Need an encouraging boost? Check out our Interfaith Climate Tracker

One reason we decided to highlight what these groups are doing is that, as political and scientific leaders have pointed out, politics and science are insufficient by themselves to move people to the level of disruptive movement it will take to head off a climate disaster.

Gina McCarthy, who headed the Environmental Protection Agency under President Obama, helped make that case for EarthBeat readers here. Philip Duffy, a physicist who heads the Woods Hole Research Center, helped organize a coalition of scientists and faith leaders around climate issues two years ago. Earlier this year on EarthBeat, he congratulated Pope Francis for getting the science and urged him to step it up on the action front.

Check out actions underway by people of various faiths on the Tracker, which you can also access directly on Twitter.

Here's what's new on EarthBeat this week:

• Camellia Moses Okpodu, a dean at Xavier University of Louisana, the nation's only Catholic HBCU, makes the case that the work of Laudato Si' will require stewardship for all and by all. Among other things, that means more training in the environmental sciences for African American students.
• As part of our association with Covering Climate Now, we're able to publish this story by Rachel Ramirez of Grist: For indigenous protestors, defending the environment can be fatal.
• As our Digging into Laudato Si' series nears its end (it concludes next week), Samantha Panchèvre offers a respite: The power of love and the need to rest. 
• In our latest Small Earth Story, Lindy Brasher tells the story of a wren whose early morning songs she hopes won't become a lament for a damaged planet.

Here's some of what's new in other climate news this week:

• The Associated Press reports that three space agencies, using 17 satellites, have created a website that functions as a dashboard showing the temporary changes in pollution resulting from COVID-19 lockdowns around the world.
• Yale Climate Connections rounds up recent discussions of the linkage between racism and climate change.
• Writing in the New York Times Climate Forward Newsletter, John Schwartz and Geneva Abdul explain how the Supreme Court's recent ruling on gay and transgender rights in the workplace may benefit the climate.
• And speaking of global warming, EcoWatch reports on the Siberian town that has experienced its first temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest temperature ever recording north of the Arctic Circle.

Upcoming Event:

On July 7, Christian Climate Action will convene a virtual event focused on "the racial lens through which we view climate change and plan action."

One advantage of so many events moving online is their accessibility to a wider audience. If you'd like to expand the audience of your next virtual climate event, please post it here.

Closing beat:

Since our launch Oct. 30 of last year, we've been doing what we can to raise awareness of EarthBeat. So we certainly welcome this tweet from Julia Lous-Dreyfus to her 1.1 million followers:

At some point next month, I'll be moving to a new role at NCR. That means we need a new EarthBeat editor. If you're interested – or know of someone who might be – please read the job description and follow up! The deadline for applications is June 30.

We hope you'll forward this week's newsletter to anyone you believe might want to subscribe. They can do so here.  As you know, neither EarthBeat nor NCR restricts access to coverage with a paywall. Instead we depend on readers like you to sign up for a voluntary membership. If you'd like to join their ranks, please join NCR Forward for as little as five bucks a month.

Thanks for reading.

Bill Mitchell

NCR Climate Editor

bmitchell@ncronline.org