Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), my local utility, has a great website with all kinds of ways you can save energy at home, reducing your own carbon footprint. Ideas include buying Energy Star appliances, using CFC light bulbs, keeping your house a little warmer in summer and cooler in winter, set your water heater a bit cooler and so on. All of these are realistic, feasible and add up to measurable savings.
Learn more at: http://www.pge.com/myhome/saveenergymoney/savingstips/
What has PG&E to do with faith? "Care for God’s Creation" is a theme of Catholic Social Teaching.
Even the Vatican is going green. With the installation of solar panels on the roof of the Paul VI Audience Hall, the Vatican began selling power back to the Roman electric grid in November 2008.
Concern for the environment is one of the newer dimensions of Catholic social teaching, paralleling the growing awareness in society as a whole. Prior to the industrial revolution, human impact on the environment was limited and localized. With the growth of economies, the use of fossil fuels, and the demand for consumer goods, the amount of natural resources people pulled from the planet rose substantially.
So . . . it's a Catholic thing to care for God's Creation.
I put this article in my parish's bulletin to underscore how deeply concerned the Vatican is regarding the environment and the poorest among us. Those without resources are always hit hardest by environmental problems.
Pope Benedict urged all people to remember the duty we have today to safeguard the future for generations to come. Speaking in support of the Day for Safeguarding Creation (a tradition in Italy and in the Greek Orthodox Church), the Holy Father said, “There can be no peace in the world without respecting the environment.” Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople echoed these sentiments, calling efforts to address the environmental crisis, “This titanic and just fight.”
Read more at the Catholic News Service website for August 30th: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1003496.htm
Here is the Vatican website with the Pope's full address:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20090826_en.html
The impact of climate change falls heaviest on the world’s poor. As Catholics, our faith demands prudent action.
Our cars and power plants, more energy consumption and waste—we’re leaving a bigger carbon footprint. Scientists tell us that means more climate change. Here and around the world, it is the poor who will be hit hardest. With more droughts, floods, hunger and joblessness. As faithful Catholics, we have a moral obligation to care for both Creation and the poor. Pope Benedict XVI insists, “Before it is too late, it is necessary to make courageous decisions” to curb climate change.
What can you do?
Take the St. Francis Pledge to care for creation AND the poor at the Catholic Coalition for Climate Change website: http://catholicclimatecovenant.org/
I just signed up for the St. Francis Pledge:
- PRAY and reflect on the duty to care for God’s Creation and protect the poor and vulnerable.
- LEARN about and educate others on the causes and moral dimensions of climate change.
- ASSESS how we-as individuals and in our families, parishes and other affiliations-contribute to climate change by our own energy use, consumption, waste, etc.
- ACT to change our choices and behaviors to reduce the ways we contribute to climate change.
- ADVOCATE for Catholic principles and priorities in climate change discussions and decisions, especially as they impact those who are poor and vulnerable.
This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. --Jeremiah 22:3
In his message to the World Summit on Food Security, the Holy Father said, "The desire to possess and to exploit the resources of the planet in an excessive and disordered manner is the primary cause of all environmental degradation." He continued, "While the entire human race is called to acknowledge its obligations to future generations, it is also true that States and international organizations have a duty to protect the environment as a shared good. "
Read the entire statement at: http://zenit.org/article-27563?l=english
My understanding is that there is, in fact, enough arable land on the planet to allow everyone to grow enough food, but that the distribution of land needs improvement. For example, do we really need golf courses in poor areas? Would not the land be better used by the local people to grow food? Or, do we really need to eat beef? Poultry and pork can be a far more productive source of protein.
Also, climate change will hit the poorest among us the hardest. We need to watch out for that.
I think it is always a good idea to read the Pope's own words, and take with a grain of salt any summaries you see in the secular press -- they do not understand Christian values, and often distort our Holy Father's meaning. Fortunately, all of the Pope's statements end up on the Vatican website, so that's easy enough.
