BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
IF HUMANS continue to destroy the forests and all the creatures living in them, then the people will have destroyed their own sources of water and medicine and negated the role of forests to control and contain CO2 and thus control global warming. The balanced level for life to thrive is changing and humans are presently perishing as drought spreads in parts of Africa.
In South Africa, as I write, devastating floods are destroying vast lands, crops, food reserves, houses and people. In the Philippines, greater, more powerful and more frequent typhoons have already hit the nation. The rains are devastating, the lost forests have left bare hillsides prone to massive landslides and floods that destroy the rice fields and kill hundreds of people. It is a self-inflicted catastrophe.
As Pope Francis has said in Laudato Si, “The human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together; we cannot adequately combat environmental degradation unless we attend to causes related to human and social degradation. . . ”
The social degradation he speaks of is the impact of poverty among humans and how it affects life on earth. The evolution of the human species continues. Like a virus, there are mutations, some benign, others deadly. The deadly violent humans are the people likely to have unjustly and unfortunately grown up in poverty, both emotional and material deprivation, severe neglect and suffered abuse: psychological, physical and sexual violence. Most victims suffer in silence all their lives, others veer to the path of greater violence.
They desire to inflict on others vengeful violence in retaliation for what they themselves suffered in childhood. They bully, intimidate, silence and abuse all others to get their way. There is no justification whatsoever for the evil that they do.
These people choose to dominate others by force and lead fanatical groups and even nations on paths of violent attacks and war. They may glory in power to compensate for the powerlessness of an abusive childhood. They are leaders desiring revenge on society and the world and they start conflicts and wars. They lead terrorist groups and oppress and kill their own people. To name a few in history like Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Assad, Queen Mary, violent extremists and now Vladimir Putin and others bent on killing and destruction. These leaders become violent tyrants, dictators, despots, out to destroy their critics and other nations even and the environment with extractive industry, mired in corruption and war crimes.
Wars destroy the earth and the environment. As Pope Francis says: “It is foreseeable that, once certain resources have been depleted, the scene will be set for new wars, albeit under the guise of noble claims. War always does grave harm to the environment and to the cultural riches of peoples, risks which are magnified when one considers nuclear arms and biological weapons. Despite the international agreements which prohibit chemical, bacteriological and biological warfare, the fact is that laboratory research continues to develop new offensive weapons capable of altering the balance of nature.”
So, in Ukraine, it may come to a chemical or a nuclear strike, unthinkable as that may be. The environment has been destroyed by devastating accidents at nuclear power plants and in the Philippines, agreements of understanding have been signed by government officials to start plans to build a nuclear plant. People should know what is being done in their name and have a right to protect themselves, their nation and the earth. (preda.org)/PN
