An aerial view of the east fork of the Andreafsky River, Alaska (Wikimedia Commons)
One of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s favorite Bible verses comes from the letter of St. Paul to the Galatians: “In Christ, there is neither Jew, nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (3:28). Raised Catholic, I was familiar with those words. But it took an unforgettable trip to Alaska for me to appreciate what they might mean in my own life.
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Over 40 years ago, I found myself a young African-American from upstate New York teaching at a Yupik Eskimo boarding school in Western Alaska. St. Mary’s Mission School, founded by the Jesuits and staffed by Ursuline sisters, had been a fixture on the Yukon Delta since the early 1900s. The school served the children from small communities all over the region, a remote area dotted with evergreens, ponds and marshes.
How hot was 2020? It depends who you ask, but it was another one for the record books, agencies say
On Thursday, NASA and NOAA released their look at the 2020 state of the climate. While the numbers may not be exactly the same, the message is: Earth is continuing to warm and it has dire consequences.
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3 climate agencies may vary on the numbers, but the trend is the same: Earth continues to warm
Posted: Jan 14, 2021 6:05 PM ET | Last Updated: January 15
A man is silhouetted against the smoke-filled sky in Britannia Beach, B.C., on Oct. 2. Climate change is expected to increase the fire risk around the globe, though Western Canada had a quiet fire season in 2020.(Jonathan Hayward/The Associated Press)
Posted: Dec 23, 2020 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: December 23, 2020
A recent study found that extreme ice‐free years are becoming more frequent in lakes across North America, bringing ecological impacts and affecting the livelihoods of the people who rely on them.(Craig Chivers/CBC)