FaCT is now FaCT Ohio

by Bob Kloos, President of FaCT Ohio

It’s official. We have a new name. FaCT is now FaCT Ohio. It’s not a major

change, and even as I write this, I’m not sure it will change much of what

we do, how or why we do it. Adding the name of our state is both daunting

and a relief: a relief in that we can renew our focus on Ohio, but daunting

because we are 40,000 square miles of forest, farmland, lake and

waterways, little towns and some densely populated cities and we are the

caretakers of it all. But FaCT Ohio has unique access as it is an

organization composed of a network of faith communities in the state.

There are tens of thousands of faith communities in Ohio, from massive

mega churches with a strong focus on scripture and service, to multiple

one-off churches that celebrate covenant, community, and congregating in

storefronts and halls that rock with song in both urban and rural settings.

Catholic parishes of 4,000 families or as small as 100 populate the six

dioceses in the state. There are synagogues with committed membership

several generations deep and mosques whose members pray several

times a day. All these faith communities profess an inherent sense of

mission. They meet regularly. They are multigenerational and they are

sometimes out there on the front lines in support of local initiatives or

emergencies.

It was the knowns and the unknowns of fracking that prompted the

formation of FaCT a dozen years ago. Ohio was ramping up, making a way

for the fossil fuel industry to explore and extract in the Buckeye State. Faith

Communities Together for a Sustainable Future was born out of a concern

for the environment, land and water in particular, put at risk by the drilling,

the waste, and the rampant leasing in rural southeast Ohio. A million

gallons of potable water was sacrificed for every well drilled, and all that in

a state increasingly suffering from drought. And all this was going down in

an economic environment in which the cost of renewable energy

generation was dropping below that of fossil fuels.

Sustainability is not a new concept. It has been around from the beginning

of time. It is a measure of how well a household, a community, a state, a

nation or a planet is living within its means. Natural resources are limited.

We ought, therefore, to live conscientiously, mindful that reliance on

renewable resources must be encouraged, while the consumption of all others is guarded with the knowledge that once they are gone, they are

gone forever.

FaCT’s mission states clearly that we educate, inspire, advocate, and organize to make the best choices. We have our hands full in Ohio. But we are not alone. GoGreenGo.org is an organization that identifies 275 grassroots environmental groups in our State.

Membership in all those organizations is most likely due to an

environmental calamity that fouled water, killed wildlife, contaminated a

wetland, or clearcut a hillside. Even then, unless the media picks up on the

damage done, most Ohioans won’t know what they have lost.

If faith communities in Ohio pay attention, we can make a difference. We

can raise awareness within our faith communities, our households, our

neighborhoods. We can lead by example, and that can change culture. We

can join forces with other Ohio nonprofits to inform our legislators who have

been known to vote without understanding the whole story. We can hold

them accountable when things go awry.

Our new name, FaCT Ohio, will keep us close to home and help us unite

already committed faith communities with one another to promote a just

transition to renewable energy sources, sustainable practices, and policies

that address climate change. Thank you for supporting our past efforts, our

current initiatives, and our hope for the future.