“If we continue to do deforestation, it is like suicide," said Monsignor Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo. "We need to act together to defend our common house."

Rising seas due to global warming have rendered the coastal high-water marks more obsolete by the day. That is especially true in the Miami area, which every media report on sea-level rise seems to profile as ground zero for deluge doom.

Civic engagement is not limited to voting.

Activists see a moral imperative for protecting our water.