Chut Wutty’s light
Once in a while, someone comes along and flashes a light on things that make others uncomfortable. May we never exchange light for darkness.
Death in the forest
Seeking eco-justice
Two Jesuit organisations collaborating on eco-justice recently had the opportunity to learn from one of the world’s leading experts on managing the impact of climate change. At a meeting in Australia in March, Professor Ottmar Georg Edenhofer shared his insights on the impact of induced technological change on mitigation costs and mitigation strategies, as well as the design of instruments for climate change and energy policy with Julie Edwards, CEO of Jesuit Social Services (JSS) in Australia, and Iris Legal of Environmental Science for Social Change (ESSC) in the Philippines.
Continued protest to the Four Rivers project
Work is proceeding on the controversial Four Rivers Restoration Project despite Church and popular protest. Fr Mun-su Park SJ, Director, Jesuit Research Center for Advocacy and Solidarity presents the background of the project that is destroying the ecology integrity of the affected area and reflects on the prophetic meaning of the protest.
Flights for Forests
The Jesuits in the Asia Pacific region have initiated a carbon offset scheme to reduce the impact of air travel on the environment. Flights for Forests was presented and approved at the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP) assembly in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, in July 2011.
“Air travel is a major contributor to global warming, and since our collaboration in the Jesuit mission requires many of us to fly frequently, we seek to mitigate the damage our trips cause to the environment,” said Fr Mark Raper SJ, JCAP President.
Jatropha as An Alternative Way of Life in Flores Island‐Indonesia
Flores is an island that has sub‐climates. The mountains in this island are highly volcanic in origin, so water can permeate and infiltrate into the ground effectively. There is good storage capacity but there is no clear understanding of how much water is available on the ground. Volcanic earth has certain nutrients that are valuable but when we get to plant, it may not have the right combination of nutrients and the water needed.
The Power of Collaborating
The story begun between 2003 and 2004, when Fr. Bambang Triatmoko SJ was invited to attend a Church gathering of eight bishops and 50,000 youth, in a small village in Bali, Indonesia. From the Church’s perspective, those youth needed to gain more skills aside from the general or basic education they get from their local school. Compared to other region, their youth have very low skilled‐job, which was attributed to low government support to education.
Yunnan Communities in Karst Landscape Continue to Face Water Difficulties
China’s karst landscape stretches through eight provinces in southern China – from Guangxi and Hubei in the east to Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan and parts of Tibet in the west. Unfortunately, this has also become the border of poverty, ecology, and opportunity in south-southwestern China. The karst belt is about 500,000 square kilometers with 8,200 million people living. In Yunnan Province, the karst landscape comprises nearly 44 percent of its total land area.