Climate Change

1. Climate Change The Theologians Speak

2. 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))

3. 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 20:21) • The Rich Fool (Lk 12:16) • The Danger of Riches (Mk 10:25)

4. 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 God’s 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). • Humanity’s 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).

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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 nation’s 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.

9. God has not abandoned the world. It is God’s will that God’s 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 world’s work and suffering’ in the beautiful words of Teilhard de Chardin.

10. 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)

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. The three levels of government have duties of leadership to take decisions for the common goodand 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.

16. As one of the world’s 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 God’s gifts. To achieve such reconciliation, we must examine our lives and acknowledge the ways in which we have harmed God’s creation through our actions and our failure to act. We need to experience a conversion, or change of heart. (Ecological conversion)

17. 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.

18. We recognize God’s 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

19. Fr Denis Edwards • For a Christian believer, committed to love for God’s 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 God’s good creation: the 14 billion year history of the universe, the emergence of life in its diversity and beauty.

20. 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 therisen 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-God’s gift of life”

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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

30. 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 nation’s environmental resources

31. 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.

32. 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.

33. 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

34. Solutions? • we must examine our lives and acknowledge the ways in which we have harmed God’s 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.

35. 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

36. 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.

37. 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-