As Ismailis, We Should all Care about Climate Change. | IsmailisRiseUp

As Ismailis, We Should all Care about Climate Change. | IsmailisRiseUp.

Our generation is faced with a daunting task: stop climate change. But how? Dr. Rashid, who has witnessed his home city of New York transition from a sub-temperate to a sub-tropical climate in his lifetime, explains that it is more than just individual responsibility. There are individual choices that we can make but ultimately when a handful of corporations are responsible for over 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions, it is hard to place responsibility on individuals. That does not mean, however, that we as individuals do not have power. Dr. Rashid says, 

Those companies are all regulated by our governments. They are not governments in and of themselves and we can see the ways in which these companies are leveraging governments to not pay any taxes in the context of the United States, to have environmental regulations lifted for them, to get waivers for themselves. They don’t actually vote anybody in. They simply use the money we give them to then buy policies and politicians that create policies that are harmful to us. So essentially, we are paying for our own destruction. And so for me as an individual, I think about the individual things I can do to protect the environment, and I can make an individual decision as to where I am going to do my business.

Event: Faith Leaders on Race: A Community Conversation 18 August 2020

I've been invited by Congregation Rodeph Sholom to join a conversation on race and religion. The event is free, but registration is required. Details:

With Rabbi Benjamin Spratt, Rev. Dr. Katharine Rhodes Henderson (Auburn Seminary), Hussein Rashid, PhD (Union Theological Seminary), Rev. Dr. Malcolm J. Byrd (Mother A.M.E Zion Church), and moderated by CRS member Lucy Lang.

This timely panel conversation features some of the brightest minds exploring anti-racism work in faith-based communities. Bring your questions and learn how we are uniquely positioned to make a meaningful difference in fighting racism.

Register Here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_JJNnHdHqSKyP1sE4_wvNWQ

Congregation Rodeph Sholom page.

Facebook page.

Columbia Take 5

A fun little interview I did for Columbia College Today.

 

What, if anything, about your College experience would you do over?

I tried to go to as many talks as I could on campus, because we had so many great speakers. I always left feeling inspired and interested. I was generally pretty bad at reading further and really getting to know the issues some of these people were speaking about. I vividly remember talks by [civil rights activist] Yuri Kochiyama and [Muslim leader] Warith Deen Mohammed, but really only getting into their work after I left Columbia. We only stand on the shoulders of giants if we make the effort to climb.