World Environment Day June 5th

World Environment Day - June 5 - Photo:canva.com

Only One Earth’ is the slogan that gathers the global community to celebrate World Environment Day’s 50 years of global effort to celebrate, protect and restore Earth.  Columban missionaries around the world are committed to act in solidarity for the flourishing of communities experiencing poverty and all God’s creation. 

The first international conference of the United Nations on the environment was hosted in Stockholm, Sweden on June 5th, 1972, under the slogan ‘Only One Earth.’  The conference put sustainable development on the international agenda and led to the establishment of an annual Earth Day observance.  The key message ‘Only One Earth’ has been taken up again this year, to celebrate 50 years of global effort.  Everyone is invited to count and share their actions to celebrate, protect and restore Earth.  

Fifty years on from the world’s first Earth Day, our common home is facing mounting pressures. The climate is warming at unsafe levels, species and habitats are increasingly being lost to extinction and pollution is devastating air, land and water. The ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing armed conflicts are further threatening lives and access to basic essentials through a web of global interactions.   

Evidence of the need for positive change is all around us. This year, prolonged heatwaves have reached new levels across large parts of India and Pakistan. In the worst hit areas of Pakistan, including the Sindh province where Columban missionaries live and serve, temperatures have reached up to 50 degrees Celsius. Severe heat is harming human and animal lives, crops are failing and the water table is being lowered. Communities experiencing poverty are the most impacted, including outdoor construction workers forced to work in unsafe heat in order to feed their families, while also struggling to meet contract targets.  In northern Pakistan, the extreme heat has caused rapid melting of glaciers leading to flash flooding and devastation of villages. The World Meteorological Organization states the extreme heat in India and Pakistan is “consistent with what we expect in a changing climate.” 

Columban missionaries around the world work with the local Church and wider networks to raise hope, build community and bring about positive change.

A new report published by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in April 2022, states safe land use boundaries have currently been exceeded worldwide. Protection and restoration of Earth’s natural living systems is vital to limiting global warming to safe levels, reducing poverty, protecting human health and providing many other inter-connected benefits. The report also states examples from around the world highlight the need for communities to be supported to develop skills and nurture much needed change for the whole Earth community. 

Columban missionaries around the world work with the local Church and wider networks to raise hope, build community and bring about positive change. Columban Fr Sean McDonagh says the grassroots Laudato Si’ movement to care for God’s creation has flourished in Ireland, even during the pandemic. Fr Sean states hundreds of people gathered on-line to learn, reflect and pray during COVID-19 lockdowns. This became a nourishing place of 440 book clubs for people to consider what is truly important and to discern where they are being called to act to protect our common home. Fr Sean says some of the most memorable action in recent years has also been the inter-faith community’s participation in the global youth climate strikes.  In September 2019, 20,000 gathered in Dublin calling for urgent action.

Fr Sean was part of an inter-faith group who gathered on the banks of the River Liffey, near the Famine memorial to pray together as the strike began. “Many people joined us. It was a beautiful moment of solidarity and afterwards we marched together under the banner of ‘Faiths for Climate Action’.” National Holy Wells Day is another initiative in Ireland which gathers local communities to celebrate water and reflect together on what they can do to protect the right of access to clean water worldwide. Fr Sean says there are over 3000 Holy Wells across Ireland which are integral to Irish history and landscape. “Now wells are being restored as community projects, a new reverence for the mystery and importance of water is quietly flourishing.” 

Sr Caroline Vaitkunas RSM, Peace, Ecology and Justice Office, Columban Mission Centre, Essendon.

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