environment
Pope warns climate change turning Earth into desert, garbage
By Nicole Winfield — July 9, 2018
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Francis urged governments to honor their Paris commitments and said institutions like the IMF and World Bank had important roles to play in encouraging reforms promoting sustainable development.
In the US, Muslims are making slow inroads toward a greener Ramadan
By Aysha Khan — May 22, 2018
(RNS) — Stunning amounts of food waste produced in Muslim-majority nations during the holy month have led to a gradual awakening about Muslims’ responsibilities to the environment. Now, U.S. Muslims hope to lead their communities toward a zero-waste Ramadan – or at least a minimal-waste one.
How smaller congregations are challenging the system to ‘go solar’
By Yonat Shimron — May 17, 2018
GREENSBORO, N.C. (RNS) — Smaller, African-American churches are convinced of the moral obligations of switching to renewable energy sources, but the speed with which they take on solar panels has much to do with economics and state regulations.
Earth Days past and present
By Richard Mouw — April 19, 2018
(RNS) — If I had to choose a Bible verse for a sermon I would give on Earth Day this year, it would be Psalm 24, verse 1: 'The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.' And I would encourage our taking an inventory of what is happening in 'the fullness thereof.'
Cultivating the connection between soil and the soul with ‘FaithLands’
By Kimberly Winston — April 10, 2018
PAICINES, Calif. (RNS) — When 40 faith-based farmers gathered for a first-of-its-kind weekend at a working ranch near San Jose, they sought nothing less than a complete disruption of how food is grown, distributed and even served.
The last male rhino of its kind dies. African religious leaders call it a spiritual loss.
By Lauren Markoe — March 21, 2018
(RNS) — 'We believe God cannot commission the death of species that he had brought to life,' said the Rev. Charles Odira, a Kenyan Roman Catholic priest and conservationist.
Trump’s environmental good news
By Mark Silk — February 6, 2018
Good riddance to Kathleen Hartnett White: she celebrated fossil fuels like anti-abolitionists once praised slavery.
Trump drastically cuts national monument sacred to Native Americans
By Emily McFarlan Miller — December 4, 2017
(RNS) — The president's move on Monday (Dec. 4) would shrink by 85 percent Utah's Bears Ears National Monument, which is considered sacred by a number of Native American tribes.
Faith leaders must stop acting as if there’s no preventing natural disasters
By Amy Butler — November 3, 2017
(RNS) — As faith leaders, we believe it’s time we stopped pretending and summoned our great generosity of spirit and incalculable ingenuity to address the ongoing disaster that is causing all our other disasters: climate change.
Pope and Orthodox Christian leader issue unprecedented appeal for the environment
By Christopher Lamb — September 1, 2017
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — 'Our attitude and behaviour towards creation obscures our calling as God’s co-operators,' wrote Pope Francis and Orthodox Christian leader Patriarch Bartholomew.
Pope asks world leaders to listen to ‘cry of the Earth’
By Yonat Shimron — August 30, 2017
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Francis made the appeal Wednesday (Aug. 30) in announcing that he and the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, Patriarch Bartholomew I, would be releasing a joint statement on care for God's creation on Friday.
Religious and indigenous leaders seek to save rainforests
By Josephine McKenna — June 19, 2017
ROME (RNS) Inspired by Pope Francis' 2015 "Laudato Si'" encyclical, clergy from Catholic, Protestant Jewish, Buddhist and other faiths joined indigenous leaders from Brazil, Peru, Indonesia, Colombia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to call for urgent action to protect the forests.
Pope tells Merkel to keep pressing for international cooperation
By Balazs Koranyi — June 17, 2017
(Reuters) 'The pope encouraged me to continue and fight for international agreements, including the Paris agreement,' Merkel said after an unusually long private audience with him.
Holocaust, climate change — when did we know, what did we do?
By Jeffrey Salkin — April 20, 2017
Climate change. Future generations will ask: When did we know? And what did we do about it?
Vatican says Trump risks losing climate change leadership to China
By David Gibson — March 30, 2017
ROME (Reuters) Pope Francis has made defense of the environment a key plank of his papacy, strongly backing scientific opinion that global warming is caused mostly by human activity.
