Giving to the environment what it is due

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Education, research and action are needed in order to implement eco-justice, which is giving the environment what is its due.  

This was the message driven by Te Kupenga theology lecturer Dr Christopher Longhurst in a workshop called Caring for Our Common Home facilitated by the Wellington Theological Consortium on August 28, 2021 through Zoom.  

During the workshop, Dr Longhurst played Marvin Gaye’s Mercy, Mercy Me (Ecology), a song which deplored the exploitation and destruction of the environment. The song was first released in 1971, exactly 50 years ago.  

Since then, the degradation of the planet has accelerated. Climate change had a disproportional impact on the poor and marginalised, while young people had become objects of intergenerational injustice.   

“Why is eco-justice taught last? Why do we teach eco-justice after individual justice, after social justice and after we got environmental justice?” he said. “It’s because . . . eco-justice involves all of them. Eco-justice is about giving what is due to myself on the land, giving what is due to the land and giving what is due to the planet in distributing the equity of our resources justly.”  

He said eco-justice comes under environmental ethics, which “believes that humans are a part of society, as well as other living creatures”.  

“It’s not just about us. Plants and animals speak, too,” he said.  

“Ethics has to do with the capacity to connect theory with practice, general principles with political will and global awareness with local actions. We can ask ourselves, what is my choice? Must I look after my own back yard, or do I have a right to demand that you look after your own back yard too?”  

He said climate justice and climate equity, for example, are international and intranational concerns.  

Climate justice refers to the disproportionate impact of climate change on poor countries, while climate equity deals with who should bear the responsibility for addressing climate change.  

Dr Longhurst cited Romans 8:22-23 which states, “we know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth, right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to discipleship, the redemption of our bodies”.  

“How does creation groan?  And how do we find ourselves in the middle of a groaning creation?” he asked. “When someone groans, do we hear them? Do we respond?”  

Dr Longhurst also stressed that young people had become victims of intergenerational injustice.   

“When we offend [against] the environment, we offend [against] the future generations,” he said.  

This is probably the reason why, he said, we are seeing so many young people advocating for the environment, and why the United Nations created a Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change.  

Dr Longhurst stressed that people on the ground are needed to persuade the Government and huge multinational corporations to take action for the environment.   

“How can we commit ourselves in working with the earth in the face of the present crisis? There are actions [we can take] and it starts with education leading to law change,” he said.  

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Rowena Orejana

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