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

How Spirituality Tells Us to Be Simple

July 13, 2011
By Duane Elgin
Huffington Post

The wisdom of simplicity is a theme with deep roots. The great value and benefits of living simply are found in all the world’s major wisdom traditions.

Christian Views

Fracking Comes to Jewish Summer Camp

Concern Over the Environment Versus Financial Reward

July 13, 2011
By Josh Nathan-Kazis
Forward

Fracking, the controversial technique for extracting natural gas that energy companies are promoting as America’s path to energy independence, has come to the sunny, idyllic world of Jewish camping.

Four Jewish summer camps have signed leases with gas...

Fracking In Marcellus Shale Region Debated By Bishops, Nuns And Rabbis

July 9, 2011
By Kevin Begos
Huffington Post

PITTSBURGH – Bishops, nuns and rabbis are joining the environmental and social debate over natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale region, and many are seeking a balance that reflects their congregations.

“We have people’s lives who are being blessed or adversely affected by this,” said Bishop Thomas Bickerton of...

"Protecting Mother Earth Gathering" to be held on oil and gas ravaged Indian land

July 8, 2011
Press Release

NEW TOWN, North Dakota – Community members of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation are hosting the 16th Protecting Mother Earth Gathering at the Little Shell Antelope Society arbor in the Four Bears Park campground, south of the 4 Bears Casino, from July 28-31, 2011. The Four Bears Park is situated 4 miles west of New Town, North Dakota.

Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land endorses Holy Land Declaration on Climate Change

July 5, 2011 
Press Release

JERUSALEM – The Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land (CRIHL) is pleased to announce its endorsement of the Holy Land Declaration on Climate Change, which was submitted to the CRIHL by the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development.

Can Death Become Your Ally?

July 3, 2011
By Duane Elgin
Huffington Post

Three Media Views of Green Living

June 27, 2011
By Duane Elgin
Huffington Post

It is ironic that green ways of living that emphasize voluntary simplicity – a life-way that can take us into an opportunity-filled future – are often portrayed in the mass media as regressive ways of life that turn away from progress. Here are three portrayals of green lifestyles and simplicity common in today’s popular media:

What is the American Dream?: Dueling dualities in the American tradition

By Gus Speth
Grist
June 25, 2011

Throughout our history, there have been alternative, competing visions of the “good life” in America. The story of how these competing visions played out in our history is prologue to an important question: What is the American Dream and what is its future?

The Spice-Box of Earth: Remembering Where We Come From

June 24, 2011
By Rabbi Lawrence Troster
Huffington Post

The poet Leonard Cohen once wrote:

Out of the Land of Heaven
Down comes the warm Sabbath sun
Into the spice-box of earth.
(From “Out of the Land of Heaven,” The Spice-Box of Earth, Bantam Books: New York, 1968, p. 70.)

The Future Doesn't Hurt. Yet

June 23, 2011
By Matthieu Ricard
New York Times

When, in the early morning, I sit in the little meadow in front of my hermitage on a quiet hilltop, two hours’ drive from Katmandu in Nepal, my eyes take in hundreds of miles of lofty Himalayan peaks glowing in the rising sun. The serenity of the scenery blends naturally and seamlessly with the peace within. It is a long way...

More news...