This essay was awarded second place in the 2019 Catholic Seminarian Essay Contest on Sustainable Behavior which was organized by The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development. To read more about the contest, click here.
DEVELOPING A SUSTAINABLE BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS THE ECOSYSTEM:
A REFLECTION ON THE BASIS OF CHURCH’S BEHAVIOURAL ETHICS
By Okwuelum Barnabas Chukwunweike
St. Albert the Great Major Seminary, Idowu-Offonran, Abeokuta, Nigeria
As a young boy growing up in a small village in Delta State, South-South of Nigeria, getting a conducive place to stay with meagre resources was almost a herculean task. My siblings and I grew in one of those shanty houses which a typical Nigerian would call “face-me-I-face-you”. We had a common bathroom and toilet at the back of the building shared by all. The rooms were twenty-eight in number and each family was entitled to a room and a parlour. We had different calibre of individuals that lived with us. We had hunters, lumberjacks, fishermen and farmers; my family happened to be one of the latter. We also had school teachers, traders and so on. Every morning we would queue to use the toilet and bathroom for those who cared to. Those who would have lost patience after waiting for a long time would resort to defecating at the back of the houses or nearby bushes. Directly in front of us was a drainage that was meant to control erosion. However, it served some other purposes for us; we would throw thrash into the drainage after sweeping, children would urinate there when they wake up at night to ease themselves, and all forms of used dirty water were thrown there as well, to mention but a few. Only a few living in the compound however saw something wrong with these behaviours but their voices were never heard.
Now due to the way we treated our environment, we always suffered from insect bites and invasion of harmful reptiles. For this reason, the rate of sicknesses like malaria became rampant. This was not an experience particular to me or my family; it was also the experience of others that lived in similar compounds like mine and many other places in Nigeria and the world at large.
Our attitude towards our environment has a way of getting back at us if not immediately, in the nearest future. This is captured by the Spanish proverb “Habits are at first cobwebs, then cables”. The Church’s teachings are in depth when it comes to this care for our environment and the Church does not stand aside in any matter that has the human person as the subject. Everything in nature is related to each other, says Pope Francis.1 It is for us humans to develop the right attitude towards nature since every act we exhibit either helps us attain our eternal end which is God or else it impedes and confuses by forging a chain which is difficult to break.2
Our world is one which has been endowed with natural resources and by ‘natural’ it implies that they are gifts from God and we are meant to take care of them. Thanks to scientific discoveries, humanity has been able to use some of these resources to better the life of man. Our world today, nevertheless, has witnessed degradation in the management of these resources due to some excesses and this pose a threat to the ecosystem. We now experience climate disasters and this is the consequence of industrial growth, massive urban concentrations and vastly increased energy needs, industrial waste, the burning of fossil fuels, unrestricted deforestation, the use of certain types of herbicides, and coolants and propellants in our society.3 These are not ranting of delusional prophets, but are based on sophisticated computer modelling. This does not mean that industrial growth or urban concentrations are bad because God wants us to subdue the earth; the excesses are what are being contended here.
As humans we have been called to be stewards of God’s creation4 , and as such we are to take care of our environment and continue the creative act of God in nature. Pope Francis tells us in “The Gospel of Creation,” where he leads readers through the call to care for creation that extends as far back as the Book of Genesis, when humankind was called to “till and keep” the earth.5 Sadly, we have done too much tilling and not enough keeping. We can actually curb the problems aforementioned when we learn to lead a moderate life and not being carried away by the opulence of some of those around us. The Church teaches the world that it is not possible for all parts of the world to see the kind of ‘development’ which characterized the wealthy countries. Hence, they called on those who are rich to accept a less material way of life, with lesser waste, in order to avoid destruction of the heritage they are obliged by absolute justice to share with the human race.6
In our present time, we cook more than we can consume just to show our affluence in our social space and those who have easy access to water use it carelessly because they have it in abundance.
These attitudes need to be revisited. Pope John Paul II noted that our modern society will find no solution to the ecological problems unless we take a serious look at our life style. He encouraged simplicity, moderation and discipline.7 We must imbibe these in our everyday living lest all of us and future generations will suffer the negative consequences of the careless habits of few today. We should learn to minimize the usage of cars, motor bikes and other means of transportation that emit carbon monoxide to only when necessary and consider bicycling as a means of transportation so as to reduce the emission of carbon monoxide, for bicycling even make us fit and healthier since it is one way of exercising. We should mind how we use electric energy; we can resort to the use of renewable energy like solar power. Farmers like my family who prefer using herbicides instead of manual weeding of our farms should know the damage it can cause to our environment. Also, my experience with those lumberjacks from my community back in the days is they only engage in deforestation with little or no care for aforestation. We should cultivate the habit of not just taking from the earth but also contributing to its growth bearing in mind Pope Francis’ words that “there are other weak and defenceless beings that are frequently at the mercy of economic interests or indiscriminate exploitation. We human beings are not only the beneficiaries but also the stewards of other creatures”.8
My personal experience with those hunters back home has taught me that some of us do not actually care about breeding some of these young animals they hunt. The interest most times is in how we can make money or feed from it. Some of these species are meant to be protected because they aid in the balance of the ecosystem. Pope Benedict XVI alluded to this when he said that “if we are to cultivate peace we are to protect creation and creatures”.9 We live in an age where science and modern technology has made our life easier. As a young boy, before we cooked rice in our house, we would spend an hour separating the stones and shafts from the rice before cooking it. This was locally grown rice, but with the advancement in technology we now have rice that we do not need to sit and pick, hence the local one has been relegated, not minding the harm that the new one can cause to our health due to its processed nature. We need to go back to those good old days of growing one’s own food because it is healthier. Pope Francis noted that we now have “technocratic” mindset, in which technology is seen as the key to human existence. He also critiques an unthinking reliance on market forces, in which advancement in technology is embraced before considering how it will affect our world. Christian spirituality, by contrast, offers a growth marked by “moderation and the capacity to be happy with little”.10: Moderation should be the watchword in our daily living.
It is required of us that we work in dominating the earth in a positive way because that is the will of God. John Paul II tells us that the earth is God’s first gift, but the earth does not yield its fruits without a particular human response to God’s gift, that is to say, without work. It is through work that man succeeds in dominating the earth,11 a positive one at that. Just like we treat every other special gift given to us by our loved ones with utmost care, we should treat the earth as such by portraying behaviours that will sustain the society because God has commanded us to do so and courtesy demands such from us. Courtesy here is not condescension of a superior to an inferior, or a patronizing interest in another’s affairs. It is rather the homage of the heart to the sacredness of human worth and nature.12
We should remember that the past and the present influence the future, and even though the past solidifies into habits, habits can be modified. We need to reflect more on creation and see how we could give leadership in moving toward a more sane and sustainable world. This would give a great impetus to the tasks of caring for the Earth that cares for every creature. I believe it would also give new life and focus to our universe.
END NOTES
1. Pope Francis, Laudato Si, 2015 § 92
2. Fulton Sheen, Thoughts For Daily Living, India: St Pauls, 2015, p. 45
3. Pope John Paul II ‘Message for the World Day of Peace’ 1990, § 6.
4. Gen. 2:15
5. Op. Cit Laudato Si § 67
6. The Synod of Bishops, Document on Justice in the World, 1971. § 70
7. Pope John Paul II Peace with God the Creator, Peace with all of Creation. (Alternately titled, “The Ecological Crisis: A Common Responsibility”.)
8. Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium 2013, §215.
9. Pope Benedict XVI, An Address Given to Vatican Diplomatic Corps in January 2011.
10. Op. cit. Laudato Si 222
11. John Paul II, Centesimus Annus 1991, §31 (emphasis added).
12. Cf. Fulton Sheen, Thoughts For Daily Living, India: St Pauls, 2015, p. 53