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Catholic
Perspectives on Sustainable Economies
Renewing the Earth
An Invitation to Reflection and Action on Environment
in Light of Catholic Social Teaching
A Pastoral Statement of the United States Catholic
Conference
November 14, 1991
(Excerpt)
III. Catholic Social Teaching
and Environmental Ethics
G. Authentic Development
Unrestrained economic development is not the
answer to improving the lives of the poor. Catholic
social teaching has never accepted material growth
as a model of development. A "mere accumulation
of goods and services, even for the benefit of
the majority," as Pope John Paul II has said,
"is not enough for the realization of human
happiness" (SRS [Sollicitudo Rei Socialis],
no. 28). He has also warned that in a desire "to
have and to enjoy rather than to be and to grow,"
humanity "consumes the resources of the earth,
subjecting it without restraint . . . as if it
did not have its own requisites and God-given
purposes."
Authentic development supports moderation and
even austerity in the use of material resources.
It also encourages a balanced view of human progress
consistent with respect for nature. |
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Furthermore,
it invites the development of alternative visions
of the good society and the use of economic models
with richer standards of well-being than material
productivity alone. Authentic development also
requires affluent nations to seek ways to reduce
and restructure their over consumption of natural
resources. Finally, authentic development also
entails encouraging the proper use of both agricultural
and industrial technologies, so that development
does not merely mean technological advancement
for its own sake but rather that technology benefits
people and enhances the land.
H. Consumption and Population
In public discussions, two areas are particularly
cited as requiring greater care and judgment on
the part of human beings. The first is consumption
of resources. The second is growth in world population.
Regrettably, advantaged groups often seem more
intent on curbing Third-World births than on restraining
the even more voracious consumerism of the developed
world. We believe this compounds injustice and
increases disrespect for the life of the weakest
among us. For example, it is not so much population
growth, but the desperate efforts of debtor countries
to pay their foreign debt by exporting products
to affluent industrial countries that drives poor
peasants off their land and up eroding hillsides,
where in the effort to survive, they also destroy
the environment.
Consumption in developed nations remains the
single greatest source of global environmental
destruction. A child born in the United States,
for example, puts a far heavier burden on the
world's resources than one born in a poor developing
country.
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