IF YOU WANT TO CULTIVATE PEACE, PROTECT CREATION – Pope Benedict XVI

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE WORLD DAY OF PEACE
Vatican Website
1 JANUARY 2010
IF YOU WANT TO CULTIVATE PEACE, PROTECT CREATION
1. At the beginning of this New Year, I wish to offer heartfelt greetings of peace to all Christian communities, international leaders, and people of good will throughout the world. [...]

What is at stake in Copenhagen

Leonardo Boff
Theologian
Earthcharter Commission
Leonardo Boff
(Spanish version follows English)
Representatives of 192 nations face something irreversible in Copenhagen: the Earth has already warmed excessively, due to our manner of production, of consumption and of treating nature. We can only adapt ourselves to the changes and mitigate their perverse effects.

A lake lies on its deathbed

Daily Nation
By WANJIRU MACHARIA

Drought and human activity join forces to drain off 85 per cent of  Lake Elementaita
The short rains that pounded the larger Nakuru District for a few days in August, September and November were greeted with a sigh of relief.
For a while, residents and tourists marvelled at the replenished Lake Elementaita that had [...]

Patching up after Copenhagen leak

guardian.co.uk
Danish officials may play down a document implying a stitch-up between rich nations. But their impartiality as hosts looks shaky

The Guardian’s publication of a leaked Danish government paper has made headlines on the pages of Danish newspapers. It has also provoked sharp reactions from Danish and international environmental NGOs. Kim Carstensen, the leader of WWF’s [...]

Copenhagen Climate Summit in Disarray after ‘Danish Text’ Leak

Developing countries react furiously to leaked draft agreement that would hand more power to rich nations, sideline the UN’s negotiating role and abandon the Kyoto protocol
by John Vidal in Copenhagen
The Guardian
The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that show world leaders will next week be [...]

Tree Plantations Are Not Forests, Women Activists Say

By Marcela Valente

Brazilian women rally against deforestation. Credit:Courtesy of WRM Uruguay

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 1 (IPS) – Touted as “harvested forests,” single-crop tree plantations are fast encroaching on the native forests and grasslands of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, affecting the environment and the lives of local communities, rural women say.

Witness in Stang land case released from hospital

WKYC.com
SAO PAULO — Authorities in Brazil say a hospital has released a witness who was shot after being summoned to testify in a case related to the 2005 death of American Amazon defender Dorothy Stang.
A spokesman for the Para state public safety department says Roniery Lopes will be able to testify in a case involving [...]

Church challenged to broaden its moral scope

By: Ellen Teague
The Catholic Church has been urged “to get away from being a church primarily involved in sexual morality” by Baroness Shirley Williams of Crosby. Speaking to an audience of around 1,000 supporters at CAFOD’s annual Pope Paul VI Memorial Lecture in London on 27 November, she called for church leaders nationally and regionally [...]

Climate ‘is a major cause’ of conflict in Africa

BBC
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
Climate has been a major driver of armed conflict in Africa, research shows – and future warming is likely to increase the number of deaths from war.
US researchers found that across the continent, conflict was about 50% more likely in unusually warm years.
Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy [...]

Report Details ‘Coal’s Assault on Human Health’

The Chraleston Gazette
by Ken Ward Jr.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Coal pollution is assaulting human health through impacts on workers, residents near mining operations and power plants, and the environment in coalfield communities, according to a new report by a group of physicians.
The report by Physicians for Social Responsibility examined coal’s impacts on major organ systems of [...]