EarthBeat Weekly

EarthBeat Weekly: Pope Francis' encyclical reminds us our call to care for creation has just as much to do with our relationships with each other, other creatures and God as it does with sustainability.

EarthBeat Weekly: NASA and NOAA released their annual reports on global warming, finding 2021 the sixth warmest year on record. But is anyone paying attention?

EarthBeat Weekly: A story this week about a small town's fight for a say in a proposed solar farm shows that issues of environmental justice and racism aren't confined to fossil fuels and chemical plants.

EarthBeat Weekly: We look through the top news of 2021, including the reports and opinions that readers read the most.

EarthBeat Weekly: Senate Democrats' dreams of passing before Christmas the Build Back Better Act, and its half trillion-dollar investments this decade in climate initiatives, appear poised to extend into next year.

From 'climate crisis' to 'climate migrants,' the language used to talk about climate change shapes attitudes and public policies.

The U.S. generates more than 280 pounds of plastic waste per person annually, and some of that reaches the ocean. A new government-funded study calls for greater efforts to tackle that.

EarthBeat Weekly: Thanksgiving isn't the only national holiday this week, and we're revisiting recent EarthBeat coverage about Native Americans on this day to celebrate their heritage and contributions to the country.

Amazonian Indigenous leaders are waiting to see whether promises made at COP26 will be empty words — and whether their territorial rights will be respected.

The outcomes of this climate conference must spur people of faith toward the ecological conversion of which Pope Francis speaks.

Keeping the pledge to stop deforestation in this decade will mean facing up to powerful economic interests, corruption and organized crime and respecting Indigenous territorial rights.

Pope Francis' message of care for environment, defense of Indigenous people's rights is more urgent than ever on eve of COP26.

EarthBeat Weekly: Global public opinion is skeptical that when leaders gather in Glasgow they'll do anything to seriously address the major challenge of climate change.

If prices of goods and services included their real environmental and social costs, would that turn our 'throwaway culture' into one that reduces, reuses and repairs?

The miniscule grains of Sahara sand have an outsize impact on the planet.

A new study shows that children born in 2020 and beyond — especially in low-income countries — will experience far more extreme weather than their parents or grandparents

As November U.N. climate conference approaches, the world's nations remain far from the commitments needed to stave off the worst impacts of climate change.

Some people suffer through drought while others risk their lives to defend forests and rivers — a reminder that things like water can't be taken for granted.

In joint message, Pope Francis, Patriarch Bartholomew and the archbishop of Canterbury say we must act individually and as churches, communities and nations.

As Season of Creation begins, wildfires and severe storms point to the urgency of stopping the global temperature rise while planning for increasing impacts of extreme weather.  

The Season of Creation offers us a chance to reflect and act to restore our relationship with our common home.

From fossil fuel pipelines that cross lands sacred to Indigenous peoples to low-income neighborhoods and communities of color battered by flooding, inequities become starker in a warming world.

The greatest changes are needed in countries that consume the most, and religious leaders say faith communities have a key role to play.

Although renewable energy use is increasing, scientists say the world's countries must take stronger action more quickly to stave off the worst impacts of global warming.

The COVID-19 pandemic and weather-related disasters underscore our interconnectedness and the need for a different relationship with creation.

In many parts of the Amazon, lay leaders weave the fabric of Catholic communities together.

If we start seeing plants and animals as 'gente,' would that change the way we use the bounty of the natural world?

If it's summer, it probably means gas prices are on the rise along with the temperatures. And how consumers respond can have consequences for government action on climate change.

The week's unprecedented high temperatures coincided with climate protests and underscored the urgency of strengthening infrastructure to withstand extreme weather.

Everyday decisions about changing lifestyles, combined with community efforts, add up when it comes to caring for our common home.

Goldman Environmental Prize winner Liz Chicaje Churay says communities are committed to protecting the forest, but the pandemic has put many of their plans on hold.

Infrastructure was in the spotlight this week, as faith leaders rallied to support Biden's American Jobs Plan and a clean energy standard and joined protests against Enbridge Line 3 oil pipeline.

Activist shareholders sent a strong message, but much remains to be done to bring about a shift to a greener economy.

Turning off video during virtual meetings and streaming at lower resolutions can help dial back the internet's growing use of energy, water and land.

Rising calls for divestment coincide with a groundbreaking report that states an immediate ban on new coal, oil and gas development is required to meet the Paris climate accord targets.

Laudato Si' Week is an invitation to personal ecological conversion, but especially to a commitment to change as communities and as a society.

The relationship between nature's ability to regenerate and countries' purchasing power is largely ignored in economics textbooks and debates about development, researchers say.

Although more than half of U.S. adults think climate change should be addressed "right now," it still ranks behind the economy, the pandemic and immigration as a priority, a new poll finds.

Escazú Agreement also requires countries to provide people with information about environmental matters and ensure that they can participate in decisions.

'It is imperative that we don't go back to the systems that brought us here,' Tucson's Catholic mayor tells students.

A group of researchers urges scientists, policymakers and the rest of us to talk realistically about the environmental challenges we face — and the consequences if we continue to avoid them.

The goal of clean, affordable energy for all by 2030 is likely to remain elusive without a sharp shift in investment and subsidies from fossil fuels to renewable sources.

Although oceans play a crucial role in driving weather and regulating the global climate, we know less about them than we do about outer space.

As governments focus on the pandemic, illegal logging, gold mining and drug trafficking make inroads, with lethal consequences.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed profound inequities that have persisted for generations and increase vulnerability to climate change.

Around the world, women stand up for the right to a clean and safe environment, often at risk to their own lives.

Johnson is known for her relentless battle against the evil that surrounded her neighborhood in the form of toxic dumps, lead paint and other pollution that sickened her neighbors and shortened their lives.

We are paying the price for ignoring warnings and failing to take steps to detect and protect against a pandemic virus and to winterize and modernize the country's electricity-generating equipment.

Reducing the Amazon Synod to married priests and women deacons ignores the lessons the U.S. church should learn from Amazonia.

Defending the environment is a matter of life or death for Indigenous people, traditional communities, small farmers, fisherfolk and others whose lives depend on healthy ecosystems.

In U.N. survey, 1.2 million people from 50 countries show strong support for policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Undoing the last administration's rollbacks of environmental regulations won't be easy — and will fall short of the action needed now.

Worldwide, opposition to pipelines, especially those crossing Indigenous territories, raises issues that are not just political and legal, but also cultural and spiritual.

Human rights organizations worldwide have noted an increase in recent years in criminalization, or prosecution, of people involved in environmental protests.

Reader survey responses will help shape this year's climate coverage.

Rainforest, coronavirus pandemic are setting for Christ Child's birth.

 

If confirmed, Native American woman and Black man will make history in Interior, EPA

Although their territories are important for protecting forests, Indigenous leaders say they remain on  sidelines of climate negotiations

By learning more about the place where we live, our bioregion, we can deepen our love for it

Advent reflection series invites us to live more gently on the Earth

Illegal and unregulated mining worldwide is linked to organized crime, violence, and environmental and social problems

As the planet warms, billions of people will be left outside of the most habitable geographic areas

 

Although the presidential election is crucial for climate,  many decisions about renewable energy, efficiency standards and public transportation are made at the state or local level.

Publication puts spotlight on climate crisis, environmental justice and faith

Region struggles with flooding, plague of locusts, coronavirus pandemic and 'economic meltdown'

Electricity generation and food account for nearly half of greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans

One year after the start of the Synod for the Amazon, the coronavirus pandemic heightens threats to indigenous peoples

 

As the Season of Creation closes, we take stock of our relationship with all of our fellow travelers on this planet, human and non-human alike

Even first-time voters, at 18, have seen dramatic effects of climate change in their lifetimes

 

Climate change is not "belief," but fact, and our values should shape our response

The pope's embrace of St. Francis' ecological ethic is part of a long history in the Latin American church

 

In cities and rural areas worldwide, the lives of many people — especially women and children — revolve around fetching water, but often that water is not safe to drink.

Partisan differences were on display at the Democratic and Republican conventions, but climate change doesn't play politics.

 

If we need another reminder of what a warmer future could mean for the world, we have only to look out West, where California appears to be heading for another fierce fire season.

As the coronavirus pandemic wreaks havoc in the Americas, original peoples — especially semi-nomadic groups — face the greatest risk, from both disease and illegal invasion of their lands.

Extreme weather, the coronavirus pandemic and pollution around seaports disproportionately affect on people of color.

Franciscan Sisters give NCR $1.5 million to help endow EarthBeat and "wake up the world;" Barbara Fraser named NCR climate editor

COVID-19 has reduced both our reliance on cars and the pollution they spew. But what comes next?

Extreme weather made more so by climate change aggravates the impact of coronavirus, especially for the poor.

A gathering of NCR members recalls some words to live by for journalists: Our readers know more than we do.

As much as most Americans want the government to do more to address the climate crisis, significant change in public policy remains stalled. What are our options? 

For the most part, the news about the climate crisis is not good.  But the Tracker updates you on what people of faith are doing about it.

The Vatican is talking increasingly about divestment as a recommended strategy for Catholic institutions.  

EarthBeat Weekly: The cry of "I can't breathe" should never be heard again, whether because of racist actions or unhealthy air, water and land, religious leaders say.

How Laudato Si' relates to a world in which one human kills another with a knee on the neck

You've been meaning to read Laudato Si' but haven't yet? Here's your chance.

EarthBeat Weekly: The G.O.P. wants people to focus on what climate action would cost. Climate advocates should emphasize all there is to gain.

Pulitzer recognition for stories about California sea rise, the impact of climate change on Cape Cod, a mine in need of stopping in Minnesota, the Trump Administration's war on science and, in case you know someone who still has doubts, how we know global warming is real

EarthBeat Weekly: Concerns about spreading the coronavirus has led restaurants and grocery stores to turn to disposable items over reusable alternatives.

Not only were Earth Day activities unlike any over the past half century. So was the coverage. 

What people are saying -- and doing -- 50 years after Earth Day first sounded the alarm about the climate crisis

What will result from the brighter skies showing up in previously polluted regions?

Staff writer Jesse Remedios considers the obstacles the climate movement will face as it shifts online. 

Looking for environmental films or documentaries to watch while social distancing? We have some options.

Looking for encouraging signs in our dual global crises

Our current turmoil makes the case that we really can take sweeping, difficult action as a community to address a lethal threat.

There's a lot to be learned from slowing down and savoring every bite.

March 9 is the application deadline for training to equip you as a local leader linking your faith and concern for the Earth.

Sign up now for EarthBeat's daily Lenten reflections created in collaboration with the Ignatian Solidarity Network.

An hour well spent: Reading the 14,000 words of the pope's follow up to the Amazon Synod

How should climate change figure in a Catholic voter's selection of a presidential candidate to support?

Reporter Brittany Wilmes and illustrator Heather Schieder discuss how they approached their research and what surprised them along the way. 

How is it that a 17-year-old young woman has been able to galvanize millions of climate activists when so many of her elders have fallen short?

If only we responded to the scientific probabilities of climate change in the same way we react to the odds presented in medical diagnoses, the planet would have a much healthier future.

This is the newsletter from NCR's special section on care for our common home, EarthBeat.

Four predictions suggesting a better decade ahead for the planet

In the Galápagos, reflecting on Laudato Si' and anthropocentrism

In a busy week for the Swedish teen climate activist, what she likely hoped people paid the most attention was her COP 25 speech. And not just the buzzy parts.