Eco-Jesuit

After having published the encyclical Laudato si’, Pope Francis is showing that his concerns for the “common home” are not isolated thoughts, but a main stream in his pontificate, placing the environment at the same level as that of poverty in the “moral agenda” of the Catholic Church.

The visit to the United States has been a new opportunity for Pope Francis to renew his ecological commitment and to look for connections with poverty alleviation, international negotiations or the very concept of justice. Pope Francis struggles to show caring for the planet is a way of doing justice both for humans and for nature. Continue reading Protecting the right of the environment and putting an end to social exclusion are inseparable, Pope Francis →

New Internationalist

The Paris climate talks are looming. What – if anything – can we hope for? Jess Worth and Danny Chivers investigate.

At the end of September, something Earth-shaking happened. After 10 years and $7 billion, Shell abandoned its plans to drill in the Alaskan Arctic.

Shell’s U-turn wasn’t driven by government action or international climate agreements. It was years of public protest, direct action, online organizing and legal challenges – particularly by Indigenous communities – that delayed the project and ratcheted up the costs.

Add the global oil price slump and the technical difficulties of Arctic operations, and suddenly the entire project hinged on the success of a few months’ drilling. When that failed, Shell was done. In one swoop, the campaign to save the Arctic has succeeded in keeping more fossil fuel in the ground than 23 years of international climate negotiations.

Listening to the mainstream media, you might be tempted to believe that this is all about to change at the Paris climate talks, and that a ‘good deal’ on climate is finally within grasp. Continue reading Forget Paris? →

InterPress Service

By Manipadma Jena

ANKARA, Turkey, Nov 5 2015 (IPS) – Some 135 million people could be displaced by 2045 as a result of land desertification, according to a recent UK ministry of defense report. This figure could rise to 200 million who are displaced by other climate change impacts like natural disasters by 2050, said British environment refugee specialist Norman Myers.

These could have been little more than debatable numbers until Syria’s civil war refugees rose exponentially to over 4 million, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, in a span of a little over 24 months, with more than 7.6 million internally displaced, together accounting for half of Syria’s population. As much distress and unrest that these figures have caused, they pale in comparison to the number of displaced that will likely occur due to desertification and climate change. Continue reading Urgently Needed: Studies Linking Land Degradation, Migration, Conflict and Political Instability →

Common Dreams

“The Clean Energy Future represents a pathway away from climate destruction…. Should we let greed and inertia prevent us from taking it?’

The U.S. can reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050, while creating half a million jobs a year and lowering energy costs for consumers, simply by limiting use of fossil fuels and allowing the renewable sector continue to grow at its current pace, according to a new report published this week.

The report, The Clean Energy Future: Protecting the Climate, Creating Jobs and Saving Money (pdf), refutes claims that meeting the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions would take a toll on the economy and introduces an energy platform that would:
• Transform the electric system, cutting coal-fired power in half by 2030 and eliminating it by 2050; building no new nuclear plants; and reducing the use of natural gas far below business-as-usual levels. Continue reading Renewable s Can Create Jobs and Heal the Planet: Report →