How's everyone enjoying their "Global Warming"?

Archive From The 'Tank

How do you like the Global Warming so far?

This sucks like all get out!!!!!!!!!
15
58%
Mildly annoying
4
15%
Who cares, it's only weather
7
27%
This is kinda okay
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 26

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Wosbald
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If COVID-19 frightens you, you should be terrified by climate change [in-Depth, Opinion]
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Physician Assistant Cori Kostick demonstrates the Brigham B-PROTECTED testing booth used to administer tests for COVID-19 at the Brigham and Women's Hospital community testing site in Boston May 5. (CNS/Reuters/Brian Snyder)


[...]

Some people are talking about an eventual return to "normal" life once a vaccine is developed or herd immunity achieved. But the experts caution us to not be so Pollyannaish. Others talk about an ongoing version of the current state of affairs -- masks in public, social distancing, restricted travel -- as indicative of a "new normal."

But that also fails to take into consideration the fact that we have not reached a new equilibrium. We are not even close. There is nothing "normal" (new or otherwise) about what we are experiencing during this pandemic because, as Wallace-Wells writes [in his 2019 book, The Uninhabitable Earth], "The truth is actually much scarier. That is, the end of normal; never normal again." Things are bound to get much, much worse, and there are no indications that we can ever return to the historical place from which we came.

Wallace-Wells dedicates a chapter in The Uninhabitable Earth to "Plagues of Warming," in which he outlines the frightening likelihood that what we have witnessed with COVID-19 is merely a foretaste of "existing scourges relocated, rewired, or even re-evolved by [global] warming." He gives several examples of how climate change will only exacerbate future pandemics.

As the planet continues to warm, tropical climate regions will expand and reach new places heretofore unaccustomed to such heat and humidity. Along with the climate shift will come vectors like mosquitos and ticks that transmit diseases such as yellow fever, dengue, malaria and Lyme disease. As Wallace-Wells recounts, each year new outbreaks of these and other illnesses are recorded in locations where they have been previously unseen.

Additionally, these infectious diseases will continue to mutate, wreaking havoc on larger and larger populations in new and, at times, entirely unpredictable ways. Think back to 2016 and the Zika outbreak. Wallace-Wells notes that few people in the so-called global north worried about this disease (or had even heard of it) just a few years ago. He writes: "One reason you hadn't heard about Zika until recently is that it had been trapped in Uganda and Southeast Asia; another is that it did not, until recently, appear to cause birth defects." It seems that this disease mutated in its journey to the Americas, and its consequences became dire in new and frightening ways.


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A health worker fumigates for mosquitoes as part of preventive measures against the Zika virus at a cemetery Feb. 1, 2016, near Lima, Peru. (CNS/Reuters/Mariana Bazo)


In the wake of this pandemic, there is understandably a lot of concern about harmful bacteria and viruses like SARS–CoV–2, which causes COVID-19. But what about the billions of "good bacteria" upon which we depend in order to live and perform basic bodily functions like digestion? As Wallace-Wells points out, "More than 99 percent of even those bacteria inside human bodies are presently unknown to science, which means we are operating in near-total ignorance about the effects climate change might have on the bugs in, for instance, our guts."

If you are not concerned about the possibility of climate change directly affecting the trillions of bacteria already living inside you, potentially turning them into mortal enemies instead of necessary friends, take some time to learn about what happened to saiga antelopes in 2015, in which most of the global population died off suddenly from a bacterial infection. If there's anything this virus pandemic should teach us, it is a reminder that we are creatures too, susceptible to all the same things every other organism on this planet is.

[...]


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Post by SoulBiter »

I had this nice post ready and then KW was down and I couldnt finish it.

But here is the synopsis. This pandemic has nothing to do with Global warming. Take a look at history and see how often over the centuries that 50% or 75% of entire populations were wiped out. All prior to anything resembling global warming.

These things come and go. Trying to tie them to Global warming is laughable.
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Post by Hashi Lebwohl »

Apparently all human progress was supposed to stop just before the Industrial Revolution began. Not only is the glass always half empty for climate alarmists, but the water and the glass are both filthy and need to be cleaned.

We have much more to fear from an accidental rogue protein in a GMO than we do any virus which may be exacerbated by current climate conditions.
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What amuses me is that it was always too expensive and too bad for the economy to try and reduce emmissions, then we had a pandemic and suddenly all those things that would have too much economic impact to try and implement were moot because we closed everything down.

Air pollution levels etc. saw a massive decrease almost overnight. They're rising again now of course as industries re-open, but even strict measures would cost less than the cost of having shut everything down. :D

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Farms may depend on water -- but they are also polluting it. [Analysis]
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In the Ohio and Upper Mississippi river basins, 10 million metric tons of commercial fertilizer is applied each year, and much of it ends up in our waterways. (iStock/filmfoto)


Five years ago, Pope Francis laid out a standard for water quality in his encyclical "Laudato Si'": "Access to safe, drinkable water is a basic and universal human right, since it is essential to human survival and, as such, is a condition for the exercise of other human rights" (No. 30).

In the agricultural heart of the United States and in the grain and livestock regions of central Canada, there is a quiet danger to this fundamental right: farm runoff. This danger has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has taken root in rural and Native American communities as well as in big cities. In these places, some people suffer from lung ailments caused by contaminated water, putting them at higher risk from the pandemic. Others have no clean water with which to wash their hands.

Our contemporary methods of farming are nutrient-intensive, meaning that for crops like corn and soy, large amounts of fertilizer are used. But the methods used in the farming of commodity crops also result in soil losing the structure that would have retained the fertilizer's chemicals -- and would keep them from entering groundwater and nearby waterways. Larger livestock operations, likewise, result in the leaching of massive, concentrated quantities of animal waste. This means polluted wells, aquifers, rivers and lakes.

In the agricultural heart of the United States and in central Canada, there is a quiet danger to the right to clean water: farm runoff.

The upper Midwest, where much of this nutrient-intensive farming is done, constitutes much of the watershed for the Missouri, Ohio and Mississippi rivers, which flow into the Gulf of Mexico. In the gulf, nutrients from U.S. farms contribute to hypoxia, a condition where an overabundance of oxygen results in the mass death of aquatic life. But one need not go that far downstream to find harmful effects. Places like Armenia, Wis., are finding what The New York Times called "their own, private Flints," as residential water wells become unusable because of bacteria from animal waste or nitrate far in excess of healthy levels.

In the Ohio and Upper Mississippi river basins, 10 million metric tons of commercial fertilizer is applied each year. In streams running near farms, the nitrogen levels frequently exceed the maximum safe levels for drinking, and the nitrate levels in the water flowing from drainage tiles in row-cropping operations (large farms that plant commodity crops in long, wide rows) is on average double the maximum safe level of saturation. In cities like Des Moines, the local waterworks must spend tens of millions of dollars to filter out nitrate water from the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers, where a growing number of fish kills are being recorded. Extreme weather, like last year's devastating floods, has exacerbated the problem by causing even higher quantities of pollutants in the soil to contaminate groundwater, waterways and drinking wells.

Residential water wells become unusable because of bacteria from animal waste or nitrate far in excess of healthy levels.

Pope Francis and his predecessor, Benedict XVI, both emphasized that a "trinitarian" vision of the world demands action to protect the environment. "The divine Persons," Pope Francis wrote in "Laudato Si'," "are subsistent relations, and the world, created according to the divine model, is a web of relationships" (No. 240).

This is perhaps nowhere more evident than in our water system, which really does reach around the globe and into every living thing. Water ought to remind us that we exist always in countless relationships, by which we are undeservedly blessed and toward which we have responsibilities.

[...]

Countries and populations privileged with greater resources have a responsibility to share wealth, techniques and expertise with poorer countries where water quality problems are most acute. There are many private and public efforts to improve clean water access around the world, whether through the U.S. Agency for International Development or The Water Project, they deserve our support. With the renewed attentiveness to public health brought on by the coronavirus, we can make some progress toward clean water, here and around the world.


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Panel explores how encyclical promotes connection between people, nature [In-Depth]
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Participants are seen in a May 29, 2020, Zoom dialogue about "Laudato Si After Five Years: Hearing the Cry of the Earth and the Cry of the Poor." They are Kim Daniels of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University; Christiana Zenner of Fordham University; Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development; Dan Misleh of Catholic Climate Covenant ; and Kim Wasserman of Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. (CNS/screen grab via Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, Georgetown University)


Cleveland -- Pope Francis' message in his 2015 encyclical on the relationship of people to the environment is simple, agreed a panel of speakers during an online dialogue.

It's a message that focuses on how each person is connected to each other and to the natural environment, while recognizing there is a call to be good stewards of God's creation by respecting each other and the communities in which people live.

The pope's call in the encyclical, "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home," was the starting point for the hourlong discussion sponsored by the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life and Georgetown University May 29.

The encyclical builds upon the teaching of the pope's predecessors, including St. Paul VI, St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, said Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. The document focuses on an "integral ecology" that incorporates the "ecology of the human person, the ecology of nature and the ecology of peace," he said.

"The word ecology is not something academic, far away removed from us," he said. "It is the environment in which we live. Let us recognize we all create the environment in which we live, and recognize how we all play a role in building and maintaining a clean environment," Turkson said.

[...]

Other panelists unpacked the encyclical by exploring the connection of people to each other while citing specific actions in response to the threats of climate change on poor and vulnerable people around the world.

"The ecology is not just about the environment," said Christiana Zenner, associate professor of theology, science and ethics at Fordham University. "It's that we humans are not separate from the environments that we inhabit, that climate change is not just about science and industrialized nations. Ecology permeates everything."

Zenner urged viewers of the livestreamed broadcast to step back to reflect on "who do we understand ourselves to be and who are we beholden to."

[...]


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Amazon missionary says health care system collapsing under COVID-19 [In-Depth]
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Kukama boys watch boats on the Amazon's Maranon River near Dos de Mayo in Peru's Loreto region. (Credit: Barbara Fraser)


ROSARIO, Argentina -- It's a paradox that the ancestral guardians of the world's lungs now "lack oxygen to survive," says one missionary to the Amazon region, which has been hard hit by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Pope Francis drew attention to the crisis in the region on Sunday, praying for those affected by the disease. So far the virus has killed over 500 indigenous people.

Dominika Szkatula, a lay Polish missionary who's been in the Peruvian Amazon for four decades, said it arrived her region "late" after hitting the Peruvian capital Lima and other regions.

At first, it seemed like a distant threat, she and her people heard of a case in the Apostolic Vicariate of San Jose, in the town of Indiana, some 15 miles from where she lives.

Szkatula is based in Iquitos, a port city and gateway to the jungle lodges and tribal villages of the northern Amazon. After the first case was reported in the vicariate, the second was a "shock": Bishop Jose Javier Travieso Martin -- he was the first prelate in the region to get it. The secretary of the local charitable Caritas office followed. After almost two months, both recovered.


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A nurse adjusts an oxygen tank next to a tent for COVID-19 patients in the parking lot of a hospital in Lima, Peru, April 16, 2020. (Credit: Sebastian Castaneda/Reuters via CNS)


"Little by little, in the city of Iquitos, the numbers of infected, suspected cases and deaths increased until authorities could not handle the situation," she said in a series of phone exchanges with Crux. "It completely escaped the control of health authorities and the regional government. Two hospitals for COVID-19 care collapsed."

"Even today, beds, medicines, protective equipment for health personnel, hygiene and cleaning articles, medical instruments, oxygen and, most urgent, doctors and nurses, are insufficient in number," Szkatula said on May 31.

"Many have died from lack of oxygen and ventilators, and those who fall ill are being quarantined," she added. "Oxygen tanks were scarce and some of the few we had were damaged, with an urgent demand in the face of massive contagion and consequently countless people in need of this product, today its value exceeds that of gold."

The Vicariate of San Jose in the Amazon is an enormous territory of 100,000 square miles and only 150,000 inhabitants. A majority of the people live along the rivers, and there are nine ethnic groups living in a territory with a complex geography that make transportation and communication all the more difficult.

[...]

"We were clear that the most important task was to convince the communities to isolate themselves, to prevent anyone from visiting them from outside, because this is the best way to avoid contagion that could put several ethnic groups at risk of extinction," Szkatula said.

The prevention campaign was initially very successful, she said, although it was not easy: Some the boats travelling in the area with the necessary permits to carry essential items were actually used to carry unauthorized people into the region.


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Health care workers protest the lack of proper medical supplies outside Hipolito Unanue Hospital in Lima, Peru, May 4, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Credit: Sebastian Castaneda/Reuters via CNS)


"At some point we found out that a group of 60 loggers got off a boat and without further ado, they dedicated themselves to their illegal logging work while we were in a state of emergency," she complained. "Elsewhere, the drug traffickers arrived after leaving the mountains where they hide because they ran out of supplies and were hungry."

This helped the spread of COVID-19: The vicariate has 389 confirmed cases and 35 deaths.

"Some would argue that these numbers are small, but the loss of a life, for us, means a lot," she said, adding that it's also a matter of perspective: "When you have 10 deaths in a community of 50 people, this is a tragedy. Furthermore, the numbers, as has been the case in many countries, are very inaccurate and bound to grow."

A second stage in fighting the virus was trying to strengthen the "little operational capacity of the small reference hospitals located on the three great rivers that our vicariate encompasses: The Amazon, Putumayo and Napo. In addition, we have thought of the small centers in each of the 15 mission posts, the headquarters of which are mostly in the district capitals."

They've been "replacing the state" in some cases, buying protective gear and diagnosis equipment for these centers -- some very basic, such as thermometers, oximeters and stethoscopes; and some more complex, including an ultrasound scanner. But as they are trying to equip these health posts, they are also been sending letters to government organizations "to remind them of their duties."

"We have to raise our loudest, most prophetic voice in defense of the most vulnerable and coordinate better with other institutions, Churches, indigenous organizations, etc.," Szkatula said.

[...]


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Community garden inspired by 'Laudato Si'' becomes a lifeline [In-Depth]
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A community garden planted by the Olancho Aid Foundation in Honduras in response to "Laudato Si'". (Credit: photo courtesy of the Olancho Aid Foundation)


NEW YORK -- Five years ago the Olancho Aid Foundation (OAF) planted a community garden in response to Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si'. Today, what was intended as a gesture to amplify the pope's message has become a lifeline to a region crippled by food insecurity due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For 30 years, OAF has worked to provide clean water and education programming to the rural region of Olancho, the largest department within Honduras. Five years ago, the foundation overhauled its strategic planning using Laudato Si' as a framework for refocusing their mission.

Now, in the face of the pandemic, their staff of 125 workers are shifting gears for an all hands on deck approach to caring for their common home.

"Life is so closely linked to the land and the agricultural community that it's just something we've naturally integrated into our work," OAF president Susan Nedza told Crux, describing how the organization, which operates 29 clean water projects and runs several bilingual and special needs schools, is also now in the business of feeding the hungry -- many of whom are the families of their students.

Once the country entered a national lockdown in mid-March, OAF's schools all switched to an online education system, made possible by the fact that it manages its own fiber optic network.

Next came the challenge of food insecurity, both for the families in the region and the employees themselves, where the inability to travel from department to department within the country has led to a food supply shortage.

One of the school facilities was turned into a distribution center, making use of a bountiful harvest from the community garden of tomatoes, peppers, and other fresh produce -- along with other staples that the OAF arranged to purchase from other suppliers -- to distribute food to the community.


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Workers from the Olancho Aid Foundation prepare to deliver food. (Credit: photo courtesy of the Olancho Aid Foundation)


The process, Nedza says, is carefully choreographed, with the packaging and distribution being done in small, socially distanced groups. While the OAF has told employees they are not required to work during this time, the majority of them are showing up, donning new hats, and happily distributing food to approximately 175 families.

"For about three thousand U.S. dollars a week, we're able to make sure every household is fed," Nedza told Crux.

[...]

Nedeza says that the local bishop, José Bonello, a Franciscan, and the OAF team have effectively combined forces, dividing up the region to make sure that families are accounted for and that their needs are met.

As the department is surrounded by mountains and largely isolated, the first case of COVD-19 only reached it three weeks ago, meaning the economic disruption to the region is far more likely to outweigh the health devastation. Even so, due to fragile medical infrastructure of the country, the shutdown has required everyone to work together for the common good to contain the spread of the virus.

"We are not an island! We share the fate of an entire country and an entire planet. And now what?," said the bishop in a statement earlier this month.

"It's time to evaluate what's done so far, rectify it, to decide and act better," he said. "That is as a great family we must prevent with a greater dose of conviction, responsibility and collaboration, solidarity and respect."


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Workers from the Olancho Aid Foundation prepare to deliver food. (Credit: photo courtesy of the Olancho Aid Foundation)


Nedza said that the spirit of cooperation and concern for the common good has been the guiding principle for OAF.

"You don't see the controversial discourse like we have here in the United States, they're just getting work done," she told Crux.

[...]


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Pope Francis: 'We have the chance to reverse course to a better, healthier world.'
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A volunteer collects garbage on a beach in Colombo, Sri Lanka, June 5, 2020, during an event to mark World Environment Day. The theme of World Environment Day 2020 is "Celebrate Biodiversity." (CNS photo/Dinuka Liyanawatte, Reuters


"We cannot pretend to be healthy in a world that is sick," Pope Francis said in a letter to President Iván Duque Márquez of Colombia in which he called on the world's governments "to reverse course" and not remain "indifferent to the signs that our planet is being plundered and violated by greed for profit."

He sent his letter to the president of Colombia because it hosts this year's World Environment Day. Each W.E.D. focuses on a pressing environmental issue and involves governments, businesses, celebrities and citizens in 143 countries. The United Nations General Assembly in December 1972 designated it to be celebrated annually on June 5.

Pope Francis noted that this year's event -- which focuses on biodiversity -- is being held virtually because of the Covid-19 pandemic and said this challenging situation "reminds us that in the face of adversity, new paths always open in order for us to be united as a great human family."

[...]

Pope Francis put it this way: "The protection of the environment and respect for the biodiversity of the planet are issues that affect us all. We cannot pretend to be healthy in a world that is sick. The wounds inflicted on our mother earth are wounds that also bleed in us.

"Caring for ecosystems demands a look to the future," the pope said, "one that is not concerned only with the immediate moment or that seeks a quick and easy profit, but rather one that is concerned for life and that seeks its preservation for the benefit of all."

He told participants, "Our attitude toward the present state of our planet should indeed make us concerned for and witnesses to the gravity of the situation." He added, "We cannot remain silent before the outcry when we realize the very high costs of the destruction and exploitation of the ecosystem." Francis spelled these concerns out clearly in his 2015 encyclical "Laudato Si': On Care for Our Common Home," published then on the eve of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris.

In today's letter, he told the world's governments and people "this is not a time to continue looking the other way, indifferent to the signs that our planet is being plundered and violated by greed for profit, very often in the name of progress."

"We have the chance to reverse course," Pope Francis said, "to commit ourselves to a better, healthier world and to pass it on to future generations." He emphasized, "Everything depends on us, if we really want it."

Pope Francis recalled that, in Laudato Si', he "drew attention to the cry that mother earth lifts up to us" and said he has recently invited everyone to reflect on that document over the next year. He hopes it will inspire people "together, to become more committed to the care and protection of our common home and of our most vulnerable and marginalized brothers and sisters in society."

[...]


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Post by sgt.null »

Does setting cities on fire contribute
To polluting those cities?
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sgt.null wrote:Does setting cities on fire contribute
To polluting those cities?
No, because rioters are being excused for any behavior they exhibit these days.

It is the fault of evil corporations--if they had not built those buildings then the rioters would not have been tempted to burn them down.
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Laudato Si' validates centuries of indigenous knowledge to defend nature [In-Depth, Opinion]
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The Amazon rainforest, bordered by deforested land prepared for the planting of soybeans, is pictured in this aerial photo taken over Mato Grosso state in western Brazil in October 2015. (Reuters/TPX Images of the Day/Paulo Whitaker)


With profound joy and hope, five years ago we got word of the release of Pope Francis' "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home," the encyclical focused on the environment. At last, a respected spiritual leader whose voice was heard around the world understood what we, the indigenous peoples, had been trying to explain without being understood.

Laudato Si' was bringing to light the importance of caring for nature, the respect for the Earth and its ecosystems; it was validating our millenary cultures and our ancestral knowledge. For us, this meant that, at last, someone with great influence was grasping the eternal truths that we all share a common space and should question the consumer lifestyle that destroys and violates human rights, the rights of nature and those of our people.

It was vital for so many of our people to deeply understand that destroying nature and life, from which we are inseparable, meant destroying our common home. For many, this might have been something new, but for those of us who have been voicing this problem from the start, this meant an endorsement of our centuries-old struggle to defend life on the planet and the sacred places as living creatures: the ecosystems all around the world.

Since its publication, the response to this encyclical has been slow, even within the structure of the Catholic Church. For the indigenous people, it has always been very clear that, as Catholics, we needed to accept before it was too late that our habitat is part of the divine creation and, as such, sacred. So, too, has it long been for the Sarayaku people, of which I'm a member, and where the Living Forest (Kawsak Sacha) is considered sacred. And as one entity, it has rights.

However, the extractive industries and the great majority of governments seem to have understood nothing and continue with a course of action that is small-minded, polluting and predatory of nature, generating social inequity and supporting a culture of waste. The forums and global agreements are going back, losing some of their previous achievements.

[...]


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Local community members show crude oil contamination left behind in open oil pits never remediated by U.S. oil companies in Lago Agrio in Ecuador in May 2019. (Stand.earth via Reuters/Tyson Miller)


[...]

We also see that cutting-edge technology has been unsuccessful. We've seen this in Ecuador, with the recent break of the oil pipelines that carry millions of barrels of oil, causing spills in important rivers like the Napo, and other tributaries of the Amazon River. This type of water contamination has had huge consequences and is currently affecting in a serious way the fish population and the health of men, women, children and elderly in hundreds of communities living by the shores of the affected rivers. We should add the big floods we just experienced like never before, which have wiped out entire communities. The impact is so obvious in every respect; we can't understand how they continue to be ignored.

In spite of so much, the impact of Laudato Si' in many parts of the world is very important for our people, but also for life and the human being as a whole. Francis has encouraged and supported the ecclesiastical institutions to get involved, at last and wholeheartedly, to take care of our common home, to support the steps to preserve nature and territory. A number of meetings and reflections on the topic have originated in that regard.


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Author Patricia Gualinga attends a news conference to discuss the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon at the Vatican Oct. 17, 2019. (CNS/Paul Haring)


It could be affirmed that, as of today, one of the direct outcomes of this encyclical has been the synod for the Amazon, which took place in Rome in October of last year. This represented the opportunity for our peoples to be finally heard. It was a chance to work directly on the current Amazonia situation and its frailty, to take action but, above all, to be mindful of the role that the church should play in this diverse territory, working with the different peoples and cultures.

We should be a church that reacts with a strong presence, and not as feeble or for appearance's sake anymore. It is then that it becomes an ally, a friend, an ecclesial institution that walks side by side with those who strive to preserve nature. This was something new for all, and a big step forward on the part of the church.

If this support continues, the indigenous peoples will have the wonderful and unique opportunity to rely on an unrivaled ally in our fight to defend life. The final document and the decisions taken by Rome have marked our plan to work arduously to execute this initiative in our territory, which is a task of serious responsibility but necessary in a pressing situation that threatens us all.

In spite of being a complex situation, it may seem that our global citizens are starting to react, albeit weakly and slowly. The encyclical has also been an example in several areas and places, acting as an instrument that could be used as an argument -- a valid tool for all to defend nature, to question the relationship between man and creation, to reflect about the core elements of life, which includes us all. For the first time, we seem to agree on the respect due to the sacredness of creation; that includes scientists, indigenous wise ones, and our ecclesiastical institution in the voice of Pope Francis.

With that in mind, our youth is our greatest hope. During these five years, many young people have risen from all corners of the world, questioning governments and businesses, and whose conscience, charism and understanding are worthy of admiration. They are well-informed and present convincing arguments about the future. They are the new generation to whom we will pass the baton, the generation that has taken notice of the planet they will inherit and recognizes that all efforts in this direction are worthy as they relate to our survival. They might not all know about Laudato Si', but they all agree that they need to fight for this future, for them and for all.

[...]


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Shunning virus and Big Oil, Alaska tribe revives traditions [In-Depth]
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In this June 14, 2019 photo, a four-wheeler is ridden through Arctic Village, Alaska. If the pandemic has deepened the sense of isolation for the 8,000 or so Gwich'in, sprinkled across northeastern Alaska into Canada, it has also emphasized the importance of the tribe's traditions and its profound spiritual connection to the homelands that sustain the caribou and other wildlife on which they depend. (AP/Religion News Service/Brian Adams)


Arctic Village, Alaska -- Arriving home on one of the last regular flights before pandemic restrictions went into effect in mid-February, Sarah James got to her house to find two caribous worth of meat in her freezer.

Since flights have become intermittent to this indigenous village 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle, said James, a leader of the Gwich'in Athabascan people, the store periodically runs out of basics like meat and sugar. Subsistence hunting, fishing and gathering have been more critical than ever.

To ensure that Arctic Village's population of fewer than 200 have enough to eat, the village council has designated several members to hunt caribou, the Gwich'in's traditional staple. Someone had also taken time to make sure that James' freezer was well stocked.

If the pandemic has deepened the sense of isolation for the 8,000 or so Gwich'in, sprinkled across northeastern Alaska into Canada, it has also emphasized the importance of the tribe's traditions and its profound spiritual connection to the homelands that sustain the caribou and other wildlife on which they depend.

Young people, James said, suddenly understand the traditional value of sharing as they deliver fish and other foods right to elders' doors so they don't risk exposure to the virus.

While nobody in Arctic Village so far has been known to have COVID-19, medical care is precarious -- at the small clinic there is no running water, and it's staffed by a health aide who is a trainee and a traveling physician's assistant who comes every couple of weeks. But the Gwich'in have long responded to multiple threats to their life and land by reinvesting in their people's place as protectors of their historic home.

For much of the past generation, the biggest threat has been an oil industry intent on gaining access to one of the country's last untapped petroleum reserves. In 1988, a year after the Reagan administration recommended development of the Alaskan coastal plain, the Gwich'in Nation held its first gathering in more than 100 years in Arctic Village and established the Gwich'in Steering Committee. The non-profit is commissioned with educating the world about the threat to the refuge.

James became one of the tribe's first spokespersons, traveling to Washington to lobby Congress and around the world to build a coalition of opposition to Reagan's plan. She still leads the legal fight against Big Oil and the federal government with partners like the Native American Rights Fund, while the steering committee pursues an education and influence campaign through traditional and social media, with support of environmental organizations.

Since the Gwich'in began their fight, too, the disposition of the coastal plain, which includes the 19 million-acre Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), almost the size of South Carolina, has become a national debate. In the mid-2000s, it helped force a government shutdown under President Bill Clinton. In 2015, the Obama administration proposed designating 1.25 million acres of the coastal plain off limits to development, along with more than 10 million acres elsewhere in Alaska, but the proposal went nowhere in a Republican-controlled Congress.


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In this June 2019, photo is Gwich'in Nation elder Sarah James at her home in Arctic Village, Alaska. Now, with flights to their remote villages curtailed due to COVID-19, the Gwich'in Athabascan people have become more dependent on hunting, fishing and gathering and the traditions that run through their ancient way of life. Young people, James said, suddenly understand the traditional value of sharing as they deliver fish and other foods right to elders' doors so they don't risk exposure to the virus. (Religion News Service/AP/Brian Adams)


Since September of last year, when the Trump administration announced it would carry out its own plan to open the coastal plain to drilling, the Interior Department has been weighing a sale this year of oil leases on the 1.56 million acres in ANWR. The effort has so far survived the recent plunge in oil prices.

"I don't think the bidding would be driven by today's prices," Interior Secretary David Bernhardt told Bloomberg in mid-May. "I don't generally believe that decisions on whether or not to bid in a lease sale are really driven by the near-term dynamics."

But for the Gwich'in, the fight is as much a spiritual and cultural one. The tribe's defense has prompted a cultural renaissance in Alaska's rural villages. Young Gwich'in have turned to their elders to recapture indigenous languages. They are taking up traditional arts and crafts and studying food preservation techniques like smoking and drying. Tribal gatherings open and close with prayers, drumming, dancing and ceremonies that the young Gwich'ins' grandparents were discouraged and even punished for performing in colonial days.

James' leadership is representative of this rebirth, particularly of the Gwich'in matrilineal society that Alaska's white colonizers once tried to end.

[...]


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In this June 2019 photo, Gwich'in Nation elder Sarah James shows the altar at the Episcopal Church in Arctic Village, Alaska. If the coronavirus pandemic has deepened the sense of isolation for the 8,000 or so Gwich'in, sprinkled across northeastern Alaska into Canada, it has also emphasized the importance of the tribe's traditions and its profound spiritual connection to the homelands that sustain the caribou and other wildlife on which they depend. (AP/Religion News Service/Brian Adams)


[...]


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Living Laudato Si' in Appalachia leads to mix of efforts to feed families [In-Depth]
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Lori Helfrich and Emily Whitaker of Hazard, Ky., are seen in this undated photo. (Credit: Don Clemmer/Cross Roads via CNS)


Recognizing the challenge of hunger, Helfrich and other faith leaders stepped up to create what is in effect a quilt of their own out of the patchwork of services as they develop a plan to cover the chasm of need.


HAZARD, Kentucky -- Quilting used to be a big deal across Perry County in eastern Kentucky, but over the years and from one generation to the next, the craft of making quilts has fallen out of practice.

"A lot of that is dying, because people haven't continued it," said Lori Helfrich, parish life director at Mother of Good Counsel Catholic Church in Hazard.

The same could be said of farming and gardening in the area. The lack of families who grow at least some of their own foods is one of numerous factors contributing to widespread food insecurity in the area.

Some churches have responded with programs to feed hungry people, but in a largely scattered and uncoordinated way. Recognizing the challenge of hunger, Helfrich and other faith leaders stepped up to create what is in effect a quilt of their own out of the patchwork of services as they develop a plan to cover the chasm of need.

"You have to be creative about it," Helfrich told Cross Roads, the magazine of the Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky. "How do you encourage people to come together? ... You have to build relationships between people who don't normally interact."

[...]

Helfrich said the area's deep poverty is rooted in different factors.

"You have people who have jobs, but they're not paying enough to be living on. If you're a single parent, you might be working three jobs, but you still might not be able to cover what you need to," she said.

Helfrich also cited the widespread role of drug and alcohol addiction. "It's in nearly every family, because it's available and it's a numbing of the other issues that people are facing," she said. The addictions make it difficult for people to pass a drug test, a requirement of many employers.

Also contributing is the legacy of strip mining in the area, which "strips the land of everything and any topsoil," Helfrich said. "That adds to food insecurity."

And most recently, there's the impact of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.

"Food security was precarious here before the pandemic, and now the problem becomes exacerbated," Helfrich said. "The most vulnerable populations are hit hardest when something like this unexpected happens. All of this ties together with care for our common home and Laudato Si'."

After last fall's summit, Helfrich and her allies established the Food and Faith Coalition. The organization is seeking funding for some of their initiatives, which often draw on the values expressed by Pope Francis in his 2015 encyclical on integral ecology, Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home.

"We're trying to link all these things," said Emily Whitaker, a Presbyterian and one of Helfrich's collaborators. "I love being involved in all of these projects."

[...]


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Laudato Si' five years out: five themes from a scholarly review of its impact [In-Depth]
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Environmental activists hold up a poster with an image of Pope Francis during a "Climate Solidarity Prayer" march in Manila, Philippines, Nov. 29, 2015, ahead of the U.N. climate change conference, known as the COP21 summit, in Paris. (CNS/Reuters/Czar Dancel)


Last year at Creighton University, more than 200 people gathered for the first of a series of conferences aimed at deeper daily integration of the messages of "Laudato Si', on Care of Our Common Home." The participants arrived in Omaha from many corners of Catholic life, among them parishes, high schools, congregations of religious women, universities and the Vatican.

Dan DiLeo, an assistant professor at Creighton and one of the conference organizers, proposed publishing papers presented at the conference in the Journal of Moral Theology, which I edit. It seemed like a good way to reflect some of the work and scholarship underway as a result of Pope Francis' encyclical.

I hope you read the whole issue. But for starters, I highlight here five themes that emerged from the collection of papers and even now reflect much of what's resulted from Laudato Si' five years after its release.

1. There is still resistance.

While Laudato Si' is celebrated by so many inside and outside the church, there is still resistance to it. In her essay "What is Happening to Our Common Home?," the director of the Nebraska State Climate Office, Martha Shulski, bemoans the fact that, even though climate change is an accepted reality for scientists, it is "a 'debated' political issue." Such a situation means that the work scientists do "studying how much the climate is changing, how it varies regionally, what is causing the change, and how can we improve the models that give us projections" is in danger of being ignored.

[...]


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Click for "Laudato Si' at Five". (CNS photo/logo by Toni-Ann Ortiz for EarthBeat)


2. Work is being done in society.

Shulski's essay is not just about political resistance but also about how politics can help. She uses her role as head of Nebraska's climate office to help "farmers and ranchers, natural resource managers, public power utilities, cities, Rotarians, business leaders, the media, state agencies, insurance firms, law offices, youth, retirees, researchers, faith communities" in the state. Her office gathers and analyzes data that helps all of these constituencies make decisions and manage risk associated with climate change in the area.

In contrast to the inaction of the federal government, Goodwin notes how local activists are addressing climate change. With the support of a grant from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the United Workers in Baltimore spent five years fighting, and eventually stopping, the construction of one of the largest incinerators in the country near a school in one of the poorest parts of the city.

3. Work is being done in the church.

Creighton University is working to be carbon neutral by 2050. En route this goal, Jesuit Fr. Daniel Hendrickson, Creighton's president, states in his opening remarks to the 2019 conference that the campus has received LEED Silver certification on new buildings and founded interdisciplinary academic programs to study environmental change. (On Feb. 18, Hendrickson announced that Creighton will partially divest its half-billion dollar endowment from fossil fuel companies.) Dominican Sr. Patricia Siemen, an attorney and prioress of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, writes how her motherhouse negotiated with their energy provider to have 100% green sourced energy for the campus and how the Adrian Dominicans as a whole have worked to reduce their energy consumption.

[...]

4. Work comes from many corners of the church.

This collection of essays reflects several of those corners: Biviano is an academic. Siemen is a civil attorney and a Dominican sister. Hendrickson is a college administrator and a Jesuit. Martha Shulski works for the state government, and Meghan Goodwin lobbies the federal government.

[...]


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Adrian Dominican Sr. Patricia Siemen, founder of the Center for Earth Jurisprudence at Barry University School of Law (NCR photo/Brian Roewe)


5. Environmental care is part of the Gospel.

The authors see concern for the environment as part of the Gospel, echoing Pope Francis' claim that concern for creation is not "a secondary aspect" of the faith. Lucas thanks the organizers of the conference because a better integration of environmental concern into people's lives will help "people to mercifully and lovingly live the three relationships that 'ground ... human life': 'with God, with our neighbour and with the earth itself' (Laudato Si', no. 66)." Hendrickson notes that Laudato Si' is bound up with "the Church's commitments to protect human life and dignity, exercise a preferential option for the poor and vulnerable, and promote the common good."

Kenneth Himes, professor of theology at Boston College and a leading scholar on Catholic social teaching, makes the connection between faith and environmental care most forcefully. Himes notes that, in the early years of Christianity, believers addressed a widespread epidemic in the Roman empire by helping anyone they could, believers and non-believers alike with a system of assistance. This broader concern for society, this love of the far away neighbor that is called justice, was at the very origins of Christianity. So, today, with climate change, Christians are once again to "love their neighbor" as they care for creation.


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Podcast: How 'Laudato Si'' changed U.S. Catholics' minds on climate change [Audio]
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Parishioners of St. Thomas Aquinas in Palo Alto, Calif., pose next to solar panels in this undated 2015 file photo. The Archdiocese of San Francisco launched a "Laudato Si'" initiative to help parishes respond to Pope Francis' 2015 encyclical and form "care for creation" teams. (CNS photo/courtesy St. Thomas Aquinas Parish)


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--> --> Podcast Direct Link [16.5 min]

It's been five years since the release of Laudato Si', and Pope Francis has called for a year of prayer and study on the encyclical's themes of integral human ecology -- that is, the importance of protecting the environment and the poor, who are most directly affected by climate change and the destruction of nature.

But five years out, as the church works with new resolve to implement Laudato Si', it is worth asking: Did the document make a difference the first time around?

On this episode of Inside the Vatican, I speak with Sam Winter-Levy and Bryan Schonfeld, two Princeton University doctoral candidates in political science, who recently released a paper studying the impact of Laudato Si'. The two examined data sets from a survey of Americans' opinions on climate change from before and after the encyclical's release, and they found that among churchgoing Catholics, there was a significant shift towards belief that climate change is real and caused by humans, and that there is a moral imperative to take action on it.

We discuss their findings, and what the results reveal about the role religious leaders like Pope Francis can have in shaping public opinion.


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Five years on: Exploring four puzzles in Laudato Si' [In-Depth, Analysis]
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A leader of the Celia Xakriaba peoples walks along the banks of the Xingu River in Brazil's Xingu Indigenous Park Jan. 15. (CNS/Reuters/Ricardo Moraes)


Pope Francis packed a great deal of straightforward and clear advice into the climate encyclical he issued five years ago, challenging as it may be to put that advice into action. But there are also some thought-provoking puzzles that confront us as we dig more deeply into the document, "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home."

In the course of editing a new book, “Laudato Si'” and the Environment: Pope Francis' Green Encyclical, I had occasion to ponder quite a few such issues, including the following:
  • How can we respond adequately to "the cry of the earth" while paying proper attention to "the cry of the poor?" For instance, how do we reconcile the expenditure of energy (and resulting harmful carbon emissions) required to lift more people out of poverty with reducing those emissions overall?
  • How can Christianity draw insights from indigenous religions that might help us achieve the sort of ecological conversion that Francis advocates?
  • To what extent -- and in what ways -- can we rely on sacred Scriptures written thousands of years ago to help guide us through a crisis that was unimaginable when these Scriptures were written?
  • Does the "ecological sensitivity" that Francis encourages require a total rethinking of where we humans fit in on planet Earth?
I will take these one at a time, briefly mentioning some of the ideas advanced by some contributors to my book.

Heeding the cry of the poor and the cry of the Earth

Responding appropriately both to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor is a central theme in Laudato Si'. But responding to both cries may sometimes pull us in different directions.

As people get richer they use more resources, their ecological footprint increases and other forms of life suffer. Poor people need access to electricity and in reality that often means burning fossil fuels. With 7.8 billion people now and close to 10 billion projected for 2050, it is hard to see how massive additional environmental destruction can be avoided if -- as also predicted and as current trends bespeak -- many poor people become richer.

The pope's vision is for the best-off to bear more of the burden of the worst-off becoming better off. But what if the better-off fail miserably to play their part?

[...]


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Pope Francis meets indigenous people from the Amazonian region during the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon at the Vatican Oct. 17, 2019. (CNS/Vatican Media)


Attending to indigenous religious perspectives

Drawing on the emphasis on indigenous religious perspectives in Laudato Si', both Celia Deane-Drummond ("A New Anthropology? Laudato Si' and the Question of Interconnectedness") and Zainal Abidin Bagir ("Reading Laudato Si' in a Rainforest Country: Ecological Conversion and Recognition of Indigenous Religions") propose that Christianity would benefit from taking account of indigenous perspectives. Bagir contends that this is also the case for Islam.

These scholars mention the need to accommodate theologically a greater reverence for nature, the presence of nonhuman persons in nature, and the presence of the sacred in nature.

Deane-Drummond says that an adequate Catholic theological approach to being human must combine its traditional emphasis on human dignity and human uniqueness with a new appreciation of what anthropology and other fields are teaching us about indigenous religious perspectives.

[...]

Reading Scriptures ecologically

Margaret Daly-Denton ("Laudato Si' and the Reinterpretation of Scriptures in Light of the Ecological Crisis") considers Francis' use of Scripture in the encyclical and, more broadly, ecological readings of the Bible.

Central to "ecological hermeneutics" is the idea that believers should reinterpret their Scriptures in light of current realities and challenges. She writes about "the meaning that lay thousands of years ahead ... when [sacred texts] were first written, but that jumps off the page when we read them in the twenty first century, standing on our damaged Earth."

Is there an implicit assumption that Christian Scriptures, or other sacred texts, have the wherewithal to address all current and future dilemmas and challenges? How is the line between interpretation and creative reconstruction to be drawn?

Valuing ecosystems

Francis exhorts us to respect "the delicate equilibria existing between the creatures of this world." Ecosystems are "good and admirable" and have an intrinsic value independent of their usefulness.


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A heron is seen in the Amazon's Mamiraua Sustainable Development Reserve in 2018 in Uarini, Brazil. (CNS/Reuters/Bruno Kelly)


[...]

Francis points out that on many issues dealt with in Laudato Si', there can be honest debate among the advocates of divergent views. And he repeatedly advocates dialogue. It is in the spirit of these injunctions that I identify some themes that merit additional reflection.

On the other hand, it requires nothing more than paying a little attention to see that our common home is falling into disrepair. And there can be no debate about the wisdom of cultivating a "simplicity which allows us to stop and appreciate the small things, to be grateful for the opportunities which life affords us, to be spiritually detached from what we possess, and not to succumb to sadness for what we lack."


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At five-year mark for "Laudato Si'," Vatican offers a 'users guide' [In-Depth]
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A cormorant is seen on the Anacostia River April 26, 2020, near Bladensburg, Md. Dioceses and other organizations around the world are planning to mark the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis's encyclical on care for creation with online events and prayers during Laudato Si' Week May 16-24, 2020. (Credit: Chaz Muth/CNS)


ROME -- To mark the five-year anniversary of Pope Francis's eco-encyclical, Laudato Si', the Vatican Thursday published a "users guide" for both parishes and public officials on how to implement the document, including such concrete measures as a balanced diet, carpooling to reduce energy consumption, recycling, and "drip-by-drip" irrigation to curb water waste.

The document also calls on legislators and governments to adopt eco-friendly policies, such as enshrining water as a "universal human right" and promoting international efforts to protect vulnerable ecosystems such as the Amazon and the Congo River Basin.

In keeping with Pope Francis's view of "integral ecology," the document also advocates for poverty relief, family-friendly policies to combat a "demographic winter," prison and healthcare reform, and the protection of human life from conception to natural death.

The text also touts several steps within the Vatican City State to become more "green," including discontinuing the use of toxic pesticides and recycling the water from the famed Vatican fountains.

Presented June 18 and titled, "On the Path to Caring for the Common Home: Five Years after Laudato Si'," the lengthy 220-page document -- longer than Laudato Si' itself -- is an initiative of the Vatican's department for Integral Human Development and is the product of an inter-departmental "Table" on integral ecology established after Laudato Si''s publication in June 2015.

[...]

Consisting of two chapters dedicated to Education and Ecological Conversion and Integral Ecology and Integral Human Development, the text is directed toward local churches, parish communities, public representatives and average faithful.

It covers topics addressed in Laudato Si' such as education; the dignity of human life; interfaith and ecumenical dialogue; work; finance; deforestation; food, water and energy; the economy; healthcare and communications, offering both a reflection on passages from the encyclical on each of the topics mention and suggested action points based on an educative and pastoral perspective.

Also included in the text is a list of different steps the Vatican City State has taken to become greener and more environment friendly. Suggestions made in the action points include creating more opportunities to reflect on creation, specifically as it is described in the Bible.

Readers are also encouraged to "defend the family" and all human life, "from conception to natural death," and to reflect on the concept of a "sin against human life" as it applies to the poor, the unborn, the sick and the elderly. States are encouraged to promote intelligent family policies that counter "the so-called 'demographic winter', especially in the west."

[...]

The text also appears to take a swipe at journalists and critical reporting of Laudato Si' and climate change, suggesting that formation courses be offered to journalists to give them "clear, complete and correct" information on the encyclical, and that "a culture of truth" be developed among the press "so as to counter the spread of misleading news created to deny the existence of the environmental crisis."

Investments in small-scale food production and support for rural communities are encouraged. The document also urges better care for animals in slaughterhouses and encourages readers to have a balanced diet.

Offering numerous suggestions to curb water shortages while also assuring that there is enough for both food and hygienic needs, the text encourages people at all levels of society to promote the idea that water is a "fundamental universal right" and that it must be accessible at reasonable prices.

Much like Laudato Si', the document urges people to use environment friendly energy sources and energy-efficient materials, as well as less pollutive methods of transportation, such as bicycles or carpooling. Renewable energy sources, it says, must be sold at "accessible" prices.

[...]

In terms of the economy, the document says it must be based on the person rather than profit, and argues for recycling natural resources such as bioenergy, biofuel and compost. Projects aimed at cleaning oceans and beaches, as well as investments in sustainable infrastructure, are to be encouraged, it says.

[...]

A fundamental rethinking of the prison system is also suggested, particularly in terms of punishments for parents and first-time offenders. In terms of healthcare, the text urges an investment in diagnosis and care for unborn children with malformities or illnesses, "rather than promoting the diagnosis in view of selection and elimination."

[...]

The document also encourages raising awareness about policies and technologies that combat air pollution and climate change, with special attention to the Amazon region, as well as the development of a clear definition of a "climate refugee," and the adoption of measures to ensure they have the necessary legal and humanitarian protections.

Highlighting the Vatican's own efforts to promote more environment friendly practices, the document mentions several steps that have been taken within the Vatican City State to save energy and water.

[...]


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Racism in pollution and policing: A conversation with Robert Bullard, father of environmental justice [In-Depth, Interview]
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EarthBeat interview with Robert Bullard, father of environmental justice [YouTube: 29 min]
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EarthBeat interview with Robert Bullard, left, June 12, 2020, on NCR's YouTube channel


Robert Bullard is no stranger to how racism pollutes everyday life in America.

The professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Houston's Texas Southern University has watched closely as America again confronts its long record on racism in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd and others. Bullard's decades of study make it clear that racism goes deeper than policing -- it plays out in housing, food access, development and the environments where we live.

Considered the father of environmental justice, Bullard became involved in that movement before it ever had a name. In 1978, he conducted research on landfill locations in Houston for a class-action lawsuit that his wife, Linda McKeever Bullard, an attorney, was working. What he and his students found was that all five municipal landfills were located in black neighborhoods, as were nearly every privately owned landfill and city-owned incinerator. Or put another way, from the 1930s through 1978, approximately 82% of Houston's garbage was dumped into black neighborhoods, representing a quarter of the population.

That case, as well as several others, formed the early moments of the environmental justice movement.

"All communities are not created equal," Bullard told NCR's EarthBeat. "There are some that are more equal than others. And if a community happens to be poor, working class or a community of color, it generally receives more than its fair share of things that other people don't want. That's the injustice involved."

"And it's more than just environmentally. It also involves health and wealth. When these many facilities [like landfills, power plants, refineries] are placed near homeowners, they lower the property value, which means lowering wealth. They also create pollution, which is also impacting health. So it's a double whammy that we're fighting."

Bullard recently spoke with EarthBeat about America's current moment of reckoning with racism, and how environmental justice factors into it. Below are excerpts from that conversation, edited for clarity and length. You can also watch the full interview at the top of the page.

==================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================


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The Houston skyline is seen from the Holmes Road landfill in this May 1972 photo. A study by sociologist Robert Bullard in 1979 found that the majority of the Houston metro's garbage was dumped near black communities. (Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)


EarthBeat: I thought a good place for us to start with is just the concept of environmental justice itself. How would you define that?

Bullard: Well, environmental justice embraces the principle that all communities are entitled to equal protection of environment, housing, transportation, energy, food security. And that no community should be somehow discriminated against or left out because of their race or income or their location.

[...]


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Homes are seen surrounded by floodwaters and oil slicks in St. Bernard Parish, south of New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina swept through the area in 2005. (CNS/Clarion Herald/Frank J. Methe)


You mentioned connecting the dots of these different challenges, whether it's racism, the pandemic, pollution, all of these things. It reminded me of what Pope Francis has talked about in his encyclical Laudato Si', where he says that everything is connected, and hearing the cry of the Earth at the same time as the cry of the poor. What power does that message from a prominent religious leader add to the environmental justice movement? And what role can faith communities play in environmental justice?

Well, you know that the environmental justice movement is an extension of the civil rights movement and the struggle for human rights. And some of the first major movement-building strategies came out of the church. Came out of the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice, a black civil rights organization based in a white denomination.

And so we've had collaborations with the various denominations, in terms of United Church of Christ, United Methodist, Catholics, Lutherans. And so again that civil rights history ... filters into our environment justice movement. You know, Dr. King was a Baptist minister.

And the idea of religion playing a major part in the modern civil rights movement, it's playing a major part in our environmental justice movement in terms of the constituencies that ... use their church as their meeting place for fighting, fighting for justice. And many of our priests and ministers and moms have really worked very hard to challenge the institutional framework that will keep pollution somehow concentrated in one area, but we know that ultimately it will affect us all. Because there's one Earth. And when we don't protect the most vulnerable, we place everybody at risk.

And so we here are talking about justice for all. We're talking about making sure that no community is left behind, whether it's during a disaster -- natural or man-made -- or whether it's during a pandemic, like right now, or whether it's talking about addressing issues of affordable housing, healthcare or policing. And I think the religious leaders have a major role and have always played a major role when it comes to justice issues. And I think that's a good thing.


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Msgr. Ray East, pastor of St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church in Washington, speaks during a prayerful protest outside the White House June 8, 2020, following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed African American man whose neck was pinned to the ground by police for more than eight minutes before he was taken to the hospital. (CNS/Bob Roller)


[...]


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An oil refinery site in Baton Rouge, Louisiana is shown in this 2012 aerial photo. (Wikimedia Commons)


In terms of solutions, there's a lot of ideas being thrown out there right now. In terms of environmental justice, what do those solutions look like in addressing racism?

I think what we have to do when we talk about environmental racism and environmental justice, we have to talk about what really essentials are. That means that all communities should have a right to a clean and healthy, livable environment. That no community should somehow be targeted for things that other people don't want. We want a healthy, livable environment.

We're talking about changing our whole paradigm in terms of what kind of economy we should have. And if we are moving to a clean energy, renewable energy green economy, then that economy should not leave people behind just because they're poor, just because they're people of color. We're talking about a just transition that will be inclusive.

When we talk about environmental justice, it's also talking about health equity. Making sure that people have access to health care, access to a safe workplace. And we're talking about employment opportunities where people have not a minimum wage, a livable wage. And that people can have employment and opportunity that they can take care of their families and live out the American dream. Buy homes and being able to buy homes and live in housing that's not in floodplains and next to the refinery, the landfill.

We talk about education and making sure that educational opportunity is open to all. You know, everybody's not going to be able to go to college or university, but making sure that junior college and community colleges are available to young people. And making sure that there are skills and training that people can get jobs, so that they can have good careers and that kind of thing.

And so, environmental justice involves all of that. We're not just fighting pollution. We're fighting for a good economy that can provide good, healthy and sustainable lifestyles for everybody. Parks and green space. Good farmers markets and good access to supermarkets and other kinds of grocery stores that can make people have access to alternatives of just going to the fast food and eating all the junk. ... That's what environmental justice is all about. And that's what we will be pushing for as we look at these candidates for the presidential races, for the governorships and for the legislature, the city council, county commissioners, school boards.

[...]


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A man kneels in front of police officers in St. Louis June 1, 2020, during a protest following the death of George Floyd. (CNS/Reuters/Lawrence Bryant)


[...]


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Displaced people fill containers with water Sept. 26, 2017, in Canovanas, Puerto Rico, in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.(CNS/Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)


[...]


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Post by Wosbald »

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Pope appeals for care for refugees and for creation
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An Afghan refugee in a slum area in Lahore, Pakistan (AFP or licensors)


Pope Francis says the coronavirus pandemic has heightened awareness regarding the need to protect refugees and migrants and to care for the environment.


Pope Francis on Sunday asked believers to join him in praying for a renewed and effective commitment to protect refugees and migrants.

Addressing the pilgrims in St. Peters Square after the recitation of the Angelus prayer, the Pope appealed for respect and care for displaced persons recalling that on Saturday the United Nations celebrated World Refugee Day.

"The coronavirus crisis has highlighted the need to ensure the necessary protection for refugees, in order to guarantee their dignity and safety" he said.

He invited all believers to join him in praying "for a renewed and effective commitment, on the part of us all, to the effective protection of every human being, especially those who have been forced to flee as a result of situations of grave danger to them or their families."

The Pope's appeal comes as statistics show there are almost 80 million displaced persons across the globe, the highest number ever recorded.

Care for the environment

Pope Francis went on to note that "Another aspect on which the pandemic has made us reflect is the relationship between man and the environment."

"The lockdown has reduced pollution and revealed once more the beauty of so many places free from traffic and noise," he said, inviting us to resume activities with a heightened awareness and responsibility in looking after our common home.

Countries across the world are gradually lifting lockdown restrictions as the curve of coronavirus deaths and infections flattens in some continents and regions. The easing of limitations is triggered mainly by the need to kick-start flagging economies and cut down on further unemployment and poverty.

The Pope expressed his appreciation for many "grass roots" initiatives that are emerging in this regard all over the world, and voiced his hope that they may "foster a citizenship that is increasingly aware of this essential common good."

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