Corpus Christ: Eco-Bulletin

A world without wilderness is a cage.
—David Brower

Stay off the bottle: By many measures, bottled water is a scam. In most first-world countries, the tap water is provided by a government utility and is tested regularly. Taste tests have shown that in many municipalities, tap water actually tastes better. Bottled water is not as well regulated and studies have shown that it is not even particularly pure. A four-year study of bottled water in the U.S. conducted by NRDC found that one-fifth of the 103 water products tested contained synthetic organic chemicals such as the neurotoxin xylene and the possible carcinogen and neurotoxin styrene. (Grist) Much bottled water doesn't come from "Artesian springs" and is just tap water anyhow. (Coca-Cola adds salt to its Dasani water to make it taste better, just like fast food.) Not only is it more expensive per gallon than gasoline, bottled water incurs a huge carbon footprint from its transportation, and the discarded bottles are a blight. It's no wonder that some people even think it's a sin. If you want to carry your water with you, get a bottle and fill it.

Trinity Sunday: Eco-Bulletin

This world does not stand between us and God unless we put it there. Everything in this world can remind us of God... All the world's beauty reminds us of the supreme Artist.
—J. Fadiman & R. Frager, Essential Sufism

Cultivate good water habits: All the water that goes down the drain, clean or dirty, ends up mixing with raw sewage, getting contaminated, and meeting the same fate. Try to stay aware of this precious resource disappearing and turn off the water while brushing your teeth or shaving and always wash laundry and dishes with full loads. When washing dishes by hand, fill up the sink and turn off the water. Take shorter showers. To put things in perspective, take a quick look at your next water bill when it arrives. It probably won't be costing you too much, but the average household consumes multiple thousands of gallons each month. See if you can make this number go down. If you're the graphing type, go nuts.

Not Charity but Justice!

On Saturday I attended the conference "Protecting the Environment--Protecting Our Health: Taking Action, Saving Lives" that was presented by the Social Justice Office, the Life and Family Resource Centre, and the Social Justice Commission of the Diocese of Calgary.

The speaker was Dr. Kristin Shrader-Frechette (Dr. S-F) from the Departments of Biological Sciences and Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend Indiana.

As Notre Dame is my alma mater, the place where I attended graduate school for, (gasp!) 8 years, I was especially interested in hearing what Dr. Shrader-Frechette had to say. I am not one to comment on the scientific angle with environmental concerns. The University of Notre Dame, however, is very active in issues of social justice with an impressive faculty (not least of all in the department of Theology), a Centre for Social Concerns, and an inspiring record for providing a significant portion of the undergraduate population with opportunities for education and service in the areas of social justice. I signed up for the conference looking forward to connections being made between the hard scientific evidence regarding climate change and other environmental concerns and the theological and social positions of the Catholic Church. Dr. Shrader-Frechette did not disappoint.

The conference addressed environmental threats to health, how we (you and I) contribute to these threats, what the social justice tradition of the Church tells us we should do, and what action we (again, you and I) can take to address these threats. Special consideration was given for the life of children and the unborn.

A number of things discussed at the conference struck me as particularly relevant to the stewardship discourse. For starters, the speaker based a lot of her argument on believing that we are "the beneficiaries of goods we did not earn. Our 'goods' were given to us." This statement sounds a lot like the assertion that "everything we have and are comes from God", which I repeat in our bulletin reflections and as a starting point of almost every stewardship presentation. Dr. S-F went on to say that we have things by the luck of the draw. Our good life is something we owe back to the community. For baseball fans, she shared an amusing perspective of a friend on president George Bush saying he was born on third base and acts like he just hit a triple. She pointed out that we (you and I) were born on third base and that if we don't respond to our abundance with gratitude and take action on the environment (or follow the remaining three principles of stewardship: cultivate, share, and return) that we too are acting like we just hit a triple when really, we were 3/4 of the way there to start with.

The presentation began with staggering statistics to demonstrate the impact of the environmental crisis on health. While global warming, pesticides, air pollution, and so on impact our health (yours and mine), it is the most vulnerable in our society who suffer even more. Who are these vulnerable populations? Unequivocally it is the children among us, whose bodies are still forming, who are suffering increasing rates of environmentally induced ailments, cancers being one of the greatest. Also, poor people statistically breathe worse air and are closer to pollutants than those who are not poor. And then we have to ask who are the poor? The poor are largely minorities and women. So, this environmental issue is also an issue of racism, classism, and gender discrimination. One interesting example she gave explained that the standards for pesticide use are set for the average adult male. That means women and children are receiving more pesticide than is deemed safe! That's over half the population that is in danger. Dr. S-F cited the 2003 document from the Canadian Bishops entitled The Christian Ecological Imperative which states that "the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor are one."

Many of us and many governments justify sticking to what Dr. S-F called "dinosaur technologies" by making the claim that the costs of environmentally friendly alternatives are higher. She convincingly pointed out that in many cases, as with wind power for instance, it simply isn't true. We are fortunate that the environmentally sustainable options are also the more economically sustainable option. However, powerful individuals and companies often have their money invested in the "dinosaur technologies" and these people lobby the government to persist with these damaging methods.

At the same time, Dr. S-F brought out the economics of ethics. While we may save money at the till, the costs are born by other people, namely children and the poor. These costs are born both immediately through unjust wages and dangerous working conditions and also further down the line with developing health problems. The money we save at the till, we pay later to treat diseases. Dr. S-F asked us to consider paying the real cost of items. When we don't, we must realize that our financial savings implement us in the death of others.

It is so easy for many of us to feel that we (you and I) are not causing the harm. But what Dr. S-F brought home was the way each of us, through our patterns of consumption and our action and inaction, is responsible. In our culture we see our selves as independent but a stewardship mentality, that statement that "everything we have and are comes from God", tells us differently. We are dependent on God and interdependent with one another. As the body of Christ we do have a responsibility to one another, especially to the most vulnerable in our society.

Dr. S-F insisted that caring for the environment is not an issue of charity but rather a question of justice. Justice demands that we all become activists. This last point had me squirming in my seat. I'm all for questioning our habits of consumption and their impact and for witnessing good environmental behaviour but the challenge to become an activist was a little frightening for me. I'm not the political type but as Dr. S-F said, that is no excuse! Fortunately, she did not leave me hanging. I am not expected to single-handedly take on the government. Rather, Dr. S-F urged partnering with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to urge political action on climate change. Sure, we'll (you and I will) have to do a little bit of research to find organizations who are serious but for those of us who are not scientifically, legally, politically, or economically inclined, they will have done a lot of the work. All we have to do is join them. Alone we have very little power but together we are strong! Her argument had a lot to do with community.

What sealed the deal for me was the comment that we must be co-creators with God to protect the vulnerable. I've written elsewhere that as stewards we participate in the saving action of the Trinity by co-creating with the Father, co-redeeming with the Son, and collaborating with the Spirit in the sanctification of the world. Disciple's Response (The US Bishop's pastoral letter on stewardship) states similarly: "God wishes human beings to be his collaborators in the work of creation, redemption, and sanctification; and such collaboration involves stewardship in its most profound sense."

"Stewardship in its most profound sense" means that we have no choice. Similarly, the same document starts with a challenge: "Once one chooses to become a disciple of Jesus Christ, stewardship is not an option." It's true, anyone can be an environmentalist. But if we claim to be Christians, we have no choice. We must take action. It's an imperative of our confession of faith. It's a matter of the justice which our discipleship demands from us.

The link between our Catholic faith and environmental action is so clear from documents, from Saturday's presentation, and from common sense. Yet sadly, the connection is unclear to many folks in the pews. Dr. S-F reminded us that Catholic pro-life is meant to embrace "the full seamless garment of life" which includes not only the issue of abortion but also capital punishment, treatment of workers, war, and the health of children, with which the issues of the environment are intertwined.

Again, what distinguished Saturday's conference on the environment as a Catholic conference was the connection to our own spiritual lives as those on a journey to God. Science has proven that because we humans are animals, being in nature—an unpolluted nature—is healing for the body and the psyche. Moreover, nature is healing for the soul. Quoting again the 2003 Canadian Bishop's document on the environment, Dr. S-F explained how "ecological destruction diminishes our ability to see and experience God." You all surely know people who talk about finding God on a mountaintop (and some people use this experience of God as a reason for not attending church!). When we stop to think about it, none of us (your or me) wants to harm children or the poor. None of us wants to suffer from cancer or suffer with our loved ones. None of us wants to drink polluted water or inhale asthma-inducing particles. We (you and I) know well the health benefits of our favourite outdoor activity and how a positive experience of nature lifts our spirits and shows us the grandeur of God.

Anyone can be an environmentalist but as a Christian you have no option. It's not a question of charity. It's a matter of justice.

Watch the blog and your parish bulletin for notices of upcoming reading groups on these and other issues of environmental stewardship sponsored by the Diocesan Stewardship Office coming in the fall. In particular, I'll be inviting a group to study some of the Canadian Bishops' documents on the environment as a starting place for people to begin taking action in their parishes.

For more information about Dr. Kristin Shrader-Frechette and these topics, visit her website:

http://www.nd.edu/~kshrader/

Pentecost Sunday: Eco-Bulletin

The wild things of the Earth are not our to do with as we please. They have been given to us in trust, and we must account for the to the generations which will come after us to audit our accounts.
—William Hornaday

Install new fixtures: New, low-volume or dual flush toilets, low-flow showerheads , water-efficient dishwashers and clothes washing machines can all save a great deal of water and money. Aerators on your faucets can significantly reduce water volume; water-saving showerheads can cut the volume of water used down to 1.2 gallons per minute or less, and some even have a "pause button" to let you stop the water while soaping up or shampooing. A $30 showerhead or faucet is estimated to save almost 18% of your daily usage. Splurging on a low-flow toilet could save another 180 litres of water a day. Together, those changes nearly cut in half the household's daily use, saving a considerable amount of water - and passing that savings on to your water bill, as well as your water heating bill.

What about organic food?

A recent article from the cbc detailing changes in the certification of organic produce in Canada. The article is interesting in terms of stewardship for the balanced view it presents of the harm/benefit ratio. Things are never as easy as they seem.

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/05/07/f-food-organic.html

Living High on the Hog

Dr. David Brennan submitted this interesting article considering the role of farming in the stewardship of our environment and our relationship with our food.

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7303&page=1

Most people think of farmers as the people "out there" who grow food and, occasionally, gripe about the weather. The farmer of the 21st century, however, may be the person who rescues civilisation.

International agencies, such as the World Bank this month, are belatedly recognising the global food crisis is much closer than the climate change crisis or even the next oil crisis. Witness the recent spate of food riots and disturbances.

Only farmers can get us through this crisis. Australian governments, it is almost redundant to say, have not yet woken up to it.

According to 400 scientific experts who have spent the past four years probing the future on behalf of the World Bank and UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, agriculture is going to mean vastly more to civilisation than merely tucker on the table.

The world's two billion farmers are the guardians of much of what is left of the natural landscape, holding in their hands the fate of thousands of threatened species as well as the world's remaining forests.

Agriculture uses three-quarters of the world's fresh water. Its run-off has degraded Earth's main rivers, estuaries and even seas. It occupies 40 per cent of the world's free land surface. It is responsible for 30 per cent of global greenhouse emissions. And it represents seemingly intractable poverty, disadvantage and suffering. That is the true cost of the cheap food many of us still enjoy. For the time being.

At the back of all this is the inconvenient truth that modern civilisation is unsustainable. To exist, it relies on a continuous drawdown - sometimes amounting to total destruction - of the natural resources on which it depends for its existence. Africa's Sahel region, Russia's Aral Sea and Australia's Murray-Darling Basin illustrate the principle.

We live off our natural capital, rather than the interest it generates. And globalisation of the food trade has accelerated the process, as the country-of-origin labels in your local supermarket proclaim. As a consumer, your footprint now extends across Asia, Africa, India and many other places.

It is this principle of forever drawing down natural capital that has to change, according to the 400 scientists of the World Bank's international assessment of agricultural science and technology for development.

Resolving this issue is the scientific challenge of the age, even more pressing than greenhouse gas emissions, with which it is closely interlinked.

It requires nothing less than the reshaping of the way humanity produces food, feeds itself and manages Earth's natural resources, a system mired in 7,000 years of cultural tradition and contemporary economic and political power. According to the World Bank panel, farmers will not simply have to feed the world - a task requiring a doubling in the already immense global food supply - but also restore its forests, cleanse its waters, protect its wild species, improve its soils and absorb a substantial percentage of the carbon we all emit as we go about our lives.

The IAASTD report has already unleashed a substantial storm, as well as numerous lesser tornadoes. The sheer immensity of the challenge, the unpalatable truths it presents and the controversial answers it proffers have the international commentariat in uproar. But when one drills into the essential facts, it is hard to deny them. In our hearts we have known for some time that humanity has been living a little high on the hog.

he solution, according to these scientists, is to make the world's 2,000 million farmers the guardians of soil, water, biodiversity and carbon by equipping them with new technologies, education and ample funding.

The solution is to replant the forests and sow new agro-forests. It is to design farming systems that enrich the soil with organic matter, thereby absorbing carbon out of the atmosphere instead of degrading it and releasing carbon. It is to filter, cleanse and restore the fresh waters. And it is to turn a renovated agriculture in the world's languishing regions into the engine of economic growth and prosperity that it has been for countries such as Australia and the US, thereby tackling the millennium goals of reducing poverty, hunger and disease.

It's a big idea and, like all such concepts, its critics are already swarming with reasons why it can't and shouldn't be done. In some cases it will need new science and, in others, old science re-applied or better applied. Above all it will require the transfer of knowledge on an epic scale: the education of a third of the world's people in new ways of producing food.

It is also a challenge for which Australia is singularly well-qualified and which, a generation ago, we would have leapt at. Our farmers and scientists are already hammering out and trialling the basics of sustainable farming systems, of landscape renewal, of husbanding and cleansing precious water, of treading more lightly on Earth, of locking carbon in the soil. Many of the elements in this great revolution in productive thought are already in our possession. It also embodies equity principles that Australia has long espoused, such as fair trade rules for all countries, the breaking of monopolies and free access to scientific knowledge.

It is a task we cannot, in conscience, ignore, either in our own country or in the wider world. It is also an opportunity like none other for renewal of the natural world, for economic and rural growth, for the relief of human misery and for developing a sustainable basis for civilisation as a whole.

If ever there was a beacon to draw gifted young Australians in search of a life's mission back into science or agriculture, this would have to be it.

What makes a green parish?

I think the whole conversion to eco-stewardship is gradual. It's not just about styrofoam or lightbulbs but rather how we orient ourselves spiritually to creation and in our habits of consumption. The tricky part for me, as the stewardship coordinator, is not to reduce the initiative to concrete efforts. One does not need to be a Christian to live green. These efforts are good and important but I see my job as forming people's spirituality in a such a way that ecologically and socially responsible choices become part of their faith and will.

We've really just started and I see that we have a long way to go. The fun part is that I have to undergo the conversion myself before I can talk about it with others. So, it's an exciting personal journey as well.

For any of you engaging in an eco-stewardship initiative in your parish, I would recommend that you strive to keep a balance between implementing practical changes and the more challenging work of forming people's stewardship consciences. The eco-bulletin strives to reflect that balance by including both a spiritual quotation and a practical tip.

I am working towards developing more resources to help in your work of spiritual greening!