To preserve cultural identity and religious values, protect sacred land

EarthBeat Weekly
Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change

August 8, 2025

Demonstrators hold signs during a protest outside the annual Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference on June 3, 2025, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP/Jenny Kane, File)

A decade ago, Pope Francis wrote the following in his landmark encyclical "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home":

"Many intensive forms of environmental exploitation and degradation not only exhaust the resources which provide local communities with their livelihood, but also undo the social structures which, for a long time, shaped cultural identity and their sense of the meaning of life and community. The disappearance of a culture can be just as serious, or even more serious, than the disappearance of a species of plant or animal. The imposition of a dominant lifestyle linked to a single form of production can be just as harmful as the altering of ecosystems.
In this sense, it is essential to show special care for indigenous communities and their cultural traditions. They are not merely one minority among others, but should be the principal dialogue partners, especially when large projects affecting their land are proposed. For them, land is not a commodity but rather a gift from God and from their ancestors who rest there, a sacred space with which they need to interact if they are to maintain their identity and values. When they remain on their land, they themselves care for it best. Nevertheless, in various parts of the world, pressure is being put on them to abandon their homelands to make room for agricultural or mining projects which are undertaken without regard for the degradation of nature and culture."

Ten years on, this dynamic continues to play out across the United States and the world.

Last week in this newsletter, you read about Catholic sisters supporting the defense of Oak Flat, an Apache sacred site in Arizona, and how Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming has been a "sacred wonderland" of spiritual power and religious activity for various faith groups for centuries.

This week, Peter Smith of the Associated Press reports when Alaska Natives debate proposals to drill, mine or otherwise develop the landscape of the nation's largest state, it involves more than an environmental or economic question. It's also a spiritual and cultural one.

"We have a special spiritual, religious relationship to our river and our land," said Gloria Simeon, a Yup'ik resident of Bethel, Alaska. "Our people have been stewards of this land for millennia, and we've taken that relationship seriously."

What else is new on EarthBeat:

To walk the talk on environmental justice, divest-invest must become church's norm

by John Leo Algo

The bishops' conference of the Philippines publicly committed to withdraw its finances no later than 2025 from banks with no clear policies for fossil fuel divestment. They have not yet followed through.

With smell of gas in the air, she targets Latina leaders on Laudato Si'

by Ana González

Moved by the Holy Spirit, Maria Treviño uses a grassroots approach with the archdioceses of San Antonio, Austin and El Paso, Texas, to embrace the Laudato Si Action Platform.

What's happening in other climate news:

E.P.A. moves to cancel $7 billion in grants for solar energy —Maxine Joselow for The New York Times

National Academies will review endangerment finding science —Marianne Lavelle for Inside Climate News

How flood-ravaged Boston took on the climate deniers – and won —Steve Rose for the Guardian

The oil industry wrote a wishlist. Trump's Interior Department is delivering. —Hana Beach and Jimmy Tobias for Public Domain

'Where's the money going?': Why Brazilian towns awash with royalties from oil are still among the poorest —Rafael Oliveira for Agência Pública and the Guardian with Inside Climate News

Following the USDA's food and farm funding: Here's what's been canceled and frozen, and resources for those affected –Ayurella Horn-Muller and Lyndsey Gilpin for Grist

Stop saying 'the clean energy revolution is inevitable' —Emily Atkin for HEATED

Final Beat:

Last week the Trump administration formally began the process of attempting to repeal the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "endangerment finding" that concluded greenhouse gas emissions are a danger to public health and welfare.

The endangerment finding is considered the legal linchpin in the federal government's ability to regulate and limit the heat-trapping emissions — released from burning coal, oil and gas — that are driving climate change. Revoking this EPA rule would eliminate the agency's ability to limit carbon pollution from vehicles and power plants — two of the leading sources of national greenhouse gas emissions.

"They're targeting the pollution that comes out of power plants, out of vehicles, out of other manufacturing large facilities, and that is a prerequisite to really undermining our ability to address climate change in our country," Vicki Arroyo, an environmental law professor at Georgetown University who was the top policy official at EPA for the Biden administration, said earlier this year.

When considering new rules or revisions of past ones, EPA is required to hold a period for public commenting. It's a vehicle for input that many Catholic and faith-based organizations, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, have utilized with regularity in the past.

In recent years, Catholic groups weighed in on proposed rules by opposing an attempt to revoke regulations on hazardous air pollutants from power plants, supporting emissions regulations on power plants and endorsing stringent limits on soot pollution, among others. A log of USCCB comments on proposed environmental rules and legislation can be found at its website.

The public commenting period on the EPA's repeal of the endangerment finding runs through Sept. 15. Two virtual public hearings on the proposed rule are set for Aug. 19 and Aug. 20; an additional hearing may be added Aug. 21 depending on the number of registrants. Information on how to submit a comment is available on the EPA website.

Thanks for reading EarthBeat.

Stephanie Clary
Environment Editor
National Catholic Reporter
sclary@ncronline.org