Relationship to others (week one)

Environment   Apr 19, 2016 by Isaiah Rust

1. Who is responsible to raise awareness and act on climate change?

Climate change is an ever-growing issue in our world that is widespread and has many, many repercussions. This phenomenon is of great importance and it is the responsibility of us all to raise awareness of what is happening to Earth not only because of the immense amount of effort it will take to combat climate change but because it impacts us all. For those of you that may ask yourselves "How can the melting of polar ice caps in the Arctic impact the rest of the world?" allow me to explain. A change in one part of our Earth's system will undoubtedly lead to a change in another part through positive and negative feedbacks changing the planet to be more sensitive to climate change in some areas than others. The melting of this Arctic ice is deeply affecting the rest of the globe due to it's reflective surface area. The ice is one of the key ways that the Earth reflects heat back into the atmosphere and with less ice, meaning less reflective surface, there is much more heat captured in Earth's atmosphere encouraging global warming and climat change.

http://climate.nasa.gov/resources/education/pbs_mo... (NASA's global climate change website providing a brief overview and summary of climate change)

(TED talk on the change that Earth is undergoing and what it may mean for the future. 17:51)

2. What are the roles of ____?

To successfully eradicate or at least make an impact on Climate Change we all have the same role to play, which is to work together and keep moving towards a solution; to focus on making a change. 

Governments, whom often have the final say in matters, have a very important role to play. It is the government who will need to make the decision to move their focus towards climate change in all ways be it encouraging citizens to do their part, increasing government spending in environmental technology and reusable energy, or even simply giving the opportunity to those whom they represent to come forth with new ideas and to try and make a difference. As a society it is up to us to adjust the way in which we think. For change to occur we must first become aware that change is needed. By developing a new mindset we open the door to a new way of interpreting the world around us which in turn influences the way in which we interact with this "new" world. 

Individuals are likely the most important key to success in our mission towards solving climate change. In today's world it is all about "the individual" many of us have shifted our outlooks from 'we' to 'me' and the question is no longer about what the collective needs but what the individual desires. So, as individuals it is our responsibility to look a-new at our peers and to begin working towards creating a mentality that allows us to reconnect with those around us. This can be achieved in two ways: a) speaking openly i.e. allowing ourselves to be honest with our motives and goals whilst sharing our ideas. b) listening openly i.e. listening to the perspectives and ideologies of others with an open-mind, fully permitting one's self to interpret their message. In this way individuals will be able to come together to form a community and later, a society that will be effective in accomplishing their goals.

As a community, it is our job to take care of one another and support one other in our endeavours. The importance of "the other" is undeniable as love is one of our basic needs. Love can be interpreted and expressed in many ways one of which is support. Therefore as the bible says, "Love thy neighbour as they would love yourself." Quite simply, support one another and with this aid our communities will be able to do magnificent things. The role of the community can often just be a sort of "safety net" for members of said community to fall back on and often our communities can be a place to find encouragement and to share our ideas. In our case, community members can encourage one another to continue doing their best to play their part and to take care of their environment or at the very least to do what they can.

Finally, the role of developed countries is to lead by example. Oftentimes it is developed countries that are the first to take action towards or against some sort of force. It was by developing our countries that we encouraged climate change thus, it should be developed countries that lead the way in reversing climate change. 

3. What does Pope Francis say are some short-term solutions? Long-term solutions?

There are many short-term solutions proposed by Pope Francis, most of which are more than plausible. Pope Francis points out that we "have not yet managed to adopt a circular model of production capable of preserving resources" meaning that our current methods of production are not renewable. He suggests that we must reduce the use of non-reusable resources as much as possible whilst maximizing their efficient use. Pope Francis continues to call us as humanity to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption. 

As an immediate long-term solution Pope Francis encourages developing countries to regulate their output of "carbon dioxide and other highly polluting gases" in an effort to push our world to find renewable energy and and ultimately, save our planet. There is an evident need for an ""economic ecology" that may appeal to a broader vision of reality." Pope Francis tells us, "bringing together the different fields of knowledge, including economics, in the service of a more integral and integrating vision" is key to our success. He states that the globe must phase out coal and that while we wait for a better solution, it is worthwhile to consider gas over coal.

 The motif presented by Pope Francis is that we must immensely reduce the use of non-renewable energies whilst we increase our focus on creating renewable ones. It is evident that this is something we need to do together and as soon as possible.

http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclic... (Laudato Si' online text)

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