Welcome

About the Forum

The Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology is an international multireligious project contributing to a new academic field and an engaged moral force of religious environmentalism. With its conferences, publications, monthly newsletter, and website, it explores religious worldviews, texts, and ethics in order to contribute to environmental solutions along with science, policy, law, economics, and appropriate technology.

The Forum was founded in 1998 by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim and has been based at Yale University since 2006. Please explore the About Us section for more information on the Mission, History, and Projects of the Forum.

Others have helped lead this work, such as the National Religious Partnership on the Environment, GreenFaith, Interfaith Power and Light, Earth Ministry, Faith in Place, and Blessed Tomorrow in the United States. In Britain, the Alliance of Religion and Conservation (ARC) was an early leader and the European Forum for the Study of Religion and the Environment has advanced scholarly research.

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Religions and Ecology: Restoring the Earth Community

The Forum has released a series of courses on Religion & Ecology through Yale University and the Coursera online learning platform. The courses are free to audit, available anywhere in the world, and can be pursued at your own pace. Join an online community of peers for further support and to deepen your engagement

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FORE SPOTLIGHTS Video/Podcast Series

Spotlights ~ 3.17, Interfaith Environmentalism with Gopal Patel
This episode of Spotlights features Gopal D. Patel, a faith-based environmental activist, campaigner, and consultant. He is co-Founder and Director of Bhumi Global, an international Hindu faith-inspired NGO that works to promote environmental care. He is also a senior advisor for the Center for Earth Ethics, co-chair of the United Nations Multi-faith Advisory Council, and an Advisor to the World Wildlife Fund Beliefs and Values Programme. We discuss his personal experience of Hinduism, his background with multi-faith dialogue, and the challenges and opportunities facing religious environmentalism around the world, including some ways that religious environmentalism can facilitate constructive responses to climate grief and eco-anxiety.

 

You can also access the SPOTLIGHTS series as audio podcasts by going here. 
Watch all episodes of Spotlights from our archive page. 

Check back here every other Monday for a new episode. 
 
Congratulations to FORE Spotlights for being named one of the 20 best podcasts of 2021 on environmental activism!

 

Partner Organizations

UNEP: Faith for Earth Initiative

The mission of Faith for Earth is to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.  On May 4, 2020 UNEP Faith for Earth announced a partnership with the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. See our Faith for Earth page for further information.

Interfaith Rainforest Initiative

The Interfaith Rainforest Initiative (IRI) is an international, multi-faith alliance that works to bring moral urgency and faith-based leadership to global efforts to end tropical deforestation. They provide a platform for religious leaders to work hand-in-hand with indigenous peoples, governments, civil society organizations and businesses on actions that protect rainforests and safeguard the indigenous peoples that serve as their guardians. Read more.

Parliament of the World's Religions Climate Action Task Force

The Parliament of the World’s Religions, acting with the leadership of its Climate Action Task Force, seeks to encourage and enable collective and individual action to reduce and counter the adverse impacts of human-caused climate change. Read more.

Religions for Peace

Religions for Peace is where the world’s religions join together to ensure that all people enjoy peace, harmony, and prosperity. We are more than an organisation. For 50 years, Religions for Peace has been a movement changing the world and challenging the status quo through our mutual conviction that religions are more powerful, inspiring, and impactful when they work together. Read more.

Greenfaith

GreenFaith inspires, educates, organizes, and mobilizes people of diverse religious and spiritual backgrounds globally for environmental action. Our work is based on beliefs shared by the world’s religious and spiritual traditions. We believe that protecting the Earth is a sacred act, and that environmental stewardship is a moral responsibility. Read more.

Center for Earth Ethics

The Center for Earth Ethics envisions a world where value is measured according to the sustained well-being of all people and our planet. They work to cultivate the public consciousness needed to make changes in policy and culture that will establish a new value system based on this vision. Their four core programs are: Eco-ministry; Environmental Justice & Civic Engagement; Original Caretakers; and Sustainability & Global Affairs. Read more

Rotating Header photos: Faith leaders process to the Ise shrine,©Alexander Mercer, courtesy of ARC; Newspaper Rock, Utah; Maukib procession Kano, Nigeria, ©Darul Qadiriyyah, Courtesy of ARC; Cambodian monks ordaining trees, ©Chantal Elkin, Courtesy of ARC