Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ Encyclical on Care for Our Common Home is an amazing moral statement for human society. It represents, for me, the last word on the cause and effect of human behavior and its impact on the environment and all of its inhabitants. Nothing more needs to be said. He says it all, lays blame where it resides, and suggests nothing less than changing our way of life.
The passage that I particularly resonate with is paragraph 22 in Chapter One, What is Happening to Our Common Home. In particular, he states “It is hard for us to accept that the way natural ecosystems work is exemplary: plants synthesize nutrients which feed herbivores; these in turn become food for carnivores, which produce significant quantities of organic waste which give rise to new generations of plants. But our industrial system, at the end of its cycle of production and consumption, has not developed the capacity to absorb and reuse waste and by-products. We have not yet managed to adopt a circular model of production capable of preserving resources for present and future generations, while limiting as much as possible the use of non-renewable resources, moderating their consumption, maximizing their efficient use, reusing and recycling them. A serious consideration of this issue would be one way of counteracting the throwaway culture which affects the entire planet, but it must be said that only limited progress has been made in this regard.”
