Photo by Angela Baker on Unsplash
By Steve Matthews, Senior Missional Consultant, FaithX
I grew up in the mountains of North Carolina, and I come from many generations of farmers who called these mountains home. I remember my grandmother talking about it “feelin’ like it’s about to ‘come up’ a storm.” She could even look at the way the leaves of the maples and sycamores blew in the wind and estimate how long it would be until a thunderstorm hit. Then there were the stripes on the wooly worms – the width of the brown band was one way of predicting the severity of the coming winter, as was the volume of acorns that fell each autumn.
When I want to know the weather, I look at my hour-by-hour readings on my weather app (or the radar). It has been a hot, humid summer with lots of afternoon thunderstorms, and even a novice would have some luck at predicting that a storm’s a-brewin’! It’s been a hot summer for many people. The Guardian just reported on the record-breaking heat in the US, pointing specifically to heat indices of 120 degrees in Mississippi and Louisiana.
Did you know that FaithX can help you understand weather impacts on your communities? We get much of our data from Esri, and with these maps we can help faith communities locate the areas prone to fire, flooding, drought, tornados, rising tides, etc. For example, look at these two maps that show the area around Yuba City in fire-prone Northern California.
The first map shows wildfire risk to communities based on historic patterns and based on current trends. Maps like these provide foundational information for comparing the relative wildfire risk among populated communities in the United States.
And in this map, Esri uses real time satellite data based on thermal readings. In other words, where are the hot spots that point to the possibility of a budding wildfire? Detection attributes include time, location, and intensity.
While these maps are snazzy and interesting, what is the real value for a local congregation? These maps help us take a real and deep look at the impact of climate change on our communities. If we are wise, this information will invite us into deeper collaboration and connection to our neighbors including other churches, non-profits, businesses, and local government.
In September of 2024, Western North Carolina experienced a 600-year flood with over 100 deaths and 1000+ landslides. We thought we were climate resilient, so most of our communities were not prepared or connected in ways that might have created a quicker and more helpful response. Don’t get me wrong, people and agencies and churches stepped up to the plate in profound ways, but now that “the crisis” is over, most of these connections seem to have faded.
We can do better. At FaithX we can help you assess your climate vulnerabilities and work with you to build healthier, more connected and generative relationships with your neighbors. We think of this work as nurturing “resource hubs,” and faith communities are uniquely poised to nurture life-giving relationships that build communal resiliency in an uncertain climate future (you may wish to consider the resource entitled “How to Foster Community Resilience” published by the National Ocean and Atmospheric Association).
Our community connections may begin around the issue of climate resiliency, but the real gift in this work is that honest and trusted relationships (individual and corporate) bears fruit in ways unintended and unexpected. Jane Goodall says, “You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” The invitation for us is to come together to make a difference and to grow stronger together. What do we have to lose?
