When multinationals and politicians seem to be looking the other way in the face of an impending climate change crisis, it’s good to know there are people out there pushing for reform and stirring debate at the highest levels.
Colin Brown, the chief executive officer of Catholic Earthcare Australia, is taking practical steps to lighten the community’s ecological footprint and emphasise its spiritual footprint.
He admits frankly that there are no Mother Theresas on the boards of multinational corporations when it comes to making the hard decisions to reduce greenhouse emissions — especially when these hard decisions will result in a reduction in company profits.
But instead of painting a doomsday scenario, Mr Brown is working to provide a community response to the crisis. He is one of the key organizers of a Melbourne conference which will bring the most progressive Christian perspectives face to face with the latest scientific warnings and updates from community stakeholders.
Mr Brown says Earthcare has the critical role of being a voice for the suffering Earth and the victims of pollution. “People from the low lying Pacific islands of Kirabati and Tuvula have already pleaded for our help—they are going under. We must answer their call. It is our job, our vocation, to firstly be a voice for these early victims of climate change, and secondly to begin preparations...to welcome them when life becomes unbearable. This is the least we can do for these innocent victims whose ecological footprint is ironically, infinitely lighter than our own”.
And the Church shouldn’t underestimate the potential influence it has on political and business decision makers.
Already the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Commission for Justice and Service has been clear that the first big step in reducing greenhouse emissions is for Australia to be proactive in the ratification of the Kyoto protocol. The Catholic bishops signed a position paper on climate change at last year’s Earthcare national conference in Canberra.
But that’s where the issue becomes cynical, because several of the big industrial nations — including Australia — have teamed together to sidestep Kyoto.
Some have dubbed it the “Clayton’s Kyoto” — or the “coal pact” to protect Australia’s coal exports, and perhaps promote further uranium exploration and sales.
“The present federal government seems to have a supreme trust in big business — that they’ll somehow steer us out of this mess, notwithstanding that it was primarily rampant and poorly planned industrial growth that caused the crises”, Col Brown adds.
But the view of Catholic Earthcare Australia differs from the government’s. “Our trust and faith abides always in the scriptures and our time honored social justice teachings. To apply these teachings means that we should always make decisions that promote the common good and respect the integrity of our life sustaining ecosystems. To do anything less dehumanizes us and defaces aspects of God’s creation.”
Mr Brown said, “The audit provides a very practical ‘nuts and bolts’ format for homes, workplaces, schools, parishes and dioceses to help them adopt more prudent uses of energy, water, recycling, as well as ethical purchasing and investment decision making. We are also encouraging those responsible for the management of Church grounds to consider the possibility of converting properties to ‘carbon sinks’ — to atone for our environmental sins, to compensate for our continued excessive use of fossil fuels in getting to those many meetings, events and conferences we attend.”
“So that’s one of the positive responses that we can offer as a church… it’s one small ‘good news’ story in the face of the rather grim reality of global warming.”
“We can call upon our Federal government to urgently lift their performance in tackling global warming, and we can also pray that the business world put the health of the planet before shareholder profits. But we as members of a faith community have to roll up our sleeves and play our part as well. As Pope John Paul II warned us some years back, ‘the ecological crises is a moral issue.’
In more recent times, Pope Benedict has also hit the nail on the head when he stated that, 'The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast. Therefore the earth’s treasures no longer serve to build God’s garden for all to live in, but they have been made to serve the powers of exploitation and destruction.’
As Mr Brown says, "You know, Aussies are still among the worst emitters of greenhouse gases on the planet, so indirectly we are really harming people...Queenslanders are now the obvious victims of climate change, (and)so this calls for urgent responses at both church and government level.”
With the ever-growing need for drastic restrictions on water use, country regions in drought, fears of more severe bushfires and heat waves, climate change is no longer a theory but a reality. “From Earthcare’s perspective this is the ultimate social justice question because it’s about the survival of the planet,” Mr Bown says. With people such as Mr Brown working towards making a difference, however, all is not lost, as long as we all play a part.
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The key paper at the conference will be the Rerum Novarum lecture by the Bishop of Wilcannie-Forbes, Chris Toohey, on October 12. Bishop Toohey will discuss being responsible stewards of creation.
The Catholic Education office will hold a climate change conference in Perth from an Indian Ocean perspective two days before.