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Ecology
Country's debate over Keystone XL pipeline is far from over
Jan. 27, 2012
The Keystone XL pipeline is pictured under construction in North Dakota. (CNS photo/TransCanada Corporation handout photo via Reuters)
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's decision to deny a permit for the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline to carry Canadian crude oil to Gulf Coast refineries should have surprised no one, not even the project's staunchest supporters.
The president promised he would nix the permit after Congress inserted a deadline for his decision in the bill extending the middle class tax cut passed just before Christmas. In denying the permit, Obama said it was not because the project wasn't needed but rather that the 60 days he was given to make up his mind was far too short to complete a second environmental review of the pipeline route, including a 92-mile stretch through the ecologically sensitive Nebraska Sandhills.
The first review by the State Department was called into question when the Environmental Protection Agency cited several shortcomings in the findings and critics of the process complained that officials rammed approval through with little consideration for environmental concerns.
The moral measure of climate crisis
Dec. 28, 2011Our Catholic institutions have always provided excellent elementary, secondary and college educations. We nurture our children’s spirits with prayer and good catechesis. We hope they will acquire a conscience for social justice while deepening their ecological awareness. Catholics have always had an admirable future focus. We need that focus on the future of our children now more than ever.
Catholics welcome climate fund
Dec. 19, 2011The last time the world turned its eyes to South Africa, the Netherlands and Spain required extra time to settle the 2010 FIFA World Cup championship.
A year later, extra time was needed once more in the African nation, as delegates to the United Nations’ climate conference in Durban worked an extra day and a half to finalize a new international climate road map to lower carbon emissions and aid poor countries’ response to climate change.
Catholics join hundreds in arrests over oil pipeline
Aug. 31, 2011
Rose Berger, a Catholic who is associate editor at Sojourners magazine, bows to her colleagues before being arrested during an Aug. 30 protest in front of the White House in Washington against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. (CNS photo/Rick Reinhard)
WASHINGTON -- Maryknoll Father Jim Noonan hopes the five or so hours he spent in jail recently will be noticed by President Barack Obama.
A staff associate in the Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns, Father Noonan, 77, was among 65 people arrested Aug. 20 during the first day of a planned two-week protest to call attention to the environmental dangers he believes are posed by a proposed 1,711-mile pipeline to carry Canadian crude oil to refineries in Oklahoma and Texas.
Healing the split between spirit and nature
Jun. 06, 2011
(Dreamstime)
Earth and Spirit
Federico Fellini’s beautiful 1963 film “8 1/2” is an autobiographical story about a director, Guido, played by Marcello Mastroianni, who is trying to complete his new film. As he tries to escape pressures by entering a fantasy world, incidents in the film repeatedly link to childhood memories, showing how his Catholic upbringing shaped his life.
One scene involves an odd incantation. At a party, a magician performs with a clairvoyant who demonstrates her ability to read people’s thoughts. A skeptical Guido agrees to be a subject. The clairvoyant studies his face and then writes the words “ASA NISI MASA” on a blackboard. Fellini then cuts to a brief flashback of Guido’s childhood. “Asa Nisi Masa” is a bedtime chant the children would say, a phrase with the power to make the eyes of a wall portrait come to life.
A sea microbe humbles scientists and inspires reverence
May. 01, 2011
Prochlorococcus
Earth and Spirit
Meet the oceans’ Prochlorococcus -- the most important microbe you’ve never heard of. It’s given us a new understanding of how the Earth works creatively and cooperatively.
It’s one of the microorganisms that inhabit the well-lit upper waters of the planet’s seas and emit gas or gaseous compounds. One algae, Emiliana huxleyi, for example, emits dimethyl sulfide, which contributes to what we call the smell of the sea.
Sierra Club warns: 'Biggest assault on the EPA in history'
Feb. 22, 2011
Carl Pope (Image courtesy of the Sierra Club)
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has emerged as a punching bag for members of the Republican-led House of Representatives. The House wants to slash the agency’s budget and some conservative lawmakers even want to abolish it.
The politicians and some businesses say environmental regulation is stifling the country’s economy. Ngoc Nguyen with New America Media recently interviewed Carl Pope, executive chairman of the Sierra Club, about what’s behind the attack on the EPA. Following is their conversation.
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NAM: What’s happening with current efforts to undermine the EPA that people should be aware of?
Pope: The big picture is, during the eight years of the [George W.] Bush administration, it effectively suspended enforcement of the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. [The administration] stopped enforcing them and tried to basically repeal them to rewrite the rules in a way that wouldn’t do what Congress intended. The courts without exception rejected the efforts by the Bush administration.
Vatican has not endorsed genetically modified food
Dec. 02, 2010VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican did not endorse an 11-page final statement in favor of easing restrictions on and allowing more widespread use of genetically modified crops, especially in poorer nations, said a Vatican official.
"The statement is not a statement of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences because the Pontifical Academy of Sciences as such -- 80 members -- wasn't consulted about it and will not be consulted about it," Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, the academy's chancellor, told Catholic News Service.
Sustainability, justice on the borderland
Dec. 02, 2010
Santuario Sisterfarm is a nonprofit organization founded in 2002 by Dominican Sisters of Adrian and Latinas of the Texas-Mexico Borderlands.
Located in the Texas hill country and rooted in the rich multicultural legacy of the Borderlands, Santuario Sisterfarm is dedicated to cultivating biodiversity and cultural diversity -- and living in right relationship with the whole Earth community.
British Catholic aid agency urges world leaders to help farmers
Nov. 10, 2010LONDON -- A British Catholic aid agency is calling on leaders of the Group of 20 to combat poverty by helping small businesses and small farmers in developing countries.
The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development released a briefing paper Nov. 9 ahead of the Nov. 11-12 summit in Seoul, South Korea, of the G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors.
CAFOD, aid agency of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, is hoping to persuade wealthy nations to "think big and act small" in prioritizing the needs of small businesses at a meeting dedicated to the global financial system and world economy.
"The economic crisis is affecting everyone across the world, but it is affecting the poorest the worst," CAFOD Director Chris Bain said in a Nov. 9 statement.
"Even in the most prosperous times, there are millions who live on the margins of existence, finding it difficult to feed themselves," he said. "These men, women and children are being pushed deeper into extreme poverty by the recession, which ripples out even into the most isolated communities.
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