The Copenhagen summitteers
should study the Pope's message
as a key to action
by Franco Prodi
Translated from
the 12/20/09 issue of
Pope Benedict XVI's Message for the 2010 World Day of Peace came out this year in singular coincidence with the United Nations conference on climate change that ends today in Copenhagen.
It is a text that is distinctive for its immediate communicativeness, for its fusion of ethics and economic concreteness, for the detachment with which it arrives at practical economic suggestions, but above all, for its insistence on the centrality of man in Creation, of which he is the protagonist.
Authoritative commentators analyzed it contextually upon its release. But it is useful to read it again in the light of the final outcome from Copenhagen.
What is perceptible first of all is the strong contrast between the calm deployment of the papal text and images of all the agitation in that immense meeting hall in Copenhagen, where the powerful of the earth sought frantically to produce a document they could all agree on.
An effort that was apparent in the draft of the final text, in the embarrassment of having to resort to the nth review of commitments for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, with an attempt by the rich nations to compensate with financial transfers the poorer nations for their excessive use of energy resources.
There followed an almost absurdly ambitious commitment to "keep global warming under two degrees', as though it was an objective achievable simply through a deterministic cause-and-effect relation between efforts towards that end and the expected results.
No one ever entertained the thought that the objective was achievable without effort though the natural course of a system so complex and far from being completely understood.
Fortunately, the Pope's message came, to point out that "the ecological crisis cannot be evaluated separately from questions linked to it because they are strongly linked to the concept itself of development and the vision of man and his relationship with his peers and with creation".
Benedict asks for nothing less than "a profound and farsighted review of the development model". He also speaks of distortions in the economy and its ends, of dysfunctions that must be corrected.
But the original vision of the message is that man's unconcern for the environment, his pillage of natural resources, ultimately turn back on man himself. There is a causal nexus between the self-destructive tendency of modern man and his cultural and moral crisis, which is expressed in his unconcern for the environment.
The Pontiff places the responsibility for this spreading crisis on governments because they don't furnish 'long-range policies'. Any illusions of utopia are dispelled when the message points to the enormous responsibility in economic decisions and their moral consequences.
Economic activity should respect the environment and must take into account the costs for doing so. Thus, the call to fight environmental degradation and promote integral development corollary to a more ample breadth of international solidarity, which is seen as a cultural condition, rather than as a unilateral relation in philanthropic terms.
Those who work in environmental research and innovation should also learn to see scientific opportunities in the battle against environmental degradation and for integral human development. The Pope endorses development of solar energy, management of water and forest resources, use of agricultural techniques that respect the environment, and waste management.
In such a vision, even the very prospect of poverty would seem to collapse and be replaced by one of solidarity on a global level.
The imperative of caring for Creation also improves man interiorly and is cause for happiness. It leads naturally to peace because it helps to resolve the underlying crises manifested in the ecological supercrisis.
The method of 'moderation and responsibility' triumphs over indiscriminate exploitation which limits the future availability of resources.
The link between morality and economy prompts the Pope to recommend juridical norms defined by compatibility between private property and the universal destination of natural resources.
From the recommendation of lifestyles that favor non-material goods (the true, the good, the beautiful) follows the promise of reciprocity: "In taking care of creation," says the Pope, "we realize that God, through Creation, takes care of us".
This, then, is the way that the Pope's message indicates to the participants of the Copenhagen summit: the need to stop environmental degradation should be based on the convergence of intentions rather than on controversial accountability for emissions. It is a road that is long, but which can count on guidance from the Christian message and its humanism.
In Italy, meanwhile, an expert shows on TV what was found in the stomach of a beached whale found in Gargano recently - plastic bags, fishnets, the most disparate objects. The great animal had lost its orientation and suffocated because of ingesting manmade products..
It is a jolting image emblematic of man's indifference to his environment and calls for different, more responsible lifestyles and a new concept of development.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 22/12/2009 11:35]