How do we respond?
Kathryn Boyle
The author asks the question: Global Warming: How should Christians respond?
CLIMATOLOGISTS now accept that the temperature of our planet’s surface is warming, at least partially, as a result of human activity. While debate continues about the extent to which the human footprint is responsible, the consequences of global warming are dire and are already being felt, both locally and internationally.
How are Christians to respond to our current ‘signs of the times’? Clearly we will be forced to make radical changes to the way we live and the impact we have on Earth. In 2001, the late Pope John Paul II called humankind to an ‘ecological conversion.’ In applying this call to the local context, the Australian Bishops have urged ‘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 urge Catholics as an essential part of their faith commitment to respond with sound judgement and resolute action to the reality of climate change.’
Australia, the world’s driest inhabited continent, is in the grip of one of the worst droughts ever recorded. Rivers and dams are drying up and the consequences for agriculture threaten to be catastrophic. The incidence of tropical diseases like malaria and dengue fever is spreading. Natural events like cyclones, tropical storms and heatwaves are more severe.
Similarly, the Bishops of New Zealand state, ‘Our world is facing an ecological crisis, which could equally be called an economic crisis, or a poverty crisis. Its public face is the suffering of the poor and the degradation of our environment, at a time when the accumulation of wealth and material goods has never occupied our attention more. That is why we see it primarily as a spiritual or moral crisis.’
As people of faith, we constantly assess the reality of our world in the light of the Gospel:
‘What does the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” mean when 20% of the world’s population consumes resources at a rate that robs poorer nations and future generations of what they need to survive?
What does it mean to respect life when 30,000 people die each day from poverty?
What does it mean to be stewards of the Earth when up to half of all living species are expected to become extinct in the next 200 years?’
While recognising that ultimately, climate change is a global problem requiring global solutions, the Australian and New Zealand Bishops urge us all to action. ‘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.’
The challenges facing the human family are enormous. However, ‘our faith and our religious tradition have much to offer the world at this time, including the importance of simplicity, and of learning to give up some things that we want, so that others may have what they need. Our understanding that we are stewards of God’s creation, our solidarity with the poor, and our respect for the common good make the issue of environmental justice the responsibility of every person.’
1 ‘Our Responsibility to Sustain God’s Earth,’ Position paper on Climate Change, 2005.
2 ‘Our World is Facing an Ecological Crisis,’ Statement on the Environment, Sept 8, 2006.
3 ‘Our World is Facing an Ecological Crisis,’ Statement on the Environment, Sept 8, 2006 available at www.catholic.org.nz
4 ‘Our Responsibility to Sustain God’s Earth,’ Position paper on Climate Change, 2005 available at www.catholicearthcareoz.net
5 ‘Our World is Facing an Ecological Crisis,’ Statement on the Environment, Sept 8, 2006.
