Home | EcoPhilly

EcoPhilly's Mission:

As part of the Laudato Si' Movement, our mission is to establish a network of creation care teams throughout the Archdiocese of Philadelphia that achieve measurable improvements in their local environment.

"Please engage with these efforts to care for God’s creation.”

Most Reverend Nelson J. Pérez, D.D., Archbishop of Philadelphia

What is 'climate change's evil twin'? Watch this short video from 'The Economist' to find out!

Catholics and water pollution here in Philadelphia

How large is my carbon footprint? What can I do to offset it? Visit Climate Stewards now!

**NEW**

Saint Patrick School in Malvern PA launches new composting/food bank initiative

Get your Earth Day Toolkit

Read and download masses of Earth Day stuff here

Cheetah2 https://cheetah.org/	Lorikeet A lorikeet. These colorful parrots specialize in eating pollen and nectar.	Nudibranch This is a nudibranch ('sea slug'). These mollusks are found in a variety of oceanic habitats and are very often spectacularly colored.
Poison Dart Frog Some Central and South American frogs secrete alkaloid toxins in their skin to protect them from being eaten. Their intense coloration is to warn predators. Their poisons are derived from the insects that form part of their diet. Sometimes indigenous peoples have used the secretions as poison in their blowdart hunting.	'Lemon' Butterfly Fish Just one of many thousands of beautiful fish species found on coral reefs.	Tiger Fewer than 4000 tigers exist in the wild. Destruction of their forest habitat and unchecked poaching are accelerating its decline.
Cork oaks with bark harvested Spain and Portugal have a remarkable cork forest which has supplied cork for wine and furnishings for hundred of years. Help preserve these forests, teaming with life, by buying wine with real corks!	Adult male orangutan Orangutans are now critically endangered in their SE Asian forest home due to hunting and habitat destruction.	Ring-tailed Lemur Around 100 species of lemur exist, all found in Madagascar. All are endangered, some critically so.
Rafflesia The largest flower in the world. Rafflesia is a parasite, growing on jungle vines - the flower is the only part of the plant that is visible. The largest ever recorded was four feet across.	Red Maki Lemur Like all lemurs, these primates are only found in Madagascar.	Orchid Orchids comprise one of the largest plant groups in the world - there are over 28,000 known species, with innumerable hybrids, including many between genera. They are often pollinated by insects that are attracted using specific pheromones and mimicry.
Victoria Crowned Pigeon The Victoria Crowned Pigeon is one of four similar species - all large and ground-dwelling - found in the forests of New Guinea. It is endangered thanks to habitat destruction and hunting.	African Elephant African elephants comprise two species, the African Bush Elephant and the (smaller) African Forest Elephant.. Both are in danger of extinction due to illegal ivory poaching which kills tens of thousands of elephants each year.	Madagascar Periwinkle This beautiful plant is the Madagascar Periwinkle, commonly grown as an ornamental plant. Within its tissues are two life-saving anticancer drugs, vincristine and vinblastine.
Mountain Gorilla Mountain gorillas, from central Africa, are among the rarest of the great apes.	Blue Morpho The spectacular blue morpho butterfly is found in Central and South America.	Macaw There are 17 species of macaws - basically, the giants of the parrot world. Capture for bird-keeping hobbyists as well as hunting and felling of their forest habitat means that many macaws are endangered, some critically. One, the Spix's Macaw, is only to be found in captivity.
Jaguar These wonderful big cats from the Americas are found in a variety of habitats, but favor forests and wetlands. Like the tiger, they are excellent swimmers and function as the 'apex predator'.	Tree Frog The red-eyed tree frog is found in Central America, and also northern Colombia. Its flamboyant colors are hidden by the frog during the day so that it can remain camouflaged - despite its bright colors, it does not harbor toxins to protect itself.	White-rumped vulture Throughout Asia and Africa, many vulture species are near extinction thanks to hunting and poisoning. This has had terrible knock-on effects of disease spread by rotting carcasses and rabid feral dogs.
Sea Turtle Sea Turtles - surely one of the gentlest of the ocean's creatures - are in decline because of plastic pollution and disturbance of nesting beaches.	Blue Tiger Butterfly The 'blue tiger' butterfly is found in India and several other SE Asian countries. Like the Monarch butterfly, to which it is related, some populations undergo extensive migrations.	A Red Pompadour Cotinga Widely distributed in South America, these fruit-eating birds have very colorful males competing with each other for the attention of the (gray) females.
Coral Reef Coral reefs protect shorelines, act as fish nurseries, produce powerful pharmaceuticals, and are among the most beautiful things on Earth.

If you are interested in the animals and plants in the collage displayed above, click on a hexagon and you will be taken to a website where you can help with their conservation and protection.

Click here for some Creation Care quotes from recent Popes and the USCCB

“In 2015, Pope Francis issued Laudato Si as a universal call for each of us to embrace personal responsibility for the care of God’s creation in the natural world around us.

I am grateful to this team for developing ecophilly.org inspired by Laudato Si, which provides information about the many threats to God’s creation and useful tips on how we can do our part to protect and to preserve this precious gift. Please engage with these efforts to care for God’s creation.

We all share a personal and societal duty to heed the Holy Father’s call.”

Most Reverend Nelson J. Pérez, D.D.

Archbishop of Philadelphia

This is what Laudato Si looks like in Philadelphia –by Aaron Lemma in Catholic Philly
The top three Christian leaders speak out about climate change
Feast of St Francis, October 2022: a message from the Archbishop
USCCB speaks out about climate change
Latest CatholicPhilly article on what EcoPhilly groups are doing
Volunteer activities and opportunities with our partner, Natural Lands
What can I recycle and where? Who knows? Earth911 does!
Doesn't your church need an energy audit?
- Our latest videos:
- Our mission
- Why Creation Care?
- Conservation - A Common Ground
- A Meditation

EcoPhilly's Mission:

As part of the Laudato Si' Movement, our mission is to establish a network of creation care teams throughout the Archdiocese of Philadelphia that achieve measurable improvements in their local environment.

"Please engage with these efforts to care for God’s creation.”

Cheetah2

https://cheetah.org/

Lorikeet

A lorikeet. These colorful parrots specialize in eating pollen and nectar.

Nudibranch

This is a nudibranch ('sea slug'). These mollusks are found in a variety of oceanic habitats and are very often spectacularly colored.

Poison Dart Frog

'Lemon' Butterfly Fish

Just one of many thousands of beautiful fish species found on coral reefs.

Tiger

Fewer than 4000 tigers exist in the wild. Destruction of their forest habitat and unchecked poaching are accelerating its decline.

Cork oaks with bark harvested

Spain and Portugal have a remarkable cork forest which has supplied cork for wine and furnishings for hundred of years. Help preserve these forests, teaming with life, by buying wine with real corks!

Adult male orangutan

Orangutans are now critically endangered in their SE Asian forest home due to hunting and habitat destruction.

Ring-tailed Lemur

Around 100 species of lemur exist, all found in Madagascar. All are endangered, some critically so.

Rafflesia

The largest flower in the world. Rafflesia is a parasite, growing on jungle vines - the flower is the only part of the plant that is visible. The largest ever recorded was four feet across.

Red Maki Lemur

Like all lemurs, these primates are only found in Madagascar.

Orchid

Orchids comprise one of the largest plant groups in the world - there are over 28,000 known species, with innumerable hybrids, including many between genera. They are often pollinated by insects that are attracted using specific pheromones and mimicry.

Victoria Crowned Pigeon

The Victoria Crowned Pigeon is one of four similar species - all large and ground-dwelling - found in the forests of New Guinea. It is endangered thanks to habitat destruction and hunting.

African Elephant

African elephants comprise two species, the African Bush Elephant and the (smaller) African Forest Elephant.. Both are in danger of extinction due to illegal ivory poaching which kills tens of thousands of elephants each year.

Madagascar Periwinkle

This beautiful plant is the Madagascar Periwinkle, commonly grown as an ornamental plant. Within its tissues are two life-saving anticancer drugs, vincristine and vinblastine.

Mountain Gorilla

Mountain gorillas, from central Africa, are among the rarest of the great apes.

Blue Morpho

The spectacular blue morpho butterfly is found in Central and South America.

Macaw

There are 17 species of macaws - basically, the giants of the parrot world. Capture for bird-keeping hobbyists as well as hunting and felling of their forest habitat means that many macaws are endangered, some critically. One, the Spix's Macaw, is only to be found in captivity.

Jaguar

These wonderful big cats from the Americas are found in a variety of habitats, but favor forests and wetlands. Like the tiger, they are excellent swimmers and function as the 'apex predator'.

Tree Frog

The red-eyed tree frog is found in Central America, and also northern Colombia. Its flamboyant colors are hidden by the frog during the day so that it can remain camouflaged - despite its bright colors, it does not harbor toxins to protect itself.

White-rumped vulture

Throughout Asia and Africa, many vulture species are near extinction thanks to hunting and poisoning. This has had terrible knock-on effects of disease spread by rotting carcasses and rabid feral dogs.

Sea Turtle

Sea Turtles - surely one of the gentlest of the ocean's creatures - are in decline because of plastic pollution and disturbance of nesting beaches.

Blue Tiger Butterfly

The 'blue tiger' butterfly is found in India and several other SE Asian countries. Like the Monarch butterfly, to which it is related, some populations undergo extensive migrations.

A Red Pompadour Cotinga

Widely distributed in South America, these fruit-eating birds have very colorful males competing with each other for the attention of the (gray) females.

Coral Reef

Coral reefs protect shorelines, act as fish nurseries, produce powerful pharmaceuticals, and are among the most beautiful things on Earth.