The climate change crisis is having negative effects on people all over the world. Responsible world leaders are reacting to this crisis. Religious leaders are seeing it as a human moral crisis as well as an environmental disaster. The Roman Catholic Church and a consortium of Islamic scholars have voiced clear moral positions on climate change in two key documents.
Laudato Si, Praise be to You, is a papal encyclical written by the late Pope Francis, which addresses the technological, economic, political, social, and moral evils that exploitation of the earth and most of its people have brought upon us. Al Mizan (Balance) is a document written by a committee of Islamic scholars, which urges respect for all of Allah’s creation, and for the mutual interrelationships that need to be balanced among people, animals, and earth’s fragile ecosystems.
On Tuesday March 24th, a lecture and discussion at Siena University will feature two speakers, Imam Saffet Catovic and Fr. Elias Mallon, in interfaith dialogue with Siena students about the two documents on the destruction of our common home. The lecture takes place at 7:30 p.m. in the Maloney Room at the Sarazen Student Union at Siena University. The event is free and open to the public.
Fr. Elias Mallon is Franciscan priest who has spent most of his life working on issues of ecological justice and Interfaith cooperation. As a long-time leader of the Catholic Near East Welfare organization, he has worked with Muslim leaders to provide food, clothing, health care and shelter to displaced and poverty-stricken people in the Middle East. He is also a scholar of both Religions and World Affairs, who has presented his scholarship at the World Parliament of Religions.
Fr. Mallon holds advanced degrees from Catholic University of America, and a Ph.D from
Eberhard Karls Universität in Tübingen, Germany. He has represented Franciscans International at the UN as an NGO delegate.
Imam Saffet Catovic is one of the contributing scholars who authored Al Mizan. Imam Catovic holds degrees from, and is the Muslim Chaplain at Drew University, and co-founder and Chair of Green Muslims of New Jersey. He is on the World Religions Climate Action Task Force and Board of Trustees for the World Parliament of Religions. As an Interfaith activist, Imam Catovic serves on the Board of Directors of the Statewide Clergy Council of Faith in New Jersey.
Al Mizan outlines key principles of Muslim Ethics, which recognizes the world’s resources are not infinite, and that all of Allah’s created beings need to prosper on what has been created. While development is encouraged, excessive consumerism, wealth acquisition and wastefulness are considered detrimental. Al Mizan points out, “The contemporary economic order, based on continual economic growth stoked by usury/interest (rika) is by nature insatiably consumptive, unsustainable, and antithetical to the principles of Islam.”
Islam also opposes indiscriminate use of nature. Ecosytems, plants and animals are not commodities to be sold, but communities, which exist to be revered as creations of Allah, and treated with care (taqwa), compassion (ramah) and kindness (ihsan). Woodlands, water and air sources are regarded as a trust to all creatures. Humans may use what they need of them, but any damage done must be repaired. The ‘common good’ is taken to include the good of all creatures and communities. (Al Mizan, pgs 27-28)
In Islam, ethics is focused on procuring benefits while avoiding harms. Universal, irreparable, harms such as genocide, extinction of species, or ecocide are seen as crimes against humanity, and Allah. Pollution, over-fishing and hunting, pesticides and wanton cruelty are all seen as wreaking corruption (ifsad) and wasteful excess (israf). From the days of the Prophet Mohammed, there have been protected areas (hima) in Muslim communities which were nature and animal sanctuaries, preserving the wilderness needs of present and future people and animals.
Pope Francis, likewise, laments the destruction of our common home, and chastises Christians for the sins of greed and consumerism. He points out that God created an incredible amount of biodiversity on the earth. And that each animal, plant, or ecosystem contributes to the health, abundance and livability of the planet. Pope Francis claims that right now, the rich biodiversity and livability of the planet are being destroyed to stoke the profits of huge international corporations. The pope says consumerism is:
“Based on the lie that there is an infinite supply of the earth’s goods, and this leads to the planet being squeezed dry beyond every limit. It is the false notion that “an infinite quantity of energy and resources is available, that it is possible to renew them quickly, and that the negative effects of the exploitation of the natural order can be easily absorbed.”
The Pope observes that the consequences of ecosystem destruction are decline in the quality of human life and the breakdown of society. He cites the growing inequality in the world, whereby the wealthy live non-sustainable lifestyles and become indulgent and isolated, while everyone else is exploited, polluted, deprived of clean water and air, and robbed of the safe homes they need to live. He also calls the notion that technology can solve this problem a vicious lie. It is a moral and political problem, a problem created by human choices, which requires a moral and political solution.
Pope Francis introduces the notion of Integral Ecology, as a goal in which everything in nature is studied intensively, not for exploitive or extractive purposes, but to learn what each part of our ecosystem needs to thrive. Then political and moral authorities would be brought to bear to ensure that the basic conditions for all living things are cultivated and supported. Everything that exists is interrelated, and all of it should be regarded as sacred space. In an Integrated Ecology, everyone would be considered to have a right to clean air, water, a sustainable job, and a home.
Integral ecology would strive for the common good: of all people and the earth. The common good requires social peace, stability and security, which aren’t possible without distributive justice. People have to be able to reliably expect that their basic needs will not be disregarded by others. We are one human family. Economical and ecological policies that benefit some at the expense of others undermines our common connection to God and the earth.
