The Cry of the Earth! (Part -1)

  The protection of nature is the 11th Commandment. Thou shall not harm the earth! Our caring of the earth is necessary to reduce the misuse of Air, Water, Land, Forest, Animals and Minerals.

1. Introduction:

Our Earth is the only planet where the continuity of life is possible, so it becomes more and more important to generate a sense of urgency of saving our mother earth from all sorts of harming activities. Our mother earth needs to be saved as our survival depends completely on this planet. It is our responsibility to raise awareness about saving our mother earth.

Earth provides every resource for sustaining life to all living beings. Our planet harming activities are resulting in and causing an irreversible damage to the environmental problems which results in degrading the condition of this planet. By taking care of the planet, we can improve our well-being as healthy environment will help us in improving the quality of our life. It is our collective accountability to raise public responsibility regarding the well-being of our mother earth.

2. Importance of Saving Earth: Why to protect?

Our caring of the earth is necessary in order to reduce the misuse of air, water, land, forest animals and minerals which affects the earth and results in problems like global warming, climatic changes, scarcity of food, drought, flood etc. The change in these aspects not only disturbs the animals, birds, human and many living organisms but also loss of life. Let me explain briefly about why we need to protect our planet earth.

a. It’s the only place to live:

We all are aware of the fact that this is the only planet where life is possible right now. It is the only home we all have and that is why it is highly important to take significant measures to save this planet. It is time to part our ways from planet damaging activities as for all generations to live a healthier life, it is important to save our planet.

b. The Biodiversity:

One of the basic things that plays an essential role in (our) survival of all sorts of living beings is the biodiversity. Because of biodiversity of our planet, we all are able to co-exist together. All varieties of plants and animals are able to exist together due to diversity of life. The negative human forces are disrupting the biodiversity which results in loss of biodiversity. So, we need to take ample steps to prevent the damage to biodiversity.

c. Earth gives us food & water:

The saving of the earth and its environment become highly important as it provides us food and water to sustain life. Our well-being solely depends on this planet, it not only gives food and water  to humans but also to all living things so it is our responsibility to take care of it. The only way to honour our mother earth is by raising awareness about our environment by creating balance in our lives and adopting eco-friendly habits, we can make this planet a much better and beautiful place to live.

3. Our Planet Earth:

Our world indicates that the amount of human intervention, often for business interests and consumerism, is actually making our earth less rich and beautiful, ever more limited and depressing, even as technological advances and consumer goods continue to flourish without limit. We seem to think that we can substitute an irreplaceable and irretrievable beauty with something which we have created ourselves like global warming and climate change. We need to frankly look at the facts of our world so that we “become painfully aware” of the ways we have not been providing protection and care of the very place we call “our common home.”

4. The cry of the poor:

What is happening in the world is our own personal sufferings and thus to discover what each of us can do about it. There are variety of forms of pollutions, increasing deforestation, a disturbing warming of the climate, depletion of natural resources (especially quality drinking water), loss of biodiversity, the decline of quality of human life and relationships, and the global inequality gap between the poor and the rich.

The root cause is a “throwaway culture” that ruthlessly consumes, exploits, and discards human life and our natural resources. Pope Francis is asking us to cast off the distractions that overcast our consciousness, listen the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor and begin to work together to bring about solutions to save our common home. Pope is asking the world “continual acceleration of change” which can affect us and our planet and can intensify the pace of life and work. The pace of the change has to speed up human activity in contrast to the slow pace of biological evolution. Moreover, the goals of such rapid and constant change are not always geared toward the common good or integral and sustainable development.

According to Pope some forms of pollution are part of people’s daily experience. The pollution is the cause of health hazards which affects people especially the poor and reasons for millions of premature deaths. People suffer from breathing, high levels of smoke from fuels used in cooking or heating, from transport vehicles and industrial smokes. The Poisonous fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and agro-toxins in general contribute to the acidification of soil and water.

5. The problem of Pollution:

Pope relates pollution with what he calls the “throw away culture.” He observes that each year hundreds of millions of tons of waste are generated, much of which are non-biodegradable, highly toxic and radioactive. As a result the earth has become like a big garbage bin. The people instantly turn things into rubbish instead of recycling them. We need to preserve resources for present and future generations and limit as much as possible the use of non-renewable resources and moderate their consumption, maximize their efficient use and reuse and recycle them.

The Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods. In recent decades, climate change or global warming has been accompanied by a constant rise in the sea level and the frequency of extreme weather conditions and disturbances. One major cause is the use of fossil fuels which cause greenhouse gases and deforestation for agricultural purposes.

6. Clean drinking water:

The water is a vital resource, the availability of clean and fresh drinking water especially for the poor is lacking. Water, especially its sources is increasingly being polluted, privatized, and wasted, leading to the scarcity of potable water which causes a lot of problems for the poor. According to the Pope access to safe, drinkable water is a “basic and universal human right.

7. Loss of Biodiversity:

The earth’s resources are also being plundered because of shortsighted approaches to the economy, commerce and production. The majority of species of plant and animals that are becoming extinct are dying off for reasons related to human activity. The Pope Francis stresses that we should not consider the different species only for as mere potential resources for human consumption because they have value in themselves.

The construction of new highways, new plantations, the fencing-off of certain areas, the damming of water sources and similar developments, crowd out natural habitats which affect the animal population preventing them to migrate or roam freely. It only shows that the care for ecosystems demands far-sightedness and pre-emptive action.

8. Quality of Human Life:

Pope Francis also emphasizes that human beings are creatures and habitants of this world and therefore must also enjoy a right to life and happiness and endowed with unique dignity. There is a need to consider the effects on people’s lives of environmental deterioration, current models of development and the throwaway culture.

He observes that cities are becoming too large and have become unhealthy to live in not just because of pollution caused by toxic emissions but also because of urban chaos, poor transportation and visual pollution and noise. He further observes that many cities are huge, inefficient structures, excessively wasteful of energy and water. He laments that we were “not meant to be inundated by cement, asphalt, glass and metal and deprived of physical contact with nature.”

Even the social dimensions of global change have resulted to a number of social problems like social exclusion, inequitable distribution and consumption of energy and other services, social breakdown, increased violence and a rise in new forms of social aggression, drug trafficking, and drug use by young people and the loss of identity. These are manifestations that the progress of the past two centuries has not always led to an integral development and improvement in the quality of human life.

9. The Practical ways to protect our Common Home: 

•        Reduce, reuse, and recycle. Cut down on what you throw away.
•        Volunteer…..... Volunteering for clean ups in your community.
•        Educate. .........about effects of pollution and environmental degradation
•        Conserve water. .........  in order to avoid Water poverty
•        Choose sustainable  use natural resources.
•        Shop wisely. ....... Less is more....Stop needless consumption of resources.
•        Use long-lasting light bulbs.
•        Plant a tree………. Each one plant one…….. make green campus.
•        Keep the surroundings clean.
•        Promote green construction with energy efficient homes and buildings.

10. Conclusion:

We know that our planet is in a bad situation right now because there is climate change and global warming. But the positive thing is that there are also an effort to save our planet and there are organizations and individuals (like you and me) who contribute to this effort. The sustainable development and integral ecology are frameworks that can definitely save our planet. The other social problems like poverty and corruption also offer reminders that development must be inclusive and that whatever economic gains the country achieves they must trickle down to the poor and the marginalized.

In general, we need to renew our commitment to work together for the protection of the environment and the preservation of our natural resources while at the same time addressing the social issues and concerns that impact on our environment and our society today. It is an urgent call to renew that commitment and responsibility that should be based on the right attitude – the attitude of care for our common home.

This attitude of care must draw inspiration and the lessons that the ancient traditions has taught us about the harmony, the interconnection of all the beings that inhabit our planet, both the human and non-human, the animate and the inanimate. After all, from our Christian perspective we are all created by the same Divine Creator who admonishes us to be the steward of His creation. A sustainable development is the foundation of integral ecology. How can we as an individual and as community collectively respond and protect the earth?

Thank you.

Bro. Antony, Delhi. 

Montfort Resource Center (MRC)

e-mail: tonyindasg@gmail.com