Laudato Si: Sunday Reflection #32... For the sake of future generations

I think Indigenous people have it right -- that we must consider how the decisions we make today will impact our descendants seven generations (140 years) from now. How many things would have been done differently in the history of our planet if that adage had been taken to heart by all its inhabitants?

This week we are looking at paragraphs 159-163 of Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home, Pope Francis' letter to the people of the earth, which can be accessed by clicking here and scrolling down. The section is called Justice Between the Generations, and it's not just referring to those of us alive at this moment.

"The notion of the common good also extends to future generations," says the Pope, reminding us that

Once we start to think about the kind of world we are leaving to future generations, we look at things differently; we realize that the world is a gift which we have freely received and must share with others. Since the world has been given to us, we can no longer view reality in a purely utilitarian way, in which efficiency and productivity are entirely geared to our individual benefit. Intergenerational solidarity is not optional, but rather a basic question of justice, since the world we have received also belongs to those who will follow us (paragraph 159).

There are many big questions raised by Laudato Si, but for me, the one at the beginning of paragraph 160 is the biggest: "What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us...?" Pope Francis notes that this question is tied in to other questions about the meaning of life and why we are here, the goal of our efforts and our value to the earth itself -- questions whose answers speak volumes about our dignity as God's children.

Paragraph 161 deserves to be read in its entirety:

Doomsday predictions can no longer be met with irony or disdain. We may well be leaving to coming generations debris, desolation and filth. The pace of consumption, waste and environmental change has so stretched the planet's capacity that our contemporary lifestyle, unsustainable as it is, can only precipitate catastrophes, such as those which even now periodically occur in different areas of the world. The effects of the present imbalance can only be reduced by our decisive action, here and now. We need to reflect on our accountability before  those who will have to endure the dire consequences.

Laudato Si doesn't mince words in paragraph 162. Our present consumer culture has bred a society of people who are speeding up the earth's decline through our "rampant individualism" and "today's self-centred culture of instant gratification." We need to curb our "impulsive and wasteful consumption" so that we can "broaden the scope of our present interests and... give consideration to those who remain excluded from development" in both "intergenerational" and "intragenerational solidarity" -- the poor of the future, and those we have with us now.

Such solidarity demands a lot from those of us who live in the developed world. We don't want our standard of living to fall, but if we look at our ecological footprint -- the resources required for our lifestyle, we can discover that if everyone on the planet lived like we do, we would probably need another dozen earths to support the present world population. (Check out your ecological footprint by clicking here.) So what we need to do is to re-examine what we see as essential to our standard of living. Is it the stuff with which we surround ourselves? Or our relationships and values? How can we live more simply and meaningfully without consuming so many of our planet's resources?

We are told that Mother Earth has enough for all her children, but the problem is that some children use up more than their share, which impoverishes those who are living in poverty now, and future generations who may not have enough. It also messes up our planet for all living things. How many species will be extinct when my children are my age? Will future generations ever be able to drink from a mountain stream like I did when I was small?

I feel like a broken record, but Laudato Si is the best commercial I know for simple living. Once we build an awareness of where our greed has gotten the better of us, we can begin to live a deeper solidarity with the poor and those future generations who deserve enough, too. We can choose to use only what we need, and ignore the way consumer culture leads us to want too much. We don't have to live the lifestyles of the rich and famous, though consumer culture does its best to convince us that we do just because it wants us to buy, buy, buy.

How do we escape that kind of brainwashing? Perhaps we can ask ourselves the four questions on this poster on a regular basis. If you want a copy of it, I can email it to anyone who sends me a note through the email address that lurks behind my profile on the side bar -- or you can make your own version with your own awareness-raising questions.

We all need enough to live, but we don't need too much, especially when our greed pollutes our planet, impoverishes others, and harms the seven generations that come after us. I don't know about you, but I hate feeling greedy, especially when I know I'm hurting others, present and future, by my choices... and I want to make my ecological footprint smaller for their sake.

*******

A prayer for our earth

All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe

and in the smallest of your creatures.

You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.

Pour out upon us the power of your love,

that we may protect life and beauty.

Fill us with peace, that we may live

as brothers and sisters, harming no one.

O God of the poor,

help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth,

so precious in your eyes.

Bring healing to our lives,

that we may protect the world and not prey on it,

that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.

Touch the hearts

of those who look only for gain

at the expense of the poor and the earth.

Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,

to be filled with awe and contemplation,

to recognize that we are profoundly united

with every creature

as we journey towards your infinite light.

We thank you for being with us each day.

Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle

for justice, love and peace.

+AMEN.

(A prayer for our earth and all quotations from Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home © Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

Next reflection: Digging ourselves out

#89... Reduce the size of your ecological footprint

It takes you and me a certain amount of space to live our lives. I'm not just talking about the rooms in my home when I say that, however. I'm talking about everything that's required for life -- food, clothing, furniture, transportation, medical needs, etc. Our earth provides it all for us, but unfortunately, it's not often that we think about how many trees it took to make the lumber that supports our walls or our morning newspaper, or how much land is used for growing our food, or how much petroleum goes into our vehicles and the many polymer items that we find in our homes these days. There are thousands of things that come together to help us to live, and all of them contribute to what's called our ecological footprint, or the demand we put on our earth's ecosystems.

The term ecological footprint was coined in 1992 by William Rees, a professor at the University of British Columbia. If I wanted to determine the size of my ecological footprint, I could try to add up how much biologically productive land and sea it takes to produce the resources I consume and absorb the waste I create. Not an easy thing to figure, as I'm not always aware of the details of how my daily life impacts the planet. But there are smart people who have taken Rees' concept and worked it into questionnaires that have helped me to figure out how much my life is costing the earth. It's not exact because I can't punch in every variable that I would like to, but it gives a pretty good idea of where my life creates too much waste, and shows me a few things I can change to make my life easier on the planet.

So today's suggestion is to take the questionnaire at www.myfootprint.org or www.footprintnetwork.org and learn about your own ecological footprint. Then take it a second time, making small adjustments to the values you put in the first time (like, perhaps, eating vegetarian a few more times each week, buying green power, or composting) and see about ways to reduce your ecological footprint. It's a challenge worth taking, because the ecological footprint of most North Americans is huge in comparison to those of our brothers and sisters on other continents. Since we all share the planet, it's about time we in North America share more fairly by becoming aware of and reducing the impact our lives have on our earth's limited resources.

I took the myfootprint quiz again today. If everyone on the planet lived like I do, we would need 2.57 earths to sustain our present population. So there's lots of room for improvement in my life. How about yours?

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Try here.

Life is but a dream?

Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream,
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.

The other day in the lunch room at work, we got into a discussion about this children's song as a metaphor for life. One of my colleagues expressed the opinion that the song is about how our lives are the stream, and even if we turn and paddle against the current, we'll all end up in the same ocean eventually anyway. Another colleague commented, "If that's the case, why bother doing anything?" As often happens with group conversations, the topic split apart into separate dialogues, and I'm not sure where or how it all ended, but that little piece of conversation has been part of my internal moodlings for the past few days.

The idea that we're all rowing our boats gently down the stream of life has a certain appeal. It sounds relaxing, this going with the flow business. But I can't help but wonder how we'll manage if the stream is leading us to Niagara Falls! Let's face it -- a lot of how we live happens in a hurry, without us giving it much thought. We have our routines down, and we rarely question them because they seem to work. But sometimes it's a good idea to wake up from this dream that we call life and examine where the stream seems to be going and how we're getting there.

Here's a pretty cool website for people who are interested in examining where their lifestyle is leading in terms of the earth's future. It offers a quiz that helps to determine the resources needed for our present lifestyles, and shows ways that we can reduce the impact we're having on the planet that sustains us. It's been updated a lot since it first came out in 2002, and while it's still not perfect, it offers an interesting wake up call...

 http://www.myfootprint.org/ 

My results say that if everyone lived like I do, we'd need 3.83 planets to sustain the world's population, and I live pretty simply, yikes! How about you?

Even if you've done the quiz before, I'd encourage you to see where your stream/dream is taking you these days. I'd also encourage you to share this link with friends. The more of us who take the quiz and figure out ways to reduce our footprints, the more likely we can imagine Niagara Falls as a sightseeing destination instead of... a transportation route! 

Other inspirations

My brilliant husband entered a CBC radio contest last week, and darned if he didn't win! Two tickets to a sold-out event at the University of Alberta, and a book and signing with the presenter/author. I was pretty excited, because the presenter/author is another person who is one of my inspirations.

Dr. David Suzuki was here last night giving his "Legacy Lecture," the lecture that the University of British Columbia "forgot" to ask for when he retired some years ago. Originally a geneticist, but more recently a Canadian TV/radio personality who has made it his business to try to raise awareness about critical ecological issues, he is an excellent speaker who is able to bring vague scientific concepts down to a level where those of us who lack Ph.D.s can understand them.

His "Legacy Lecture" last night was his attempt to share "an elder's wisdom." David is 74, but I found it hard to think of him as an elder because he had so much energy on the stage. After the presentation, however, at the book signing, he looked tired and "elderish." Head down, writing away, not a word to anyone but the woman who was telling him to whom the book was to be dedicated. I'm sure it's hard work to be on the road at 74, ranting at the world about reducing human impact on the planet, leaving its beauty behind for future generations, and slowing down. Having so many people want a piece of you, even if only your signature in a book, must be exhausting. But he carries it off, night after night, his legacy to the world, even as it mostly ignores him.

I first heard David speak back in the late eighties at an Aboriginal Education Conference during my brief teaching career. And he used the same words then as he did last night: "How much is enough?" "Growth for the sake of growth is unsustainable and cancerous." "The economy is not the bottom line; the ecosphere is." I don't think his words ever left me the first time I heard them, but they were blunted during the years that followed as I busily set up my life as an adult -- career, marriage, home, family. I suspect Dr. Suzuki's words were one of the reasons that I fought against a lot of conventional accumulations by doing things like renting a wedding dress, sticking with a single vehicle, having a reasonable-sized home, and attempting to buy non-designer necessities and local foods.

When I met Mark A. Burch in 2005, suddenly "How much is enough?" returned to my life with full force. Mark isn't as famous as David Suzuki, but he should be. Mark should have a blog! (As if a blog makes anyone famous, ha!) Mark introduced us to Voluntary Simplicity, which is a more wholistic version of what David Suzuki has been ranting about for so many years. Because of Mark's workshops, and his friendship, we have learned many ways to reduce our ecological footprint and live in greater harmony with our damaged ecosphere, and have discovered that Voluntary Simplicity provides a more challenging and rewarding way to live. We've cut our consumption/materialism, become more self-reliant and community-minded, and are generally more aware of small things we can do daily to decrease our impact on the planet. Even so, we still have a long way to go...

Now there isn't a day that goes by without me thinking about living more lightly in one way or another. I'm blessed because my life has been one of awe and wonder at the beauty of this world coupled with a sense of it's fragility. This blog is a natural extension of that awe and wonder, and my desire to do something to make things better somehow.

Here are some links if you want to find out more about living lightly:
http://simplicitycentre.org/
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/#