’s not all—they’re also hosting chat sessions you can drop into to ask a real person your questions! Even if you’re not in the U.S., they can still help with information on the best approaches to electrify your home.

Growing up in New Orleans, musician Jon Batiste was only 18 when Hurricane Katrina—a storm amplified by climate change—ravaged his home and his city. Not only that but his mother, Katherine, was an environmental program manager in Louisiana for many years. So it’s no surprise that he cares deeply about climate action: and now he’s making music that he hopes will inspire his listeners to take climate action too!

“You got to bring people together. People power is the way that you can change things in the world,” he said in an interview (and I couldn’t agree more!). His new album, released just prior to the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall, is called “Big Money,” after what he views as the root cause of the issue. His new climate song is called “Petrichor,” named for the smell of the earth after the rain.

I love how Jon understands the importance of finding and implementing hopeful solutions, like clean energy. “It’s not just saying ‘this is a problem,’ but it’s also saying we can solve it, and it’s important when you’re changing the world, (you) have a good time while you’re doing it,” he told the AFP.

For more, check out this short clip from his interview with Al Roker on the Today Show – it is a great watch!

Deforestation in the tropics led to increased local warming that in turn caused nearly 30,000 deaths per year from 2001 to 2020 across Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central and South America, a new study has found. While many studies have proven how warming caused by fossil fuel combustion impacts human health, this is the first to examine how human health is additionally impacted by extra warming.

We know that the warming from climate change is fundamentally unfair as it disproportionally impacts those communities who have done the least to contribute to it. Similarly, “vulnerable populations, including traditional and indigenous communities, often live near deforested areas and face limited access to resources and infrastructure needed to cope with the combination of rising temperatures and environmental changes caused by deforestation and climate change,” the study’s authors write.

My Nature Conservancy colleague Nicholas Wolff, who does similar research but was not involved with the study, told Carbon Brief he found this study sobering in that it reframes tropical deforestation as a critical public health concern. He points out that “many of these communities depend on forest clearing for agriculture, income and survival, and are forced to make difficult choices between short-term economic needs and long-term health and environmental stability.”

If you are part of a faith community, consider joining a Sun Day event on September 19 to 21. That’s the weekend that GreenFaith US is helping mobilize people to raise their voices in support of solar and renewable energy.

“In a time when climate denial, corporate greed, and political inaction threaten our communities and future, we gather not in despair—but in prophetic defiance and faithful hope. As fossil fuel subsidies expand and protections for people and the planet are rolled back, we know this fight is bigger than any one of us. That’s why people of faith and spirit are coming together to shine a light that cannot be ignored,” the organizers write.

“Together, we’ll ground in faith, rise in courage, and build a path forward for climate justice. All are welcome to be part of this urgent, historic movement—because the stakes have never been higher, and the time to act is now.”

If you live in the US, you can click on this interactive map to find an event near you. Don’t live in the U.S.? There’s nothing stopping you from starting your own Sun Day in your community using these same principles and organizing materials! Here’s a toolkit that explains more. (And if you do organize one, please input the information into this form so GreenFaith can add it to the map.)

Watch Sun Day’s campaign launch recording here to learn more about the vision and how to host your own event in your community.