New Challenges for Peacemakers

by Marie Dennis

 

(Marie Dennis was the guest speaker at the Pacem in Terris 42nd Annual Dinner in Wilmington, DE on October 22, 2009.  She kindly gave us the text of her talk to reprint in this issue of Delmarva PEACEWORK.  She began her talk with a beautiful slide show, called “The Universe Story” by the late Rev. Father Thomas Berry which had been adapted and edited by Tevyn East to breathtaking images from the Hubble Space Telescope and pictures taken on planet Earth.)

 

Scientific discoveries have brought us awe-inspiring knowledge of this 14 billion year old story,  of innumerable galaxies and solar systems, of our own planet’s four and a half billion year journey to its current status as a stable, balanced and life-giving biosphere. We cannot know if ours is the only planet that has evolved complex life forms, but, given the extremely unlikely series of fortuitous events that have occurred in planet Earth’s evolution, we do know that planets like ours are very rare. Therefore, Earth must be cherished, protected, and preserved. Many who are people of faith use the word sacred to describe our planet.

 

Yet, Maryknoll missioners living in many different countries report signs of dramatic changes in Earth’s “stable, balanced and life-giving atmosphere.” From Kenya, Guatemala, Cambodia, Bolivia, East Timor, Tanzania, Mexico, Nepal, the United States, and beyond, their stories - some anecdotal, others grounded in careful research – have helped us give shape to our growing concern about serious threats to the whole earth community that are on the near horizon: 

In Kenya, people living at high altitudes are dying from malaria. Mosquitoes are surviving at higher elevations than ever before and are infecting communities with little or no resistance to the disease. 

In the Peten of Guatemala, the Mayan people are no longer able to depend on the rains coming when they should for the planting of crops and when the rains do arrive, they often don't stop on time and the crops are ruined. Indigenous farmers also are confronted with plagues of field mice and worms, and dry periods are longer, threatening water supplies.

In Bolivia, what were once the world’s highest ski slopes and an important Andean glacier and the only source of fresh water for thousands of people and for animals and plants -  are now nothing more than two rapidly dwindling patches of ice; ground water levels have risen; and the winds are much stronger in the Cochabamba valley.

In Nepal, excessive melting of glaciers on the world’s tallest mountains is resulting in flooding, erosion, a decrease in water supplies and in glacial lake outbursts. 

Cambodia’s “dry forest” region is rapidly disappearing because of human encroachment, illegal cutting, and inadequate administrative protection. 

Parts of the United States as we know well, have seen increasingly severe storms with huge amounts of precipitation and terrible flooding; others are experiencing extremes of heat or cold, increased wildfires, drought, melting glaciers, water shortages, dust storms, increased soil erosion and runoff; decreased livestock productivity; increased risk of infectious disease; alterations in wetlands and on and on. 

The Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Tuvalu, the Samoas, …

 

Despite its permanence and stability, there is a fragility to our planet and to its many different species and damage due to human behavior is becoming increasingly evident. Collectively, we are engaged in a reckless gamble with the very survival of the ground on which we all are standing. This is a moral and a spiritual issue, as well as an issue of social and ecological justice. We have entered a new human epoch that can correctly be called a kairos moment, a moment in which we, who would be peacemakers – we who care deeply about impoverished and marginalized people and human communities -must commit to far-reaching actions that will preserve and sustain our planet.  But there is an obstacle to this challenge that gets little attention …

 

At the heart of the current global social and ecological crises is an economic system that tries to lock interconnected societies into unsustainable patterns of production, over-consumption and waste generation, all driven by the mandate to grow. To date this growth-driven economic model has promoted overgrowth in some areas while leaving many vulnerable populations in perpetual poverty. 

 

Operating under a system of unchecked and seemingly limitless growth, industrialized countries threaten the integrity of Earth’s climate, over-consume shared resources that belong equally to all people, and maintain lifestyles that endanger the lives and livelihoods of the majority of the planet’s impoverished population. Globally, Earth’s resources are used, controlled, hoarded and/or polluted by a few while millions of the world’s people suffer the impact of these losses. 

 

At the same time, the majority of people living in industrialized countries, including the U.S., feel a deep separation from Earth. We are told over and over again that we are only consumers and that we have to eat, drink, use, buy, spend, not only to sustain ourselves, but also to enhance self-worth.  We are – or think we are - valued by how much we have or how much we earn. 

 

The Earth Charter says: We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history, a time when humanity must choose its future...We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace. Towards this end, it is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations. (Earth Charter)

 

With that in mind, let me name five essential principles that should guide our response to the present crisis: 

 

1.The common good – or, better said, the good of the commons, the good of the whole created order, which has to be sustained in order for humans and the rest of the Earth community to have a viable future. There can be no separate “good” for the human community divorced from healthy air, clean waters, fertile soils, vibrant plant and animal life and all the other wondrous, hidden ways Planet Earth sustains itself. It is indeed a “web” with each strand making its essential contribution to sustain the whole. 

 

2.    Participation, the right and responsibility to participate in decisions that affect one’s life. Too many people, especially those who are made poor, are excluded from decision-making process, and they have to be included, but beyond that, we can no longer exclude the rest of the Earth community from participating in shaping our common future. It is our responsibility, the responsibility of human beings “in whom this grand diversity of the universe celebrates itself in conscious self-awareness” (Thomas Berry, Dream of the Earth) to promote the sustainability of the fish and the forests, the seas and the soils, the birds and the bees and to ensure that each species is represented in the public discourse. 

 

3.    Solidarity is also essential --  with other humans and with Earth. Solidarity redirects society’s focus toward complementarity rather than competition. Living well comes not from having more or earning more, but also from cultural identity harmony with other humans and Earth. The virtue of solidarity recognizes the need to build and preserve right relationships on all levels and to acknowledge the interdependence of all beings, nations and peoples. 

 

4.    Accountability: the economy exists to serve the Earth and its inhabitants. For too long the reverse has been considered true – human beings, especially those who are impoverished, and resources of Earth were assumed to be available for unbounded exploitation. The result is enormous economic and ecological debt; and 

 

5.   Sufficiency, part of the Jubilee tradition, a way of being that accepts “enough” and “limitation.” In the cycles of the natural world each species has a right to exist and draws what it needs for life from its surroundings—enough and not more than it needs.  In today’s world, however, because of sheer numbers and the dominating power of human technology, Earth’s delicate balance has been upset and a culture of “enough” has eroded, replaced by “bigger and better,” “more of everything,” no “limits to growth.” Earth’s treasures are regarded as “resources” meant for human consumption. In the global market place, they are labeled “externalities,” not even accounted for in the cost of production. 

 

The Earth Charter states in stark terms that we face a critical moment when humanity must choose its future. The changes required will necessarily impact our personal, social, religious, economic, and political lives. It is within these varying but interlocking aspects of our lives that we must find the ethical and moral framework, the spiritual values, and appropriate actions to address this great work of our time.

 

We must learn again to love this Earth, to take time to be present to the beauty and mystery of the planet that is our home. It is within this amazing but damaged biosphere that we live and move and have our being. We cannot destroy it without destroying the life it holds within it. 

 

We must learn to live within this fabric of life - taking no more than we need and putting no more burden back out than the Earth can bear. In our personal, family, and community lives, we must begin to move back into balance with the real limits of the Earth. 

 

The Faith, Economy and Ecology working Group, noting the “destructive power of a growth-driven economic model that ignores Earth’s limits and its need to rest and regenerate; that values money and material goods more than humans and ecosystems; that increases the wealth of a few individuals and corporations while the natural world suffers and human well being deteriorates; that leaves masses of people vulnerable through deeper poverty and insufficient access to food, water, education and health care” – is calling for 

 

A Paradigm Shift in Mindset and Values -- as individuals and a society - from an ethic of exploitation to an ethic of right relationship.

Public policy that reflects a steady state economic model, moving the global economy away from growth and toward genuine, qualitative human development, especially in now-impoverished communities. 

An Economy of Thriving and Resilient Communities and  

An End to the enormous power and influence of Corporations and Global Finance on government and general society. 

 

This is a kairos moment, a moment of great awakening. Peace, we all know well, is much more than the absence of war.  More and more clearly we are being challenged to take an ethical stance toward the natural world and to recognize that we are only one part of the great earth community. Truly sustainable pathways to peace and inclusive global security will be built on  deep and lasting respect for the integrity of the natural world.

 

This reflection is taken in large part from an Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns Paper on Global Warming and from “Global Economy Imperils Earth,” a reflection from Maryknoll missioners around the world.  See www.maryknollogc.org (Faith, Economy, Ecology).