News Items

The Forum regularly posts news articles of interest here from a variety of sources and news outlets. You can check back here or view the most recent ones from the homepage. We also archive these articles here, for those doing research, with news going back to 2006. Use the menu on the right to explore the archived articles.

News

Father James Martin: Why is climate change a moral issue?

March 29, 2017
By James Martin, S.J.
America Magazine: The Jesuit Review

Holy See calls for 'intergenerational solidarity' to deal with climate change

March 25, 2017
Independent Catholic News

The Holy See has called on the United Nations to promote “responsibility for those who come after us”, in the areas of climate change and justice for the poor. Archbishop Bernardito Auza’s words came in an address to a high-level discussion at the UN on “Climate Change and the Sustainable Development Agenda”.

Legal challenges await Keystone XL pipeline after Trump grants permit

March 24, 2017
By Brian Roewe
National Catholic Reporter

The Keystone XL transnational pipeline received a long-sought presidential permit Friday as the Trump administration granted a green light to the $8 billion Canadian tar sands oil project. But hurdles still remain before construction can begin — starting with route approval in Nebraska, and promises from opponents to...

A wall in their river: Flooded Ngæbe communities continue to fight dam

March 23, 2017
By Tracy L. Barnett
Global Sisters Report

Kiad, Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca, Panama - “Bulu Bagama is my positive name. Luis Jiménez, my negative one,” the Ngäbe elder began, standing on an expanse of cracked mud that covered what for generations was his family patrimony. A tumbledown shell of a house lay in ruins, and a few dead leaves clinging to one...

On World Water Day, African church leaders highlight shortages

March 22, 2017
By Fredrick Nzwili
Religion News Service

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) As she drives her family’s donkeys to a new borehole at the base of the Uuni Hills in eastern Kenya, Eunice Wambua says the water it provides is much cleaner than what she used to get from a dam several miles away.

“It was dirty water and we believed it colored our...

India court gives sacred Ganges and Yamuna rivers human status

March 21, 2017
BBC News

A court in northern Indian has given the Ganges and Yamuna rivers the status of “living human entities”.

The high court in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand said this would help in the “preservation and conservation” of the highly polluted rivers.

It added that the “legal status” ensures that polluting the rivers would now amount to harming a...

Ganges and Yamuna rivers granted same legal rights as human beings

March 21, 2017
By Michael Safi
The Guardian

The Ganges river, considered sacred by more than 1 billion Indians, has become the first non-human entity in India to be granted the same legal rights as people.

A court in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand ordered on Monday that the Ganges and its main tributary,...

Tribes March in DC for Water and for Mother Earth

March 16, 2017
By Ethan Goffman
E – The Environmental Magazine

On February 22, police removed Native American protestors outside the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. The protestors were trying to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, which crosses sacred tribal ground and threatens to pollute their drinking water. With final approval at the onset of the Donald Trump presidency, the...

New Zealand river granted same legal rights as human being

March 16, 2017
By Eleanor Ainge Roy
The Guardian

In a world-first a New Zealand river has been granted the same legal rights as a human being.

The local Māori tribe of Whanganui in the North Island has fought for the recognition of their river – the third-largest in New Zealand – as an ancestor for 140...

Have faith in religion's ability to bridge the political divide

March 15, 2017
By Robyn Purchia
SF Examiner

Since the George H.W. Bush administration, Mustafa Ali has worked to reduce the violence that pollution and climate change wreak on marginalized, struggling communities. But last week, after 24 years at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office on Environmental Justice, he resigned. Ali said proposed deep budget cuts to EPA...

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