UNIT 4 Module 5 - • A current issue for a religion and how this religion interacts with this issue.

Environmental Issues

Nature of Environmental Issues

Human activity, fossil fuels, waste, deforestation, unsustainable agriculture, is damaging the planet. Leads to climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, extreme weather, rising sea levels.

The poorest nations and people suffer the most from environmental damage.

Attempts at solutions exist (international, national, local), but weak political will and lack of consensus limit progress.

What are the different perspectives in Society on the issue?

Why is it an issue that concerns the Catholic Church?

Scientific view: Argues that human-caused environmental damage is urgent and dangerous. Warn of irreversible impacts. Activists like Greta Thunberg

Economic View: Many industries worry that strict environmental regulations will harm economic growh, jobs and trade. Fossil fuel reliant countries like Australia face major political debates.

Sceptical View: Deny or downplay climate change, seeing it as exaggerated arguing that environmental action is unnecessary government overreach. Often resist change, slowing political action.

3 Ways the Catholic Church responds/ interacts to this issue

Magisterium and Leadership: Popes issue official teachings and speak publicly guiding the Catholic Communities and influencing public debate. Such as Encyclical Laudato Si links environmental care to social justice

Catholic Agencies: Highlight the impact of climate change on vulnerable communities and provide aid during natural disasters worsened by environmental degradation. These agencies run programs in schools, parishes, and communities to raise awareness and encourage action

Advocacy: Interacts with governments by writing letters, submitting recommendations, and calling for stronger climate commitments. Local parishes and communities take practical steps (tree planting, solar panels, reducing energy use) as a witness to living sustainably.

Laudato Si

Pope Franci teaches that the environmental crisis is also a social crisis, and he calls for an “ecological conversion” that changes how people live, consume, and interact with creation, He stresses that everything is interconnected, and harming the environmental means harming people, especially the poor.
“the Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.”

Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor

Statements from the Australian Catholic Bishops links environemtnal harm with social injustice, emphaissing that the poor suffer the most from climate disasters such as bushfires, floods, and droughts. Accepts scientific findings on climate change and biodiversity loss, calls on society to listen to the experiences of those affected, and urges change in lifestyles, consumption patterns, and social structures.

The interaction between the Catholic Church and the Environmental Issues

The Catholic Church interacts with environmental issues by combining faith and reason, drawing on both theology and science to argue that care for creation is a moral responsibility. It advocates to governments, educates communities, and encourages systemic change through the principle of integral ecology, which links the protection of the environment with the dignity and wellbeing of all people.

How and Why the Catholic Church interacts and responds with Environmental issues

The Church interacts with environmental issues through papal teaching, bishops’ conferences, advocacy, and the work of agencies such as Caritas, which put Catholic social teaching into practice. It responds because it sees stewardship of creation as a Christian duty, wants to protect the poor who suffer the most, and believes that creation is a gift from God that must be respected and safeguarded for future generations.