For most of its life, the reef was the world’s largest living structure, and the only one visible from space. It was 1,400 miles long, with 2,900 individual reefs and 1,050 islands. In total area, it was larger than the United Kingdom, and it contained more biodiversity than all of Europe combined. It harbored 1,625 Read more
In the North this summer, a devastating offensive is underway. Enemy forces have seized huge swaths of territory; with each passing week, another 22,000 square miles of Arctic ice disappears. Experts dispatched to the battlefield in July saw little cause for hope, especially since this siege is one of the oldest fronts in the war. Read more
The Polynesian Leaders Group, made up of eight countries, have adopted a declaration calling for international recognition of their countries’ vulnerability to climate change. The Polynesia Against Climate Threats declaration calls for a joint effort to protect the ocean and the environment, and will be taken to world leaders at a major climate change conference Read more
In a new encyclical, Pope Francis has acknowledged “very solid scientific consensus” that humans are causing climate change that is endangering the planet. In Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home, released on June 18, Francis urged the world to embark upon a revolutionary ethical rethink and change of heart in its relationship with Read more
Pope Francis expressed in a message at the major U.N. climate change summit in Peru this week that the consequences of environmental change represent a “serious ethical and moral responsibility,” and warned that the time for action is running out. Francis warned Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, Minister of the Environment of Peru and President-Designate of the conference, Read more
The government of Kiribati has paid the Anglican church Fiji $15.3 million [US$8 million] for 5400 acres of land located on Vanua Levu in Fiji. It is part of a 5700 acre piece of land given to the church by a Mr Campbell. The Anglican Archbishop of Polynesia, Winston Halapua, said the church has kept Read more
The Vatican’s Secretary of State has made an impassioned appeal to the international community to tackle global warming. Cardinal Pietro Parolin sent a message to a UN summit on climate change, which was delivered by the Holy See’s Permanent Observer at the United Nations, Archbishop Francis Chullikatt. The archbishop said that the evidence for global Read more
For some time there has been speculation that a Trust associated with the Anglican Church is selling a large block of land at Natoavatu near Savusavu on Vanua Levu, Fiji to the Government of Kiribati. But an Anglican Church spokesman Jason Rhodes, speaking in Auckland said “The best I can establish is that there has Read more
Thanks to extensive research and noticeable changes in weather and storm prevalence, it’s getting harder to turn a blind eye to the reality of climate change. Since the Industrial Age spurred the increasing usage of fossil fuels for energy production, the weather has been warming slowly. In fact, since 1880, the temperature of the earth has Read more
ESSCNews shares this article written by Pedro Walpole after he returned from the Earth Summit. Originally published in Intersect magazine in September 1992, the observations that Pedro wrote about 20 years ago eerily remain the same 20 years after in Rio+20. Last June, over 100 governments gathered at the United Nations Conference on the Environment Read more