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In a move to address the harmful effects of greenhouse gas emissions on public health and their threat to climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed Tuesday carbon pollution standards for newly constructed power plants.

Fossil-fuel-fired power plants are the largest sources of carbon pollution and have long operated without emissions regulations.

"Right now there are no limits to the amount of carbon pollution that future power plants will be able to put into our skies – and the health and economic threats of a changing climate continue to grow," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson in a press release.

"We’re putting in place a standard that relies on the use of clean, American-made technology to tackle a challenge that we can’t leave to our kids and grandkids," she said.

The proposed standards, to be enforced through the Clean Air Act, would require plants to limit carbon pollution to 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour.

The standard is based primarily on natural gas performance, the rule states, since it has become increasingly more available and at lower costs, leading to an industry trend toward new plants powered by natural gas, not coal.

Caritas International has launched campaigns the past two days to help alleviate the food crises in the African nations of Niger and Burkina Faso.

People of both countries in West Africa’s Sahel region face rising food costs amid growing shortages.

“Niger and the Sahel face an alarming food emergency that is getting worse day-by-day,” said Raymond Yoro, the executive secretary of Caritas Niger, in a press release.

Caritas says that the food shortage affects a third of the Nigerien population. The shortage dates back to 2010, when 7.8 million people – or three-fifths of the population – faced moderate to severe food insecurity, following a 2009 drought that depleted food stocks. With food already limited today, an increasing number of Malian refugees have further strained supplies.

Famines are nothing new in Niger. In 2010, the New York Times detailed the long struggle, dating back to 1974, the country has had battling food shortages amidst increasing birthrates and a basic agricultural system.

Water is human right, not a for-profit commodity, says Vatican council

By Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Clean and potable water is a human right, not a for-profit commodity dependent on market logic, said the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in a recent document.

Unfortunately, "there persists an excessively commercial conception of water which runs the risk of mistaking it for just another kind of merchandise, and making investments for the sake of profit alone, without taking into account water's worth" as a public good, it said.

"There is a risk of not seeing one's brothers and sisters as human beings possessing the right to a dignified existence, but rather seeing them as simply customers," which leads to making water and sanitation available only to those who can pay, it added.

The document, "Water, an Essential Element for Life," is an update to previous documents of the same title by the council.

Catholic leaders: Farm bill can help hungry, farmers, rural US

By Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Five U.S. Catholic clergy and lay leaders said they want to work with lawmakers for a new farm bill that "provides for poor and hungry people both at home and abroad, offers effective support for those who grow our food, ensures fairness to family farmers and ranchers, and promotes stewardship of the land."

"The farm bill affects us all, but most significantly, those who are hungry, living in poverty and struggling to keep farming a viable way of life," they said in a March 6 letter to key members of a Senate committee that works on agricultural issues.

The farm bill is a reauthorization package that generally comes up for renewal every five or six years.