We seek to deepen our relationship with Earth and all creation.

CSJ Chapter Goal 2006

Eco-Justice

As Sisters of St. Joseph we believe that we are a part of creation and not apart from it. We seek to treat it with love, respect and justice.

Each living being is cherished by God. Earth is our home and all Earth’s creatures and systems are interrelated. We are all one in the circle of God’s sustaining love. All have a right to be here. As conscious members of this Earth community, we are responsible to act for the good of all.

The call to ecological conversion is part of our developing spiritual vision in the 21st Century. An understanding of its theological and cosmological underpinnings will deepen our awareness of our interconnection with all creation and the unity of all things in God. We will avail ourselves of all opportunities to develop ourselves in this understanding and to act on it. Chapter 2011 Direction Statement

ORGANIC GARDEN

Consistent with reverence for the Earth is allowing it to remain in its pristine state without pesticides and pollutants. To learn and to teach how to grow crops organically, we have established an Organic Garden on the Brentwood grounds. We work a natural garden in keeping with our belief that all of God’s creation are sacred and should be treated with respect and care.

One way we can do this is to counter the industrial agricultural industry which grows monocultures of soy, corn, wheat, etc. These industrial farmers use chemical (petroleum based) fertilizers and pesticides. Both of these ultimately deplete the soil of its natural life. Lifeless soil tends to erode easily and of course requires ever more chemicals.

We engage in diversified gardening as a model of sound, natural gardening, planting a variety of crops, rotating them regularly, and using the spent plants, weeds, grass and leaves (all rich in nutrients) to fertilize the soil. Nothing is wasted. Our natural garden is a good example of sustainability. As a bonus, diversified gardening attracts very few harmful insects and those that do come are quickly repelled by the beneficial insects that are attracted to our flowers.Gardening in this manner keeps ever before our eyes the wonders of God’s creation: the good relationships and cooperation between the plants and animal life; the diverse dying and rising within a vegetable garden, and the beauty of the plants, flowers and trees. 

We welcome all to visit our garden. In season, come and taste strawberries picked that very day…peas that can be eaten right from the bush… tomatoes picked at the peak of ripeness. We also grow squash, potatoes, eggplant, lettuce and herbs which are available to take home. If you wish you may come to the garden to just sit and relax. You’ll be entertained by  bees which journey from our hives (at a safe distance) to partake of the nectar provided by the flowers in the garden. In return the bees do a good bit of pollinating as do the butterflies and various birds that come to visit. We even have an occasional humming bird. If you’d like to volunteer to help in the garden – you’ll literally be welcomed with open arms. (See ‘Join Us as a Volunteer’)

EPA Warns of Dangers of Fracking in New York State

To read the EPA's warning click here.

Center for Biological Diversity

Top 10 priorities for 2012

 1.     Save the Endangered Species Act
2.     Push More Species Toward Protection
3.     Save Wolves
4.     Stop Arctic Drilling
5.     Expand Awareness of Overpopulation
6.     Defend Polar Bears
7.     Fight Climate Change
8.     Stem the Tide of Ocean Acidification
9.     Safeguard Wildlife, People From Pesticides
10.     Protect Public Lands From Dirty Energy Projects

Historic Victory For Clean Air

President Obama’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standard will, for the first time in our country's history, protect our communities from dangerous mercury, arsenic and other air toxics spewed from power plants.  Thanks to grassroots efforts and the President's leadership, the Standard will help prevent 11,000 premature deaths each year!

The EPA just announced that it has finalized The Mercury Rule, one of the most important updates to the Clean Air Act in the Act's 40 year history.

This rule has been in the making for more than two decades, and will finally close one of the biggest loopholes that allow coal-burning power plants — especially decades old plants that were grandfathered in under the Clean Air Act without modern pollution controls — to pump unlimited quantities of Mercury and other toxic pollution into our air, and pass the cost of their pollution to us.

It's a cost that millions of Americans, especially children and the elderly, pay in higher healthcare bills and shorter lives. In fact, the current lack of limits is the reason that one in ten women has mercury levels in her body that are high enough to present a danger during pregnancy.

Emperor Penguins in Danger

 Global warming is melting the sea ice that Antarctica’s Emperor penguins require for basic survival. Their entire life cycle is dependent on sea ice — without enough of it, the consequences could be tragic:

• Not enough to eat. Penguins eat species that eat krill — a small crustacean that needs sea ice to successfully breed. Less sea ice leads to significant krill population declines, thereby impacting the fish and squid that make up the penguin’s diet.
• Reproductive failure. Penguins breed on top of a stable ice platform. The early break-up of sea ice decreases the odds that penguins will be able to mate successfully.

If ice continues melting at its current rate, one southern colony’s population
will plummet from 3,000 breeding pairs to just 400 within the lifetime of a child born today
Despite how clear the evidence is against global warming, special interests are determined to defend the status quo. They strive to undermine the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s ability to enforce the Clean Air Act — vital legislation that regulates the harmful carbon emissions that cause global warming.
National Wildlife Federation is working to combat these attacks and protect wildlife like the penguin.

Bee Population in Danger

Over seventy percent of the global food crops are pollinated by bees.

Last year, the United States lost a full third of its total honeybee colonies for the fifth year in a row. This means that since 2006, the American bee population has plummeted from 4.5 million honey- producing hives to a scant 860,000. Worse, that number is still dropping.

Rampant pesticide use is a major cause of bee deaths.

In 2011, the EPA found that the use of neonicotinoid pesticides is both widespread and catastrophic.

Neonicotinoids are on average 7,000 times more toxic than DDT, which was banned in 1972.

DDT was banned because it contributed to the near extinction of birds, including the bald eagle and the peregrine falcon, and is particularly toxic to fish and insect life.

Despite this, the EPA has not halted the manufacture or use of neonicotinoids, choosing instead to put the products "under review" for the next five years.

Stop Animal Experimentation

Almost twenty years ago, Congress demanded that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) move toward non-animal methods of scientific research -- yet still, little progress has been made.

Animals are sentient beings, just like you and me. They show emotions, feel pain and don't deserve to manipulated and abused in laboratory experiments.

We have the technology to replace some animal experiments already. In cases where there aren't alternatives yet, we must work to develop them.

It's time we start seriously exploring more humane, and even more effective, non-animal testing methods.Tell Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the NIH, to make a plan with concrete actions to end animal research.

Take action:   e-mail: francis.collins@nih.gov

The U.S. House of Representatives is debating an agriculture spending bill beginning tomorrow, and your help is needed to make sure it contains important protections for animals. Two amendments will affect thousands of animals, and your representative’s vote is key to their success.

We need you to urge your U.S. representative to support an amendment to stop wasteful use of taxpayer money for lethal control of predators by USDA's Wildlife Services, and oppose any amendment to fund horse slaughter plant inspections.   

When you call, please remember to leave your name and address.

Alarming New Report on Our Oceans

If the current actions contributing to a multifaceted degradation of the world's oceans aren't curbed, a mass extinction unlike anything human history has ever seen is coming, an expert panel of scientists warns in an alarming new report.The preliminary report from the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) is the result of the first-ever interdisciplinary international workshop examining the combined impact of all of the stressors currently affecting the oceans, including pollution, warming, acidification, overfishing and hypoxia.

The scientific panel concluded that degeneration in the oceans is happening much faster than has been predicted, and that the combination of factors currently distressing the marine environment is contributing to the precise conditions that have been associated with all major extinctions in the Earth's history.

According to the report, three major factors have been present in the handful of mass extinctions that have occurred in the past: an increase of both hypoxia (low oxygen) and anoxia (lack of oxygen that creates "dead zones") in the oceans, warming and acidification. The panel warns that the combination of these factors will inevitably cause a mass marine extinction if swift action isn't taken to improve conditions.The report is the latest of several published in recent months examining the dire conditions of the oceans.

A recent study in the journal Nature, meanwhile, suggests that not only will the next mass extinction be man-made, but that it could already be underway. Unless humans make significant changes to their behavior, that is.

The IPSO report calls for such changes, recommending actions in key areas: immediate reduction of CO2 emissions, coordinated efforts to restore marine ecosystems, and universal implementation of the precautionary principle so "activities proceed only if they are shown not to harm the ocean singly or in combination with other activities." The panel also calls for the UN to swiftly introduce an "effective governance of the High Seas."

VATICAN ISSUES MAJOR REPORT ON SCIENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Yesterday, a working group of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, one of the oldest scientific institutes in the world, issued a sobering report on the impacts for humankind as a result of the global retreat of mountain glaciers as a result of human activity leading to climate change.

In their declaration, the working group calls, "on all people and nations to recognize the serious and potentially irreversible impacts of global warming caused by the anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, and by changes in forests, wetlands, grasslands, and other land uses."  They echoed Pope Benedict XVI’s 2010 World Day of Peace Message saying, "…if we want justice and peace, we must protect the habitat that sustains us."

Veerabhadran Ramanathan of the Scripts Institute of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego—a member of the Pontifical Academy since 2004 and a co-chair of the working group said to Energy and Environment Daily, ""I have never participated in any report in 30 years where the word 'God' is mentioned. I think the Vatican brings that moral authority."
 
The report focuses on the impact of anthropogenic climate change on mountain glaciers and warns that, "Failure to mitigate climate change will violate our duty to the vulnerable of the Earth, including those dependent on the water supply of mountain glaciers, and those facing rising sea level and stronger storm surges. Our duty includes the duty to help vulnerable communities adapt to changes that cannot be mitigated. All nations must ensure that their actions are strong enough and prompt enough to address the increasing impacts and growing risk of climate change and to avoid catastrophic irreversible consequences."  (Emphasis added.)

The working group recommends three measures to reduce the threat of climate change and its impacts:

1."Reduce worldwide carbon dioxide emissions without delay, using all means possible to meet ambitious international global warming targets and ensure the long-term stability of the climate system.  All nations must focus on a rapid transition to renewable energy sources and other strategies to reduce CO2 emissions.  Nations should also avoid removal of carbon sinks by stopping deforestation, and should strengthen carbon sinks by reforestation of degraded lands.  They also need to develop and deploy technologies that draw down excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. These actions must be accomplished within a few decades.

2."Reduce the concentrations of warming air pollutants (dark soot, methane, lower atmosphere ozone, and hydrofluorocarbons) by as much as 50%, to slow down climate change during this century while preventing millions of premature deaths from respiratory disease and millions of tons of crop damages every year.

3."Prepare to adapt to the climatic changes, both chronic and abrupt, that society will be unable to mitigate.  In particular, we call for a global capacity building initiative to assess the natural and social impacts of climate change in mountain systems and related watersheds."

You are strongly encouraged to read the entire report which is posted on the Catholic Climate Covenant website.

Canada Seal Hunt

Each year, seal hunters in Canada participate in the largest mass slaughter of marine mammals in the world. Hunters shoot seals at close range and beat pups not even 12 weeks old to death.

It's seal hunting season: help stop this barbaric cruelty once and for all. »

Protect Wilderness in Glacier National Park

The National Park Service (NPS) is seeking public input on its Environmental Assessment (EA) to stabilize the non-operational Heavens Peak Lookout within recommended wilderness in Glacier National Park. We alerted readers about this proposal in July 2010. The EA, rather than following the Wilderness Act and Park Service policy, proposes to use a gasoline generator in addition to 12 helicopter flights.

Please speak up for wilderness in Glacier by asking the NPS to choose the ‘No Action’ alternative. Some points you could include in your comments:
• Heavens Peak is within the heart of one of our country’s wildest Parks
• The Wilderness Act prohibits structures unless the minimum required for preserving an area as wilderness
• The Heavens Peak Lookout serves no purpose for preserving wilderness, therefore it is incompatible with wilderness law and NPS policy for managing recommended wilderness as wilderness
• Using helicopters and a gasoline generator to restore the structure will degrade wilderness character (as will the reconstruction and the presence of the structure itself)
• The NPS should allow the Lookout to deteriorate so as to restore the site to its natural condition

Please submit comments by 3/21/11 to:
Superintendent Glacier National Park, ATTN: Heavens Peak Lookout EA
PO Box 128, West Glacier, MT 59936, or http://parkplanning.nps.gov

ENVIRONMENT: 

Over the past 50 years, we have nearly tripled agricultural outputs. But this so-called "Green Revolution" comes at unbearable costs for the environment, public health and social welfare. Industrial farming with its dependency on fossil fuels, toxic inputs and ignorance for common goods has proven to be a dead-end road.  Support a food system that is free of genetic engineering and chemical intensive agriculture.  View the 3 min. YouTube video on genetic engineering and take action.  Click here.  

Every Day is Earth Day

Justice

Immigration

Current Issues

Eco-Justice

Ecological theology proposes that the Creator Spirit dwells in the heart of the natural world, graciously energizing its evolution from within, compassionately holding all creatures in their finitude and death, and drawing the world forward toward an unimaginable future.

                        -Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ

Resources

www.earthaction.org                   www.worldwildlife.org                  
www.earthfuture.com                 
www.simpleliving.net              
www.thegreatstory.org
www.savenationalforests.org
www.globaleduc.org              
www.peta.org
www.nwf.org
www.earthjustice.org
www.nrpe.org
www.wilderness.org                  
www.greenpeaceusa.org            
www.ucsusa.org         
www.environmentaldefense.org
www.envirosagainstwar.org

       Ten Things You Can Do to Stop 
                     Global Warming

1. Recycle and buy minimal packaged
    goods as much as possible.
                    
2. Wash clothes in cold/warm water
     not hot.

3. Use low flow shower heads.

4. Run the dishwasher only when full.

5. Replace standard light bulbs with
    compact fluorescent bulbs.

6. Increase energy efficiency by plugging
            air leaks in windows and doors.

7. Replace old appliances with energy
                       efficient models.

8. Walk, bike, carpool or use public
     transportation whenever possible.

9. Adjust your thermometer- lower in
    winter  higher in summer.

10. Share these simple steps with friends
         and family and increase awareness.