Is the title of Benedict XVI's speech for World Peace Day 2010. Regardless of whether one believes that "Global Warming" is a reality or is caused by human activities, we do have a responsibility to be good stewards of God's creation. Ecological disasters have occurred which which are the result of human exploitation that are not part of the "warming" debate. The collapse of Atlantic cod and various salmon runs in the past few years ought to be a bright amber caution light that we need to take a long hard look at how we do things.There are places around the world that have been made too dangerous by chemical poisoning, radiation and unexploded munitions (parts of France are off limits because of WW I munitions).
Below is from an article on the talk from the National Catholic Reporter and below that is from the speech itself with links.
At the level of specific policy measures, Benedict XVI advocated:
* A new mode of calculating the cost of economic activity, which would factor in environmental impact;
* Greater investment in solar energy and other forms of energy with a reduced environmental footprint;
* Strategies of rural development concentrated on small-scale farmers and their families;
* Progressive disarmament, including “a world free of nuclear weapons.”
While saying that primary responsibility for taking action must fall to wealthy industrialized nations, Benedict pointedly added that less developed nations “cannot be exonerated from their own responsibility.” Exactly how much less developed nations should be expected to curb emissions, and to take other steps potentially limiting their economic growth, has been a major sticking point at the Copenhagen summit.
At the same time, Benedict XVI wasn’t simply issuing a set of political talking points. He also insisted that protecting the environment is “the duty of every person,” one which demands changes in personal habits and attitudes.
Benedict called for “new styles of life,” based not solely upon the logic of consumption but also “sobriety and solidarity,” as well as “prudence.”
Benedict linked environmental protection to other core values, such as the right to life “in every phase and in every condition,” and the family. He cautioned against a “new pantheism with neo-pagan accents” that would elevate nature into an absolute value, at the expense of human dignity.
National Catholic Reporter
IF YOU WANT TO CULTIVATE PEACE, PROTECT CREATION
The harmony between the Creator, mankind and the created world, as described by Sacred Scripture, was disrupted by the sin of Adam and Eve, by man and woman, who wanted to take the place of God and refused to acknowledge that they were his creatures. As a result, the work of “exercising dominion” over the earth, “tilling it and keeping it”, was also disrupted, and conflict arose within and between mankind and the rest of creation (cf. Gen 3:17-19). Human beings let themselves be mastered by selfishness; they misunderstood the meaning of God’s command and exploited creation out of a desire to exercise absolute domination over it. But the true meaning of God’s original command, as the Book of Genesis clearly shows, was not a simple conferral of authority, but rather a summons to responsibility. The wisdom of the ancients had recognized that nature is not at our disposal as “a heap of scattered refuse”.[10] Biblical Revelation made us see that nature is a gift of the Creator, who gave it an inbuilt order and enabled man to draw from it the principles needed to “till it and keep it” (cf. Gen. 2:15).[11] Everything that exists belongs to God, who has entrusted it to man, albeit not for his arbitrary use. Once man, instead of acting as God’s co-worker, sets himself up in place of God, he ends up provoking a rebellion on the part of nature, “which is more tyrannized than governed by him”.[12] Man thus has a duty to exercise responsible stewardship over creation, to care for it and to cultivate it.[13]
[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 198.
[2] Benedict XVI, Message for the 2008 World Day of Peace, 7.
[3] Cf. No.48.
[4] Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, Paradiso, XXXIII, 145.
[5] Message for the 1990 World Day of Peace, 1.
[6] Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens, 21.
[7] Message for the 1990 World Day of Peace, 10.
[8] Cf. Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, 32.
[9] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 295.
[10] Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 535 – c. 475 B.C.), Fragment 22B124, in H. Diels-W. Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, Weidmann, Berlin,1952, 6th ed.
[11] Cf. Benedict XVI,Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, 48.
[12] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 37.
[13] Cf. Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, 50.
2010 World Day of Peace