![](/files/styles/author_page_bio_photo_220x220_/public/authors/Jon%20Magnuson%20CROP.jpg?itok=aqiE30Vs)
Search
In Australia's burning forests, signs we've passed a global warming tipping point
… habitats. Water flows and vegetation will change, and carbon emissions will rise as burning trees release carbon and fewer living trees are left to pull CO2 out of the air and store it. In many ways, it's the definition of a … transport systems, essentially choking them to death. Warming also increases outbreaks of tree-killing insects. And logging, as well as land-clearing fires in the Amazon are threatening …
A day for environmentalist Judaism
… The Mishnah (the original portion of the Talmud) calls Tu B'Shvat the New Year of the Trees, and because of that, the holiday in modern times morphed into a Jewish Arbor Day dedicated especially to planting trees in Israel. Over the past few decades, Jewish environmentalists have combined the mystics' …
Blood kinship
… the end, David’s lieutenant, Joab, kills Absalom when his hair is caught in the branches of a tree as he flees on the mule. When word reaches him, David is inconsolable. The violence he has …
'Never again' rings hollow amid today's anti-Semitism
… witnesses, you can bet that Holocaust denial will only grow, and a new branch of the evil tree of anti-Semitism will bear new poisonous fruit. The motto "never again" is in the headlines …
As climate change worsens, so does our grief and distress
… that an estimated 350 species are going extinct every day. "We are breaking twigs off of the tree of life," she told me. The Australian fires may have lopped off several branches. Johnson's …
Pope, Pence meet at the Vatican
… national security adviser. Pence then presented the pope with a wooden cross "made from a tree at the vice president's residence." "Every other vice president since Walter Mondale has …
Text and video of Greta Thunberg at World Economic Forum
… We are not telling you to “offset your emissions” by just paying someone else to plant trees in places like Africa while at the same time forests like the Amazon are being slaughtered at an infinitely higher rate. Planting trees is good, of course, but it’s nowhere near enough of what is needed and it cannot replace …
Bangladesh says once-submerged island ready for Rohingya
… system. We constructed raised concrete buildings that could be used as cyclone shelters. Many trees have been planted," he said. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has repeatedly told the U.N. and …
Take a trip to visit the other neighbors
… rabbi. Experience and learn about Jewish worship, culture and the Talmud. I hate cutting down trees, but could we have printed copies of Nostra Aetate at the end of every pew? 4. Journey to …
What are some ways parishes can acquire solar panels?
… for all parishes. Roof configurations, local historic district limitations and even tree coverage can stand in the way in some places. There are other ways to go green, though, such …
EarthBeat Weekly: Parish survey -- What are you doing to address climate change?
… their backyards. This New York Times analysis of the linkage of paper usage to the roles of trees in absorbing carbon got me thinking about Dawn Araujo-Hawkins’ Small Earth Story about her …
What I learned being silent with monks
… announcing itself with an invisible, eternal presence. I kept coming back to a particular tree, hundreds of feet tall, weathered branches like old gnarled limbs gesturing into the sky. Wind and time had stripped most of its bark so that the tree displayed large patches the color of pure snow. There was something haunting and beautiful in its bearing. I sensed the tree had something to teach me: a strange feeling. I'm an urban denizen who spends far too little …
Defending her village, consecrated woman lost everything but stopped a dam
… Now she's surrounded by cement in a metropolitan area of 5 million people, with barely a tree in sight. It's a hard life for this tiny woman, now 70, who stood in the way of a … her time between the city and her little brick house in the village, surrounded with fruit trees and flowers, and tried not hear when bulldozers began cutting through the hills. "The media …
Australian Catholics seek prayers as fires continue in four states
… 7. O'Dwyer, 36, and fellow firefighter Geoffrey Keaton, 32, were killed Dec. 19 when a fallen tree caused their tanker to roll as they fought fires south of Sydney. The Order of Malta …
EarthBeat Weekly: Stepping into the new year with hope -- and a question
… recounts how climate change got him closer to the world (on a bike). And if that Christmas tree hasn't come down yet, Brian Roewe has some tips for what to do with it . … Other …
Afghanistan: To some Catholic experts, the lies are no surprise
… effort was meant to accomplish. "With AfPak strategy there was a present under the Christmas tree for everyone," an official is quoted in the report. "By the time you were finished you had …
Let it snow, let it snow, let me see
… sliding-door window in my kitchen. I was smitten by its supernal beauty on the hill and on the trees in the backyard. Suddenly, a deer appeared, staring at me from no more than 10 yards away. … day. I was reminded of Robert Frost’s poem "Dust of Snow": The dust of snow From a hemlock tree Has given my heart A change of mood And saved some part Of a day I had rued Even when the …
Catholic agencies intervene in Zimbabwe climate change crisis
… on firewood for cooking and this has increased carbon emissions as well as overcutting down of trees" and land degradations, according to Caritas. Logging is a major practice worsening … towns in Zimbabwe need to put water conservation and management plans in place," she added. "Tree planting in urban areas will help reduce temperatures and help infiltration of water into …
What to do with your Christmas tree after the holidays?
… Brian Roewe … O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, How to dispose of your branches? Our latest Burning Question attempts to … Over the last 10 years, Americans have purchased an average of about 28 million real Christmas trees a year, according to a survey conducted for the National Christmas Tree Association, a tree …
Democratic candidate race still fluid, but any would be better than Trump
… thing this coming year: A new president. Santa can't wrap one and put him or her under the tree. The voters, not the elves, need to make some decisions. What is the state of the race? The …