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June 2008

It is no coincidence that in this age of worldwide social and moral crises — with the fundamentals of life and social foundations under attack — that we’re witnessing the drastic disappearance of species after species after species.

Of course, over the hundreds of millions of years of life on earth, naturally- occurring shifts in climate, volcanic activity or the occasional asteroid strike have caused rapid and irrevocable losses of a few or a great many forms of life. Science tells us that vast, planet-wide periods of extinction have occurred some five times since life’s beginnings. Number six is occurring right now, at rates projected to be thousands of times faster than ever before. But this time the causes aren’t natural.

Humanity’s use and abuse of natural resources, its patterns of development and its hunger for wealth (among other desires) is wiping out a good many forms of life...

May 2008

We’ve been born into a world that fell along with humanity, and so our best plans—more often than not—go off course. Still, we wake up every morning and must make the best of things. It is only with God’s grace that we can hope to make our corner of creation some small degree better.

All this is prologue to an issue raised by a writer to this paper responding to a column I’d written mentioning the use of a certain type of lighting to reduce energy consumption, and so lessen energy bills and greenhouse gas production. While I’ve written before about climate change, and our Holy Father’s very real concerns on the matter, the lighting issue raised in that letter deserves particular attention because it not only teaches good ecological (and economic) lessons, but theological ones, too....

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About the Blog

Catholic Ecology posts my regular column in the Rhode Island Catholic, as well as scientific and theological commentary about the latest eco-news, both within and outside of the Catholic Church. What is contained herein is but one person's attempt to teach and defend the Church's teachings - ecological and otherwise. As such, I offer all contents of this blog for approval of the bishops of the Church. It is my hope that nothing herein will lead anyone astray from truth.