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The climate is changing,
a matter of moral urgency.

How Catholics and other faith groups speak out and take action. Where ecological concerns and moral conviction meet, well that's our beat.

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Pope Francis joins others in holding a banner during an audience at the Vatican June 5, 2023, with the organizers of the Green & Blue Festival. The banner calls for financing a "loss and damage" fund that was agreed upon at the COP27 U.N. climate conference in 2022. The fund would seek to provide financial assistance to nations most vulnerable and impacted by the effects of climate change. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Faith

Pope Francis' new environmental exhortation to be released on Oct. 4

Pope Francis will release a follow-up document on the environment on Oct. 4, providing an update to his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si', On Care for Our Common Home" — a landmark letter that offered a rallying cry for global action in the fight against climate change. 

 

Smoke and flames rise in Lahaina, Hawaii, on the island of Maui Aug. 8, 2023 in this still image from video obtained from social media. (OSV News/Reuters/TMX/Jeff Melichar)
Science

Catholics appeal for help as Biden declares Maui's deadly fires a federal emergency

Maui County officials confirmed late Aug. 9 that at least 36 people have died and dozens more were injured; by the evening of Aug. 10, the death toll had risen to at least 53, according to Hawaii Gov. Josh Green. About 11,000 others have evacuated as wildfires burned the historic town of Lahaina "to the ground," as numerous news outlets reported. More than 271 structures were damaged or destroyed.

A pedestrian walks past the haze-shrouded New York Stock Exchange building in New York City June 7. Smoke from intense Canadian wildfires severely affected air quality in the Northeastern United States in early June. (AP/J. David Ake)
Politics

Republican anti-ESG push complicates faith-based impact investing

Reports have traced funding for the blitz against ESG —  investment practices based on environmental, social and governance criteria — to the fossil fuel industry as well as right-wing and libertarian groups.

The Colorado River cuts through Black Canyon June 6, 2023, near White Hills, Arizona. (AP photo/Matt York)
Justice

US waterways polluted with injustice, bishops say in Season of Creation message

Archbishop Borys Gudziak and Bishop David Malloy, chairs of the domestic and international justice and peace committees for the U.S. bishops' conference, urged ecological conversion both in personal lifestyles and public policy around environmental justice and climate change.

France tests a nuclear weapon in French Polynesia on July 3, 1970. (Flickr/The Official CTBTO Photostream)

Anti-nuclear movement is international, intergenerational, more urgent than ever

In 1972, my Australian students protested French nuclear testing. In 2023, young people again may be able to stir up action to pressure an end to nuclear madness that endangers people and planet.

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Feature Series

Laudato Si' Action Platform

The Laudato Si' Action Platform is a multi-year effort supported by the Vatican that aims to move the church toward better embracing and acting upon Catholic social teaching on care for creation and integral ecology.

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Recipes for an ecofriendly Lent

EarthBeat is cooking up "Recipes for an eco-friendly Lent." Elizabeth Varga of the blog "At Elizabeth's Table" shares plant-based recipes that are perfect for Catholics abstaining from meat on Fridays ... or any day of the year.

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Small Earth Stories

In 100-500 words, readers share specific ways they're living simply, resisting throwaway culture or responding to climate change in day-to-day life. Want to chime in? Submit your story to environment editor Stephanie Clary at sclary@ncronline.org.

 

 

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Burning Questions logo Burning Questions

protest

What is loss and damage?

One of the key points being debated at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt is loss and damage from the impacts of climate change. The latest EarthBeat "Burning Question" explores what it is, what you should know and what the Catholic Church has said about it.

São Paulo Zoo, Brazil (Wikimedia Commons/Mike Peel, www.mikepeel.net)

Why is Francis of Assisi the patron saint of ecology?

Brian Roewe

What is the Season of Creation?

Brian Roewe

What does the Democrats' climate plan have to say about environmental justice?

Jesse Remedios

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