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Forecast for global warming is clear: Increasingly cloudy

25 Nov 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday’s first reading the prophet Daniel relates a vision in which he “saw one like the Son of man coming, on the clouds of heaven." Such a vision today might be clouded by the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which hit a record high in 2011, according to a report Tuesday from the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Chief among these heat-trapping gases is carbon dioxide, the biggest culprit behind global warming.The international body estimates that about 413 billion tons of carbon have been released into the atmosphere since 1750, primarily from fossil fuel combustion. About half of this atmospheric carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere, and much of it will linger for centuries, causing the planet to warm further, WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud warned.Historically, the Earth's oceans and forests have helped balance the atmosphere's carbon equation by sucking up large amounts of the greenhouse gas. But “this will not necessarily continue in the future," Jarraud said. "We have already seen that the oceans are becoming more acidic as a result of the carbon dioxide uptake, with potential repercussions for the underwater food chain and coral reefs.”Greenhouse gases trap heat within the Earth's atmosphere and create a warming effect on the climate known as radiative forcing. From 1990 to 2011, radiative forcing by greenhouse gases shot up 30 percent, with carbon dioxide blamed for about 80 percent of this increase, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Homily hint: The issue of global warming hardly came up in the recent election campaign—that is, until Hurricane Sandy caused widespread destruction on the eastern seaboard. The feast of Christ the King provides an opportunity to talk about how we need to be good stewards of Christ’s dominions entrusted to us on this earth. Source: An article by LifeScience.com

greenhouse gases carbon dioxide oceans wmo michel jarraud radiative forcing forests

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The Amazon is deforested, only to reveal hidden secrets

12 Feb 2017 - Preaching the News for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

In the reading from First Corinthians this Sunday, Saint Paul speaks of “God's wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory, and which none of the rulers of this age knew.” A new discovery deep in the Amazon forest also suggests an ancient, hidden, and mysterious wisdom. Scientists have found ancient mysterious earthworks resembling the circular pattern of Stonehenge in the Amazonian rainforest that suggest humans may have lived in the region centuries earlier than thought. Researchers from Universities of Exeter and Reading in the U.K. and the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil discovered more than 450 large geometrical “geoglyphs” that are believed to be at least 2,000 years old. The earthworks remained hidden among the rainforest trees, in the state of Acre in western Brazil. The roughly 13,000-square kilometer area was hidden from view until modern deforestation revealed the geoglyphs. The findings suggest indigenous people lived in the Amazon long before European people arrived in the region. Researchers still haven’t determined the function of these mysterious sites but believe they are unlikely to be villages. This is based on the fact that archaeologists recovered very few artifacts during excavation—and scientists say the layout of the geoglyphs does not suggest they were built for defensive reasons. They believe these places were not used regularly, making them a possible ritual gathering place, much like the Maya pyramids of Central America or Britain’s Stonehenge. Lessons drawn from the readings This Sunday’s gospel harkens back to the law given our ancestors, which will stand “until heaven and earth pass away,” Jesus promises. Our ancestors who left behind the mysterious geoglyphs managed to live and die without destroying their natural environment. If current levels of deforestation continue unchecked, however, our children may well face a time when the great, ancient forests of the earth pass away. Final thought in light of the news The recent discovery of ancient geoglyphs strongly suggests that the rainforest in the western Brazilian Amazon is actually much newer than ecologists first thought. “The fact that these sites lay hidden for centuries beneath mature rainforest really challenges the idea that Amazonian forests are ‘pristine ecosystems,’” said Jennifer Watling, post-doctoral researcher at the São Paulo Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography. However, she added, “evidence that Amazonian forests have been managed by indigenous peoples long before European contact should not be cited as justification for the destructive, unsustainable land-use practiced today. It should instead serve to highlight the ingenuity of past subsistence regimes that did not lead to forest degradation, and the importance of indigenous knowledge for finding more sustainable land-use alternatives.”

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Fact of the week

12 Feb 2017 - Preaching the News for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

The Amazon's trees and plants are responsible for providing more than 20 percent of the world’s oxygen. That is why the Amazon was given the nickname Lungs of the Planet. tropical-rainforest-facts.com

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