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Khasi People Continue to Protest Destruction of their Forest May 20th, 2009
The Khasi people of Sylhet, supported by the Oblates there, have been fighting the cutting of the forest on which the people depend for their living. These efforts are also critically important for protecting area ecosystems.
On May 9th, the Khasi people staged a large public gathering to protest the continued logging as well as tea plantation expansion plans by a powerful landowner.
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Protect the Poor While Caring for God’s Creation April 22nd, 2009
As Americans celebrate Earth Day by leaving our cars at home or volunteering to make the world a greener place, the Catholic Church is making a distinctive contribution to the climate change debate.
A newly unveiled Catholic Climate Covenant calls for action to protect the poor AND care for God’s Creation.
This unprecedented initiative asks Catholics “Who Is Under Your Carbon Footprint?”
The Catholic Climate Covenant asks the nation’s 65 million Catholics to connect their religious values with care for the Earth, to learn how climate change affects poverty-stricken regions, and to lobby legislators on behalf of the poor.
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Socially Responsible Investors Call for Transition to a Low-Carbon, Socially Sustainable Economy April 15th, 2009
Umbrella organizations for the sustainable and responsible finance industry, including the Social Investment Forum, of which the Oblates are a member, have issued an important statement on transforming global capital markets.
They contend that “the current economic crisis affords a unique opportunity and imperative to transition to a low-carbon, resource efficient and socially sustainable economy.” The groups thus have called upon world leaders to respond to the economic challenge facing the global economy by incorporating sustainability and social responsibility measures into both the economic stimulus packages for short-term recovery and the longer-term reform of the credit and investment markets.
Read the full statement (Download PDF)
Tea Estate Expansion Threatens Bangladeshi Khasi People and Forest March 15th, 2009
In early January 2009, the Zhimai Tea Estate Authority cut-down a number of trees in the Pan-zoom of Zhimai. Thousands of trees have been demarcated to be felled and construction of labor-quarters has begun in an expansion of the tea garden. This activity threatens displacement of the indigenous Khasi people of Zhimai Punji, and directly interferes with their livelihood, which depends on the betel plant which grows on tall trees. Apart from the destruction of the land & livelihood of the Khasi, the tree felling severely affects the bio-diversity, and overall environment of the hills & forest of Sylhet Division, Bangladesh.
Fr. Joseph Gomes, OMI has been working with the Khasi people and APRA (Adibashi Poribesh Roskhya Andolon), the movement administered by BAPA, a national Bangladeshi environmental organization, for the protection & conservation of Bangladeshi forests.
Read report on the forest destruction (Download PDF)
The Integrity of Creation and the Athabasca Oil Sands February 9th, 2009
Luc Bouchard, Bishop of St. Paul in Alberta, Canada has issued a strong statement calling the extraction of oil from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada morally wrong and saying it is causing widespread environmental destruction. He links this extraction to the problems of human consumption of resources and wasteful life styles.
The term “tar sands”, known in the US as oil sands, refers to bitumin, a thick oil that is mixed in with sand, clay, and water. Intensive energy is required to process the sands into crude oil. Tar Sands oil is the world’s most harmful type of oil for the atmosphere, emitting high volumes of greenhouse gases during development, contributing to global warming, as well as other pollutants.
Here are some extracts from the Bishop’s Pastoral Letter, with a link to the Letter in its entirety.:
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