“Despite
sharp falls in carbon emissions in 2020 linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, the
climate crisis – which is driven by the accumulation of emissions in the
atmosphere over time – continue to grow.” – Oxfam, 2020 https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/621052/mb-confronting-carbon-inequality-210920-en.pdf
Climate
change hits poorer communities first (due to geography), hardest (due to lack
of infrastructure) and unjustly (due to their lesser rates of consumption and
emission). As I watch our students prepare for activities related to care for
creation and righteous stewardship, I can’t help but ask myself - Is their
message for themselves? Or for us? How can I take the call to be brother
earth’s keeper more seriously? Not only for its own sake, but for the sake of
all who do and will live on it, particularly the vulnerable? How have I
benefited from practices that spoil me and deprive others?
To
help, I look to Laudato Si action platform, which gauges what actions
individuals and parishes can do to conserve the resources of the earth, which
are rightfully the property of all. (https://laudatosiactionplatform.org)
“When
someone steals another's clothes, we call them a thief. Should we not give the
same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not? The bread in your
cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat unused in your closet belongs to the
one who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the one who has no
shoes; the money which you hoard up belongs to the poor.” -St
Basil the Great
