Climate Change

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Climate Change

• The Theologians Speak

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Remember the Amazon and the Ozone Layer!

• The longest journey begins with the first step.
  (Chinese Proverb)
• If we work together, we will win! (Bob Brown
  28/5/06))

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Jesus as our Model

• The call to live simply Do not lay up for
  yourselves earthly treasures (Mt 5 19)
• Seeking perfection? Give it all to the poor (Mt
  2021)
• The Rich Fool (Lk 1216)
• The Danger of Riches (Mk 1025)

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Catechism of the Catholic Church

• Our Creed begins with the creation of heaven and
  Earth, for creation is the beginning and the
  foundation of all Gods works (No. 198I).
• The right to private property, acquired by work
  or received from others by inheritance or gift,
  does not do away with the original gift of the
  Earth to the whole of humankind. The universal
  destination of goods remains primordial (No.
  2403).
• Humanitys dominion over inanimate and other
  living beings is not absolute it is limited by
  concern for the quality of life of our neighbour,
  including generations to come it requires a
  religious respect for the integrity of creation
  (No. 2415).

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Pope John Paul II

• Within the movement of nature, tranquil and
  silent but rich in life, there continues to
  palpitate the original delight of the Creator.
• The natural world has value in itself and should
  not be valued merely for its usefulness to
  humanity.
• Earth belongs to God and is only on loan to
  humans who are called to care for it.
• Ecological education provides the background for
  wise and moral decisions.

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• There are limits to world resources and the
  environmental services that Earth can meet before
  pushing it to a new epoch
• Excessive demands are imposed on the Earth by
  nations with a consumerist economy and
  life-style.
• Restraint, penance and self-imposed limitations
  are part of authentic human living and are in the
  tradition of choosing sacrifice for the greater
  good.

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• The right to a safe ecological environment is a
  universal human right.
• Models of development, social structure and
  styles of technology must integrate environmental
  factors if there is to be authentic development.
• Super-development, often for the purpose of
  economic gain, poses an additional threat to the
  environment.

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• The richer nations have an obligation to
  dismantle structural forms of global poverty and
  to help poorer nations experiencing social or
  environmental problems.
• Political leaders at every level have a duty to
  administer for the good of all. This includes
  administering prudently a nations environmental
  resources
• Future generations should not be robbed or left
  with extra burdens for they have a claim to a
  just administration of the world's resources by
  this generation.

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• God has not abandoned the world. It is Gods will
  that Gods design and our hope for it will be
  realised through our co-operation in restoring
  its original harmony.
• The Eucharist is celebrated in order to offer
  on the altar of the whole earth the worlds work
  and suffering in the beautiful words of Teilhard
  de Chardin.

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Benedict XVI

• We have to give impulse to rediscovering our
  responsibility and to finding an ethical way to
  change our way of life.
• Politicians and experts must be capable of
  responding to the great ecological challenge and
  to be up to the task of this challenge. (14-07-08)

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Australian Catholic Bishops

• We urge Catholics as a matter of conscience to
  cooperate in facing global warming as one of the
  major issues of our time and take roles of
  responsibility proper to them.
• We now urge Catholics as an essential part of
  their faith commitment to respond with sound
  judgements and resolute action to the reality of
  climate change.
• Given the gravity of the problem, detailed and
  resolute responses need to be both swift and
  radical.

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• The wonderful inter-relatedness that ecologists
  find in the biosphere on Earth, and the
  inter-relatedness that science discovers at all
  levels from quantum physics to cosmology, is all
  sustained at every moment by the Creator.
• We are intimately interconnected with the whole
  life-system of the planet and the complex
  interaction between living creatures and the
  atmosphere, the land and the water systems.
• Suffering of any one part means that all creation
  groans, and rapid global climate change
  dramatically displays that suffering.

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• We need to keep in mind the Precautionary
  Principle Where there are threats of serious or
  irreversible damage, lack of full scientific
  certainty should not be used as a reason for
  postponing remedial measures.
• Poor countries will suffer disproportionately
  from rapid climate change, in part because of
  their geography and in part because they lack the
  resources to respond.
• Human suffering in our region will increase from
  maladies such as heat stress and the spread of
  insect-borne tropical diseases south from the
  equator.

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• Each sector of the community- citizens and
  consumers governments, business and industry
  and the non-government sector has a role in
  imagining and building a future Australia with
  radically reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
• Consumers send powerful signals to the market by
  their greenhouse-friendly choice of goods and
  services. We dream of a fuller view of humanity,
  greater than a mere owning of more material
  goods.
• Ultimately, profit is secondary to ecologically
  sustainable living.

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• The three levels of government have duties of
  leadership to take decisions for the common good
  and future of the nation, involving citizens in
  public debate on ecological issues. Short and
  long term ecologically sustainable options, and
  unsustainable dead ends, need to be identified
  and appropriate laws framed.
• Locally, government agencies can preferentially
  choose greenhouse gas reducing procurements,
  buildings and energy options. Internationally,
  Australia must continue to support structures
  that help reduce global warming. Strengthening
  Biodiversity compliance and ratifying the Kyoto
  Protocol seems minimal.

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• As one of the worlds biggest emitters, per
  capita, of greenhouse gases, Australians have a
  particular duty to recognise the fact that they
  are directly implicated in the causes of
  atmospheric pollution which is harming the many
  innocent peoples of the Pacific region.
  Ironically, the ecological footprint of the
  victims is considerably lighter than our own.
• In justice, it is an urgent task for Christians
  today to be reconciled with all creation, and to
  undertake faithfully our responsibility of
  stewardship of Gods gifts. To achieve such
  reconciliation, we must examine our lives and
  acknowledge the ways in which we have harmed
  Gods creation through our actions and our
  failure to act. We need to experience a
  conversion, or change of heart. (Ecological
  conversion)

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• As a matter of justice and out of a pastoral
  concern, we Bishops address ourselves to the
  Catholic communities and ask them to lead by
  example, to see care for our planet Earth as a
  'vocation'.
• We encourage all Catholics to help our nation by
  developing an ecological ethic and to face up to
  the radical changes required for tackling global
  climate change.
• Our nation, in turn, may become an example to
  other nations both for the wise choices it takes
  internally and the generous spirit it shows to
  developing nations.
• God is not mean, nor should we be.

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• We recognize Gods presence. God is within us,
  calling us, inspiring us, reassuring us, as we
  work together in reverence and love to protect
  and sustain this sacred handiwork

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Fr Denis Edwards

• For a Christian believer, committed to love for
  Gods creation and to respect for the dignity of
  every person, responding to this issue will have
  to be a central dimension of the life of faith.
• When we come to the Eucharist we bring the
  creatures of Earth with us.
• We remember the God who loves each one of them.
• We grieve for the damage done to them. We feel
  with them and for them an ecological ethos.
• In Christ, we remember Gods good creation the
  14 billion year history of the universe, the
  emergence of life in its diversity and beauty.

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• We remember the vulnerable community of life on
  Earth today and bring this to God.
• In this vision of things, all that respects and
  celebrates the life systems of our planet is one
  with the work of the risen Christ.
• Knowingly destroying the living systems of our
  planet amounts to a denial of what we celebrate
  when we gather for Eucharist.
• Climate change aggravates social and economic
  injustice. To contribute to this destruction is
  not only a sin against the weak and unprotected
  but also against the earth-Gods gift of life

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• Solidarity involves personal and political
  commitment to the two strategies of mitigation
  and adaptation.
• Adaptation re-ordering society, budgeting for
  disasters and hospitality to refugees.
• We commit ourselves again to discipleship, to an
  ecological lifestyle, politics and praxis as
  people of hope and commitment.

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Fr Sean McDonagh SSC

• Human activity causes extinction in three ways
  according to Dr McDonagh habitat destruction,
  the introduction of alien species into an
  ecosystem, and human-created pollution.
• Human-created pollution includes not just
  by-products of industrial activity and oil
  spills, but also global warming. The atmospheric
  concentration of carbon dioxide, methane,
  chloroflourocarbons (CFCs) and other 'greenhouse'
  gases is expected to increase by 30 by 2050.

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• The 'most important role' that the churches can
  play is to 'articulate a competent theology of
  creation'. This can no longer be based solely on
  religious texts, but 'needs to be grounded in
  scientific knowledge'.
• The churches too must develop 'an appropriate
  ethical framework for promoting the integrity of
  creation and justice'. Such an ethic would demand
  a legal framework.
• More adequate accounting systems are also needed
  to show the finite nature of the world. One such
  model, the 'human ecological footprint', defines
  the land area required to provide the resources
  and absorb the emissions for the global society.
  According to one source, this measure was
  exceeded by 20 in 1990.

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• For the sake of future generations, we need to
• lower population,
• alter consumption levels and
• promote more resource-efficient technologies.
• This has ramifications, for instance, for the
  Catholic position on birth control, and for the
  modern, growth-oriented, industrial model of
  development, which has been the principal cause
  of ecological devastation in our world today.

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• The challenge facing this generation is quite
  different. It is one that has never faced a
  generation of humans in the past and never will
  be faced by a future generation of humans.
• This is the mass extinction of other creatures in
  just a few short decades.
• The task quite simply is to take decisive action
  to stave off the extinction of species which
  could sterilize the planet.

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• If this generation does not act, no future
  generation will be able to undo the damage that
  this generation has caused to the planet.
• It is an extraordinary and awesome moment that
  the behavior of a single generation of humans can
  have such a profound and irreversible impact, not
  just on human history, but on the life of the
  planet as well.
• Sooner or later, extinction will rob our planet
  of the ability to sustain many forms of life,
  possibly even our own.

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World Council of Churches

• Spiritual Foundations
• Theological Ethical Perspectives
• Climate Change science, impacts and policy
• Impacts on the most vulnerable
• Faith Communities responses and challenges

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Spiritual Foundations We are to respond to Gods love by caring for that which is loved by God. Working for the common good God loves Creation.
Theological Ethical Perspectives Solidarity Justice Sufficiency Sustainability Prudence
Climate Change science, impacts and policy Joint science academies statement Global response to climate change. Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
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Impacts on the most vulnerable Pacific Small Island States Developing country impacts
Faith Communities responses and challenges Witnessing to climate change as a spiritual issue Education within faith communities Faith-based relief and development agencies Collaboration in ecumenical advocacy initiatives
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Solutions?

• The right to private property does not do away
  with the original gift of the Earth to the whole
  of humankind.
• a religious respect for the integrity of creation
• The natural world has value in itself
• Ecological education
• Restraint, penance and self-imposed limitations
• dismantle structural forms of global poverty
• administering prudently a nations environmental
  resources

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Solutions?

• Future generations should not be robbed
• cooperate in facing global warming as one of the
  major issues of our time and take roles of
  responsibility
• respond with sound judgements and resolute action
  to the reality of climate change.
• detailed and resolute responses need to be both
  swift and radical.
• Each sector of the community- has a role in
  imagining and building a future Australia with
  radically reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

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Solutions?

• detailed and resolute responses need to be both
  swift and radical.
• Each sector of the community- has a role in
  imagining and building a future Australia with
  radically reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
• Consumers send powerful signals to the market by
  their greenhouse-friendly choice of goods and
  services.
• profit is secondary to ecologically sustainable
  living.

34
Solutions?

• Short and long term ecologically sustainable
  options, and unsustainable dead ends, need to be
  identified and appropriate laws framed.
• Australia must continue to support structures
  that help reduce global warming.
• Australians have a particular duty to recognise
  the fact that they are directly implicated in the
  causes of atmospheric pollution

35
Solutions?

• we must examine our lives and acknowledge the
  ways in which we have harmed Gods creation
  through our actions and our failure to act. We
  need to experience a conversion, or change of
  heart.
• see care for our planet Earth as a 'vocation'.
• help our nation by developing an ecological ethic
• responding to this issue will have to be a
  central dimension of the life of faith.
• Solidarity involves personal and political
  commitment to the two strategies of mitigation
  and adaptation.

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Solutions?

• We commit to an ecological lifestyle, politics
  and praxis as people of hope and commitment.
• For the sake of future generations, we need to
• lower population,
• alter consumption levels and
• promote more resource-efficient technologies.
• take decisive action to stave off the extinction
  of species which could sterilize the planet.
• Solidarity
• Justice
• Sufficiency
• Sustainability
• Prudence

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A SPIRITUAL DECLARATION ON CLIMATE CHANGEMade by
Faith Community Participants during the Montreal
Climate ConferenceDecember 4, 2005

• We hear the call of the Earth.
• We believe that caring for life on Earth is a
  spiritual commitment.
• People and other species have the right to life
  unthreatened by human greed and destructiveness.
• Pollution, particularly from the energy-intensive
  wealthy industrialised countries, is warming the
  atmosphere. A warmer atmosphere is leading to
  major climate changes. The poor and vulnerable in
  the world and future generations will suffer the
  most.
• We commit ourselves to help reduce the threat of
  climate change through actions in our own lives,
  pressure on governments and industries and
  standing in solidarity with those most affected
  by climate change.
• We pray for spiritual support in responding to
  the call of the Earth.
• We make our prayer to the eternal creator,
  through Jesus, in whom the whole cosmos finds
  unity. Amen.

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Next Time

• A Cosmic, not Anthropocentric Worldview
• We Are Stardust-
• Personal Change
• Lord, what must I do?-
• Communal Change
• Ecological education-
• Political and social action-