Earth Equity News

Paul Mayer, Presente! Remembrances by Ted Glick, memorial service, Judson Memorial Church, NYC, 1/5/14. “I met Paul in 1970, while on trial in Rochester, N.Y. as part of the Catholic Left for a nonviolent raid on a federal building to destroy Selective Service draft files. We worked together in the early 70’s as part of the Peoples Coalition for Peace and Justice… but it is over the last 10 years that we’ve worked most closely together. In late 2003 we discovered that we had both come to the same point of view regarding the urgency of the deepening climate crisis, and in early 2004, with Connie Hogarth and others, co-founded the Climate Crisis Coalition, which is still active today under the able and dedicated leadership of Tom Stokes. And for the last two and a half years Paul and I have worked closely together as co-founders and leaders of  Interfaith Moral Action on Climate which, I’m sure Paul would want me to say, is organizing its second annual interfaith service on January 15th, Martin Luther King, Jr’s 85th birthday, in front of the American Petroleum Institute and the White House in DC, calling for strong leadership from religious and political leaders on this urgent crisis.

 “Paul’s concern with and activism in defense of our wounded natural environment went back over 20 years. He attended the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, and considered himself to be an ‘Earth Guardian.’ As he explained in an interview a couple of years ago, ‘That’s been my priority since having worked on peace and justice issues all my life. I feel that is now of the greatest importance, the issue that incorporates all other issues and we must make our priority.’ In this work to prevent the catastrophic disruption of human society and the ecosystems we and all life forms depend upon, Paul was a warrior. He gave of himself, of his time, his energies, his emotions and his very limited financial resources to build the strongest possible movement in defense of the earth.”