As warnings about the threat of rapid sea level-rise become increasingly urgent, one far-seeing, if dissenting, scientist has suggested it is likely the Biblical great flood did happen. “I don’t think the biblical deluge is just a fairy tale,” Terence J Hughes, a retired University of Maine glaciologist living in South Dakota, told the New York Read more
“A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system,” warns Pope Francis in his landmark environmental encyclical Laudato Si (“On Care for Our Common Home”). Indeed, the scientific consensus is very solid. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), “97 percent or more of Read more
Pope Francis is in a movie about global warming with a stella cast including world leaders including Bill Clinton,Barak Obama and Ban Ki-moon. The film “Before the Flood” was produced by National Geographic. It was released this week. Leonardo Di Caprio, who narrates the movie, says Francis’ leadership on climate change is “inspirational and essential”. Read more
St Joseph’s School Feilding is taking on the Caritas Challenge for the first time. The whole school of 135 students will be taking part in the activities on Friday. The senior class is staying overnight to complete the 24 hours through to Saturday morning. “We hope that the students will learn to appreciate the very Read more
Stephen Hawking, a renowned British physicist and self-declared atheist, was among those the Pope addressed this week. Hawking and other scientists were attending the Pontifical Academy of Sciences symposium. The symposium focused on scientific knowledge and technology’s impact on people and the planet. Although Pope Francis and Hawking have opposing religious beliefs, they connect with Read more
Charred by the pulsing heat, the earth has turned to dust. Rivers have thinned to threads. Wells and ponds have parched. Across the sun-punished lands of Colombia’s La Guajira province, the northernmost point of South America, the symptoms of drought are stark. Water carriers walk for hours, bucket handles digging into their hands. Goats and Read more
John Ribat, Papua New Guinea’s newly appointed Cardinal, says Pope Francis has been very true to his word that he’s not looking at the traditional places where cardinals have been appointed in the past. “He’s going beyond that and wanting a fairer representation of the church,” he said in an extended interview with Alex Perrottet Read more
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
Caritas has welcomed New Zealand’s ratification of the Paris Agreement on climate change, just a day after the Catholic social justice agency’s annual State of the Environment Report for Oceania called on all nations in the region to ratify the agreement. The move by New Zealand decision brings to 14 the number of Oceania nations Read more
Su’a William Sio (Member of Parliament for Mangere) will launch Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand’s report about our close neighbours in Oceania at Parliament today, 4 October. According to the UN at the peak of the regional drought in summer, food and water issues affected more than 4.7 million people The impact of these factors continues Read more