Pope Benedict XVI added to his growing reputation as the “green Pope” on Tuesday with the release of a new encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth). A call for sustainable development in the broadest sense, the Pope’s letter addressed the human and environmental costs of “business as usual,” and established “doing well by doing good” as the business philosophy most consistent with Church doctrine and Biblical teaching.

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Make this Easter a Green one.  700 new chemicals are untested for toxicity.  Check out the new batch of Alternative Autos.

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A well-respected Indian scientist nearly died after a 38-day hunger strike in protest of construction on a hydropower dam on a tributary of the Ganges river.

AD Agarwal, a 77-year-old former professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi at Kanpur, began his strike last month when the Indian government refused to study the impacts of the dam before beginning work. The Ganges river’s free-flowing abundance is sacred in Hindu culture.

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Waiting for worldviews to change to accommodate new science is like watching the emergence of multicellularity. Keep in mind that Darwin’s On the Origin of Species is only 150 years old. Copernicus’s On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres was published in 1543. That book wasn’t completely dropped from the Vatican’s list of banned books for another 300 years. (I wonder if foundation-shattering books would fly under heresy radars if the titles didn’t start with “On the…”)

Chuck, on the other hand, just got fast-tracked! On Darwin’s 200th birthday, the Vatican is officially on board with evolution! Also, more than 800 pastors and rabbis are celebrating “Evolution Weekend” following Darwin’s 200th birthday February 12.

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Why would a community of nuns, devoted as they presumably are to spiritual matters, take the relatively unusual step of embracing environmentalism so energetically?

“It’s a question of stewardship,” said Sister Faith Margaret, a Staten Island native. “Of responsibility.”

Praise The Lord!

Via: New York Times

Photo Credit: pagedooley at Flickr Under Creative Commons License

Like many states, Oregonians can opt out of school required vaccinations by claiming religious exemption.  Statewide, 3.7 percent of kindergartners were exempt in 2007; however in Ashland, 28.1 percent of kindergartners were not vaccinated making it the least vaccinated city in the US.  The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) wants to know why.

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Pope Benedict XVI has once again called on Catholics everywhere to go green. This past week, he used his Epiphany Day homily to call for action against global warming and polluting.

This isn’t the first time the Pope has pushed to save the environment. In September of 2007, the Vatican installed solar panels; in December, he talked about our need to conserve energy; and last July, he equated the collection of material goods to the worship of false idols and asked people to realize that the Earth needs help.

“Perhaps reluctantly, we come to acknowledge that there are scars which mark the surface of our earth — erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world’s mineral and ocean resources in order to fuel an insatiable consumption.”

The Vatican has also supported renewable energy in the past.

Picture via Wikicommons from Fabio Pozzebom

“From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.” (Romans I: 20)

“Have you not seen how God sets forth a parable? A good word is like a good tree whose roots are firm and whose branches reach heaven. It gives its fruit during every season, by leaves of its Lord. And God sets forth parables to people that they may remember.” (Al-Qur’an I4: 24-25)

As you likely know, people of faith and environmentalists don’t always see eye-to-eye. The narratives of faith and the green movement can seem to diverge pretty widely at points, and members of both sides have often viewed the other with suspicion and distrust. In recent years, though, we’ve seen efforts by both groups to “reach across the aisle,” and the development of concepts like “creation care,” which attempt to bridge religious beliefs with environmental concerns.

In November, the Sierra Club joined the conversation with its publication of Holy Ground: A Gathering of Voices on Caring for Creation. Bringing together clergy, lay people, and thinkers on the topics of religion/spirituality and the environment, Holy Ground is an anthology of meditations (essays just doesn’t seem to work) on the role of caring for the Earth while remaining faithful to the tenants of one’s faith.

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Those new writers got us over our Spring fever slump, and took sustainablog in some very interesting new directions…

May 2008

• Keith Rockmael reviewed the film A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba.
• Our friends at Low Impact Living suggested five eco-smart ways to spend your tax rebate.
• GO editorial intern Oscar Cardenas explored the environmental impact of using echinacea to fight colds.
• Guest poster Max Gladwell argued that social media can change the world.

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2008/12/24/the-twelve-days-of-sustainablog-biofuels-preachers-and-echinacea/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2008/12/21/the-twelve-days-of-sustainablog-dumpster-diving-online-shopping-and-hand-towels/ http://sustainablog.org/2008/12/21/the-twelve-days-of-sustainablog-dumpster-diving-online-shopping-and-hand-towels/#comments Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:02:50 +0000 Jeff McIntire-Strasburg http://sustainablog.org/2008/12/21/the-twelve-days-of-sustainablog-dumpster-diving-online-shopping-and-hand-towels/ With several new GO blogs launching in March, a few of sustainablog’s regulars moved on to other posting assignments. We were fortunate that a number of friends, such as the folks at Life Goggles, Environmental Defense Fund, and Eco-Libris, did admirable jobs in filling the gap.  Additionally, we were pleased to republish several posts from the University of Kansas’ “Media and the Environment” course blog.

The original content we did publish was great stuff, of course.  Take a look below, and see a few of the goodies from March (and not a single post on green beer!).

March 2008

• Maria Surma Manka took a look at the Saudi’s interest in solar power.
• Victoria Everman reviewed online shopping guide thepurplebook’s green edition.
• Kyle Weatherholtz examined issues with wind power in Texas.
• Carol McClelland profiled some intriguing green companies.

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2008/12/21/the-twelve-days-of-sustainablog-dumpster-diving-online-shopping-and-hand-towels/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/11/30/hindus-praise-vatican-for-embracing-solar/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/11/30/hindus-praise-vatican-for-embracing-solar/#comments Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:08:56 +0000 Timothy B. Hurst http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/11/30/hindus-praise-vatican-for-embracing-solar/ Hindus have praised the Vatican and Pope Benedict for finishing the installation of its 2400-panel solar photovoltaic array, a move that will cut its carbon monoxide emissions by about 225 tons and save the equivalent of 80 tons of oil each year.

Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, applauded His Holiness Pope Benedictus XVI Joseph A. Ratzinger in a statement, for this “environment friendly move and frequent calls to save the planet and curb environmental degradation.”




Zed, who is president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, urged all world religious leaders, religions and denominations to openly bless the environmental causes. Ancient Hindu scriptures, especially Atharva-Veda, were highly respectful of mother nature, he added.

“We may believe in different religions, yet we share the same home—our Earth. We must learn to happily progress or miserably perish together. For man can live individually but can only survive collectively,” Rajan Zed said, quoting scriptures.

Zed may soon have even more reasons to heap praise on Pope Benedict, as Vatican officials are reportedly considering building a 740 acre solar array on land it owns north of Rome and selling excess electricity back to the Italian grid.

Image: Jeremy Burgin via flickr under a Creative Commons License

]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/11/30/hindus-praise-vatican-for-embracing-solar/feed/ http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/11/03/think-al-gore-is-too-soft-join-this-climate-change-cult/ http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/11/03/think-al-gore-is-too-soft-join-this-climate-change-cult/#comments Mon, 03 Nov 2008 01:46:35 +0000 Michael A. Weber http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/11/03/think-al-gore-is-too-soft-join-this-climate-change-cult/ Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence, a handful of deniers manage to keep arguing about the existence, causes, and likely outcomes of global warming. Not to be outdone by this conventional irrationality, we have a few oddballs on the ‘believing’ side of the fence too.



Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment, a new-age religious cult based out of Yelm, Washington, makes exaggerated, doomsday predictions about global warming to instill fear in its followers and convince them to build underground shelters to protect from the “Days to Come.“

According to the prophesies made by the spiritual school, the human population at the end of 2012 will be two-thirds what it is now, and those who survive in the long term will do so by stocking up on food, water, and medical supplies and by having an underground shelter to protect them from the dangers of a rapidly changing earth.

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]]> http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/11/03/think-al-gore-is-too-soft-join-this-climate-change-cult/feed/ http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/09/21/amish-increasingly-accepting-of-solar-power-but-still-shun-ipods/ http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/09/21/amish-increasingly-accepting-of-solar-power-but-still-shun-ipods/#comments Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:15:45 +0000 Levi Novey http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/09/21/amish-increasingly-accepting-of-solar-power-but-still-shun-ipods/ Known for a living in a culture that typically disapproves of modern technology, some members of Amish communities are now bucking their traditional ways by increasingly turning to solar power to meet their energy needs.

Philly.com highlighted this transition among the Amish in an interesting article that was published on their website this weekend. What is most surprising to me is that the Amish have fewer doubts about using solar power for purposes that relate to work, than they do for use inside their homes.

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]]> http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/09/21/amish-increasingly-accepting-of-solar-power-but-still-shun-ipods/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2008/09/20/religion-and-darwinand-politics-business-environmental-stewardship/ http://sustainablog.org/2008/09/20/religion-and-darwinand-politics-business-environmental-stewardship/#comments Sun, 21 Sep 2008 01:43:34 +0000 Adam Williams http://sustainablog.org/2008/09/20/religion-and-darwinand-politics-business-environmental-stewardship/ Fellow Green Options blogger, Sam Aola Ooko, recently related that there has been a reconciliation of religion and evolution.

As written in that EcoWorldly blog post — St. Charles Darwin Unveiled: Catholics, Anglicans Finally Agreed on Evolution — it seems that the Vatican and the Church of England have decided that there is a place in the world for both beliefs, that Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and religious faith can coexist peacefully.

I’m fascinated.

I can understand, for example, the Christian view that the premise of evolution is faulty and can’t align with the belief that God created the Earth. Science says Earth dates billions of years back. The stories of the Bible say, “Oh, no it dih-n’t!”

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2008/09/20/religion-and-darwinand-politics-business-environmental-stewardship/feed/ http://ecolocalizer.com/2008/07/17/grace-cathedral-gaining-power-from-above/ http://ecolocalizer.com/2008/07/17/grace-cathedral-gaining-power-from-above/#comments Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:58:31 +0000 Joshua S Hill http://ecolocalizer.com/2008/07/17/grace-cathedral-gaining-power-from-above/ A church more often than not needs to draw its inspiration from the heavens, but San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral has taken that stereotype to the next level, as they announced Thursday that they would be partnering with Pacific Gas and Electric to install a new photovoltaic power system.

The project will see PG&E commit $65,000 for the installation, and designed and implemented by SolarCity of Foster City; it is expected to be completed later this year. And it is all thanks to the hard work of Reverend Canon Sally Bingham, the president of California Interfaith Power and Light, an organization founded upon the idea that the religious aspects of the community must respond to global warming as a moral issue.

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]]> http://ecolocalizer.com/2008/07/17/grace-cathedral-gaining-power-from-above/feed/ http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/05/26/does-reading-inherit-the-wind-really-help-students-learn-about-evolution-part-2/ http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/05/26/does-reading-inherit-the-wind-really-help-students-learn-about-evolution-part-2/#comments Mon, 26 May 2008 04:00:00 +0000 Levi Novey http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/05/26/does-reading-inherit-the-wind-really-help-students-learn-about-evolution-part-2/ Note: This is second part of a two-part series. The first part ended by asking: “just what is the ‘intended effect’ of Inherit the Wind?

The play, as the one professor suggested, is trying to get people to think. It specifically wants them to think about and consider the possibilities of evolution and creationism, even if they are inclined to believe in one more than the other. Personally, I think that this is a great goal. I think that toleration, and perhaps even acceptance of both views is necessary for achieving positive progress in the world and in the sciences. Thus, as this website is named Planetsave, I think it’s necessary that people be able to appreciate both perspectives if we are in fact to save the planet.

An understanding of biology and its essential driver, evolution, is probably a necessary precursor for truly beginning to understand that species and resources are not renewable. The discovery of evolution makes me believe that we can to some extent understand how the world works through science. On the other hand, for me personally, it is utterly arrogant to outrightly deny the possibility of there being a god or some other kind of higher power.

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]]> http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/05/26/does-reading-inherit-the-wind-really-help-students-learn-about-evolution-part-2/feed/ http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/05/23/does-reading-inherit-the-wind-really-help-students-learn-about-evolution-part-1/ http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/05/23/does-reading-inherit-the-wind-really-help-students-learn-about-evolution-part-1/#comments Fri, 23 May 2008 04:10:41 +0000 Levi Novey http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/05/23/does-reading-inherit-the-wind-really-help-students-learn-about-evolution-part-1/

Note: This is Part 1 of a two part series. Click here to go to Part 2.

Occasionally I receive emails from publishers who are advertising a new academic journal that they think “will be a good match for my interests.” How kind of them to think of me. In one of these recent emails, free preview access was granted to me for several of these new journals. Even though the Annals of Dyslexia was tempting, the one that really tapped into the nerd inside of me is called Evolution: Education and Outreach. After perusing the table of contents, the one article title that stood out was “Inheriting Inherit the Wind: Debating the Play as a Teaching Tool.” I dove in.

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]]> http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/05/23/does-reading-inherit-the-wind-really-help-students-learn-about-evolution-part-1/feed/ http://ecoworldly.com/2008/04/22/power-to-the-people-can-we-end-human-suffering/ http://ecoworldly.com/2008/04/22/power-to-the-people-can-we-end-human-suffering/#comments Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:15:32 +0000 Dumisani Dladla http://ecoworldly.com/2008/04/22/power-to-the-people-can-we-end-human-suffering/ Africans were colonized for hundreds of years. In the process they have lost their culture and religion. There are deep wounds in the collective consciousness of the African continent. Colonization has dismembered people’s culture and religion. Africans went through a lot of the suffering that has ever existed in this world.

Let’s put an end to human suffering and racism by treating each other with respect and dignity. UBUNTU: I am because we are. No individualism. Let history be our teacher. When countries and leaders are fighting over natural resources, when they want to overpower another country, this has a huge effect on the ordinary people on the ground. There is a proverb that explains this very well. “When two bulls are fighting, what suffers the most is the grass.”

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]]> http://ecoworldly.com/2008/04/22/power-to-the-people-can-we-end-human-suffering/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2008/03/24/jesus-saves-buddha-recycles-a-spiritual-perspective-on-consumerism/ http://sustainablog.org/2008/03/24/jesus-saves-buddha-recycles-a-spiritual-perspective-on-consumerism/#comments Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:35:04 +0000 Chad Crawford http://sustainablog.org/2008/03/24/jesus-saves-buddha-recycles-a-spiritual-perspective-on-consumerism/ David Loy, a Buddhism scholar, presented a lecture at Vanderbilt University recently describing a spiritual perspective on the challenge of consumerism.

There is a video available that is worth watching if you have a free hour and, like me, are into this kind of stuff! Otherwise, I will give an overly simplistic summary below.

The basic spiritual crisis we face as individuals is our failure to recognize that the sense of self is a construct. The construct creates a feeling of alienation. This causes us to try to find meaning in accumulating wealth and things to verify our existence, creating further anxiety and sense of lack. The solution to the problem is to realize that the sense of self is indeed a delusion. This results in a caring attitude toward everyone else because of the recognition that we are not separate but part of a whole.

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2008/03/24/jesus-saves-buddha-recycles-a-spiritual-perspective-on-consumerism/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2008/03/18/jesus-is-coming-look-busy/ http://sustainablog.org/2008/03/18/jesus-is-coming-look-busy/#comments Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:39:03 +0000 Jeff McIntire-Strasburg http://sustainablog.org/2008/03/18/jesus-is-coming-look-busy/ Editor’s note: Chad Crawford, our regular writer on the intersection of religion and the environment, is taking some vacation time this week, so we’re pleased to offer another post from one of Professor Siman Sethi’s students in her Media and the Environment course at the University of Kansas. Writer Lauren Keith originally published this post to the course blog on Tuesday, March 11, 2008.

Are you there, God? It’s me, global warming.

When I logged on to Facebook yesterday, I was disturbed to see that my two least favorite things (organized religion and Yahoo! Inc.) have friend requested my best buddy, the Green Movement.

And the Green Movement accepted their friend request.

In a story posted yesterday on Yahoo! Green (which I had no idea existed until 12 hours ago), the Catholics’ second-in-command declared pollution a sin.

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