Pope Francis on avoiding environmental catastrophe

In this article Bruce Duncan provides a brief summary of Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ encyclical letter on the environment. He outlines some key features of the encyclical as well as providing an insight into Francis’ underlying approach to, and understanding of, what is described as an environmental and social crisis.

Available online at: http://www.cssr.org.au/justice_matters/dsp-default.cfm?loadref=656

We won’t save the Earth with a better kind of disposable coffee cup

Advocating a radical, systemic approach to the current environmental crisis, George Monbiot argues that we need to challenge the corporations that urge us to live in a throwaway society rather than seeking ‘greener’ ways of maintaining the status quo. It is not a case of ‘what should we use’ but ‘how should we live’.

This article is republished with the Permission of the Guardian. It is available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/06/save-earth-disposable-coffee-cup-green

Editorial – Speaking Truth to Power: Youth Urge Action on Climate Change

by John Kleinsman and Camilla Cockerton


We are in the middle of the biggest crisis in human history and basically nothing is being done to prevent it.

Young voices around the world are calling out for urgent action on climate change. Swedish fifteen-year-old Greta Thunberg chastised world leaders at COP24, the recent UN climate conference in Poland. Meanwhile, in New Zealand, thousands of students recently marched on Parliament in solidarity with other students all over the world, voicing their protest at political inaction.

“For 25 years countless of people have stood in front of the United Nations climate conferences, asking our nation’s leaders to stop the emissions,” Greta told Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General in late 2018. “But, clearly, this has not worked since the emissions just continue to rise. So, I will not ask them anything. Instead, I will ask the media to start treating the crisis as a crisis. Instead, I will ask the people around the world to realize that our political leaders have failed us. Because we are facing an existential threat and there is no time to continue down this road of madness.”

Concerned about the environment as a child, Greta convinced her family to adopt a sustainable lifestyle. At the age of 11, she became ill, depressed, and stopped talking and eating. Her diagnosis included selective mutism, meaning that she only speaks when she feels it’s necessary. Now is one of those moments.

At COP24, Greta spoke bluntly and heartfully to world leaders – governments must treat climate change as a crisis and act while there is still time.

My name is Greta Thunberg. I am 15 years old. I am from Sweden. I speak on behalf of Climate Justice Now. Many people say that Sweden is just a small country and it doesn’t matter what we do. But I’ve learned you are never too small to make a difference. And if a few children can get headlines all over the world just by not going to school, then imagine what we could all do together if we really wanted to.

But to do that, we have to speak clearly, no matter how uncomfortable that may be. You only speak of green eternal economic growth because you are too scared of being unpopular. You only talk about moving forward with the same bad ideas that got us into this mess, even when the only sensible thing to do is pull the emergency brake. You are not mature enough to tell it like is. Even that burden you leave to us children. But I don’t care about being popular. I care about climate justice and the living planet.

Our civilization is being sacrificed for the opportunity of a very small number of people to continue making enormous amounts of money. Our biosphere is being sacrificed so that rich people in countries like mine can live in luxury. It is the sufferings of the many which pay for the luxuries of the few.

The year 2078, I will celebrate my 75th birthday. If I have children maybe they will spend that day with me. Maybe they will ask me about you. Maybe they will ask why you didn’t do anything while there still was time to act. You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes.

Until you start focusing on what needs to be done rather than what is politically possible, there is no hope. We can’t solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis. We need to keep the fossil fuels in the ground, and we need to focus on equity. And if solutions within the system are so impossible to find, maybe we should change the system itself. We have not come here to beg world leaders to care. You have ignored us in the past and you will ignore us again. We have run out of excuses and we are running out of time. We have come here to let you know that change is coming, whether you like it or not. The real power belongs to the people. Thank you.

How are those in power responding to Greta’s message? The degree of denial amongst the ‘adults in charge’ is well illustrated by those New Zealand principals who warned their students they would be marked “truant” if they participated in the March 15th rallies. Perhaps the most ironic comment of all came from the President of the Secondary Principals’ Association who was concerned about “student safety”! ‘Hello’, the ‘safety’ of these students (and future generations of students) is precisely what this is all about!

Around the world, it is students who have now taken on the role of being teachers to the rest of us. And it is those who fail to recognise the urgency of the crisis who are the real truants when it comes to climate change action!

 


Dr John Kleinsman is director of The Nathaniel Centre, the New Zealand Catholic Bioethics Centre. Dr Camilla Cockerton is an independent researcher. Her book Contested Migration: Tswana Women ‘Running Away’ from the ‘Land of the Desert’ was recently published by Palgrave-McMillan.

Endnotes

1 Thunberg, G. (2018, December 3) Greta Thunberg’s speech to UN secretary general Antonio Guterres. Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/wedonthavetime/greta-thunberg-speech-to-unsecretary- general-ant%C3%B3nio-guterres-362175826548
2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFkQSGyeCWg

Wake Up to the Fierce Urgency of the Now

by Camilla Cockerton

“Our house is on fire!”, Swedish 16-year-old Greta Thunberg warned the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. 2“At places like Davos, people like to tell success stories. But their financial success has come with an unthinkable price tag.”

The evidence for rapid climate change is compelling: rising global temperatures (0.9° Celsius since the late 19th century); warming oceans (0.22°C since 1969); shrinking ice sheets; glacial retreat; decreased snow cover; global sea level rise (20.3 cms in the last century); declining Arctic sea ice; extreme weather events such as floods, storms, cyclones and droughts; and ocean acidification and the rapid bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef (30% more acidic than the industrial revolution).3 Effects are evident in New Zealand where glaciers have lost one quarter of their volume since 1977.4 The Franz Josef glacier abruptly changed directions in 2008 and entered a very rapid phase of retreat. If global warming continues at its current pace, the glacier will almost completely disappear.

As David Suzuki warns:

Human use of fossil fuels is altering the chemistry of the atmosphere; oceans are polluted and depleted of fish; 80 per cent of Earth’s forests are heavily impacted or gone yet their destruction continues. An estimated 50,000 species are driven to extinction each year. We dump millions of tonnes of chemicals, most untested for their biological effects, and many highly toxic, into air, water and soil. We have created an ecological holocaust. Our very health and survival are at stake, yet we act as if we have plenty of time to respond.5

What is causing climate change? Earth’s atmosphere consists of oxygen, a large amount of nitrogen and a small percentage of greenhouses gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane. Greenhouse gases act like a blanket around the earth, trapping warmth from the sun and making life on earth possible. Without them, too much heat would escape and the earth’s surface would freeze. However, increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases causes the earth to heat up. Industry, agriculture and transportation, over the past 150 years, have dramatically increased greenhouse gas production.

Scientific evidence for the warming of the climate system is unequivocal. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a gathering of the world’s leading climate scientists, has warned that only 12 years remain to slow the earth’s rising temperatures to a maximum of 1.5°C and avoid catastrophic environmental breakdown.6 However, others criticize the IPCC reports as overly conservative, consistently understating the rate and intensity of climate change. The reports don’t include tipping points or feedback loops like the extremely powerful methane gas which will be released from the thawing Arctic permafrost.7

If atmospheric CO2 levels exceed 1,200 parts per million, climatecooling stratocumulus clouds shading much of the ocean could break up. This would push the earth’s climate over a tipping point (a critical threshold beyond which rapid climate changes cannot be reversed), a massive 8°C rise and potentially catastrophic warming.8

Dr Camilla Cockerton is an independent researcher. Her book Contested Migration: Tswana Women ‘Running Away’ from the ‘Land of the Desert’ was recently published by Palgrave- McMillan.

Endnotes

1 Yong Kim, J. (2015). Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/ agenda/2015/11/15-quotes-on-climate-change-by-world-leaders/

2 ‘Our house is on fire’: Greta Thunberg, 16, urges leaders to act on climate. (2019, January 25). The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www. theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/25/our-house-is-on-fire-gretathunberg16- urges-leaders-to-act-on-climate

3 NASA. (2019). Climate change: how do we know? Retrieved from https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

4 Ministry for the Environment. (2017, October). Our atmosphere and climate 2017. Retrieved from http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/ environmental-reporting/our-atmosphere-and-climate-2017; The Climate Reality Project. (2016, June 21). Global warming’s evil twin: ocean acidification. Retrieved from https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/ global-warming-ocean-acidification

5 Suzuki, D. (2009). Acceptance speech. The Right Livelihood Award. Retrieved from https://www.rightlivelihoodaward.org/speech/ acceptance-speech-david-suzuki/

6 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2018). Global warming of 1.5C: summary for policymakers. Switzerland: IPCC. Retrieved from https:// report.ipcc.ch/sr15/pdf/sr15_spm_final.pdf

7 Scherer, G. (2012, December 6). Climate science predictions prove too conservative. Scientific American. Retrieved from https://www. scientificamerican.com/article/climate-science-predictions-prove-tooconservative/

8 Schneider, T., Kaul, C. & Pressel, K. (2019). Possible climate transitions from breakup of stratocumulus decks under greenhouse warming, Nature, 12, 163-167.

Greta Thunberg Will Save the World: A Response to Damien Grant

Emrys Jansen

 

One of today’s most influential climate activists is Greta Thunberg. At sixteen, she’s the founder of the #FridaysForFuture protest movement, and has spoken at parliaments, conferences, UN summits and even been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Not everyone is a fan. Aside from the climate change deniers and the politicians who feel threatened by Ms Thunberg’s impact, there are some people whose issues with Greta are less to do with what she’s saying than with who she is. Damien Grant’s article ‘Climate starlets solve nothing’ (published May 5, 2019) is a typical example1. I take exception to Mr Grant’s brand of ‘criticism’: factually incorrect, patronising and sexist. More than that, it has nothing to do with the actual issues. Some adults are intimidated by Ms Thunberg and the societal change she represents, and that’s a problem – not just for her, but for our future.

Mr Grant’s consistently incorrect characterisation of Greta Thunberg and her work shows that he knows very little about her. He misrepresents her motivations, her impact, and the challenges she has worked to overcome. Hardly one of the “dilettantes who have made climate change their defining issue,” Greta’s interest in climate change – or as she calls it, climate breakdown or climate emergency – is not fleeting or vapid. Greta is terrified. “I don’t want your hope,” she told the World Economic Forum at Davos. “I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.”2

And people are acting. Greta has inspired an EU proposal for hundreds of billions of dollars to fight climate change.3 Her Fridays for Future school strikes have drawn more than 1.4 million people in over a hundred countries.4 President Obama and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, among others, endorse her efforts.5,6 These are incredible achievements, for someone of any age, and they are all ignored by Mr Grant.

Furthermore, Greta knows that her role in this fight is more subtle than Mr Grant seems to grasp. She does not “parrot science she cannot understand” – as if it were impossible for teenagers to educate themselves on a topic they were passionate about. Rather, she highlights the facts that many people in power refuse to see, and puts them front and centre. She understands that we have the science and we know the solutions, but we lack the will to change. The climate fight isn’t fought on science anymore, but on behaviour and incentive. That’s what Greta is good at.

Mr Grant also thinks that “no-one is going to debate or even criticise [Greta] for fear of being labelled insensitive.” But that claim is just not true.7 Ms Thunberg has long been under attack from climate change deniers and far-right groups, mocking her youth, her Asperger’s, calling for her to “have a meltdown on national telly”8. Far from contributing anything to the vital discourse on climate breakdown, Mr Grant simply joins their number.

More problematic, though, than the technical issues with Mr Grant’s article are his premise and tone, which are frankly offensive. He also writes with a casual disregard for the credibility of women, for example dismissing the achievements of Lucy Lawless by way of a crass reference to her appearance in the show Xena: Warrior Princess. But while most people can now see that his casual misogyny is a Bad Thing™, we tend to struggle more with the idea that children can also make worthwhile contributions – that’s a significant problem too. In his first sentence Mr Grant calls Greta Thunberg “lass”. He only gets more patronizing from there, describing her as mimicking the characteristics of adulthood as “an old vaudeville routine”.

“It is a brilliant PR move to shove this schoolgirl onto the stage,” says Mr Grant. Who does he think is controlling, Ms Thunberg? Greta’s activism started when, at fifteen, she began her own solitary ‘school strike for climate’ outside the Swedish parliament every Friday. She convinced her family to go vegan and stop flying, and her parents listened to the evidence and arguments she brought – not the other way around. Is it so incomprehensible that an educated and eloquent sixteen-year old might be able to act for herself? What age do you have to be to be taken seriously?

“I’m old enough to remember when serious men in suits confronted the fact that scientists told us that CFCs were destroying the ozone hole,” says Mr Grant. Greta is young enough to pay the price for how slow that realisation was in coming. It was the serious men in suits who covered up climate change, who profited from it, and who still do today. But that is not a sustainable future.

There is no substance behind Mr Grant’s article other than taking poorly-researched shots at Greta. He doesn’t offer any other solutions or any “experts” we should turn to. “It’s fun to make fun of vanity activism,” says Mr Grant. What about vanity editorials? If anyone is trying to “eke out a few more moments of fame,” it’s not Greta Thunberg.

Why is it important to listen to our young people? For one, they bring new perspectives. A study published in Nature found that children are ideal climate ambassadors, as “unlike adults, their views on the issue do not generally reflect any entrenched political ideology.”9,10 Further, though, a person who is under eighteen is still a person. Is it inconceivable that they should be treated like one? But politically, we don’t want to hear children’s voices. We consider them less capable, less important – without the right to representation that being citizens of this country should afford them. That mindset pervades much of our society. But taking children seriously will empower them. If they learn they can have opinions, that their actions can make a difference, that those who bring evidence and arguments to the table will be offered respectful debate – then we’ll have a generation more capable of solving the environmental catastrophe we find ourselves in.

We need to challenge our assumptions on who can and cannot contribute. Preventing our fast-approaching environmental doom is an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ situation, and it’s reasonable to encourage those with the most at stake to pitch in.

I suggest that Mr Grant is intimidated by Greta Thunberg, and that’s symptomatic of a big problem. “There isn’t any reason to take Ms Thunberg seriously. Her arguments make [sic] as much sense as a certain Swedish chef …” But Greta has given us many reasons to take her seriously. It’s true, she doesn’t have any of the reasons that some people of Mr Grant’s mindset unconsciously look for: she’s not male and she’s not middle-aged. But it’s time to stop judging people’s contributions by these metrics.

I’m not much older than Greta. What I hear Mr Grant say is that my opinions have no weight, that my actions will not be taken seriously, and that my future is secondary to maintaining a status quo that silences too many voices. I reject his premise and his opinionated, poorly-worded insults. Greta Thunberg and people like her will save the world – or she and I will face the consequences.

 

Endnotes

1 Grant, Damien. “For the Sake of the Planet, Let’s Not Put Teen Climate Activist Greta Thunberg on a Pedestal.” Stuff, 5 May 2019, www.stuff.co.nz/ environment/112369771/for-the-sake-of-the-planet-lets-not-put-teenclimate-activist-greta-thunberg-on-a-pedestal.
2 Thunberg, Greta. “‘Our House Is on Fire’: Greta Thunberg, 16, Urges Leaders to Act on Climate.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 25 Jan. 2019, www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/25/our-houseis-on-fire-greta-thunberg16-urges-leaders-to-act-on-climate.
3 Roth, Clare. “Swedish Student Leader Wins EU Pledge to Spend Billions on Climate.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 21 Feb. 2019, www.reuters. com/article/us-climatechange-teen-activist-idUSKCN1QA1RF?utm_ campaign=4d422b8969-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_02_21_01_46&utm_co ntent=5c6ec0934b73850001e27e12&utm_medium=email&utm_ source=Global Health NOW Main List&utm_term=0_8d0d062dbd4d422b8969-2890801.
4 Taylor, Matthew. “Latest Global School Climate Strikes Expected to Beat Turnout Record.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 24 May 2019, www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/24/latest-global-schoolclimate-strikes-expected-to-beat-turnout-record.
5 Obama, Barack. “They’re People like 16-Year-Old @GretaThunberg, Whose Protests at Swedish Parliament Sparked a Movement. Inspired by Greta’s Action, Fridays for Future Brought Together More than a Million Strikers on Every Continent Last Month to Demand Action on Climate. Https://T. co/un7nBhEF8i.” Twitter, Twitter, 22 Apr. 2019, twitter.com/barackobama/ status/1120411734316023809?lang=en.
6 Guterres, António. “The Climate Strikers Should Inspire Us All to Act at the next UN Summit | António Guterres.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 15 Mar. 2019, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/ mar/15/climate-strikers-urgency-un-summit-world-leaders.
7 Chakrabortty, Aditya. “The Hounding of Greta Thunberg Is Proof That the Right Have Run out of Ideas | Aditya Chakrbortty.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 1 May 2019, www.theguardian.com/ commentisfree/2019/may/01/greta-thunberg-right-environmentalactivist-attacks.
8 Dale, Helen. “Greta Thunberg’s Supporters Can’t Have It Both Ways.” The Spectator, 29 Apr. 2019, blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/04/greta-thunbergssupporters-cant-have-it-both-ways/.
9 Denworth, Lydia. “Children Change Their Parents’ Minds about Climate Change.” Scientific American, 6 May 2019, www.scientificamerican.com/ article/children-change-their-parents-minds-about-climate-change/.
10 Lawson, Danielle F., et al. “Children Can Foster Climate Change Concern among Their Parents.” Nature Climate Change, vol. 9, no. 6, 2019, pp. 458–462., doi:10.1038/s41558-019-0463-3.

 

Living with Dystopia

Cristy Clark discusses the rise of eco-anxiety and eco-paralysis in the face of the climate and mass extinction crisis. Her concern is how we can maintain “real hope”: a hope grounded in critical thinking that acknowledges the current state of affairs while still inspiring us to work courageously towards the changes required.

This article was reprinted with permission from Eureka Street with the publisher’s kind permission. The full article is available here – https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/living-with-dystopia.

Respect Life Sunday Pastoral Letter – Care for Our Environment NZ Catholic Bishops Conference

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ – E te whānau whakapono a te Karaiti,

Pope Francis set October 2019 aside as an “Extraordinary Missionary Month” to help us all reflect on the missionary nature of the Christian life, and for each of us to consider anew what it means to be baptised and sent on mission. Reflecting on taking Christ’s message of healing and hope to the people, we might not think immediately about healing the environment as a missionary activity. But everything is interconnected.

Four years ago, Pope Francis wrote in his encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home about the necessity of hearing “both the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor,” an insight beautifully expressed in this traditional Māori whakataukī:

Ka mate te whenua, ka mate te tangata. Ka ora te whenua, ka ora te tangata. If the Earth dies, the people die. If the Earth lives, the people live.

In the past year, this whakataukī has been given renewed vigour by the voices of young people taking on Pope Francis’ words in Christus Vivit #41: You “are meant to dream great things, to seek vast horizons, to aim higher, to take on the world, to accept challenges and to offer the best of yourselves to the building of something better” (Christus Vivit #15).

Pope Francis has explicitly acknowledged the prophetic actions of young people in his recent message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation:

Many young people all over the world are making their voices heard and calling for courageous decisions. They feel let down by too many unfulfilled promises, by commitments made and then ignored for selfish interests or out of expediency.

 

The young remind us that the Earth is not a possession to be squandered, but an inheritance to be handed down. They remind us that hope for tomorrow is not a noble sentiment, but a task calling for concrete actions here and now. We owe them real answers, not empty words, actions not illusions.

Young people of Aotearoa New Zealand, we acknowledge that you have been among those who have taken to the streets to articulate their dreams for the planet and to demand greater action to address the climate crisis we are facing. You have added your voices for a sustainable better future online, in print, and in person. You have demanded that we listen.

We see that many of you are practicing what you preach – reducing waste inside and outside the classroom; taking part in conservation projects; asking your schools and parishes to look at how we use energy.

You are challenging all of us to hear and support you; to recognise that all life on Earth – humans, animals, plants, and the rest of God’s creation – is threatened by the dangers of human induced climate change. You are holding us, together with decision-makers in government, civil society and the community, to account. You inspire us – and many others – to act.

We also acknowledge the voices of many others who care about God’s creation; individuals and groups of New Zealanders who have faithfully advocated over many decades for action to protect the environment – the voices of those of you who have witnessed, over your lifetimes, significant degradation of landscape, farms, gardens, waterways, and weather patterns in our land. And in our Pacific region, we hear the voices of the Bishops and communities of Oceania speaking out with urgency about the loss of land and communities due to rising seas, increasingly severe storms, and dying sea-life in our warming oceans.

Respect Life Sunday is a time when, traditionally, we have focused on those threats to human life that people face at the beginning and end of life. These threats remain real – New Zealand is currently facing the possibility of significant changes to abortion and euthanasia laws. However, we also recognise that our responsibility to protect life extends beyond those issues and that these issues are interwoven.

It is time for an “integral ecology” that recognises the connection between the cry of our most vulnerable and the cry of the Earth; an ecology that embraces the God-given dignity of all creatures; an ecology that responds to the effects of critical global warming seen in growing numbers of displaced refugees; an ecology that acknowledges that the roots of the environmental crisis lie in our rampant consumerism and a “throwaway culture” stemming from economic models that privilege certain people and certain stages of life; an ecology that addresses the marginalisation and exclusion of vulnerable persons, in particular at the beginning and end of life.

It is time to heed Pope Francis’ message for a fundamental lifestyle change.

For our part, we need to reflect more deeply as Bishops about the fundamental changes we need to make around such things as energy use in our churches and school buildings, and the transport choices we make around our parishes and dioceses. This reflection needs to happen alongside all Catholic parishes, organisations and communities. These matters are not just about good stewardship of our assets, but about good stewardship of the Earth as our common home.

Let us all be missionaries of healing and hope and offer the best of ourselves to the building of a better world. Together, young and old, we can, and must, save our planet, our people and all God’s creatures.

Stem Cells: The Ethical Debate

Anne Dickinson and Michael McCabe
Issue 2, November 2000

Cells

All living things are made up of cells of various types. The human body contains millions of cells. A collection of similar cells specialised for a particular purpose is called a tissue. For example, skin tissue is made of skin cells, muscle tissue is made up of muscle tissue.

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