Praying the world halts climate change? There's now a Catholic Mass for that
For centuries, Catholic priests have been able to celebrate special Masses to pray for their country, give thanks after a harvest or ask God to end a natural disaster.
The new "Mass for the care of creation," prepared by two Vatican offices, allows priests to pray that Catholics will "lovingly care" for creation and "learn to live in harmony with all creatures".
"This Mass … calls us to be faithful stewards of what God has entrusted to us – not only in daily choices and public policies, but also in our prayer, our worship, and our way of living in the world," said Cardinal Michael Czerny, presenting the rite at a Vatican press conference on Thursday.
Catholic priests have the possibility of offering Masses for a range of special needs. The new rite, approved by Pope Leo, is the 50th option offered by the Vatican.
The late Pope Francis was a firm proponent of care for creation. He was the first pope to embrace the scientific consensus about climate change and urged nations to reduce their carbon emissions in line with the 2015 Paris climate accord.
"Pope Leo clearly will carry this pastoral and civil concern forward," Rev. Bruce Morrill, a Jesuit priest and expert on Catholic liturgy at Vanderbilt University in the U.S., told Reuters.
"This new thematic Mass indicates the Church's recognition of the serious threats human-caused climate change is now fully realising," he said.
The new Vatican rite comes two days after Catholic bishops from Asia, Africa and Latin America called on global governments to do more to address climate change, publishing a joint appeal that was the first of its kind.
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BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Tiny creature gorges, gets fat, and locks up planet-warming carbon
A tiny, obscure animal often sold as aquarium food has been quietly protecting our planet from global warming by undertaking an epic migration, according to new "unsung heroes" called zooplankton gorge themselves and grow fat in spring before sinking hundreds of metres into the deep ocean in Antarctica where they burn the locks away as much planet-warming carbon as the annual emissions of roughly 55 million petrol cars, stopping it from further warming our atmosphere, according to is much more than scientists expected. But just as researchers uncover this service to our planet, threats to the zooplankton are growing. Scientists have spent years probing the animal's annual migration in Antarctic waters, or the Southern Ocean, and what it means for climate findings are "remarkable", says lead author Dr Guang Yang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, adding that it forces a re-think about how much carbon the Southern Ocean stores. "The animals are an unsung hero because they have such a cool way of life," says co-author Dr Jennifer Freer from British Antarctic compared to the most popular Antarctic animals like the whale or penguin, the small but mighty zooplankton are overlooked and under-appreciated. If anyone has heard of them, it's probably as a type of fish food available to buy their life cycle is odd and fascinating. Take the copepod, a type of zooplankton that is a distant relative of crabs and 1-10mm in size, they spend most of their lives asleep between 500m to 2km deep in the ocean. In pictures taken under a microscope, you can see long sausages of fat inside their bodies, and fat bubbles in their heads, explains Prof Daniel Mayor who photographed them in them, our planet's atmosphere would be significantly the oceans have absorbed 90% of the excess heat humans have created by burning fossil fuels. Of that figure, the Southern Ocean is responsible for about 40%, and a lot of that is down to zooplankton. Millions of pounds is being spent globally to understand how exactly they store were already aware that the zooplankton contributed to carbon storage in a daily process when the animals carbon-rich waste sinks to the deep what happened when the animals migrate in the Southern Ocean had not been quantified. The latest research focussed on copepods, as well as other types of zooplankton called krill, and creatures eat phytoplankton on the ocean surface which grow by transforming carbon dioxide into living matter through photosynthesis. This turns into fat in the zooplankton."Their fat is like a battery pack. When they spend the winter deep in the ocean, they just sit and slowly burn off this fat or carbon," explains Prof Daniel Mayor at University of Exeter, who was not part of the study."This releases carbon dioxide. Because of the way the oceans work, if you put carbon really deep down, it takes decades or even centuries for that CO2 to come out and contribute to atmospheric warming," he says. The research team calculated that this process - called the seasonal vertical migration pump - transports 65 million tonnes of carbon annually to at least 500m below the ocean that, it found that copepods contribute the most, followed by krill and is roughly equivalent to the emissions from driving 55 million diesel cars for a year, according to a greenhouse gas emissions calculator by the US EPA. The latest research looked at data stretching back to the 1920s to quantify this carbon storage, also called carbon the scientific discovery is ongoing as researchers seek to understand more details about the migration cycle. Earlier this year, Dr Freer and Prof Mayor spent two months on the Sir David Attenborough polar research ship near the South Orkney island and South large nets the scientists caught zooplankton and brought the animals onboard."We worked in complete darkness under red light so we didn't disturb them," says Dr Freer."Others worked in rooms kept at 3-4C. You wear a lot of protection to stay there for hours at a time looking down the microscope," she adds. But warming waters as well as commercial harvesting of krill could threaten the future of zooplankton."Climate change, disturbance to ocean layers and extreme weather are all threats," explains Prof could reduce the amount of zooplankton in Antarctica and limit the carbon stored in the deep fishing companies harvested almost half a million tonnes of krill in 2020, according to the is permitted under international law, but has been criticised by environmental campaigners including in the recent David Attenborough Ocean scientists say their new findings should be incorporated into climate models that forecast how much our planet will warm."If this biological pump didn't exist, atmospheric CO2 levels would be roughly twice those as they are at the moment. So the oceans are doing a pretty good job of mopping up CO2 and getting rid of it," explains co-author Prof Angus research is published in the journal Limnology and Oceanography. Sign up for our Future Earth newsletter to get exclusive insight on the latest climate and environment news from the BBC's Climate Editor Justin Rowlatt, delivered to your inbox every week. Outside the UK? Sign up to our international newsletter here.
The Independent
8 hours ago
- The Independent
Coral transplants could help save Miami's iconic reefs from climate change
Scientists are transplanting crossbred coral fragments onto a Miami reef, devastated by bleaching two years ago. This collaborative effort by the University of Miami, the Florida Aquarium, and Honduras-based Tela Coral aims to help reefs survive rising ocean temperatures due to global warming and climate change. Andrew Baker, a professor of marine biology and ecology at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School and director of the Coral Reef Futures Lab, commented as divers planted the corals: "It's the end of a very long process." This Caribbean coral introduction strategy evolved over recent years. "We had this idea that we really needed to try to help Florida's coral reef by introducing more diversity from around the Caribbean, recognizing that some of the biggest threats to corals, like climate change, are really global phenomena and if you try to have Florida's reefs save themselves on their own, we could give them some outside help,' Baker said. Coral breeding has also been done in Hawaii, where in 2021, scientists were working to speed up the coral's evolutionary clock to breed 'super corals' that can better withstand the impacts of global warming. Why crossbreed with corals from Honduras? Baker's group teamed with the Florida Aquarium and Tela Coral, bringing in fragments of corals from a warm reef off of Tela, Honduras, which spawned in tanks at the aquarium. 'We were able to cross the spawn from those corals, the sperm and the eggs, to produce babies. One parent from Florida, one parent from Honduras,' Baker said. They chose the reef off of Tela because the water is about 2 degrees Celsius (35.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the water off the coast of Florida. 'And yet the corals in those environments, and especially the Elkhorn corals, are really thriving,' Baker said. He noted that there are extensive beds that are hundreds of meters long, full of flourishing Elkhorn. 'And yet they survive there despite really warm conditions and also quite nutrient-polluted waters,' Baker said. The conditions are similar to those Florida will face over the next century, Baker said. It's also the first time international crossbreeding of corals has been permitted for planting onto wild reefs. 'So we're really excited to see how these do,' he said. The hope is the corals will be more 'thermally tolerant,' which Baker and the team will be testing throughout the summer. What are Elkhorn corals? Elkhorn corals are some of Florida's most iconic species and are valuable because they form the crest of the reef, Baker said. 'And the reef is what protects shorelines from storms and flooding. So if you have healthy Elkhorn coral populations, you have a great reef that is acting almost like a speed bump over which waves and storms pass and dissipate their energy before they hit the coast,' he said. Elkhorn corals are in serious decline, thanks in part to the coral bleaching in 2023 and warming sea temperatures, Baker said. While coral get their bright colors from the colorful algae that live inside them, prolonged warmth causes the algae to release toxic compounds. The coral ejects them, and a stark white skeleton — referred to as coral bleaching — is left behind, and the weakened coral is at risk of dying. 'We've lost maybe more than 95% of the Elkhorn corals that were on Florida's reefs at that point,' Baker said. Some of the corals spawned in the Florida Aquarium's laboratory arrived there in 2020, said Keri O'Neil, director and senior scientist with the aquarium's Coral Conservation Program. She said more fragments from Honduras and Florida will continue to live at the center. 'We hope that every year in the future we can make more and more crosses and continue to figure out which parents produce the best offspring,' O'Neil said. How do they plant the corals on the reef? The tiny Elkhorn coral fragments were placed onto small concrete bases along the reef on Tuesday. 'We've arranged them in a certain way that we can compare the performance of each of corals,' Baker said. The team will study how the corals that have a Honduran parent compare to the ones that are entirely from Florida. "But it's really the future that we're looking to and in particular, a warming future and a warming summer, how these corals do and do they have more thermal tolerance than the native Florida population, because that's really what the goal of the whole project is,'' he said. Baker said it's the most exciting project he's worked on during his 20-year stint at the University of Miami. Hope for the future If the corals thrive, it could provide a blueprint for working across the Caribbean to share corals. 'This is a project about international collaboration, about the fact that our environment really doesn't have closed borders, that we can work together to make things better in the world,' said Juli Berwald, co-founder of Tela Cora. 'And it shows that when we talk to each other, when we work together, we can really do something that might be life-changing, not just for us but for the corals and the reefs and all the animals that rely on the reefs.'
Daily Mail
9 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Which dog do YOU think is the cutest? Vets say our preference for breeds is changing - take the test to see if you agree
From tiny Corgis to chunky Rottweilers, man's best friend comes in all different shapes and sizes. But vets now say that Brits' preferences for pooches are shifting. New research from the Royal Veterinary College shows that people favour dogs with more pronounced muzzles, less bulging eyes, and longer tails. The researchers say this shows a growing movement away from the flat faces and short limbs that were once popular for fashionable breeds. Dr Rowena Packer, senior author of the paper, told MailOnline: 'For some time, preference has appeared to be for more extreme body shapes, which have been popularised and normalised in the media. 'However, this is the first evidence that the tide may be turning and the public now prefers less extreme body shapes.' Across all breeds, participants said that the less extreme body shapes were more attractive, healthier, and made them feel happier. So, which of the dogs do you think is the cutest? Take a look at the test below to see if you agree with the results. A new study suggests that taste in dogs is shifting away from more 'extreme' body shapes and towards healthier characteristics among flat-faced dogs such as pugs The study examined how people rated three different flat-faced, or brachycephalic, dog breeds: Pugs, English Bulldogs, and French Bulldogs. Almost 500 participants were shown AI-generated images depicting less extreme, super extreme, or typical versions of the three breeds. Participants were then asked to rate the dogs in five categories - perceived attractiveness, perceived health, the happiness induced by their appearance, the ethics of breeding, and the desire for ownership. The results revealed that the least extreme versions of the breeds were rated highest across all categories. Likewise, typical versions of the breeds were rated higher in all categories than the more extreme versions. Almost all participants in the study owned dogs of varying breeds, with just over a quarter owning flat-faced breeds. Owners of flat-faced breeds were consistently more positive about all the dogs, no matter how extreme. The researchers say this is likely due to dog owners showing a preference for dogs that look like their own. What are brachycephalic dogs? The word 'brachycephalic' means short or broad-headed. Examples include Pugs, Bulldogs, Boxers, and Pekingese. Because of this extreme body shape, flat-faced dogs have a much higher risk of developing numerous painful illnesses and diseases. Health problems associated with brachycephaly include: Anatomical defects of the upper airway causing breathing difficulties often associated with overheating, sleep apnoea, and regurgitation Eye disease Inability to mate or give birth naturally Repeated skin infections Dental problems However, even these committed owners preferred the least extreme body shapes. This is good news for dog welfare campaigners who have been arguing for years that fashionable extreme breeding trends were leading to severe health issues. Dr Packer says: 'Extreme body shapes are created by artificial selection for genetic mutations. 'The consequent body shapes break natural biological limits for dogs and lead to a range of chronic, severe disorders that reduce quality of life and lifespan.' For example, flat faces make it harder for dogs to breathe, while short, curly tails are associated with spinal diseases and paralysis. The fact that the public is now starting to prefer more natural dogs might be a sign that campaigners' messages are starting to have an effect. Dr Paul Manktelow, Director of Veterinary Services at animal charity Blue Cross, says: 'At Blue Cross we see all too often how pets with extreme features suffer from painful conditions that often require costly surgery to treat. 'This study provides hope that it doesn't have to be this way.' Data from the Kennel Club suggests that registrations for pedigree flat-faced puppies have been falling over the last few years. However, a study published by the Royal Veterinary College last year found that French Bulldogs were the most popular breed for new owners, making up 7 per cent of all puppies under one year old in 2019. This reflects how stubborn preferences for these unhealthy breeds can be. Dr Packer's previous research found that health problems faced by flat-faced breeds, such as being unable to exercise due to skeletal issues, were normalised by their owners. One in seven flat-faced owners said 'nothing' could persuade them against getting an unhealthy dog. Likewise, many believed their dogs' 'laziness' was a highly desirable trait, despite this often being caused by breathing or musculoskeletal problems. Dr Packer says: 'Many breeders show resistance to changing the body shape of their breed. 'Given that breeders hold the power to make decisions over which types of dog are bred, and current legislation around extreme breeding is not enforced in the UK, the market is still dominated by extreme dogs, giving the public less choice to express their preferences when acquiring a puppy.' Researchers found that Britons consistently rated less extreme body shapes (dog 1 in the test samples) as more attractive, healthier, and more ethical to breed than more extreme versions In the future, Dr Packer says she would like to see standards changed to encourage less extreme breeds. These could include limits on how extreme a dog's physical traits can be, similar to laws imposed in the Netherlands. By restricting the extremes of dog breeding, the standard may shift back towards the preferences of most people and start to favour healthier shapes. 'Prioritising ethics and welfare in breeding over aesthetics is key for a happy, healthy future for dogs,' says Dr Packer. A genetic analysis of the world's oldest known dog remains revealed that dogs were domesticated in a single event by humans living in Eurasia, around 20,000 to 40,000 years ago. Dr Krishna Veeramah, an assistant professor in evolution at Stony Brook University, told MailOnline: 'The process of dog domestication would have been a very complex process, involving a number of generations where signature dog traits evolved gradually. 'The current hypothesis is that the domestication of dogs likely arose passively, with a population of wolves somewhere in the world living on the outskirts of hunter-gatherer camps feeding off refuse created by the humans. 'Those wolves that were tamer and less aggressive would have been more successful at this, and while the humans did not initially gain any kind of benefit from this process, over time they would have developed some kind of symbiotic [mutually beneficial] relationship with these animals, eventually evolving into the dogs we see today.'
