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Sep 2, 2014

Regulators Speak: 10 Tips for Exceptional Public Comments

Planning to comment on EPA’s Clean Power Plan rules—or any environmental rule or proposal, national or local? Then you might want suggestions on doing it really well.

Last week I asked colleagues about what tips might make for better, more helpful, exceptional public comments. I also asked about what commenters should avoid. In all, we came up with 10 tips that can help you help us help the common good.

  1. When it comes to a scientific review, “petitions are meaningless and only create paperwork.” That came from one manager who noted that the review process for an environmental regulatory process is often science-oriented. "It’s not political, so a demonstration of a large group of people opposed to a project is not a factor" when determining the objective, scientific weight of a matter. In general, a letter or petition signed by multiple parties is treated as one letter of comment. Of course, sometimes it is helpful to weigh the frequency of this or that particular comment. But given today’s automated systems for signing and sending petitions and letters, those sorts of submissions don’t carry the bang you expect for the buck of your time.
  2. That said, we do
    3. ...
Aug 25, 2014

Lessons from bishops gone solar

“The technological and operational bases for a true sustainable development are available or within reach.”

Those words, from the wrap-up statement of May’s Vatican sustainability conference, pose a challenge. Happily, this challenge has most recently been accepted by two bishops in North American dioceses.

Last week the Bishops of Stockton, California and Ogdensburg, New York announced solar energy projects that will do more than benefit those local churches. They also serve as models for other dioceses to follow.

The back-to-back announcements warranted the use of the social media “hashtag” #BishopsGoneSolar from Brian Roewe of the National Catholic Reporter. The appearance of this hashtag—words that serve as topic identifies in places like Twitter and Facebook, etc—is to me one of many indicators that we witnessing the dawn of a solar revolution in the Catholic Church.

In Stockton, Bishop Stephen Blaire announced that his diocese has joined forces with the Catholic Climate Covenant and Sungevity, a private firm specializing in solar power systems. The partnership allows Sungevity to offer new customers a $750 rebate while splitting an additional $750 between a participating parish, the diocesan Catholic Charities fund, and the Catholic Climate Covenant, which can then...

Aug 22, 2014

The greatest service

“Know that the greatest service that man can offer to God is to help convert souls.”

This quote, attributed to St. Rose of Lima, is helpful for Catholic ecologists and for any Christian engaged in worldly affairs. With her feast day today, it seems only right to consider why this soul-saving message is so important—and why it may sound so scandalous to a world busy making things better.

Providentially, this is also the message of an editorial posted yesterday by Carl E. Olson at Catholic World Report. Carl writes that

[t]he Church, as Francis quipped this past June, is “not a well-organised NGO full of pastoral plans.” No, the Church is missionary and it carries out the mission of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—the “trinitarian mission” (see CCC, 257)—which is to communicate the divine life to mankind, so that we can, by God's grace, be true children of God.

Now, I know how easy it is to get distracted from this mission. The troubles of the world are legion. If we are not too heavily weighed down by them our response may be to throw everything we have into fixing all that is broken, as...

Aug 17, 2014

Being heroes: Filipino Catholics care for creation

Few dioceses in the world can match the environmental enthusiasm, commitment, and action of the Archdiocese of Manila. Ecological activism is present from His Eminence Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle, to bishops, clergy, religious, and a great many lay faithful.

Take, for instance, the upcoming “Season of Creation.”

The Season formally begins on September 1st with a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Tagle, followed by a series of witnesses on the impacts of damaged ecosystems, a legislative update, and a host of other entertainment and educational activities, all wrapping up just after noon with the praying of the Angelus, led by His Excellency Bishop Reynaldo Evangelista.

Other events in September will include an essay writing contest, a coordinated day of shoreline cleanups to coincide with international efforts, and (following Mass) a walk to call attention to climate change, again to coordinate with similar marches around the world.

In all, for four consecutive Sundays—and the weeks in between—the archdiocese and local parishes will be calling attention to creation and humanity’s relationship with it. Various worldly and liturgical events will call upon the grace of God and will challenge the faithful—a challenge that begins with the event’s theme: Be Heroes!...

Aug 14, 2014

New at CWR: Toxins and Human Life

Thank you to Catholic World Report for publishing my latest eco-report, Toxins and Human Life.

The piece looks at the history of understanding toxins and their effects on human beings, especially the unborn. It also argues that the issue is one that Catholics should engage, as have the United States bishops. Why? And what might St. John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis have to say about the topic?

Read the piece for all this and more.

Aug 11, 2014

On fifteen years back home

Fifteen years ago this month I went to Sunday Mass for the first time in two decades. I returned to full Communion a few months later. Thus ended long stretches of post-Confirmation ex-Catholic agnosticism—years peppered with paganism and bouts of atheism.

The reason I came back is, first, God—the prime mover and shaker in our lives. But if you ask what was it about the Church that made me want to return, the answer is simple. The Church’s teachings are true. They solve and often prevent the problems we regularly face.

My decision to come home was due in large part to the fine, logically consistent answers that I received to all the many, many questions I asked clergy that I had become friendly with. (I was lucky to be invited—repeatedly—back to Mass by a joyful priest who didn’t mind all my questions. Nor did his brother priests.)

Keep in mind that I had been an environmental regulator for just over a decade when I went to Mass in August 1999. I had become aware that human governance and reason could only take us so far. And so I was open to answers about what else was needed for the...

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About the Blog

Catholic Ecology posts my regular column in the Rhode Island Catholic, as well as scientific and theological commentary about the latest eco-news, both within and outside of the Catholic Church. What is contained herein is but one person's attempt to teach and defend the Church's teachings - ecological and otherwise. As such, I offer all contents of this blog for approval of the bishops of the Church. It is my hope that nothing herein will lead anyone astray from truth.