Biden’s ‘gaffe’ is the truth: Oil is history

Former vice president Joe Biden walks past solar panels on a tour of the Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative in Plymouth, N.H., in June 2019. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

Opinion by
Catherine Rampell
WAPO Columnist
Oct. 26, 2020 at 4:21 p.m. MDT

A flub, a gaffe, a red flag for radicalism. At the final presidential debate last week, Democratic nominee Joe Biden stumbled worse than he has in ages — at least according to Republicans.

“I would transition away from the oil industry, yes,” Biden said, after President Trump accused him of wanting to not only dismantle the oil industry but also force the end of fossil fuels more broadly. “The oil industry pollutes, significantly,” Biden added, and “it has to be replaced by renewable energy over time.”

Sure, it was an inelegant (and politically damaging) representation of Biden’s views, as evidenced by cleanup work his campaign needed to do over subsequent days. But Biden’s underlying claim — that fossil fuels will eventually need to be supplanted by renewables — is only radical if you’re still working off of decades-old facts.

Recent, unexpectedly rapid technological improvement in renewables and battery technology has made clear that fossil fuels will eventually get phased out no matter what the government does. The only question is whether political leaders speed this process up or slow it down — and whether they help workers displaced by the inevitable change.

In the years since the GOP developed its talking points about the pain of transitioning from fossil fuels, the energy industry has changed dramatically. While no one was looking, solar, wind and battery technology got a lot cheaper, a lot faster, than almost anyone forecast — partly thanks to Chinese industrial policy — and thus renewable energy sources have grown increasingly competitive with fossil fuels.

In fact, the International Energy Agency’s new World Energy Outlook found that solar photovoltaics are “consistently cheaper than new coal- or gas-fired power plants in most countries, and solar projects now offer some of the lowest cost electricity ever seen.” Because of government subsidies, renewable prices are still lower today than they’d otherwise be — but even so, the main reason prices have fallen so fast is that technology has improved so dang much.

In short, this means that traditional sources of energy are much less economically attractive. In fact, in the United States, it has become cheaper to build and operate an entirely new wind or solar plant than it is to continue operating an existing coal one, according to Gregory Nemet, a University of Wisconsin at Madison professor and author of “How Solar Energy Became Cheap.” Upfront capital-equipment costs have fallen, and once the equipment is installed, wind and sunshine are essentially free; by contrast, coal plants still have to pay for the coal and the people to operate the plants.

Legacy fossil fuels are therefore being phased out on their own, regardless of the regulatory environment.

“The Republicans are intentionally ignoring that fact because they want fossil fuel supporters to think it’s the Democrats that are against them, not just impersonal ‘market forces,’ ” said University of Illinois economist Don Fullerton.

Indeed, despite Trump’s efforts to prop up coal, coal-fired electricity generation has declined faster under this president than it did in the previous four years under supposedly overregulating President Barack Obama.

As much improvement as there’s been in batteries, storage technology still needs further advances before a complete transition to renewables becomes viable. In the meantime, we’re probably stuck with natural gas as a stopgap measure. Natural gas has also become much, much cheaper over the past decade, also thanks to technological change (i.e., fracking). And while natural gas still contributes to climate change, with sufficient oversight, it’s much less polluting than the energy sources it has largely replaced.

Similarly, in the fossil-fuel-intensive transportation sector, there have been massive advances in batteries and electric vehicles. We still have a long way to go before electric cars fully replace gas-powered ones; and that time will probably be prolonged by insufficient battery-charging infrastructure, plus the many years of life left on the gas vehicles Americans already own. But this shift is coming, too.

This is part of the reason even the usually bullish OPEC recently forecast that developed countries have passed “peak oil” — not because a Democrat might win the White House, but because other technologies have become more attractive.

Even so, politicians can make a difference, and they should, particularly faced with the existential crisis of climate change. They can try to accelerate the pace of change, and bring the United States into the clean-energy future faster, including by eliminating fossil-fuel subsidies and taxing carbon (Biden hasn’t endorsed a carbon tax, but economists almost universally do), and helping fossil-fuel-driven communities transition to new industries.


Or, like Trump, they can try to slow down the inevitable.

Attack Drones Dominating Tanks as Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict Showcases the Future of War

On Oct 26, 2020

Azerbaijan’s Turkish and Israeli drones are wiping out tanks, artillery, and soldiers as the Armenians lose ground in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

STEPANAKERT, Nagorno-Karabakh—Stretched on a gurney, a soldier lies wrapped in gauze. Fifty percent of his body is burned, even inside his throat and lungs, says one of the paramedics in the back of the ambulance, which is making a seven-hour drive from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia’s capital Yerevan. War broke out almost one month ago between Azerbaijan and Armenia over a disputed border territory.

The ambulance snuck out of Stepanakert in between air raid sirens, as Azerbaijani shelling of the city picked up again after a six-day break. Only the soldier’s burned lips, a small part of the nose and his burnt eyelashes are showing. His hopes of survival are tied to a beeping respirator and the two paramedics constantly injecting him with morphine and saline solutions.

Reporters have been kept away from soldiers and the direct impact of the war in recent days, but plans scrambled by the reinvigorated shelling of Stepanakert lead to The Daily Beast suddenly finding ourselves in the back of this ambulance, being given an accidental glimpse at the human consequences of the war.

Kamikaze drones purchased from Israel have been used to devastating effect by Azerbaijan. These small craft also known as loitering munitions are able to surveil targets including tanks, artillery installations or troops before blowing themselves up. Larger Turkish drones are also flying high above the disputed region and launching missile strikes.

While the soldier in the ambulance has been unable to tell medics how he was so badly wounded, his head injuries and extensive burns are consistent with what they have seen with drone strikes, one doctor at the hospital in Stepanakert told The Daily Beast.

“He was damaged on the front line,” says one of the paramedics in the ambulance, “We see many of these injuries. We need help here. We need to stop the war. It is terrible what is happening.”

Before leaving the war zone and entering the relative safety of Armenia, there is a problem with the respirator. A female paramedic starts pumping air into the wounded soldiers’ lungs manually. As they are about to lose the soldier, the ambulance comes to a full stop, while the driver is trying to get the motorized system running again. Shelling can be heard in the distance.

The mountains cause the sound to echo, making it hard to tell whether the shelling is close or far, but that does not hide the discomfort of the crew forced to pull over in the midst of another bombing.

A Bloody War In the Making

The war in Nagorno-Karabakh, which was almost entirely controlled by the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh, broke out on Sept. 27. Artsakh is a small mountainous pocket in the Caucasus which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but has been claiming independence for almost 30 years. The population is almost entirely ethnic Armenian and the breakaway state is supported by Armenia. The republic declared independence after the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which lasted from the late 1980s to 1994, claiming 30,000 lives.

Since then, the dispute over the region has continued. The two sides fought a four-day war in 2016, but the current battles are the worst fighting the region has seen since the devastating war in the ‘90s. Armenia says it has lost around 900 servicemen, while Azerbaijan does not declare its death toll. However, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, nearly 5,000 people have already died, and there are several reports about the huge loss of military hardware such as tanks on both sides despite two ceasefires negotiated in Moscow with Russia as the main mediator.

Everywhere in Stepanakert windows are shattered, cars and buildings are destroyed.

The ceasefires have already been broken and the crisis is of global significance. Nagorno-Karabakh is located next to regional superpowers such as Turkey, which support Azerbaijan militarily and politically in the conflict. At the same time, Russia has a defensive pact with Armenia, making the situation tense. The Republic of Artsakh is also located next to Iran, a major player in the region.

“We must be attentive that the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan does not become a regional war,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said, according to BBC.

We have for a long time declared tanks to be dead without it happening… but tanks have not done well in the current crisis

— Ian Williams, missile defense expert

The war is also attracting increased attention in Washington, D.C. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had leaders from both Azerbaijan and Armenia over for seemingly fruitless talks, while Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), among others, has called for an immediate ceasefire.

“Azerbaijan’s aggressive actions, fully supported by Turkey in Nagorno-Karabakh and against Armenia, must stop,” said Markey. “Since Azerbaijan continues its attempts to resolve this conflict through the illegal use of military force, the international community will be left with no choice but to move to recognize the independence of the Republic of Artsakh.”

He Is About to Die

Back in the ambulance, the soldier is fighting for his life. Occasionally he seems to regain consciousness for just long enough to gasp with pain. Before the ambulance took off towards the Armenian capital Yerevan, the stream of ambulances carrying wounded soldiers with empty stares and missing limbs from Stepanakert had been temporarily forced to stop. The air raid sirens started screaming over Stepanakert for the first time in several days, as Azerbaijani forces struck the city with what was reportedly both airplanes and artillery. Doctors, nurses and patients ran to the basement in one of the city’s hospitals while explosions were heard nearby, shaking the bunker.

We can see them on our radar, but [the Turkish drones] fly too high for us to shoot them down

— Vladimir Vartanyan, military analyst for the Republic of Artsakh

One doctor in the bunker, who did not want to give his name due to restrictions on speaking to the media, told The Daily Beast that around 1,000 soldiers and 300 to 400 civilians had been declared dead at three hospitals in Artsakh, to his knowledge. These numbers point to far more casualties than the 900 officially reported by the Ministry of Defense in Artsakh, especially as some soldiers’ bodies are never retrieved from the front line.

“We see many soldiers with burn and head injuries,” says the doctor pointing to a room in the bunker where a soldier with severe brain injury is undergoing surgery. “The Turkish drones used by Azerbaijan are often giving the soldiers brain damage.”

He is referring to the Azerbaijani use of Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones, which are penetrating the Artsakh defenses, despite assistance from Armenia.

“We Cannot Shoot it Down”

Open source analysis gathered by Forbes magazine has tracked the destruction by drones of around 200 tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and armored personnel carriers, plus 300 soft-skinned military vehicles as well as radars, short-range air defense systems, and missile launch vehicles.

The Armenians have no such drone army with which to strike back at Azerbaijaini targets.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Suren Sarumyan, a spokesman for the Artsakh Defense Ministry, claimed that the Republic of Artsakh has been able to shoot down several drones but he accepted that the unmanned aerial assault vehicles were taking a toll.

“Drones do make an impact on the front line, but our soldiers are among the strongest in the world because they stand firm and fight hard,” said Sarumyan, “The secret to that is that our soldiers defend their home, and it is very difficult to defeat them, even with all the world’s drones.”

While the military claims they can shoot down drones such as the Bayraktar TB2, Vladimir Vartanyan, a military analyst who is part of the press department of the Republic of Artsakh, disagrees.

“We can see them on our radar, but [the Turkish drones] fly too high for us to shoot them down,” he said. He explained that much of the Artsakh defenses are remnants from 1991 to 1994 and badly in need of an upgrade “We use everything that we have now because this is total war,” he said. “In my opinion, we need to buy some Russian systems, which have experience in shooting down these drones in Syria.”

With Azerbaijan reported to be making large territorial gains in the southern part of Nagorno-Karabakh, Vartanyan said: “It is essential that we start to shoot them down very quickly.”

Azerbaijan has previously confirmed that it is using Turkish drones in the war, according to Middle East Eye.

Ian Williams, an expert in missile defense and missile proliferation at the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The Daily Beast that what we see right now in Nagorno-Karabakh is the evolution of warfare.

“We have for a long time declared tanks to be dead without it happening. However, the Armenian tanks have not done well in the current crisis,” said Williams. “Drones are relatively cheap for countries that would not normally be able to afford air support. The current crisis shows us what kind of damage they can do to an opponent without drones.”

He Might Not Make it

A paramedic holds the soldier’s head as the ambulance makes its way up and down through the mountains. The respirator is working again, and the sound of it pumping air into the soldier’s lungs resumes. On the way to Yerevan, one of the paramedics gets the news that a friend has died near the front line. An atmosphere of grief descends on the ambulance as reports continue to come in of air attacks in several cities in the Republic of Artsakh.

As Yerevan approaches, the soldier starts to move his arms involuntarily while his chest spasms. The situation is eased by another morphine shot, but the paramedic shakes his head when asked whether the soldier will be safe once he reaches the hospital in Armenia’s capital.

“The injuries might just be too much,” he says.

Source: Attack Drones Dominating Tanks as Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict Showcases the Future of War

Increasing indigenous property rights could help save the rainforest


Researchers say that giving full property rights in the Brazilian rainforest to indigenous tribes lowers deforestation rates and increases carbon sequestration. Photo by sdblack0/Pixabay

Aug. 11 (UPI) -- To protect the Amazonian rainforest, new research suggests full property rights for tribal lands be extended to Brazil's indigenous communities.

For the study, researchers at the University California, San Diego, used satellite data of vegetation coverage in the Amazon rainforest to study deforestation patterns between 1982 and 2016. Scientists compared the results of their mapping efforts with Brazilian government records of indigenous property rights.

The analysis, detailed Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed land owned fully and collectively by local tribes featured a 66 percent reduction in deforestation rates.

"Indigenous traditional land use, based on collective ownership, has been associated with the preservation of a land's biodiversity," researcher Kathryn Baragwanath, postdoctoral candidate in the political science department at UCSD, told UPI.

One study published earlier this year showed land stewardship by indigenous communities was associated with greater levels of carbon sequestration.

Baragwanath said these positive ecological impacts are strengthened when indigenous communities have the full scope of property rights and legal tools to defend tribal lands from commercial interests.

"These legal rights ensure that the boundaries can no longer be contested, the territory is registered in the national land registry, the government is constitutionally responsible for protecting the territories and the territorial resources are considered to belong to indigenous peoples," she said.

When conducting their analysis, Baragwanath and researchers accounted for variables besides indigenous property rites -- including proximity to roads, mining projects and rivers, elevation, population density and rainfall.

In Brazil, the process of gaining full property rights, called homologation, is complex -- at least partially because government agencies there have been slow to review applications, researchers said.

Often, as the process plays out at a snail's pace, commercial interests will start illegal mining or logging, so they can later argue that they've established "productive use of land," researchers said.

To protect the Amazon and the region's remaining forests, Baragwanath suggests Brazil's government strengthen their environmental agencies.

"Public policy should focus on granting full property rights to the indigenous peoples who have not yet received their rights," she said.

Humans   EUROPEAN COLONIALISTS have been degrading the American tropics for 500 years

The Muriqui-do-sol is one of the primate species that has become locally extinction across much of its former range. Photo by Mariana Landis - Wildlife Ecology, Management, and Conservation Lab (LEMaC)

Sept. 15 (UPI) -- New research suggests human activities have damaged ecosystems across the American tropics over the last 500 years, leading to significant declines in biodiversity.

For the study, scientists surveyed records of mammal assemblages at more than 1,000 different Neotropical dig sites published over the last 30 years. Assemblages comprise fossil evidence of co-existing species in a particular location.

The data helped researchers establish a record of biodiversity dating back to the colonial era and stretching across 23 countries, from the Southern United States and Mexico to Argentina and Chile.

The makeup of assemblages over time showed human activities, including farming, logging, fires and overhunting, were the primary cause of local extinctions and assemblage downsizing, or reductions in mammal body sizes.

RELATED Herbivores at greater risk of extinction than carnivores

On average, researchers found 56 percent of the local wildlife within mammal assemblages were wiped out during the last 500 years.

Often, habitat degradation and biodiversity losses are thought of as a strictly post-industrial phenomenon, but the latest research -- published Tuesday in the journal Scientific Reports -- serves as a reminder that humans have been negatively impacting wildlife for several centuries.

"Our findings can be used to inform international conservation policies to prevent further erosion of, or restore, native biodiversity," lead study author Juliano André Bogoni said in a news release.

RELATED Hunting threatens one of the world's largest bird migrations

"Further conservation efforts should be mobilized to prevent the most faunally-intact biomes, such as Amazonia and the Pantanal wetlands," said Bogoni, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of East Anglia in Britain.

Researchers hope their findings will inspire conservationists, the voting public and policy makers to ensure current wildlife protections and land preservation efforts are maintained and strengthened.

"Greater investment should be allocated to more effective control of illegal hunting, particularly commercial hunting, deforestation, and anthropogenic fires, as well as ensure that fully implemented protected areas are working," Bogoni said.

RELATED Demand for agricultural products pushing primates to brink of extinction

Researchers said environmental policy makers must be careful in the approach.

"Sound resource management should be sensitive to the socioeconomic context, while recruiting rather than antagonizing potential local alliances who can effectively fill the institutional void in low-governance regions," said co-author Carlos Peres, a professor at UEA.

While the latest research showed human activities have been harming Neotropical wildlife for 500 years, rates of extinction and habitat losses have accelerated since industrialization, especially over the last several decades. Widespread degradation wasn't always the reality in the Neotropics.

"Hominins and other mammals have co-existed since the earliest Paleolithic hunters wielding stone tools some three million years ago. Over this long timescale biodiversity losses have only recently accelerated to breakneck speeds since the industrial revolution," Peres said.

"Let us make sure that this relentless wave of local extinctions is rapidly decelerated, or else the prospects for Neotropical mammals and other vertebrates will look increasingly bleak," he said.


upi.com/7038134

Accessible healthcare could slow climate change, reverse biodiversity losses



A healthcare clinic in Indonesia was able to curb illegal logging by offering service discounts to villagers who participated in community-wide conservation efforts. Photo by Stephanie Gee

Oct. 26 (UPI) -- To protect forests and vulnerable ecosystems, erect healthcare clinics. That's what nonprofit organizers did in Indonesia, where deforestation rates in neighboring Gunung Palung National Park declined dramatically during the first 10 years of the clinic's operation.

The affordable healthcare clinic was set up in 2007 by a pair of nonprofits, Alam Sehat Lestari and Health In Harmony. Prior to the arrival of the clinic, the forests of Gunung Palung were shrinking annually as a result of uncontrolled illegal logging.


To curb the losses, the clinic offered discounted services to villages that enacted community-wide logging reductions and other conservation-minded reforms.

Researchers described the clinic's environmental and public health successes in a new paper, published Monday in the journal PNAS.

"This innovative model has clear global health implications," study co-author Michele Barry, senior associate dean of global health at Stanford University and director of the Center for Innovation in Global Health, said in a news release. "Health and climate can and should be addressed in unison, and done in coordination with and respect for local communities."

In addition to offering community-wide discounts pegged to reductions in logging, the clinic also provided healthcare services for barter, allowing villagers to pay with tree seedlings, handicrafts and labor.

Health data collected by the clinic revealed a significant drop in infectious and non-communicable diseases between 2007 and 2017. Satellite data showed that deforestation rates in the forests surrounding the clinic and villages receiving service declined 70 percent compared to control plots far from the clinic.

"We didn't know what to expect when we started evaluating the program's health and conservation impacts, but were continually amazed that the data suggested such a strong link between improvements in health care access and tropical forest conservation," said lead study author Isabel Jones, recent recipient of a doctoral degree in biology from Stanford.

Researchers found that the biggest reductions in logging occurred surrounding the villages that used the healthcare clinic the most.

More than a third of protected forests around the globe are either owned, managed, used or occupied by indigenous groups and local communities, but conservation planning and regulatory decision rarely involves input from these communities.

The opposite was true in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, where nonprofit leaders met regularly with local villages to come up with a strategy for protecting the environment while also meeting the region's public health needs.

Researchers suggest the clinic's success can serve as a model for conservation and public health initiatives all over the world.

"The data support two important conclusions: human health is integral to the conservation of nature and vice versa, and we need to listen to the guidance of rainforest communities who know best how to live in balance with their forests," said Monica Nirmala, the executive director of the clinic from 2014 to 2018 and current board member of Health In Harmony.

Galapagos sees record rise in penguins, flightless cormorants
2020/10/24 

©Agence France-Presse


The population of Galapagos penguins and flightless cormorants, two species endemic to the islands, has seen a record increase, study results released Friday showed.

The Galapagos penguin is one of the smallest species of penguins in the world, measuring up to 35 centimeters, and the cormorants on the islands are the only type to have lost their ability to fly -- but they have developed diving skills.

"The number of cormorants has reached a record number, according to historical data dating back to 1977, while the number of penguins is at the highest since 2006," said a statement from the Galapagos National Park, which carried out the census.

The population of Galapagos penguins, the only ones living on the Earth's equator, increased from 1,451 in 2019 to 1,940 in 2020, it added.

Flightless cormorant numbers increased from 1,914 to 2,220 over the same period.

The study was carried out by the park and the Charles Darwin Foundation in September with the main colonies present on the Isabela and Fernandina islands and on the Marielas islets, to the west of the archipelago classified as a natural heritage site.

Paulo Proano, Ecuadorian minister of environment and water, said the census results reflect the "good state of health of the population" of birds in the archipelago, located some 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) off the Ecuadorian coast, according to the park.

The park said the presence of the La Nina climatic phenomenon, which helps to provide more food for the birds, has contributed to the increase in their populations.

Another factor was the coronavirus pandemic, which has limited disturbances to nesting areas because of the drop in tourism, the park added.

The islands, which served as a natural laboratory for the English scientist Charles Darwin for his theory of the evolution of species, takes its name from the giant tortoises that live there.

Trump accuses media of ‘election law violation’ for reporting on COVID-19 pandemic

Published on October 26, 2020 By Brad Reed

President Donald Trump during an interview with 60 Minutes. (Screenshot/Twitter)


President Donald Trump on Monday accused the American media of trying to illegally interfere in the 2020 presidential election by accurately reporting on the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“We have made tremendous progress with the China Virus, but the Fake News refuses to talk about it this close to the Election,” the president wrote. “COVID, COVID, COVID is being used by them, in total coordination, in order to change our great early election numbers. Should be an election law violation!”

The president’s accusations against the news media comes as the average number of new COVID-19 infections hit a record high over the weekend.

According to the COVID-19 Tracking Project, there have been an average of 68,954 infections per day over the past seven days.

Despite the fact that infections are hitting record highs, the president has continued to claim that the United States has “rounded the corner” on the pandemic.

We have made tremendous progress with the China Virus, but the Fake News refuses to talk about it this close to the Election. COVID, COVID, COVID is being used by them, in total coordination, in order to change our great early election numbers.Should be an election law violation!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2020

 

Poll finds majority of Catholics hold some concern about climate change

Oct 26, 2020

by Dennis Sadowski, Catholic News Service

 

Action

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A coal-fired power-plant is seen along the Ohio River in Moundsville, W.Va., in this 2017 file photo. A preelection poll finds that a large majority of Catholic voters have some concern about climate change. (CNS/Reuters/Brian Snyder)

CLEVELAND — A large majority of Catholic voters believe climate change is a serious or somewhat serious concern and that governments at all levels as well as corporations and individuals must take stronger action to address it, according to results of a new poll released Oct. 22.

Conducted Oct. 13 by Climate Nexus, Yale University Program on Climate Change Communication and George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, the online poll showed that 78% of nonwhite Catholics and 74% of white Catholics who participated consider climate change a serious or somewhat serious problem.

At the same time, 82% of nonwhite Catholics and 77% of white Catholics said they are very worried or somewhat worried about climate change.

The responses of Catholics are higher than the poll average, which found 73% of respondents overall, including those with no religious affiliation, held the same views. The same percentage of voters overall said they worry about climate change.

The poll interviewed 1,884 registered voters. The number included 87 nonwhite Catholics and 310 white Catholics, or about 21% of respondents. Its margin of error is plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.

The results were not surprising to Dan Misleh, executive director of the Catholic Climate Covenant.

"What it looks like is happening is more and more people and communities are experiencing impacts of climate change firsthand, and are now realizing that maybe there's something to what the scientists are saying and that we probably need to address it," Misleh told Catholic News Service.

Misleh credited Pope Francis and his continuing efforts to discuss the importance of protecting creation and the need to reach out to poor communities that are the most vulnerable to climate change as factors influencing the thoughts of Catholics.

The pope throughout his papacy has addressed environmental concerns, climate change and the connection of people to the earth. His messages have come most notably in the 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home, the declaration of a Laudato Si' year that began in May to mark the document's fifth anniversary, and his most recent encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship.

20201022T0830-CATHOLIC-VOTERS-POLL-CLIMATE-1007624.JPG

Dry farmland is seen in Calipatria, Calif., in this 2015 file photo. A preelection poll finds that a large majority of Catholic voters have some concern about climate change. (CNS/Reuters/Mike Blake)

The poll indicates that 71% of voters overall support government action to address climate change as well. Among Catholics, 75% of nonwhite voters and 77% of white voters support such a government response.

Catholics respondents supported congressional response to climate change, at about 75%, followed by support for state government action at about 72% and local government action at about 71%.

Meanwhile, 73% of nonwhite Catholics and 79% of white Catholics felt corporations should be doing much more or somewhat more to address climate change.

In addition, 79% of all Catholic poll participants said they felt a personal sense of responsibility to help address climate change.

Support for the Green New Deal initiative proposed by several members of Congress also gained high Catholic support, with 74% of nonwhite Catholics and 77% of white Catholics approving of the plan.

As introduced, the Green New Deal would direct government investments in infrastructure improvements, wind and solar energy, and boosting efficiency of transportation systems and energy usage in buildings to reduce carbon pollution.

The poll found similar levels of support among Catholic voters for job training and wage guarantees to workers who lose jobs in the fossil fuel industries as the transition to noncarbon energy sources occurs, federal stimulus spending that prioritizes clean energy infrastructure and increases in government funding for renewable energy as part of the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

In tabulating the results, the poll outlined responses from Jews, other non-Christians, mainline Protestants, other Christians, Black Protestants, white evangelicals and those who are unaffiliated with any religion.

It also polled voters with individual questions on issues such as discrimination based on religious belief, gun violence, the federal response to the pandemic, the economic impact of the pandemic, police violence against people of color and air pollution.

 

Former spiritual adviser to Medjugorje visionaries excommunicated

Oct 26, 2020

by Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

 

World

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The sun sets behind a statue of Mary on Apparition Hill in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, in this Feb. 26, 2011, file photo. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has issued a notification stating that Tomislav Vlasic, a former Franciscan and former spiritual adviser to the alleged visionaries of Medjugorje, has been excommunicated. (CNS/Paul Haring)      ANCIENT PAGAN SACRED SITE

VATICAN CITY — A former priest who had been an early spiritual adviser to the alleged visionaries of Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, has been excommunicated, according to an announcement by the Diocese of Brescia, Italy, where he lives.

"The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith formally communicated to the bishop of Brescia that on July 15, 2020, the congregation issued a declarative decree regarding Mr. Tomislav Vlasic. The decree declared that Mr. Vlasic incurred the penalty of excommunication," said a statement published Oct. 23 by the Brescia diocesan press office.

In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI had laicized Vlasic, formerly a Franciscan priest who had served as a spiritual adviser to the Marian visionaries in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Benedict, in a document issued "motu proprio" (on his own initiative), returned Vlasic to the lay state and dispensed him from his religious vows as a member of the Order of Friars Minor.

At the time, Vlasic was confined to a Franciscan monastery in L'Aquila, Italy, after he refused to cooperate in a Vatican investigation of his activities for suspected heresy and schism. Vlasic had left Medjugorje in the mid-1980s to establish the Queen of Peace community in Parma, Italy, for both men and women after it was publicly revealed that he had fathered a child with a Franciscan nun and then tried to cover up their affair.

Vlasic also was warned at the time that if he continued to present himself as a priest or if he released "declarations on religious matters, especially regarding the phenomenon of Medjugorje," he would face further penalties, including possible excommunication.

And still, the Diocese of Brescia said in October, "throughout these years, in the Diocese of Brescia and in other places, he continued to carry out the activity of an apostolate with individuals and groups, both at conferences and through the media; he continued to call himself a religious and priest of the Catholic Church, simulating the celebration of sacraments, which were not valid; he continued to cause serious scandal among the faithful, committing acts gravely detrimental to ecclesial communion and to obedience to church authorities."

The decree of excommunication, it said, means "Mr. Vlasic is forbidden from taking part in any way as a minister of the celebration of the Eucharist or any other ceremony of public worship, of celebrating sacraments or sacramentals, of receiving the sacraments or exercising any kind of church office, ministry or function."

The diocese asked pastors to expel Vlasic from any "act of public worship" and to interrupt any church functions where he is present and refuses to leave.

Angry women block traffic across Poland over abortion ban

Oct 26, 2020

by Monika Scislowska, The Associated Press

 

World

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Angered women's rights activists and their supporters block rush-hour traffic at a major roundabout on the fifth day of nationwide protests against a recent court ruling that further tightened Poland's restrictive abortion law, in Warsaw, Poland, on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020. The court effectively banned almost all abortions. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

WARSAW, POLAND — Women’s rights activists and many thousands of supporters held a fifth day of protests across Poland on Monday, defying pandemic restrictions to express their fury at a top court decision that tightens the predominantly Catholic nation’s already strict abortion law.

In Warsaw, mostly young demonstrators — women and men — with drums, horns and firecrackers blocked rush-hour traffic for hours at a number of major roundabouts. Some of them took off their shirts and stood topless on top of cars. Many held banners with an obscenity calling on the right-wing government to step down.

A group of far-right supporters held a counter-protest in front of a church and police in riot gear kept the two groups apart, using pepper spray at one point. Some of the people protesting the court ruling were detained and others sat down in the street to stop the police van taking away the detainees.

A protesting woman was taken to hospital with slight injuries after she and another woman were hit by a car. The other woman was not injured.

Organizers said people joined their protests in more than 150 cities in Poland, including Poznan, Lodz and Katowice. It was one of the biggest protests against the government in recent years.

In Krakow protesters chanted “This is War!” — a slogan that demonstrators have repeated often in recent days. They also shouted obscenities against the country's traditionally respected Roman Catholic bishops.

Krakow archbishop Marek Jedraszewski said the protests were marked by “aggression unknown so far in Poland, when the sanctity of churches, of sacred places is being violated.”

Protesters defied a nationwide ban on gatherings intended to halt a spike in new coronavirus infections.

They have taken to the streets each day since the Constitutional Tribunal ruled Thursday that it was unconstitutional to terminate a pregnancy due to fetal congenital defects. The ruling effectively bans almost all abortions in the country.

The ruling has not taken effect yet, because it has not been officially published, which is a requirement of a law's validity.

The head of a doctors' group, Dr. Andrzej Matyja, speaking on Radio Zet, criticized the ruling's timing during the pandemic, saying it amounted to an “irresponsible provoking of people to rallies” where social distancing cannot be maintained.

Poland's conservative leaders have also come under criticism from professors at Krakow's reputed Jagiellonian University who said that announcing such a ruling during a pandemic was an “extreme proof of a lack of responsibility for people's lives.”

In a letter to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and to President Andrzej Duda, who is infected with the coronavirus, the professors appealed for a “way out of the situation ... to be urgently found."

Many gynecologists have also criticized the ruling. Dr. Maciej Jedrzejko said the ban will result in a rise in the number of dangerous, illegal abortions, arguing that sex education and access to contraceptives are the best ways to limit abortions.

The ruling by the government-controlled court overturned a provision of the 1993 law forged by the country's political authorities and church leaders after the fall of communism. That law permitted abortion in only limited cases, becoming one of Europe's strictest abortion regulations.

When the ruling takes effect, the only permitted abortions will be if a pregnancy threatens the woman's health or is the result of rape or incest.

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A protester holds up a flare at a protest in Warsaw, Poland Oct. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Among those who support the ruling is European Parliament lawmaker for the conservative ruling party, Patryk Jaki, who is the father of a child with Down syndrome. He warned on Twitter that abortions can also eliminate healthy children “because you rarely are 100% sure.”

Jaki also argued that abortions contribute to the nation's low birthrate and said that they could be a “threat to Poland's state.”

Health Ministry figures show that 1,110 legal abortions were carried out in Poland in 2019, mostly because of fetal defects. The non-governmental Federation For Women and Family Planning estimates that Polish women undergo some 100,000 to 150,000 abortions a year, some illegally in Poland and others abroad.

Women's Strike, the key organizers of the past day's protests, says that forcing women to carry through pregnancies involving fetuses with severe defects will result in unnecessary physical and mental suffering for the women.

Group leader Marta Lempart said there will also be a nation-wide strike Wednesday and a protest march Friday in Warsaw, the seat of the government, the constitutional court and the right-wing ruling Law and Justice party behind the court’s decision.