Dare to Care - April 8th 2022

51. Inequity affects not only individuals but entire countries; it compels us to consider an ethics of international relations. A true “ecological debt” exists, particularly between the global north and south, connected to commercial imbalances with effects on the environment, and the disproportionate use of natural resources by certain countries over long periods of time. The export of raw materials to satisfy markets in the industrialized north has caused harm locally, as for example in mercury pollution in gold mining or sulphur dioxide pollution in copper mining. There is a pressing need to calculate the use of environmental space throughout the world for depositing gas residues which have been accumulating for two centuries and have created a situation which currently affects all the countries of the world. The warming caused by huge consumption on the part of some rich countries has repercussions on the poorest areas of the world, especially Africa, where a rise in temperature, together with drought, has proved devastating for farming. There is also the damage caused by the export of solid waste and toxic liquids to developing countries, and by the pollution produced by companies which operate in less developed countries in ways they could never do at home, in the countries in which they raise their capital: “We note that often the businesses which operate this way are multinationals. They do here what they would never do in developed countries or the so-called first world. Generally, after ceasing their activity and withdrawing, they leave behind great human and environmental liabilities such as unemployment, abandoned towns, the depletion of natural reserves, deforestation, the impoverishment of agriculture and local stock breeding, open pits, riven hills, polluted rivers and a handful of social works which are no longer sustainable”. 

Reflection: Do I connect the environmental devastation on the poorer areas of the world with the five commitments of the SSND? In what ways does ecological destruction and a true “ecological debt” affect migration? Human trafficking? Racist policies in immigration and development aid? Economic, political, and social unrest in Haiti? How do my personal and community patterns of consumption of natural resources contribute to this devastation, with the greatest effects on those who are poor? 

Action: Choose one of the five commitments of the SSND JPIC and reflect on how the ways I do business, my life style choices, my patterns of consumption affect that commitment. How might I be more intentional about cry of the earth and cry of the poor in these choices and patterns? How might I incorporate this reflection into my Holy Week journey?