University of Dayton Signs Climate Change Pledge

University of Dayton is doing their part to address the climate change. In November, University of Dayton President Eric Spina was among more than 150 leaders of Catholic universities, organizations and religious orders, including ACCU, who signed a letter urging President Donald Trump and Congress to reassert U.S. leadership in the global effort to address climate change.

The letter is from the Catholic Climate Covenant and ask for “funding the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.” Climate change has become on an increasing worldwide issue and catholic leaders across the world have affirmed climate change as a “moral issue that threatens core Catholic values, including the protection of human life, the promotion of human dignity, the advancement of the common good, the call to live in solidarity with future generations, and the care for God’s creation.” The University of Dayton, as a Catholic institution, holds firm these same values and have made these known by signing this important letter. In addition to taking this pledge, the University of Dayton was the first Catholic university in the nation to divest in fossil fuels and is a member of the U.N. Global Compact.

To read more about the University of Dayton’s efforts, view UD news.

Register for Catholic Climate Covenant Webinar on the Response to Climate Change

Join Catholic Climate Covenant on Thursday, November 2^nd at 2:00 pm (eastern) for a webinar titled “Faith and Science Responses to Storms, Wildfires, and Climate Change.” In light of the recent wildfires in California and hurricanes in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean, there is no better time to immerse yourself in this discussion. The webinar will address the question, “Is climate change to blame for the recent hurricanes and wildfires?” Register for this webinar to learn from top climate scientists about climate change and its effects.

Join Catholic Climate Covenant for their June Webinar

Join Catholic Climate Covenant for a webinar to explore international security issues and climate change on Thursday, June 22 at 2 p.m. Eastern time.  Key questions that will be addressed include:

• How are food and water scarcity, extreme weather events, poverty, political instability, and social tensions, exacerbated by climate change, particularly upon the most vulnerable peoples around the world?
• How do these impacts affect international security?
• How is the Catholic Church seeking to address them?

Speakers include Eric Garduno, Senior Policy and Legislative Specialist at Catholic Relief Services and Brigadier General Gerald Galloway, USA (Ret) and Advisory Board member of the Climate and Security Institute.

Register now!

Catholic College and University Leaders Sign Letter in Support of the Clean Power Plan

Faculty, staff, and presidents of Catholic institutions of higher education were among the 125 Catholic leaders who have signed a letter of support for the Clean Power Plan, promoted by the Catholic Climate Covenant. The Clean Power Plan is an effort by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reduce the carbon pollution of existing power plants by 30 percent by 2030. It is the nation’s most ambitious effort to reduce climate-changing greenhouse gas pollution. The letter stresses the Church teaching on the care for creation that is deeply connected to the protection of human life and dignity, especially of the poor and vulnerable. Pope Francis, in Laudato Si’, advocates for the reduction of carbon dioxide and other polluting gases emissions through environmental policy.

Currently, the Clean Power Plan is being challenged by nearly two-dozen states. No matter the legal fate of the policy, signers urge Congress to replace the plan with new policies that reduce carbon emissions in an equal or more ambitious way, joining with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The bishops promote policy action on reducing carbon emissions in response to Pope Francis’ call in Laudato Si’.

The letter was delivered on February 16 to the new EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, as well as President Trump, top Congressional leaders, and state governors. Read the full letter here.

Catholic Climate Covenant Webinar: “Just Transition”

Join Catholic Climate Covenant on Thursday, March 23 for their next webinar:

Just Transition: Shrinking our Carbon Footprint While Leaving No One Behind
2:00-3:00 p.m. (Eastern time)

Presenters: Dr. Erin Lothes Biviano, Assistant Professor of Theology at the College of Saint Elizabeth, New Jersey; and Dr. Jessica Wrobleski, Assistant Professor of Theology & Religious Studies at Wheeling Jesuit University, West Virginia.

REGISTER HERE

The webinar will focus on:

1) How poor and vulnerable communities bear the biggest burden of the impacts and consequences of climate change and how these same communities bear the biggest burden of the primary cause of climate change–fossil fuel extraction, transportation and combustion.

2) How we address the challenges of the transition to a clean energy economy and the rebuilding of communities left behind as we move away from a fossil-fuels based economy.

3) What Catholic Social Teaching has to say about a just transition to a clean energy economy and the communities impacted by the transition. Special focus will be given to Appalachia and how the decline of the coal economy has devastated an already forgotten region.

Climate Change and Human Health Webinar

Have you wondered how climate change is impacting our health and what steps we can take to reduce these impacts? Catholic Climate Covenant invites you to register for their upcoming webinar:

The Growing Crisis: Climate Change’s Impacts on Human Health


   Tuesday, November 22 from 3:00-4:00 pm (EST)

The webinar will explore:

• Why climate change is an issue for people of faith.
• How climate change is impacting health.
• Steps we can take to reduce our impact on climate change and address health problems related to climate change.

Presenter: Laura Anderko, Ph.D., RN, the Robert and Kathleen Scanlon Chair in Values Based Health Care at Georgetown University School of Nursing & Health Studies. She is a scholar and educator in the fields of epidemiology, public health, and environmental health.

REGISTER HERE

Join Catholic Climate Covenant for the Feast of St. Francis Webinar

In honor of the feast of St. Francis, Catholic Climate Covenant is hosting a webinar entitled Brothers in Faith: How the Poor Friar Paved the Way for the Pope of the Poor on Wednesday, October 5 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time.  The webinar will explore:

• The life of St. Francis of Assisi and how he came to be the patron saint of those who promote ecology;
• How St. Francis inspired Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si‘;
• The 2016 Feast of St. Francis program, “Dial Down the Heat: Cultivate the Common Good for our Common Home“.

Presenters include Fr. Michael Lasky, OFM Conv., Chairman of the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission, Our Lady of the Angels Province and Paz Artaza-Regan, Program Manager, Catholic Climate Covenant.  Register here for the webinar!

New Resources for Celebrating the Feast of St. Francis

The feast day of St. Francis of Assisi is celebrated on October 4. For this special occasion, Catholic Climate Covenant has created a 90 minute program guide focused on ways that we can help the environment as we try to emulate St. Francis’ care for the world that God created.  The guide and other documents can be edited to better fit your community.

The theme for this year’s St. Francis feast day will be “Dial Down the Heat: Cultivate the Common Good for our Common Home.” The focus will be on creating common ground to have constructive dialogue on climate change.  In the spirit of Pope Francis, this is an opportunity to have dialogue about the environmental impact on our poor communities.

The Catholic Climate Covenant is offering a program guide that includes:

• Facilitator’s guide and powerpoint presentation
• Prayers
• Short video with discussion questions
• Suggested group activities
• Advocacy activities
• A sample bulletin announcement
• A sample press release
• A promotional flyer

How do your campus celebrate the Feast of St. Francis and promote constructive dialogue on sustainability and climate change?  Let us know!

 

Save the Date for Feast of St. Francis 2016

On October 4, the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assissi. This year, Catholic Climate Covenant (CCC) invites us all to join them in making the Feast even more special, in honor of the one-year anniversary of Laudato Si’.

By registering with CCC, individuals, parishes, schools, and universities will have access to the following to the Feast of St. Francis program guide, which includes the following:

• Prayers and scripture readings
• Short video with discussion questions
• Activities
• Advocacy
• Resources

Registration will be available later this summer; however, it is never to early to begin plans to host events in honor of the Feast. CCC offers event resources just for colleges:

• From St. Francis to Pope Francis to You! Creating a Climate for Solidarity
• Melting Ice, Mending Creation
• Sun Come Up: Educational Initiative

Celebrating the Feast of St. Francis is a wonderful way to continue practicing the call to care for our common home. Be sure to continue checking CCC’s website for more details!

How will your college or university celebrate the Feast of St. Francis? Let us know! 

How Have you Been Inspired by Laudato Si’?

For the one-year anniversary of Laudato Si’, Catholic Climate Covenant invites us to join them in showing the world how we’ve been Inspired by Laudato Si’. Here’s how some members of the ACCU staff have been inspired:

The ACCU staff have been inspired by Laudato Si’ to conserve water in the office:

Laudato Si’ inspires the ACCU staff to use reusable water bottles or glasses instead of plastic water bottles:

Laudato Si’ inspires ACCU Vice President, Tom Mans, to take the Metro (even now!):

How have you been inspired by Laudato Si‘? Join the campaign!

1. Download either the “Inspired by Laudato Si’, I have…” or the “Inspired by Laudato Si’, I will…” campaign card.
2. Fill-in the card with an action you took that was inspired by the encyclical or an action you will take because of the Pope’s call to care for our common home. For examples, like taking the St. Francis Pledge, see CCC’s website.
3. Take a photo of you holding your card.
4. Post the photo to your Facebook or Twitter. Remember to include the hashtag #CreationCare and to challenge your friends and family by tagging them.