Ecology, Environment, Sustainability
Huge numbers of animal and plant species are becoming extinct every year. Meanwhile rising temperatures are alleged to be pushing humanity towards social and economic catastrophe. A rise of only four degrees could turn large parts of southern Europe into a desert – that is, if the area is not flooded, since sea levels around the world are said by many scientists to be rising faster than earlier forecasts suggested. Of course, accusations of scaremongering abound, the nature and scale of climate change remains a matter for debate, and the reliability of computer projections is disputed, but prudence would suggest that the risk from doing nothing is too great. The purpose of these pages will be to explore what is known about the crisis, our responsibility for it, and the solutions that have been proposed, without losing sight of the larger picture. For as governments are forced into action, there is a danger that fundamental moral principles will be forgotten.
UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Center
Catholic Conservation
Article on Ecology by Stratford Caldecott
The Ethics of Climate Change (conference at Blackfriars, Oxford)
Lecture by HRH The Prince of Wales
Communion and Stewardship (important paper by the International Theological Commission)