Climate Change | Election 2008

Climate Change

As stewards of God’s creation and members of one global and intergenerational human family, we have a moral responsibility to reverse the warming of our planet. “Global climate change 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 generations who will succeed us…. As people of faith, we believe that the atmosphere that supports life on earth is a God-given gift, one we must respect and protect. It unites us as one human family. If we harm the atmosphere, we dishonor our Creator and the gift of creation.” (Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good, U.S. Catholic Bishops, 2001)

Background
Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth graphically displays our collective failure by showing to the devastating effects of increased CO2 and its partner: increased global temperatures. Our modern conveniences produce increasing amounts of carbon dioxide and other “greenhouse gases” which thicken the earth’s atmosphere, trapping too much of the sun’s radiation, causing air and water temperatures to warm dangerously.

Production of greenhouse gases is escalating. The air and the waters are warming. Mounting evidence can no longer be avoided. In January 2008, an Antarctic ice shelf considered to be stable for hundreds of years to come crashed into the sea. Already, some coastal villages have had to relocate to higher ground, due to rising water levels.[i] Numbers and intensity of hurricanes, typhoons and tornadoes have increased dramatically in the last ten years. Desertification, exemplified by the disappearance of Lake Chad (once the sixth largest in the world), escalates famine and leads to war. The crisis is now.

The Faithful Respond
In the Judeo-Christian traditions, our ecological responsibility is rooted in the creation story which gives us three critical messages: “God saw everything that he had made and indeed, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). “So, God created humankind…, in the image of God, God created them.” (Gen. 1:27). And, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and to keep it” (Gen. 2:15). Since God was pleased with God’s good work, certainly human beings are charged to keep it as God would. The psalmist reminds us that, “the earth is the Lord’s and all it holds” (24:1). In each generation we are given the gifts of our environment as a trust for generations to come.

The faith community is beginning to recognize that, “It is about protecting both ‘the human environment’ and the natural environment.”[ii] It is about our stewardship of creation. As Christians, our beliefs and actions are grounded in principles such as the dignity of each person, the common good, solidarity, and particular care for those living in poverty. “There is only one Earth, it belongs to the rich and the poor, and its protection is the responsibility of all.”[iii]Pope Benedict XVI makes explicit the mandate of concern for those in poverty, in his call to care for creation which is “exposed to serious risks by choices and lifestyles that can seriously degrade it… environmental degradation makes the life of the poor intolerable.”[iv]

Catholic Social Teaching
The United States Catholic Bishops call us to keep our trust of caring for the earth, with special attention to the impact of global warming on those who are poor, both in the U.S. and throughout the world.

Those who live in poverty contribute very little to global warming, yet are those most frequently devastated by its effects: flooding, drought, famine, loss of species. They also have the least means to adapt to the devastation caused - as we saw through the consequences of Hurricane Katrina.

Those of us who relish our electronic gadgets, eat at the high end of the food chain, drive inefficient vehicles, and live in grand surroundings are responsible for the greatest amounts of CO2 entering the atmosphere- we leave the largest carbon footprint. And, we have greater means to adapt to the effects of climate change.

It is imperative that we attend to, and take action, concerning the danger. Below is a sampling of means to meet our moral mandate concerning climate change and the future of Earth.

  • Reducing our individual carbon footprint, simplifying our own lifestyles by limiting our use of energy consuming products [v]
  • Calling on our family, parish, and community to learn and preach about our moral responsibility to reduce the amount of green house gases for which we are responsible.
  • Investing only in corporations which work to hold down their carbon footprint
  • Supporting development of new technologies to help communities adapt to climate changes.
  • Ensuring availability of resources to support those in poverty (in the U.S. and globally) who are most affected by climate change
  • Calling on our government to accept, and monitor adherence to, environmental standards which will protect our Earth from further harm

A life of dignity for all humanity demands that we place the health of Earth and the needs of others - especially those in poverty - before our own wants. Let us respond as co-creators with God, of the future of the universe. “Creation has its own goodness and proper perfection, but it did not spring forth complete from the hands of the Creator. The universe was created “in a state of journeying” toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it.” [viii]
Adapted from Marge Clark, BVM. “An Inescapable Truth”, BVM-SALT, Spring 2008.

Learn More:
Catholic Coalition on Climate Change
In partnership with the U.S. Bishops, CCCC is a consolidated source for Church teachings on climate change and materials for reflection, faith formation, education, and action.

National Catholic Rural Life Conference
Catholic social teaching and other materials on environmental justice including: climate change, water and natural resource depletion, ecological sustainability, and agriculture.

USCCB’s Caring for God’s Creation
The U.S. Bishop’s Environmental Justice Program (EJP) calls Catholics to a deeper respect for God’s creation and supports parishes in activities that deal with environmental problems, particularly as they affect the poor.

League of Conservation Voters: The Heat is On
A website to raise the debate on global warming and make it a priority issue during the presidential primaries. The campaign educates and organizes concerned citizens in early caucus and primary states.

[i] Lerman-Golomb, Barbara and Melody Barnes, with Kumar Garg. Forging a Response to Climate Change: Why Communities of Faith are Essential, in PURSUING THE GLOBAL COMMON GOOD, Center for American Progress, 2007.

[ii] .John Paul II, On the Hundredth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum (Centesimus Annus) (Washington, D.C.: United States Catholic Conference, 1991), no. 38.

[iii] Alcino DaCosta, UNESCO Courier (July-August 1992).

[iv] Benedict XVI, Angelus Address, Aug. 27, 2006.

[v] Carbon Footprint Calculator. http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ind_calculator.html

[vi] United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. http://unfccc.int/2860.php

[vii] 11 Multinationals to Assess Their ‘Carbon Footprint.’ Washington Post, January 21, 2008.

[viii] Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 302,

Comments are closed.