Global climate change and the environment
“… Ask the beasts to teach you, and the birds of the air to tell you; or the reptiles on earth to instruct you, and the fish of the sea to inform you … In God’s hand is the soul of every living thing …” Job 12: 7-10
Kessai Boseto lives in a small fishing community in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Historically, tuna fishing has been the economic mainstay of the community. But, because the local sea water temperature has risen, the fish have moved farther north in search of cooler waters. The migration of the fish has left the community with no steady source of livelihood.
Kessai is concerned about how to earn enough money to support his family. How will he send his children to school? What will he do if one of the children becomes seriously ill? Kessai is understandably bewildered. The temperature rise of the ocean has not been caused by anything he or his fellow islanders have done in their small unindustrialized part of the world. Nevertheless, everyone -- the women and children as well as the men of the village -- are profoundly affected and will surely face hardship. Maryknoll sisters working on other Pacific Islands express similar concerns.
It has long been understood that pollution affects the local environment, but it is a new realization that carbon emissions from the United States and other industrialized countries have far-reaching effects around the globe. Ocean temperatures are rising, droughts are longer, hurricanes and floods are stronger and fresh water sources are disappearing as glaciers melt.
Catholic social tradition emphasizes care for creation, right relationships with the community of all life and a responsibility to future generations as part of the universal common good.
Realizing that the earth is limited and fragile presents an opportunity to make a dramatic adjustment in lifestyle toward a way of living that will be sustainable for the entire world. Resolve to act correctly in this regard is strengthened by faith, by the realization that all are sisters and brothers and by recalling factors that have forged the U.S. heritage of generosity.
Industrialized countries need to “power down” – use less energy and consume less –in order to meet everyone’s needs, now and in years to come. Powering down will mean diminishing dependence on oil, gas and coal, which emit large amounts of carbon dioxide, while rapidly developing alternative, clean and renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, tidal, small scale hydro and local biofuels. Corn ethanol does not significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions when the entire production process is taken into account, and nuclear energy is too dangerous to use.
The era of cheap oil has ended. New sources of oil will not resolve the problem. Lower consumption levels and the value of sufficiency are needed to bring society back within the limits of nature. This will require concerted effort, moral conviction, enormous creativity, and good financing. Just and realistic government policy will be required to set the direction.
Important policy goals include:
• End oil and corn-for-ethanol subsidies.
• Reject investments in new nuclear power plants.
• End mountaintop removal in the coal mining industry.
• Create incentives for development and use of alternative energy sources that reduce greenhouse gases, such as wind, solar, tidal, small scale hydro and local biofuels.
• Help poorer, more vulnerable countries with financial and technological assistance to develop measures for adapting to and mitigating the effects of climate change.
• Agree to set and abide by international standards for carbon emissions through the Climate Change Treaty process.
• Work to guarantee the right of everyone to fresh, clean water, and stop support for the privatization and commodification of water.
• Suspend genetically modified food production that uses chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and support organic agriculture.
• Support public transportation.
Questions for candidates:
1. What are the first steps you would take in response to global warming?
2. What would you do to transition to alternative energy sources?
3. What is your position on the dangers of nuclear power plants?
4. What would you do to guarantee the right of everyone to fresh, clean water?
Links for further information:
Catholic Coalition on Climate Change
USCCB’s Environmental Justice Program
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Grist magazine, environmental news and commentary/humor
UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon's address to the Bali climate change conference
“Focus of climate talks shifts to helping poor countries cope” (New York Times, Dec. 13, 2007)