Religious adopt Earth pledge
Brian Roewe, National Catholic Reporter
The national association for U.S. male religious has vowed more actions than words in taking up Pope Francis’ global call for protecting the planetary home, hoping their recently passed resolution will lead not only to eco-conscious changes in their own congregations, but will serve as a model for other Catholic institutions.
Pope’s encyclical cited as totem pole blessed on way to coal mines
Ed Langlois, National Catholic Reporter
Portland Mayor Charlie Hales got a roar of approval Monday when he told a packed Catholic church that he opposes new fossil fuel projects that would affect his city. The crowd of more than 400 at St. Philip Neri Church had convened for the blessing of a totem pole that residents of Washington state’s coastal Lummi Nation carved as a symbol of opposition to coal export facilities along the Columbia River.
Challenging the Climate Change Skeptics: Part 1
Martin J. Hodson and Margot R. Hodson, Ethics Daily
But there are also a growing number of activists who believe anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is real and human-induced. They take a variety of actions, including changes in personal lifestyle and campaigning.Skeptical politicians, industrialists, lobbyists, scientists and journalists are often influential and oppose the consensus on AGW in the face of overwhelming evidence.
Climate Change’s Overlooked Sociological Side
Jay Ellen Spiegel, Inside Climate News
What the Pope is drawing on is the same thing the sociologists are drawing on. We’re drawing on the same body of literature about climate justice and about the same concerns and it’s not surprising that there’s this confluence. I think that we’re sort of mutually supportive in that we provide a much more grounded, peer-reviewed, substantive foundation to the moral arguments made by the Pope.
Obama opens climate change tour
USA Today
Climate change is also likely to be a major topic when Pope Francis visits the White House in September, four months after releasing an environmental encyclical that called climate change “a global problem with grave implications” and “one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day.”
What The Pope Doesn’t Get About Air Conditioning
Rev. Mark H. Creech, Christian Post
It must have been something of this same sentiment against greed and corporate interests Pope Francis was meaning to voice in his recent encyclical Laudato Si’, where he strangely censures the use of air conditioning.