The future! This week for Earthy Thursday we talk about some of the coming changes our Earth is experiencing and how society is adapting to them. Learn more about the Pope's statement on climate change, the possibilities of biofuel, what researchers are doing to harness nuclear fusion, and how public opinion on science and technology is shaped. All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

So what did the Pope say about climate change anyway? If you were at all confused or only heard the Pope's statements second or third hand, you can thank Patheos for gathering twelve of the most important talking points from the Pope's encyclical on global warming and environmental responsibility. You can read them all here.

Among the various possible replacements for fossil fuels, biofuels are one that garner a lot of attention from environmentalist activists and scientists. But just how close are we to making them practical? This article from MIT takes a look.

Making cities more ecological has been a major focus of urban development for quite some time now. One of the ways that cities are going about becoming more eco-friendly is building "urban commons." This story from The Guardian talks about these expansive community gardens in more detail.

It's a fairly well established fact that the most powerful energy reactor in our solar system is the Sun, whose total power output is equal to 3.846×10²⁶ Watts. For decades it has been a goal to replicate the Sun's efficiency as an energy source by fusing hydrogen atoms together in what is known as "nuclear fusion." For those curious about the potential of this energy source, Nature has an update on its current status on the cutting edge.

There's little doubt that whenever science and politics mix, the results are often controversial. But what shapes public opinion about science and technology? The Pew Research Center takes a closer look at what drives people's opinions about climate change, vaccines, genetic engineering, evolution, and the space program.

Top image by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory