Search

Results

Sea-worthy recycling effort raises awareness

01 Aug 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“Think of what is above, not of what is on earth,” counsels the Letter to the Colossians in this Sunday’s second reading. With their eyes on the night sky but their thoughts on land far ahead, an environmentally conscious group of friends spent four months navigating the Pacific Ocean on a sailboat largely constructed out of 12,500 recycled plastic bottles. The Plastiki, a 60-foot catamaran, and its six crew members weathered fierce ocean storms during its 8,000 nautical miles at sea. It left San Francisco on March 20, stopping along the way at various South Pacific island nations including Kiribati and Samoa. It docked Monday in Sydney Harbor. The journey was intended to raise awareness about the perils of plastic waste. Expedition leader David de Rothschild--a descendant of the well-known British banking family--said the idea for the journey came to him after he read a United Nations report in 2006 that pollution “and particularly plastic waste” was seriously threatening the world's oceans. He figured a good way to prove that trash can be effectively reused was to use some of it to build a boat. The Plastiki--named after the 1947 Kon-Tiki wooden raft that sailed across the Pacific--is fully recyclable and gets its power from solar panels and windmills. The boat consists almost entirely of bottles, which are held together with an organic glue made of sugar cane and cashews, but includes other materials, too. The mast, for instance, is recycled aluminum irrigation pipe. "The journey of the Plastiki is a journey from trash to triumph," said Jeffrey Bleich, the U.S. ambassador to Australia, who greeted the team after they docked. Although the team had originally planned to recycle the boat, de Rothschild said they are now thinking of keeping it intact and using it as a way of enlightening people to the power of recycling. Source: An article by Kristen Gelineau for the Associated Press

pollution jeffrey bleich waste plastic plastiki david de rothschild
Plastic bags get a pass—for now—in California

05 Sep 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday’s reading from the Letter to Philemon, Saint Paul encourages the path of voluntary compliance with his wishes rather than imposing his will, “so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary.” California lawmakers made a similar decision this week, rejecting a bill that would have banned plastic shopping bags outright while encouraging shoppers to take voluntary measures to minimize their use. The bill, which failed late Tuesday after a contentious debate over whether the state was going too far in trying to regulate personal choices, would have been the first statewide ban, although a few California cities already prohibit their use. While the psalmist reminds us this Sunday that God turns us “back to dust” at the end of our days, plastic bags are more problematic. Supporters of the bill said the 19 billion plastic bags California residents use every year harm the environment and cost the state $25 million annually to collect and transport to landfills. Those voting against the ban said voluntary measures, recycling, and economic incentives were a better way than an outright ban to encourage more environmentally conscious use of the bags. The plastic bag manufacturing industry also opposed the bill, calling it “a job killer.” The bill’s author, Democratic Assemblywoman Julia Brownley of Santa Monica, said the movement to ban plastic bags would continue despite the setback. “It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when consumers bring their own bags and become good stewards of the environment,” Brownley said in a statement early Wednesday morning. Source: An article by Robin Hindery for the Associated Press

california plastic bags julia brownley
Ear-opening medical breakthroughs

16 Sep 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“The Lord God is my help” and the one who “opens my ear that I may hear,” this Sunday’s reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah announces. In Boston scientists are making plans for the first implants of lab-grown ears for wounded troops after successful experiments. Around the country, in fact, the most advanced medical tools that exist are now being deployed to help America's wounded warriors.In Los Angeles surgeons used part of Michael Mills' forehead to rebuild his nose after a bomb disfigured him in Iraq. In Pittsburgh doctors used an experimental therapy from pig tissue to help regrow part of a thigh muscle that Ron Strang lost in a blast in Afghanistan. And in San Antonio and other cities doctors are testing sprayed-on skin cells and lab-made sheets of skin to heal burns and other wounds.Many troops remain disfigured or impaired despite multiple reconstructive operations. Tackling the toughest cases is the goal of Operation Mend, a program of the UCLA Medical Center, Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, and the Veterans Affairs-Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System.Many breakthroughs are being promoted by taxpayer-funded research. Four years ago the federal government created AFIRM, the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, a network of top hospitals and universities, and gave $300 million in grants to spur new treatments using cell science and advanced plastic surgery."The whole idea is to bring all these researchers together to develop these great technologies that were in early science to eventually be ready for the troops," said AFIRM's recently retired director, Terry Irgens. Source: An article by Marilynn Marchione for the Associated Press

disfigurement wounds soldiers plastic surgery cell science reconstructive surgery terry irgens afirm operation mend medical research troops
Ruining our reefs

01 Mar 2015 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus is transfigured before Peter, James, and John, his clothes bleached a dazzling white. The world’s coral reefs are being transfigured as well, but not in a good way. Bleached by the effects of global warming, they are now being plagued by the growing presence of microplastics—the miniscule balls of synthetic material found in toothpaste, liquid soaps, creams, and cosmetics—in our seas. Researchers have found that corals are capable of inadvertently eating the tiny balls of plastic, which clogs their digestion and starves them of nutrients. Homily hint: The oceans are a living barometer of the pace and gravity of the ecological challenges facing humanity. Microplastics need to be phased out of production as quickly as possible. Do your part by recycling, conserving energy, and minimizing as much as possible your “ecological footprint.” For more about coral damage from microplastics, see: Tiny Bits of Plastic May Be Clogging Up Corals; Corals face 'slow starvation' from ingesting plastics pollution, experts find

pollution coral reef plastics
New brain research on vision loss provides insights

26 Mar 2017 - Preaching the News for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

Jesus heals a man born blind in this Sunday’s gospel, but many of those around him with good vision were unwilling to see the miracle in front of them. While modern science has yet to find a cure for blindness, promising studies are under way as researchers are gaining a new appreciation of how the brain of a person blind from an early age makes new connections that enhance hearing, smell, and touch, as well as memory and language. Researchers used MRIs to scan the brains of 12 people who were born blind or lost their sight by age 3. The scans showed a number of changes in the brains of the people who were blind that weren’t present in scans from people who could still see. Changes caused by early blindness “may be more widespread than initially thought,” lead author Corinna Bauer, a scientist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, said in a hospital news release. “We observed significant changes not only in the occipital cortex [where vision is processed], but also areas implicated in memory, language processing, and sensory motor functions,” said Bauer. Learning more about these connections could lead to more effective rehabilitation programs to help blind people, the researchers suggested. According to senior study author Lotfi Merabet, O.D., Ph.D., director of the Laboratory for Visual Neuroplasticity at the Schepens Eye Research Institute of Massachusetts Eye and Ear and an associate professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, “Even in the case of being profoundly blind, the brain rewires itself in a manner to use the information at its disposal so that it can interact with the environment in a more effective manner. If the brain can rewire itself—perhaps through training and enhancing the use of other modalities like hearing and touch and language tasks such as Braille reading—there is tremendous potential for the brain to adapt.” Bauer said the connections that appear to be unique in those with profound blindness suggest that the brain "rewires" itself in the absence of visual information to boost other senses. She said this is possible through the process of neuroplasticity, or the ability of our brains to naturally adapt to our experiences. The researchers hope that increased understanding will lead to more effective rehabilitation efforts that will enable blind people to better compensate for the absence of visual information. The study was published online March 22 in the journal PLOS ONE. Lessons drawn from the readings “Man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart,” the first reading this Sunday reminds us. In the case of blindness, researchers are learning to look into the brain, and in doing so, devising new therapies to enhance compensating abilities to lost vision. At the same time, advances in gene therapy are beginning to offer hope that certain kinds of blindness at present untreatable may soon be reversible. Final thought in light of the news While the advances of modern science are extremely valuable and carry the potential to alleviate much suffering, it is good to remember that much suffering comes about when those of us with good vision choose a sort of voluntary blindness by ignoring the call to compassion that is at the core of the gospel message. Jesus healed because his heart was moved by the suffering he saw. Can we say the same?

blindness vision neuroplasticity brain connections