Free Republic

In the opening chapters of “Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning,” Yale professor Timothy Snyder forcefully acknowledged what he calls the “ecological” Anti-Semitism of the Fuhrer, “An instructive account of the mass murder of the Jews of Europe must be planetary, because Hitler’s thought was ecological, treating Jews as a wound of nature.” In spite of such an assertion, however, the great caveat of Snyder’s book is he inexplicably fails to discuss the Nazi ecological historical record that should have informed his thesis ...

The unique display, on one of the world's most recognisable structures, was aimed at sparking conversations about mass extinction. Pictures of snow leopards, tigers and various sea creatures were shown. A 350ft (106m) image of Cecil, the famous lion killed in Zimbabwe earlier this month, also appeared. [Snip] In all 160 species were shown, including marine mammals, insects, and even the shadow of King Kong climbing up the building.

LAUDATO SI’ A letter from Pope Francis on the Care of our Common Home “Praise be to You” (“Laudato Si”) – Pope Francis’ environmental letter --- is a different kind of encyclical, and invites a different kind of response from most of its predecessors. In this essay I hope to put the spotlight on the ways this encyclical is unprecedented, and also selectively highlight its positive contributions to Catholic Social Thought. Historically, encyclicals were any official teaching letters concerning Catholic doctrine on faith and morals. They were sometimes addressed to bishops in a particular area, or sometimes to the bishops...

Morris tells me the recyclical Laudato Si’ is subtitled: “Pope Francesco’s Amazing Climate Theatre,” and how appropriate this is. The recyclical provides fun for all the family: there’s something in the show for everyone: global warming enthusiasts, liberals, Buddhists, atheists, New Age hippies, greens, and everyone who enjoys those lovely pictures of Saint Francis surrounded by corgis, hummingbirds and My Little Pony, without asking awkward questions like, “What did Francis say about sin?” At the heart of this recyclical is the popular image of Saint Francis surrounded by cuddly animals, and this is where we find the real theological and...

Accelerated modern human–induced species losses: Entering the sixth mass extinction There have been papers which show that species and area relationships always overestimate extinctions. Ehrlich became well known for his controversial 1968 book The Population Bomb, which asserted that the world's human population would soon increase to the point where mass starvation ensued Among the measures he suggested in that book was population control, to be used in his opinion if voluntary methods were to fail.

The purpose of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si is to promote “ecological awareness,” “ecological conversion,” and to advance responsible “ecological citizenship”. Everything else in the document – everything else – is meant to serve this final goal. Even the most “Catholic parts” of the document at the end – where there is mention of the Eucharist, the Blessed Trinity, Our Lady, St. Joseph – ­are not for the sake of leading people in devotion to these Divine goods as ends in themselves, but to provide a basis to spur us toward ecological awareness and ecological conversion. Laudato Si is a blatant...

A Vatican insider asserts that Pope Francis has scrapped the draft of his encyclical letter on the environment and sent it back for major revision. The letter was slated for publication in early summer, but now may not be ready until much later, he suggests. Citing sources within the Santa Marta residence where the Pope lives, veteran Vatican journalist Sandro Magister has written that “Francis has scrubbed the draft” of the text presented to him by Argentinian Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández, perhaps foreseeing that Cardinal Gerhard Müller of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith “would have demolished it” once...

Carbon dioxide emissions help tropical rainforests grow faster: Study shows trees absorb more greenhouse gas than expected

It’s a joy to happen upon an old friend, to again hear his style of speaking and his way of engaging the world. When the old friend is Benedict XVI, however, things quickly move beyond the sentimental. So it goes with The Garden of God: Toward a Human Ecology (The Catholic University of America Press, 2014), a helpful compilation of Benedict XVI’s many, many statements about preserving life on earth. Given that discussions of ecology polarize a great many along worldly ideological fault lines, one of the benefits of The Garden of God lies in remembering how Benedict XVI,...

Earth Day is a good time to look back and reflect upon the more dire predictions regarding the environment and life on earth. Here are some from 1970, Earth Day’s inaugural year.“…civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.” -Biologist George Wald, Harvard University, April 19, 1970. By 1995, “…somewhere between 75 and 85 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.” -Sen. Gaylord Nelson, quoting Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, Look magazine, April 1970. Because of increased dust, cloud cover and water vapor “…the planet will cool, the...

Ruth Patrick, whose studies of freshwater ecology in the 1930s helped galvanize the later environmental movement and whose success in a profession dominated by men charted a course for other female scientists, died Sept. 23 at a retirement community in Lafayette Hill, Pa. She was 105.

A man in Zimbabwe got the surprise of his life when he discovered an eight-foot crocodile lying under his bed. Guy Whittall slept through the night at a Humani lodge, where he also works, without any idea what was lying beneath him. It was only after he got out of bed to eat breakfast and heard the screams of a housekeeper that he saw the crocodile.

...it is easy to overlook the fact that there are still virulent strains of fascism in our political culture which, however marginal, demand our attention. One of the least recognized or understood of these strains is the phenomenon one might call "actually existing ecofascism," that is, the preoccupation of authentically fascist movements with environmentalist concerns. In order to grasp the peculiar intensity and endurance of this affiliation, we would do well to examine more closely its most notorious historical incarnation, the so-called "green wing" of German National Socialism. Despite an extensive documentary record, the subject remains an elusive one, underappreciated...

Professor Gasman’s "Haeckel’s Monism and the Birth of Fascist Ideology" provides insights into the coherent fascist intellectual doctrine that, by 1920, was embraced by a wide swath of European academics and artists. Defining features of this cohort were: They referred to themselves as: ecologists, naturalists and socio-biologists. They were pseudo-scientists bent on subverting real science. Their mantras were: natural, holistic, and organic. Their Religion of Nature was basically a revival of Pantheism. They worshipped Earth as a divine living organism. Human achievements were disparaged as scant and fleeting compared to Nature’s glory. They desired scientist-led governance. Scientists probed Nature’s divine...

(They)… changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.(Romans 1:25)The apostle Paul described the degeneration of Ancient society in a way that is prophetic of what we see happening in the decay of our own formerly Judeo Christian world. The downward trajectory goes like this, * The refusal to acknowledge God as creator…(Secularism) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is...

Enlarge Image Future food? Cellulose from switchgrass and other nonfood plants might be converted into edible starch to feed the hungry. Credit: Peggy Greb/ARS/USDA The main ingredient of wood, cellulose, is one of the most abundant organic compounds on Earth and a dream source of renewable fuel. Now, bioengineers suggest that it could feed the hungry as well. In a new study, researchers have found a way to turn cellulose into starch, the most common carbohydrate in the human diet. Ethanol is today's most common biofuel used to power vehicles. It's typically made using sugars from crop plants such...

On February 11, 2013, the Denver Post ran a guest commentary of great clinical interest. In the piece in question, Colorado State University philosophy professor Philip Cafaro advanced the argument that immigration needs to be sharply cut, because otherwise people from Third World nations will come to the United States and become prosperous, thereby adding to global warming. “And make no mistake: Immigrants are not coming to the United States to remain poor,” warns the philosopher. “Those hundreds of millions of new citizens will want to live as well and consume energy at the same rates as other Americans. ....

Meteorologist Brian Sussman blows whistle on president's scheme The environmentalist movement isn’t about protecting the environment at all, according to meteorologist-turned-journalist Brian Sussman. It’s about destroying private property, controlling behavior, and expanding government – and the Obama administration has a secret plan to further all of it, he says. Sussman is now blowing the whistle on the real nature of environmentalism in his explosive brand-new book, “Eco-Tyranny.” He reveals secret memos from inside Obama’s Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, outlining a covert plan “to pursue a program of land consolidation” for the federal government to secure tens of millions...

Plans to use surface-to-air missiles to protect the skies over London during the Olympics could be thwarted – because they will disturb the habitat of a rare wild flower.

There was a time when being a charity meant doing something real, something tangible. Operating a soup kitchen. Providing medical help to those in need overseas. Helping orphans here in Canada. Providing valuable goods or services. That’s real charity work. No longer. Now it appears that hyper-political lobbying can count as charitable work too. Yes, you can be a full-time whiner, and that counts as charity work! There’s actually a veritable industry of these professional moaners, these full-time nit-pickers. The green fundamentalists are perhaps just the most vocal example of this phenomenon. There’s no shortage of radical greens getting generous...