2020 Third Quarter Bulletin : The Deteriorating Condition of Our Common Home
Abstract
Fr. Michael’s reflection points out that the world’s poorest communities are the ones affected most by the damage done to the earth which is resulting in global changes in climate, biodiversity and the ecosystem. Climate change has devastating consequences for people in poverty who now face increased food insecurity, forced migration, disease and death. The reflection highlights the importance of promoting environmental sustainability by adopting the teaching of Pope Francis in Laudato and the recommendations of IPBES which exhort all of us to examine our lifestyles such as by lowering total consumption and waste, to promote visions of a good quality of life that do not entail ever-increasing material consumption, to promote education in environmental responsibility, and
to institute a major transformative change – a fundamental, system-wide reorganization of the technological, economic, political and social features that govern the world today, including its ideals, goals and values.
Description
The message of Laudato Si and the IPBES report could not be clearer that in order to arrest the dangerous decline in nature a major transformative change at all levels of the society is required. We need a long-term conversion that must result in changes in individual behavior and social attitudes, and in responses by governments that
will have impacts on the environment and on our ability to combat climate change. One thing is certain: more large-scale actions will be essential to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.