In Pope Francis’s 2015 Encyclical Letter, Laudato Si, he writes about caring for our common home. His letter addresses humanity’s responsibility to care for all things, living and nonliving, that comprise our biosphere. Earth is our only home, our common home. In this sense, the Earth, and its limited resources, are to be treasured, stewarded, and shared equally. Francis makes the case for recentering our priorities on a global scale and shifting our focus to adopting a more sustainable way of living.

He asks of us to think about Earth as…

a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us.

Laudato Si, page 3

This image of treating the Earth as both sister and mother is a powerful way of engendering our responsibility to embrace her with care and tenderness.

Around the globe, we still struggle convincing those committed to unlimited growth that the consequences of this approach, especially in developed countries, are damaging our one common home. Yet the data is undeniable that destructive changes are happening that may not be reversible. In what ways are we mistreating the Earth’s resources, both living and nonliving. Here are just a few examples:

1. Globally we deforest about 38,500 square miles every year, about the size of South Korea or Portugal.
2. Burning of fossil fuels has increased Earth’s temperature by 1.0^oC since 1900 (see graphs below). The small temperature shift, an important factor in Earth’s system, has dramatic consequences that lead to ocean warming and the climate changes we are witnessing.
3. We are overharvesting edible species around the globe (hunting, fishing, gathering plants and animals for medicines, etc.). For example, nearly 99% of all sea otters in the waters off Alaska have been killed for their fur.
4. Pollution is impacting the availability of quality air and water. Industrialization, use of pesticides, use of nitrogen-based fertilizers, urbanization, forest fires, desertification, and inadequate waste management are just a few examples of how we pollute our common home.
5. Globally, agriculture employs hundreds of millions of people and feeds 8 billion people. However, industrial agriculture is a major cause of pollution and land mismanagement accounting for the loss of nearly 24 billion tons of fertile soil each year.
6. Nearly 10 billion tons of waste are generated globally each year. Of that, about 0.5 billion tons of plastic waste are generated each year of which 14 million tons ends up in our oceans (see image below)

Pope Francis writes…

the earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. In many parts of the planet, elderly lament that once beautiful landscapes are now covered with rubbish.

Laudato Si, page 17

If we are honest with one another, many of these problems are a function of our overconsumption, our throw-away mentality, and our inequitable distribution of treasured resources. A more ethical and responsible consumer mentality in developed countries should be our first priority. Our second priority should be to distribute resources around the globe more equitably, addressing our moral responsibility to eliminate extreme poverty and hunger which plagues 10% of the global population.

A starting point would be to integrate the 5 Rs, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle (see graphic), into our way of living. Zero waste management, a global initiative geared towards reducing waste, is an aspiration to achieve. The 5R’s is the mechanism to decrease the number of things we use and simultaneously decrease the number of things we throw away. The upside to this effort would be to reallocate conserved resources to less developed countries.

Global models for how we invest, develop, harvest, market, and use the Earth’s resources would need to dramatically change in order to live more sustainably. Newer models would need to address why humans tend to sequester rather than share resources. Thus far, we have been unable to address extreme global poverty, which has been around for at least 140 years (click here). How much longer can this go on before societies collapse?

According to the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report, in 2022 the world’s richest 1 percent, those with more than $1 million, owned 45.8 percent of all the world’s wealth. (The richest 1 % represents about 52 million people or 0.65% of the world’s population)

Credit Suisse Report

At the conclusion of Pope Francis’s compelling and comprehensive encyclical he writes:

In the meantime, we come together to take charge of this home which has been entrusted to us, knowing that all the good which exists here will be taken up into the heavenly feast.

Laudato Si, page 177

For me the question is, who are the “warriors” that will take up the charge to lead us from where we find ourselves today to a new place that will preserve the awe and wonder that is our one common home? It must be a collective effort led by brave, honest, and just warriors who are not guided by selfishness or an inflated ego. They must be people who have confronted their shadows, and have emerged more compassionate and wiser.

Bibliography

Featured image comes from the Laudato Si Study Group (click here)