When you stop and think about it, the humble plastic bag is a remarkable triumph of technology. It costs a couple of cents to make, holds a thousand times its own weight, is waterproof, surprisingly durable, and 100 per cent recyclable. After carrying your groceries home, it might hold feijoas off the tree, your togs Read more
A Wellington op shop is taking the classic “reduce, reuse and recycle” message one step further in an effort to bring its textile waste down to zero. Caroline O’Reilly, the new textile recycling coordinator at St Vincent de Paul in Kilbirnie, is helping reduce the amount of waste the store sends to landfill by repurposing Read more
The archbishop of Suva, Peter Loy Chong, says Fiji and other indigenous faith communities have what the world needs – a pathway for connectedness. In his opinion piece in the Fiji Times, he said Fiji has the language to move people to heal the crisis in creation. Chong said the myth of economic development causes widespread impoverishment, Read more
Urgent action is needed to heal our wounded creation, Pope Francis and the world’s Orthodox Christian spiritual leader, Patriarch Bartholomew I said in a joint appeal to the world last Friday. Both Catholic and Orthodox churches marked Friday as a day of prayer for God’s creation. The two spiritual leaders say the world’s state of Read more
The heads of the Catholic and Orthodox churches will publish a joint message later today about caring for creation. Pope Francis says he and “our dear brother Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople” prepared the message together to mark the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. Francis says their message invites everyone to Read more
Two Catholic Worker activists with a history of arrests for political dissent are claiming responsibility for repeatedly damaging the Dakota Access Pipeline They could face years in jail for their actions. “We chose to take these actions after seeing the continued desecration of the Earth, which we are to be stewards of,” the activists say. Read more
Controversy over a gas pipeline’s proposed route through Pennsylvania has reached a new impasse in the form of a community of nuns and their chapel. The Adorers of the Blood of Christ, who own a strip of the land earmarked for the pipeline, have considered it “sacred ground” for nearly a century. Believing the pipeline Read more
The Global Catholic Climate Movement aims to persuade a million Catholics to pledge their support for Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si. Signatories agree to pray with and for creation, live more simply and to advocate to protect the environment – our common home. Francis has given the “Laudato Si‘ Pledge Campaign” his Read more
The Catholic Church has a rich history of being environment conscious. Blessed Pope Paul VI wrote Octogesima Adveniens, a 1971 apostolic letter that warned against the consequences of unchecked human actions. “Due to an ill-considered exploitation of nature, humanity runs the risk of destroying it and becoming in turn a victim of this degradation,” he wrote. In Read more
Silicon Valley may not be where you’d expect to find a group of investors keen to protect the environment. That’s just where Pope Francis has found them, though. The Laudato Si Startup Challenge, launched earlier this year, offers money and mentorship to entrepreneurs working to make the world a better place. Read more