edited by lauren frohne
camera and sound by jessey dearing and lauren frohne
reporting and interviews by anna carrington, jessey dearing, lauren frohne and chris saunders
a project of powering a nation
the mid-20th century discovery of oil and gas fields in central texas changed the trajectory of several small towns in decline. but the boom bypassed the town of roscoe.
from his nearby cotton farm, cliff etheredge watched the other towns grow. “to me, the hungriest man is the one who has to sit and watch somebody else eat,” he said. “that’s what we did here.”
then, in 2004, etheredge saw a chance to cash in on the emerging west texas wind boom. as chairman of wind works, a wind farm development company, he introduced wind energy to roscoe. landowners earn income for each turbine placed on their property and a percentage of the profits from the energy each turbine produces.
the roscoe wind farm is the world’s largest capacity wind farm with 627 wind turbines and a total installed capacity of 781.5 mw.
]]>“i heard gus speth, the dean of forestry at yale, say to a group of religious leaders, ‘i used to think the top environmental problems facing the world were global warming, environmental degradation and eco-system collapse, and that we scientists could fix those problems with enough science,’” wilson recalls. “‘but i was wrong. the real problem is not those three items, but greed, selfishness and apathy. and for that we need a spiritual and cultural transformation. and we scientists don’t know how to do that. we need your help.’”
back home, wilson thought more about passages in the bible containing messages of stewardship for the earth. he began preaching about a christian duty to protect the environment, or “creation care,” at the vineyard church of ann arbor, mich., where he is senior pastor.
“it was like i was popping a cork,” wilson says. “people came up to me in the lobby after the lectures actually with tears in their eyes, saying thank you for speaking to this issue.”
wilson was surprised to see that many of those people were new to the church.
“there was a ph.d. in evolutionary biology who came to the church for the very first time for the creation care series, and he said to me, ‘here’s a church that is finally talking about science in a positive way and actually cares for the environment.’”
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video by courtney woo
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