Global Climate Change
Christians, in particular, realize that their responsibility within creation and their duty towards nature and the creator are an essential part of their faith. (Pope John Paul II).
Those who hold goods for use and consumption should use them with moderation, reserving the better parts for guests, for the sick and the poor. (Catechism of the Catholic Church # 2405)
Faith in Action
Visit The Catholic Climate Covenant: St Francis Pledge to Care for Creation and the Poor website at
www.catholicclimatecovenant.org
As a family take the pledge and learn about climate change as a family.
Go to: www.newdream.org and download “The Wallchart” and “Turn the Tide” and as a family track your progress to conserve water, carbon emissions and electricity.
Recycle plastic bottles, aluminum cans, glass bottles, etc. Newspapers, magazines and old phone books can be recycled here at SJV in the container in the main parking lot.
Grow your own tomatoes in containers or buy vegetables at the local farmers market here in Round Rock on Saturday mornings.
Skip a car trip once a week and prevent the emission of 950 pounds of carbon dioxide each year.
Eat one less beef meal each week and save 40,600 gallons of water, 70 pounds of grain and prevent 300 pounds of carbon dioxide each year.
Cut your junk mail in half and save 1/6 of a tree, 70 gallons of water and prevent 46 pounds of carbon dioxide each year.
Use energy efficient light bulbs and prevent 262 pounds of carbon dioxide each year. Move the thermostat 3 degrees and prevent 360 pounds of carbon dioxide each year.
Use low-cost water saving devices and save 7800 gallons of water and the prevent emission of 460 pounds of carbon dioxide.
Turn off the water when brushing your teeth.
Use the proper water level for your laundry load in the washing machine.
Clean your fresh vegetables in a pan of water rather than having the water running.
Water your outside plants and yard only in the early morning or in the evening once a week.
Fast from bottled water and save our landfills from thousands of pounds of plastic bottles. Instead refill your own bottles with tap water.
Check for leaks in faucets, toilets and spigots and fix those in need of repair.
WATER
Stewardship requires a careful protection of the environment and calls us to use our intelligence “to discover the earth’s productive potential and the many different ways in which human needs can be satisfied.” ( A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good, USCCB)
Water consumption has almost doubled in the last 50 years.
Are you aware that our eating habits affect water consumption?
One pound of feedlot beef requires more than 2,400 gallons of water.
If 1,000 people switch to a vegetarian meal once a week, our water consumption can be reduced by 40 million gallons of water each year. (St. Austin Catholic Church Project)
The
Water is an essential commodity for life. Without water, life is threatened, with the result being death. The right to water is thus an inalienable right. (Water, An Essential Element for Life, Pontifical Council)
1.1 billion people have no clean water; that means 1/6 of the world’s population lacks access to safe water.
2.6 billion people do not have access to adequate sanitation; that is 1/3 of the world population.
Water-borne disease kills 1.8 million children each year, or 1 child every 3 minutes.
Disease caused by bacteria and viruses in polluted water kills more people than HIV/AIDS or malaria.
The poor are paying more for water as supplying it becomes a business; slum dwellers in Manila pay more for water than people living in
Bottled water has become a billion dollar business with world sales topping $100 billion in 2005. A market has been created where 75% of Americans drink bottled water and 1 in 5 drink only bottled water.
Here are some statistics to consider to break the habit of bottled water:
Making bottles to meet our demand for bottled water required the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil last year.
Each year 4 billion pounds of PET, plastic bottles, which are recyclable, end up in a landfill or as roadside litter.
About 40% of bottled water comes from the same sources as tap water. Tap water is tested far more frequently and has more independent oversight by state and federal environmental authorities than bottled water.
It takes 3 liters of water to produce one liter of bottled water.
The average cost of one gallon of bottled water is equal to 40,000 gallons of tap water.
(National Catholic Reporter, January 2008)
Global Reality:The United nations estimates it would require an additional $30 billion per year to provide safe, clean drinking water to the entire planet. Last year alone, we spent 3 times that amount on bottled water. ( St. Austin Catholic Church Project)
A person needs about 21 gallons of water a day for a reasonable standard of living. In the world’s poorest countries they use about 2.5 gallons a day.
In developed countries: 4.75 gallons for a shower; 13 gallons for a bath; 2.5 gallons to flush the toilet; 25 gallons for a washing machine; 9-15 gallons for a dishwasher.
( Education for Justice; www.educationforjustice.org)
Faithful Stewards of God’s Creation
The Challenge of Consumption
By Msgr. Charles Murphy
The industrialized countries, with only one fifth of the world’s population, consume two thirds of the world’s resources and generate 75 percent of all the pollution and waste products.
What and how much we consume manifest our conception of who we are and why we exist. How can our Catholic faith help us to find a more satisfying life for ourselves and at the same time make us more socially responsible in achieving it?
Msgr. Murphy suggests three ways:
The cultivation of the natural virtue of temperance
The gospel admonitions about the dangers of over consumption and the fundamental requirement of love of neighbor.
The social teachings of the Church based upon the order of nature and the higher demands of gospel living.
Temperance As a Virtue of Living
Among the “cardinal” virtues is the virtue of temperance; with prudence, justice and fortitude.
Temperance is regarded as one of the “hinges” on which hangs the gate to a happy life.
Temperance gives order and balance to our life.
Temperance arises from a serenity of spirit within oneself.
Temperance teaches us to cherish and enjoy the good things of life while respecting natural limits.
Temperance does not diminish but actually heightens the pleasure we take in living by freeing us from a joyless compulsiveness and dependence.
With the simple life, the aim is to achieve maximum well-being with the minimum use of the earth’s resources.
Temperance means knowing when “enough is enough.”
The Gospel and Wealth
Pope John Paul II spoke in New York City in 1979 “For it is not right that the standard of living of the rich countries would seek to maintain itself by draining off a great part of the reserves of energy and raw materials that are meant to serve the whole of humanity. For readiness to create a greater and more equitable solidarity between people is the first condition of peace.”
Parables like “Lazarus and the Rich Man” (Lk 17:19-31) “The Rich Fool” and the “Saying against Greed“ (Lk 12:15-21), “Parable of the Sower” (Mt 13:22) and “God and Money” (Mt 6:24) warn us of the hazards of wealth.
In the Beatitudes Jesus says “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.” (Lk 6:20).The poor have only God to look to for their help; thus they are able to recognize the radical human dependency that is the condition of every creature before God. Wealth, on the other hand, creates the illusion of independence and self-sufficiency.
Church Teaching
Pope John Paul II in Centesimus Annus said “ It is not wrong to want to live better...what is wrong is a style of life which is presumed to be better when it is directed towards ‘having’ rather than ‘being’. The ecological problem with consumerism is man consumes the resources of the earth and his own life in an excessive and disordered way.” (no. 37)