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Climate Change and Faith Intersect in Iowa

David Clarke
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Flickr

Last week, the Pope released an encyclical asserting climate change is a moral issue. Father Bud Grant, Catholic priest and professor of environmental ethics at St. Ambrose University, says the message of the encyclical is one of interconnectedness.

"That word 'related' is one of the most frequently used words in the entire document. And that means that if we tug at the environmental thread, we tug at the economic thread and the spiritual thread. They're all wound up together in that seamless garment."

Tom Wind, farmer in Jamaica, Iowa, and owner of Wind Utility Consulting, says those questions are particularly tough in an agricultural state like Iowa.

"There's always a trade-off, and most farmers wrestle with that. I do myself. I'm looking at some expenditures right now for the future year that will reduce soil loss and improve the soil; should I make those or not? There's a tug going on all the time between spending money and doing the right thing and saving that money and using it for something else."

On this edition of River to River, host Ben Kieffer talks with Wind and Grant. Reverend Susan Guy, director of Iowa Interfaith Power and Light, also joins the conversation.

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ReligionEnvironment
Ben Kieffer is the host of IPR's River to River