what does it take to understand others?

See Charles Eisenstein's great video: "What is it like to be you?"
https://youtu.be/uStmnodUpOo

Pope addresses “Religions for Peace”‎ delegation

 Pope Francis ‎told a delegation of 80 members of “Religions for Peace”, who met him in the Vatican, that "religions have a unique to play in building peace".

Religions for Peace is the world’s largest and most representative multi-religious coalition that advances common action among the world’s religious communities to transform violent conflict, advance human development, promote just and harmonious societies, and protect the earth.

Lear more at
 http://fore.yale.edu/news/item/pope-addresses-religions-for-peace-delegation/

Some important books about ethics and the environment

Go to this link at the University of North Texas's Center for Environmental Philosophy, to see a list of foundational books on ethics and the environment:

http://www.cep.unt.edu/eebooks.html

interested in "greening" your tavel?

Although a lot of factors were debated a few years ago regarding carbon offsets and other green travel initiatives, some of the forward movement on these topics has stalled or slowed. Some entities are still at work on it, however:

https://climatecare.org/category/news/

http://www.responsibletravel.org/index.php

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/company/globalcitizenship/environment/carbon-offset-program.aspx

Carbon offsets may still be useful - look into this option, especially if - like me - you are concerned about the effect of emissions from  commercial aircraft.

new paper on conservation and social science

A valuable recent paper in the journal Environmental Conservation:

Conservation social science: Understanding and integrating human dimensions to improve conservation

 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320716305328

• Nathan J. Bennett^{a, b, c, , ,} ,
• Robin Roth^d, ,
• Sarah C. Klain^a, ,
• Kai Chan^a, ,
• Patrick Christie^e, ,
• Douglas A. Clark^f, ,
• Georgina Cullman^g, ,
• Deborah Curran^h, ,
• Trevor J. Durbin^i, ,