Edmund Rice International

Energy is central to nearly every major challenge, and opportunity the world faces today. Be it jobs, security, climate change, food production or increasing incomes , access to sustainable energy for all is essential for strengthening economies, protecting ecosystems and achieving equity.In fact, more than 1.4 billion people worldwide have no access to electricity, and [...]

In June 2012, the third Earth Summit will take place in Rio de Janeiro, exactly 20 years after the first Earth Summit there; so it is being called the Rio+20 Conference. How things have changed in twenty years! Another billion people have joined us on Earth, global finances are in crisis, and climate change is [...]

The United Nations Climate Change Conference  COP 17 / CMP 7, 28 November – 9 will take place in Durban, South Africa in December 2011  (This article appeared in the Carbon Rangers Newsletter edited by br Kevin Cawley and is based on material taken from the UN Website for the Conference.)   The United Nations [...]

So disturbed by ruin of the region, Alberta’s Catholic bishop has written a lengthy letter arguing that the tar sands development “cannot be morally justified.” David Ebner, January 27, 2009, The Globe and Mail — The oil sands, hated by environmentalists and buffeted by plunging oil prices, now face the opposition of a representative of [...]

The Christian Brothers have decided they cannot remain silent in the face of recent events in Bolivia. The Bolivian government has decided to build a road through a National Park which is home to some sixteen thousand indigenous people.  Opponents of the project claim that the decision violates the Bolivian Constitution and existing laws such [...]

  One of the most frightening things I have heard this year, the Year of the Forests, was a statement by Brian Swimme, at the District Assembly of our Brothers in Zambia. The African Province Renewal Team, who facilitated the Assembly, showed a video clip of Brian saying that, “Every wild cheetah is now in [...]

Convinced that we are living on borrowed time and consuming resources of Mother Earth that actually belong to future generations, members of the St Joseph’s Bowbazar school community in Kolkata, India participated in the recent Earth Hour as a means of contributing towards a more responsible and sustainable use of resources and a reduction in [...]

Johnstone Shisanya, the ERN co-ordinator in East Africa, has reported on the support of the Edmund Rice Justice and Advocacy group for initiatives around the issues of education, children’s rights and the environment – the three issues of particular focus for Edmund Rice international. In the following article Andrew S. Lumati, the founder of Malava [...]

Fifty teenagers inspired by the Edmund Rice Society held a street march in Bulawayo (Zimbabwe) in September to urge the residents of the city to lower water consumption. The city of Bulawayo has an estimated population of 1.5 million people. Rainfall in the previous year failed to provide adequate water volumes for the four dams [...]

The Brothers in Bolivia have been participating in the World Summit on Climate Change and Mother Earth which was held in Cochabamba in the last days of April. Up to 20,000 people from around the world gathered to discuss the causes and effects of climate change and to draft a document which would outline a [...]