Stephanie Ciarkowski

Professor Eichenberger

Senior Seminar

April 9, 2023

Environmental Justice and Care

While reading the preface of Laudato Sí, I found that your words made me feel

particularly guilty for the way I treat the environment. Although I personally try my best

to ensure I do my part for the environment, I feel I could be doing more. I try to clean up

after myself, refuse to litter, use glass over plastic as much as possible, reuse

when/where I can, and try to conserve as much as possible. Though I do those things, I

feel there’s more I could try and do for the environment. There were quite a few things

you said that resonated with me, however one major one was “This sister now cries out

to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse

of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her

lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts,

wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the

water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid

waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she ‘groans in travail’”

(Pope Francis, 2015). This quote is very insightful in the fact that you are absolutely

right. You described the Earth as our sister of which we share our life with, which is true.

The Earth itself is a living thing that we must take care of. I believe you are telling us

that it is our job as habitants of this Earth to ensure it is sustained for us and those who

will come after us, but we are failing. As people with free will, we have the choice to do
right or wrong, help or not. We have used this freedom to abuse the Earth irresponsibly

and selfishly, like mining for gold and tunneling for oil and for what? So we can wear the

finest jewelry and run our cars/other machines that just put out smog and pollution

which kill the Earth even more. The Earth has been endowed with many gifts such as

water, food, oxygen, animals, ecosystems, and so much more all of which is a perfect

balance to sustain life. Without realizing it, we have come along and torn the Earth apart

in the few million years we have been here as a species. This makes me feel as if I

should be doing more than small, simple changes in order to create a bigger ecological

difference. I can start doing more within my own personal life such as recycling, making

more things in my life reusable (drink cups, grocery bags,etc), using bars of soap and

shampoo rather than buying bottles, and overall trying to advocate for a more

economical sustaining life to those around me.

I particularly liked the section about Decline in the Quality of Human Life and the

Breakdown in Society. One quote that really stood out to me was “...we are conscious of

the disproportionate and unruly growth of many cities, which have become unhealthy to

live in, not only because of pollution caused by toxic emissions but also as a result of

urban chaos, poor transportation, and visual pollution and noise. Many cities are huge,

inefficient structures, excessively wasteful of energy and water. Neighbourhoods, even

those recently built, are congested, chaotic and lacking in sufficient green space. We

were not meant to be inundated by cement, asphalt, glass and metal, and deprived of

physical contact with nature” (Pope Francis, 2015). When you said this, I felt that we as

people have come so far from what we used to be that we are almost unrecognizable.

We used to be cave dwellers and live off the land and although we still do, we live in
concrete walls with all the necessities at our fingertips. As people used to hunt and

gather all while using everything made from land, we now use metal and plastics for

convenience. I by no means am saying we should be cave dwellers again, however we

could be using more sustainable ways of life in order to get more in touch with nature.

We could be using biodegradable items, solar power, reusable items, travel by less

wasteful means, and green areas, as you mentioned. This would bring us closer to

nature, while also helping save our environment and planet from the horrendous effects

of pollution and waste.

These videos helped me understand that global warming and climate change is a

much bigger issue than we had thought previously. As Greta Thurnberg stated, we are

headed toward a direction in which our emission stance will “...set off a chain reaction

beyond human control…” (PBS NewsHour, 2019). Therefore, it will be up to my

generation to be the ones sucking “...hundreds of billions of tons of your CO2 out of the

air with technologies that barely exist…” (PBS NewsHour, 2019). It would have been

much easier to avoid this problem in the first place than it is to fix it. These changes are

severe and will soon become irreversible if we as a species do not come together to

make a change for the Earth. The consequences of global warming will be my future,

and therefore I want to do everything in my power to help stop what may become a

major global extinction for us and many other species.

 Sources

PBS NewsHour (2019). WATCH: Greta Thunberg's full speech to world leaders at UN

Climate Action Summit. YouTube. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAJsdgTPJpU.

Pope Francis. Laudato si' (24 May 2015): Francis. Laudato si' (24 May 2015) | Francis.

(2015, June 18). Retrieved from

https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-frances

co_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html