10.15.2007

On the Environment

Bloggers Unite - Blog Action Day

Tess points out that today is Blog Action Day for the Environment. As the Blog Action Day website says: "On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future."

In keeping with the nature of this blog (yes, a pun in honor of my brothers) I thought I'd share some words from Catholic Social Teaching on the Environment:

We cannot interfere in one area of the ecosystem without paying due attention both to the consequences of such interference in other areas and to the well-being of future generations … An education in ecological responsibility is urgent: responsibility for oneself, for others, and for the earth. --Pope John Paul II, The Ecological Crisis: A Common Responsibility, 1990

At its core, global climate change is not about economic theory or political platforms, nor about partisan advantage or interest group pressures. It is about the future of God's creation and the one human family. It is about protecting both "the human environment" and the natural environment. It is about our human stewardship of God's creation and our responsibility to those who come after us. - Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence, and the Common Good, US Catholic Bishops Conference, 2001
The reign of God proclaimed by Jesus is present and yet to come. Signs of its presence are evident in people's efforts to restore God's creation and live in harmony with the earth and all creatures, and in struggles to promote justice in human communities. The signs are yet incomplete but by the grace of God and the cooperation of humanity the struggle will be more energetically engaged and justice and peace can prevail. - NW Catholic Bishops, Columbia River Pastoral Letter

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link, Susan, and I like the words you've shared.

Anonymous said...

I would just like to remind your readers that we do not live in the enviornment: we are part of it. I think of a New Yorker cartoon published the year the whale was stuck between Alaska and Russia, and ice breakers from both nations came to the rescue. In the cartoon, a homeless man was dressed up as a whale.

I also think of the thousands of lives lost since we banned DDT. Please see this editorial from the New York Times: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9F0DEEDA1738F932A25757C0A9629C8B63

Thanks, Susan.

A