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Norbert Bufka

Author  ยท  Historian

Environment Resources

Resources for “The Care of our common Home” (Laudato Si)

These links will take you away from this website.

Carbon Emissions Test

Carbon Footprint Calculator for business or for individuals, families, and groups.

Climate Change:

National Resources defense Council defines issues: Global Warming, Water, Energy, Air, Oceans, Urban Solutions, Health, Food and Agriculture, Wildlands, Wildlife, Environmental Justice, US Laws, International Issues.

Recession in 2008

The Glass-Steagall Act was passed in1933 to keep banks, insurance companies, and investments companies separate from each other. It was repealed in 1998 during the Clinton administration andits repeal is believed by some to have been a cause in the 2008 recession.

Climate change reports

Rio “Report Of The United Nations Conference On Environment And Development” Rio de Janeiro, June 3014, 1992.

Stockholm “Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment”, 1972

Paris Conference December 2015

 “196 countries approve historic climate agreement” by Joby Warrick and Chris Mooney, Washington Post, December 12, 2015. There are links to other articles in this one, both for and against the agreement.

Environmental degradation

This phrase refers to the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife. It is defined as any change or disturbance to the environment perceived to be deleterious or undesirable.[1] As indicated by the I=PAT equation, environmental impact (I) or degradation is caused by the combination of an already very large and increasing human population (P), continually increasing economic growth or per capita affluence (A), and the application of resource depleting and polluting technology (T).[2][3] 

Impacts of Environmental Degradation has a good brief summary of what the term means and specific ways we are degrading our environment. Top concerns are water availability and purity, air pollution, and soil desertification and erosion.

Mark Thiessen reported in the Detroit Free Press in 2015 that polar bears were in peril due to global warming.

Citations in Encyclical Letter

Below are citations found in the endnotes with links where available for further review.

Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, A New Earth – The Environmental Challenge, 2002.

Bartholomew, Lecture at the Monastery of Utstein, Norway (23 June 2003).

Basil the Great, Hom. in Hexaemeron.

Benedict XVI, Address to the Bundestag, Berlin September 22, 2011.

Benedict XVI, Address to the Diplomatic Corps Accredited to the Holy See January 8, 2007.

Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate , 2009.

Benedict XVI, Homily for the Solemn Inauguration of the Petrine Ministry , 24 April 2005.

Benedict oF the Patagonia-Comahue Region, Argentina, Christmas Message (December 2009.

Bolivian Bishops’ Conference, Pastoral Letter on the Environment and Human Development in Bolivia El universo, don de Dios para la vida March 23, 2012).

Bonaventure, The Major Legend of Saint Francis, VIII, 1, in Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 2, New York-London-Manila, 2000, 586.

Canadian Conference Of Catholic Bishops, Social Affairs Commission, Pastoral Letter You Love All that Exists… All Things are Yours, God, Lover of Life” (4 October 2003).

“Canticle of the Creatures”, Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 1, New York-London-Manila, 1999, 113-114.

Cántico Espiritual, XIV, 5.

Francis, Catechesis (5 June 2013): Insegnamenti 1/1 (2013), 280.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, .

Catholic Bishops’ Conference Of The Philippines, Pastoral Letter What is Happening to our Beautiful Land? (29 January 1988).

German Bishops’ Conference, Commission for Social Issues, Der Klimawandel: Brennpunkt globaler, intergenerationeller und ökologischer Gerechtigkeit (September 2006), 28-30.

Francis, Evangelii Gaudium November 24, 2013.

Francis, Greeting to the Staff of FAO November 20, 2014

Gaudium et Spes Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.

 “Global Responsibility and Ecological Sustainability”, Closing Remarks, Halki Summit I, Istanbul (20 June 2012).

Guardini, Romano, Das Ende der Neuzeit, 9th ed., Würzburg, 1965, 87 (English: The End of the Modern World, Wilmington, 1998, 82).

Hom. in Hexaemeron, I, 2, 10: PG 29, 9.

Homily at Mass for Farmers, Recife, Brazil (7 July 1980): AAS 72 (1980): AAS 72 (1980), 926.

John Paul II, Catechesis (17 January 2001), 3: Insegnamenti 24/1 (2001), 178.

John Paul II,  Catechesis (17 January 2001), 4: Insegnamenti 41/1 (2001), 179.

John Paul II, Address in Santa Barbara, California (8 November 1997); cf. JOHN CHRYSSAVGIS, On Earth as in Heaven: Ecological Vision and Initiatives of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Bronx, New York, 2012.

John Paul II, Address to FAO on the 25th Anniversary of its Institution (16 November 1970), 4: AAS 62 (1970), 833.

John Paul II, Address to Scientists and Representatives of the United Nations University, Hiroshima (25 February 1981), 3: AAS 73 (1981), 422.

John Paul II, Address to the 35th General Assembly of the World Medical Association (29 October 1983), 6: AAS 76 (1984), 394.

John Paul II, Address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (3 October 1981), 3: Insegnamenti 4/2 (1981), 333.

John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus (1 May 1991), 38: AAS 83 (1991),p. 863.

John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens (14 September 1981), 19: AAS 73 (1981), 626.

John Paul II,Redemptor

 Hominis

 , March 4, 1979.,

John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (30 December 1987), 34: AAS 80 (1988), 559.

John Paul II, Message for the 1990 World Day of Peace, 15: AAS 82 (1990), 156.

Love for Creation. An Asian Response to the Ecological Crisis, Declaration of the Colloquium sponsored by the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (Tagatay, 31 January-5 February 1993), 3.3.2.

Mexican Bishops’ Conference, Episcopal Commission For Pastoral And Social Concerns, Jesucristo, vida y esperanza de los indígenas e campesinos (14 January 2008).

National Conference Of The Bishops Of Brazil, A Igreja e a Questão Ecológica, 1992, 53-54.

New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, Statement on Environmental Issues (1 September 2006).

Paul VI, Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens (14 May 1971), 21: AAS 63 (1971), 416-417.

PAUL VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio (26 March 1967), 34: AAS 59 (1967), 274.

Pontifical Council For Justice And Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 483.

Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (14 June 1992), Principle 1.

The Divine Comedy, Paradiso, Canto XXXIII, 145.

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae.

United States Conference Of Catholic Bishops, Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good (15 June 2001).

http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/environment/global-climate-change-a-plea-for-dialogue-prudence-and-the-common-good.cfm

Vincent of Lerins, Commonitorium Primum, ch. 23: PL 50, 688: “Ut annis scilicet consolidetur, dilatetur tempore, sublimetur aetate”.