Ecology and the Common Good: Sustainability and Catholic Social Teaching

In recent years official Roman Catholic documents have addressed the ecological crisis from the perspective of Catholic social teaching. This expansion of Catholic social thought addresses the social and ecological question. This paper links environmental and human ecology with the concept of sustainability and proposes an interpretation of the common good and a definition of sustainability within Catholic social teaching. Our treatment of sustainability and Catholic social teaching includes: an analysis of the ecological processes that sustain nature; insights from human ecology, and an examination of models of sustainability as a foundation for re-structuring society to promote the common good. The paper provides a summary of the historical expansion of the common good within modern Catholic social thought, and concludes with an ecological interpretation of the common good and a definition of sustainability within the Catholic understanding of justice

A Multi-Year Longitudinal Study of Water Quality Parameters in Four Salmon-Bearing and Recreational Streams on Mount Hood, Oregon

Four streams-Clear Fork, Lost Creek, Camp Creek and Still Creek-in northwestern Oregon's Sandy River Basin were monitored for temperature, dissolved oxygen levels, and fecal bacterial concentrations in a multi-year analysis examining stream health for recreational users and anchor habitat for Pacific Salmon. Temperatures were recorded using micro -T temperature loggers at 15 locations, during 22 July -5 September 2006, 2 July -4 September 2007, 20 June -7 September 2008, 23 June -9 September 2009, and 2 July -9 September 2010. The Seven-Day Average Maximum water temperature (7-DAM) of 13° C was used as a reference value for the biological limit governing suitable salmonid spawning and egg incubation conditions. The maximum 7-DAM temperatures occurred on different dates and all streams neared or exceeded the 13° C standard at least once each summer. Dissolved oxygen levels were measured at weekly or longer intervals in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. Dissolved oxygen levels fell below the 9.0 ppm standard for Clear Fork on almost half the sampling dates in 2006, 2007, and 2009. Concentrations of the bacterial genus Enterococcus were measured as an indicator of fecal contamination. Samples were collected at 15 sites along the four streams. Weekly samples were collected during a 9 week period from July -September 2007, an 11 week period from June -September 2008, and an 11 week period from June September 2009. Enterococcus counts exceeded the federal recommended national criterion value of 61 colony forming units (CFU) per 100 mL every year in Camp Creek and occasionally elsewhere, with exceedances trending towards late summer

EVIDENCE THAT THE Xg BLOOD GROUP GENES ARE ON THE SHORT ARM OF THE X CHROMOSOME. EUR 311.e

<p>These show directions from which the wind blew when industrial odors were detected at either station 13 or 14 during mornings in (A) winter, with the outermost ring indicating a 20% frequency, (B) spring, with the outermost ring representing a 10% frequency, (C) summer, with the outermost ring representing a 12% frequency, and (D) fall, with the outermost ring indicating a 24% frequency. These frequencies, and those stated in the text, include wind directions even when the measured wind speed was 0 m s^-1, except where specifically indicated.</p

Intended and Unintended Consequences of Two Paradigms of Urban Planning, and Their Social Justice and Human Health Impacts, in Portland, Oregon

This article describes two contesting paradigms of urban planning employed successively in Portland, Oregon; (1) urban planning typical of the US in the first half of the 20th Century that was focused on traffic and infrastructure, and (2) progressive urban planning focused on neighborhood livability and connections. It gives a history of their implementation in Portland, focusing on issues of racial and socioeconomic justice in the Albina neighborhood. Recent knowledge about air pollution&rsquo;s impacts on human health, and infant and childhood development, are integrated into the discussion of urban planning. It describes racially and socioeconomically disproportionate access to urban green spaces, with the corresponding health implications. It also describes attempts to mitigate such health implications, sometimes resulting in &ldquo;green gentrification&rdquo; and displacement. The article asks if the results of the two paradigms of urban planning were objectively different from one another in terms of impacts on minority and disadvantaged communities. Future urban planning, and the need for human health concerns becoming central, are discussed

Precopulatory Behavior of the Whirligig Beetle Dineutes discolor (Coleoptera:Gyrinidae)

Volume: 91Start Page: 273End Page: 27

Integral Ecology, Epigenetics and the Common Good

With the release of Laudato Si (2015) Pope Francis has introduced new conceptual language into Catholic social teaching (CST), what he has called "integral ecology." His intent appears to be grounded in the realization that "It is essential to seek comprehensive solutions which consider the interactions with natural systems themselves and with social systems" (LS, no. CXXXVIII). Pope Francis goes on to make the case that ''We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis with isboth social and environmental" (LS, no. CXXXVIII). Consequently, in order to solve this crisis we need to utilize "an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time pro­ tecting nature" (LS, no. CXXXVlll). This perspective represents a major development in CST whereby the encyclical connects the dots between ecology/environment, economics and society, three essential aspects of what many in the environmental community and elsewhere see as in­ dispensable for humanity to achieve a sustainable relationship with the Earth. While this is extremely important for articulating a Catholic vision of sustainability, that is not the direction we take in this article. Rather our intent is to use the concept of integral ecology to do three things:(1) examine a current case in the U.S. that has received signif­ icant media attention as well as notoriety-the water crisis in Flint, Michigan; (2) describe how our recent understanding of the epigenetic impacts of environmental toxins casts a new and ominous light on this crisis and on other instances of environmental toxin exposure, and (3) propose some ideas on how epigenetic research might enlarge our in­ terpretation of basic aspects of CST highlighted in Laudato Si such as human dignity, justice and the common good