EcoLocalizer

And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. – Genesis 2:15

Jim Lackey is not amused that the media – new media bloggers included – keep churning out misleading headlines on what the good old Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti actually said about sinning environmentally.

If you’re wondering who the hell the Lackey fellow is, Jim Lackey is the general news editor of the Catholic News Service and he says there is nothing new about environmental blighting as a sin. He says editors are just having fun and are committing another sin in the process – adulteration of the original ingredient! But the CNS website itself has “NEW SINS” as the sub headline to the big story. Perhaps he means it’s an old sin with a new definition?

But according to the CNS, Archbishop Girotti actually meant that a global culture was to blame for the social effects of sin; and these include “unethical” biotechnology, economics and “blighted” ecology. These, he said, have more widespread social impact and resonance than ever before. Sounds plainly truthful and agreeable?

As the Vatican directs the world towards more green, it is increasingly evident that one cannot be holy without being green, in a sense. This is my take: If we could all apply the seven holy virtues of chastity, abstinence, temperance, diligence, patience, kindness and humility to the environment, the world would have less degradation, minimal deforestation, and less climate change. Above all, there would be more peace as ecological conflicts like those pitting impoverished pastoralists against crop farmers in Africa would be minimized.

The Vatican may actually be following the footprints of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Christian group in the US after the Roman Catholic Church, in to adopting a green declaration to address the environment and climate change issues. There is also the Evangelical Climate Initiative’s Call to Action on Climate Change.

Ecological sins should be the concern of every citizen of the world because they affect us in more ways than one. How then do we explain these scenarios? Logging and land conversion to accommodate human demand has shrunk the world’s forests by half, contributing to increased soil erosion and water scarcity.

The dumping of chemicals into rivers and waterways where it can get into animals and humans and kill them. Wetlands act as highly efficient sewage treatment works, absorbing chemicals and filtering pollutants and sediments. Urban and industrial development has claimed half the world’s wetlands.

Or strip mining on mountains, then leaving the open pits which, during heavy floods, wash down the mountainside and destroy lives and property through mudslides or poisoned water bodies. Or using chemicals (read fertilizer) in agriculture which destroy the land eventually strips all nutrients out of the soil rendering it useless instead of using organic fertilizers like compost manure?

Selfish land use and poor government planning or policy are increasingly to blame for flooding around the world. We are also aware of laboratory tests that go on and on for the endless search of quick-fixes. Can we explain bird flu? Mad Cow Disease, HIV and AIDS?

Ecologists believe water will be the next scarce thing on earth if the current trends that deplete the earth of water will continue. In probably the next 50 years and possibly within 25 years, half the world’s population could have trouble finding enough fresh water for drinking and irrigation.

UN Environment Program estimates that currently, over 80 countries, representing 40 per cent of the world’s people, are subject to serious water shortages. Conditions may get worse in the next 50 years as populations grow and as global warming disrupts rainfall patterns.

Potential water shortages have been identified as one of the two most worrying problems for the new millennium with climate change being the other, with adverse effects as threatened food security, according to World Water Council.

The church is right and Archbishop Girotti should speak his mind, because the church might just be the only sober voice out there that speaks for a cleaner, safer, environmentally-friendly earth. And green bloggers too.

Further reading and resources: A Theological Model for the Environment, Evangelical Environmental Network

Photo credit: Julio Etchart via Flickr

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