Saving our Planet

 

When I was growing up, I never heard anyone talk about climate change. My mother never wasted water or food, and we reused paper bags, newspapers and just about everything. But, it was based on frugality, rather than awareness of the fragility of the earth’s resources.

When I became aware of the global crisis and what it means for the future of our planet, I started to recycle everything and be more concerned about the future of our environment. So, I was very interested in the recent COP27 meeting in Egypt, where over 100 nations gathered to make decisions regarding the urgency of taking action globally. Although they did not make much progress on greenhouse gas pollution solutions, they did agree to a proposal to provide private money to poorer countries to develop clean energy action plans.

This is certainly progress. Wealthier nations agreed to provide private funds to developing countries that have been devastated by flooding, aridity, pollution, and other destructive conditions. Countries that are dealing with starvation, lack of clean water, deprivation of land, and war have few resources to construct or develop conservation facilities.

Since we are all part of the human community, we are called to care for one another. An important way we do this is by improving living conditions and providing essential aid to impoverished countries. Climate change affects everyone, but wealthier nations are more often the cause of the suffering experienced by poorer countries by their overuse of fossil fuels, water pollution, destruction of land, and other wasteful activities. So, this decision is not purely generosity, but rather a more just sharing of the earth's resources.

While it is unfortunate that little progress was made to meet the Paris agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, this was still a significant achievement. But, we need to keep demanding more to save our planet.