CATHOLIC relief agencies are gearing up for another summer of extreme hazards after the Bureau of Meteorology changed its outlook to a “La Nina Alert”. “We need to be better prepared at local levels for climate emergencies,” Catholic Social Services Australia chief executive officer Dr Ursula Stephens said. “This summer looks like one of cyclones and storms, so being prepared ... Read More »
A DESPERATELY thirsty koala reaching out to take a drink from a cyclist is one image many Australians will recall from last summer. That particular koala was suffering through prolonged heat wave conditions in South Australia. Koalas fleeing or rescued from catastrophic bushfires featured in other images that went viral at that time when tens of thousands of the animals ... Read More »
CHURCH representatives have backed calls for stronger environmental protection laws and standards in Australia. Professor Graeme Samuel, recently released an interim report for his review of Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, saying the act was “ineffective” and “is not fit to address current or future environmental challenges”. “Australia’s natural environment and iconic places are in an overall state ... Read More »
TEENAGE Brisbane Christian Oscar Delaney is among a group of young people taking on billionaire businessman Clive Palmer in court over a new coal mine in Queensland. Mr Delaney, 18, is part of a group of 25 young Queenslanders called Youth Verdict which is taking legal action against the project planned for the state’s Galilee Basin by Mr Palmer’s company ... Read More »
A GROUP of Brisbane Catholics joined a Vatican official to launch a year dedicated to “ecological conversion in action”. The Global Catholic Climate Movement hosted the Zoom event on World Environment Day recently to launch the Special Year of Laudato Si’ in Oceania. People from throughout Oceania participated in group discussions after hearing Fr Joshtrom Kureethadam, of the Vatican’s Dicastery ... Read More »
CLIMATE scientists have told the bushfire royal commission that tinderbox conditions that allowed the catastrophic 2019-20 fire season are set to become the Australian norm. The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements, chaired by retired Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin, started two-weeks of hearings in Canberra on May 25 examining the Black Summer bushfires that killed 33 people, destroyed ... Read More »
THE Vatican has declared a “Special Laudato Si’ Anniversary Year” starting almost immediately, and a seven-year action plan emphasising “ecological conversion”, and safeguarding and care for the earth. “I’m delighted, and it brings great blessings as well,” Brisbane archdiocese’s Catholic Justice and Peace Commission executive officer Peter Arndt said, describing the measures as a visionary step. “It is a great ... Read More »
AGAINST the backdrop of a summer of unprecedented bushfires across Australia, Brisbane Catholics are preparing for a forum on the Church response to the broad range of today’s environmental and social justice issues in the light of faith. Our Lady Queen of Apostles Parish, Stafford, is hosting the forum – Care for Our Common World: Living Laudato Si’ … Think ... Read More »
TOWNSVILLE Bishop Tim Harris criticised both extreme left and extreme right political narratives for misleading the public from finding a reasoned and nuanced understanding of the costs and effects of climate change. Bishop Harris said this reasoned and nuanced understanding was essential to enacting our “God-given” responsibility to care for creation. He said both the hard-left and hard-right stifled the ... Read More »
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