Category: fratelli Tutti

  • Green Junction: Carbon footprints By Julie Peller Ph.D.

    Leaders from countries with the largest carbon footprints recently met to discuss last November’s climate goals in Glasgow. An overall conclusion was that the necessary actions to reduce carbon emissions and slow climate change are not being implemented fast enough.  As an example, the world used 9% more coal in 2021 than in 2020. While we look…

  • Green Junction: The Band Coldplay by Julie Peller Ph.D.

    Many people and organizations are making the critical changes that are required for a sustainable planet. My students recently brought to my attention the eco-responsible actions of the music group Coldplay on their current world tour. The British band started their eco-friendly world tour this past March in Costa Rica, a country that the band…

  • Two Quotes from Thomas Merton: Do we understand violence?

    These two quotes from Thomas Merton are key to understanding and discovering the root cause of violence in our society. Violence is a symptom. A symptom generated by the root cause. If we only treat the symptom it will never end, we must as a society treat the root cause. Treating the root cause of…

  • Green Junction: Masks are becoming vogue again By Julie Peller Ph.D.

    Health protection measures throughout the pandemic have involved an enormous amount of one-use plastics. These have included personal protective equipment (masks, gloves, gowns), take-home food packaging, test kits, syringes, wipes, and more, unfortunately intensifying the global plastic waste problem. Billions of disposable masks, mostly made of a plastic called polypropylene, have been used and thrown…

  • Green Junction: Existential Threat to Human Health by Julie Peller Ph.D. threat to human health 

    A newly released article describes modern-day pollution levels as “an existential threat to human health and planetary health, and jeopardizes the sustainability of modern societies.” The authors studied 2019 data from Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors and determined that 9 million people, or 1 in 6 people, die each year due to…

  • Green Junction: We take for granted Water by Julie Peller Ph.D.

    Many areas worldwide experience shortages of fresh water and/or severe problems with contaminated water supplies. At the same time, populations of people use significant amounts of water to create unnatural green lawns through daily watering and overuse of fertilizers. In contrast, Nature’s rainfall is concentrated along or near the equator; daily rain is rare in…

  • Easter and the East, They Get it!

    Indeed He is Risen!  In the East, you have Jesus holding the hand of Adam and Eve and leading them out of Hades. Keep in mind Hades is not Hell, as we think in the West it is just the place where the dead go.   In this painting of the resurrection, We see God’s outreach…

  • “What does Love have to do with it?”

    Does evolution always win in The end? Is violence why empires grow and fall?  The evolution of the universe and the particular species on this plant adopt a change to survive. It is why viruses mutate. One of the differences in humans is humans are prone to addictions. And violence and violence against their own…

  • Something To Think About during Holy Week

    The reason we study history is to understand patterns, history doesn’t repeat, but the designs replicate. Please think of the US in our current state of affairs. Do we have a big völkisch church brewing in the US? Maybe the völkisch church in the US will be multi-denominational? It is essential to study comparative religions…

  • Green Junction: Carbon footprints by Julie Peller Ph.D.

    Leaders from countries with the largest carbon footprints recently met to discuss last November’s climate goals in Glasgow. An overall conclusion was that the necessary actions to reduce carbon emissions and slow climate change are not being implemented fast enough.  As an example, the world used 9% more coal in 2021 than in 2020. While we look…