Sustainability – Where to Begin?

Beyond a reasonable doubt scientists have found that climate change is occurring, it’s due to human causes, and it poses significant risks to our well-being.  They agree that it can be addressed by changes in energy technologies, public policies, and our individual actions.  The Catholic Church accepts the science and takes the same position.

The connection between sustainability and the moral imperative to care for God’s creation has been made very clear by Pope Benedict XVI:  "Preservation of the environment, promotion of sustainable development and particular attention to climate change are matters of grave concern for the entire human family."  How do we make that connection to life at St. Francis?

First we need to define the word 'sustainability'.  The United Nations defines sustainable development as:  “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Consider this definition in relation to the following:

1)      9 of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record happened since 2000

2)      3,215 daily high-temperature records were set across the U.S. in June

It takes intensive study to link the climate science with daily weather events.  But the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a special report in March that said we will see “unprecedented extreme weather and climate events.”  This will continue unless we make changes.  Our planet is getting warmer.  As a result, we see many strong storms and more severe weather.  

There is strong scientific consensus on climate change, but we lack social consensus.  The social debate will continue – just as it did when the tobacco industry resisted the health warnings about smoking back in the 1960’s. 

As a parish, this is where we begin our effort to integrate sustainability into our lives, as our faith calls us to do.  Please join us for the journey.

Here’s what you can do:

1.         Educate yourself.  Go to the Sustainability page on the Parish website [stfrancisa2.com/sustainability] and read “Holy Cross Abbey: Reinhabiting Place”, which a group of Masters students at the U of M’s School of Natural Resources and Environment wrote in  2010.  [Holy Cross Abbey masters project  http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/69209].  In this coming year we hope to engage a group of current Masters students to help us with the Sustainability Projects beginning at St. Francis and St. Marys.

2.   Join your fellow parishioners as we build a Sustainability Project here at St. Francis.  Contact Scott Wright (734-821-2121).   We are borrowing a model currently being implemented at across the U of M campus:

Steve Lavender and Jane Vogel on behalf of the Sustainability Team