The Church and the Climate

A large constituency of American Catholics — like the American public at large — prize highly those things which they hold to be matters of personal freedom. Many of them would much sooner tell the Church to mind her own business than to allow her teachings to guide what goes on in their bedrooms, Internet histories, or ovaries. Such Catholics will not be comforted to learn that the Church has something to say about their gas tanks, too.

Al Gore warns of the imminent threat of the ManBearPig

In the United States, we hear such a varied and erratic collection of voices surrounding the issue dealt with in this week's post that we hardly know where to start. Not even the nomenclature is settled. Sometimes we hear it called climate change, other times global warming. Sometimes qualifiers like man-made and anthropogenic are tacked on to the front; oftentimes, dirty words like hoax or swindle are tacked on to the back. We're not sure who to trust. From time to time we hear a dubious term like greenhouse effect be thrown around, and it's sometimes difficult to distinguish the global warming  thing from the ozone layer thing that everyone used to talk about. First we hear people say that global warming will fry us up in a great ball of flame 10 years down the road. Then another seemingly trustworthy source will inform us that there has been no warming trend and there's nothing to worry about at all. Finally, another earnest voice lets us know that all that about the ball of flame might be true, but there's no need to concern ourselves with it because it's all a part of a natural cycle and there's nothing we can do about it anyway. First we hear that scientists made it all up to win some grant money, and then we hear that oil companies only made up that it was all made up. And then when we hear that an "independent investigation" settled the matter once and for all, we balk at idea of trusting an investigation done by that organization, breathlessly deploring the intergovernmental organization, university, or think tank in question as the one most worthy of our disdain. We begin to wonder if there is such a thing as a third party at all. The roots of this insanity run deep.

My high school geology teacher may have said one thing about it, but now my physics professor says something else. I might be convinced that the only political party with any sense whatsoever holds one view, while those scumbags across the aisle drink the Kool-Aid of the other view. It might be that the news source I know to be reliable tells me one story, but the other news sources tell another. Maybe the special interests that I think are trustworthy lobby for policies that are in direct opposition to the ones lobbied for by the special interests that I know are up to no good. I might say that people who dress the way I do and have an idea of fun similar to mine believe one way about the climate, but those other weirdos believe differently. The American people and American institutions are in a pitched battle along educational, partisan, ideological, interest-driven, and cultural lines, with the unfortunate but unsurprising result that everyone seems to be simply shouting past one another.

It's sad to see fragmentation of this kind within any population, and it's saddest to see fragmentation on serious matters within the Body of Christ. As Christians, we know that the greatest hope for the unification of hearts and minds is found in Jesus Christ. We know from the liturgy that He "never cease[s] to gather a people for [him]self," and we know from St. Paul that all things will be summed up in Christ (v. 10). In everything, we are unified by the truth; and as Catholics, we find truth in the witness of the Church. When conflicting information bombards us on all sides, we look to the her to at least begin to discern top from bottom and right from left. She is our entry point to the discovery of the most contested truths. Only her witness can ground us in what is valid and lasting. But can she really help us to navigate an issue so seemingly far removed from the realm of theology as climate change? The answer is that, yes, she can. Let's hear her speak.

In the tug of war between political and scientific ideologies over climate change, the Church is in a unique position to offer a refreshing supply of clarity. To begin with, she transcends American politics and is not partisan. None of the lines of division mentioned above are of any concern to her. Second, she recognizes the limits of science while ceding to it its proper place. Good scientists as well as the Church understand that no theory or model may ever be absolutely certain. The nature of science itself demands that they be ceaselessly tested and modified. But she also affirms the moral imperatives of prudence and justice. Prudence requires that decisions be made in light of the best evidence available, even when some uncertainty remains. Solidarity asserts that effects on the Earth's climate are effects on the entire human population, and that environmental degradation ought to especially convict our consciences for its impact on the poor.

This man believes that the ManBearPig is real

In light of these principles, the Church has given us a consistent witness of the importance of responding to the reality of man-made climate change. Pope Benedict XVI, in particular, has left a long track record of having kept combatting climate change among the major initiatives of his papacy — e.g. in an address to the 2009 UN climate summit, in his encyclical Caritas in Veritate, by his initiative to install thousands of solar panels in Vatican City, etc. Blessed John Paul II also addressed climate change during his papacy, and Pope Francis has lived his life as the epitome of simplicity and sustainability. In 2007, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences was commissioned by the Vatican to study the scope, underlying causes, and consequences of the retreat of mountain glaciers. Its conclusion was in agreement with the worldwide scientific consensus: global warming is occurring, it is caused by human activity, and its effects are disastrous.

We have seen a flowering of interpretations and applications of this papal witness in recent years. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has been particularly proactive in its plea for a reversal of the human behaviors that lead to warming trends in the Earth's climate, especially in its 2001 statement Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence, and the Common Good. Theologians and other Catholic scholars have also contributed to the discussion, most recently with an insightful forum at Catholic University considering Benedict's environmental ethics in general and his views on climate change in particular. All told, the Church's magisterium has definitively determined that prudence and charity demand a break from the status quo in our treatment of the Earth's atmosphere. It has told us in a clear, prophetic voice that our burning of fossil fuels is reckless in its scope and unjust in its practice.

The Church offers us this witness on climate change because, like the other issues on which she speaks, it concerns the fundamental well-being and flourishing of human beings. The world's impoverished stand most to lose from an unstable climate, yet contribute the least to climate change's cause. Let us not forget Blessed John Paul's insistence that "the ecological crisis is a moral issue." May this reminder help us as we examine our consciences. And while a cacophony of voices attempts to influence us from every direction — laying claim to our political, social, financial, and cultural affiliations — let us always  listen first and foremost to the voice of the Church, giving our allegiance to her instead.