How the Earth is dying and nobody seems to care

Should the environment be treated as a person? Does it deserve respect? Does it have rights? Who should protect it?

According to a study by the World Wildlife Fund, “the human race is plundering the planet at a pace that outstrips its capacity to support life.”

Basically, by 2050, the human race will have to colonize two additional planets in order to ensure our survival. Both of these facts are true and have been explained and repeated numerous times to the global society.

However, these terrifying statements have had little to no impact on our globally destructive habits. Why is that? Because we as humans like to think in terms of convenience and try to avoid thinking about uncomfortable scenarios.

However, the phrase “out of sight, out of mind” cannot and should not apply to the environment, especially since it encapsulates all of us and is the source of all life.

With the source of all human life at stake, you would think the United States government would be putting all hands in to actively protect and preserve the environment, right? Quite the opposite, actually.

Since his election, President Donald Trump and his administration have reversed environmental policies set up in the Obama era that aim to reduce pollution and impede climate change.

In addition, Trump has limited federal funding for science and environmental programs and provided funding for programs and industries that downright cripple our environment. One of Trump’s favorite initiatives to advocate for is “clean coal,” the world’s most dangerous oxymoron.

People have started to take notice of the Trump administration’s blatant abuse and neglect of the environment, and they have taken bold action steps to hold the administration accountable.

In August  2015, a group of children, now named “the climate kids,” have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government stating that their rights to a healthy and livable environment are being violated. However, the federal attorneys are not taking these claims seriously.

In fact, according to a CNN article, the prosecutors, “are questioning whether the kids have a right to ‘a climate system capable of sustaining human life’ under the Constitution or public trust doctrine.They say federal authorities will waste time and money by responding to what they call ‘baseless claims.”

They say it is wrong for the court to impose climate-change policies on federal officials and the public should wait for congress or other elected officials to implement these changes.

Well, we have waited. We have waited and watched as our only Earth hemorrhages resources, asphyxiates on polluted air and drowns in toxic oceans. We cannot wait any longer and neither can our planet.

What duties do we as a Jesuit University have to our planet’s protection?

In Pope Francis’ Laudato Si, he explains that the Earth is like our shared mother and she cries out to us for help since we have been plundering her resources in which God has endowed her.

This encyclical implores not only Catholics but all members of the world’s population to come together and do their part to safeguard Our Common Home. I would have thought that this papal mandate would instill a sense of environmental action in our university, but it has not.

In fact, just this year, the university has cut funds for our on-campus sustainable programs by up to 75 percent. This budget cut is an egregious step in the wrong direction for environmental support.

If this university action disappoints you like it does me, then I encourage you to speak up to our administration and advocate for their support for sustainability initiatives on campus. It is our duty, mandated by the pope himself, to protect our common home.

As humans we have basic rights to respect and dignity. We have these rights because we are able to advocate for them. But what if something deserves protection and respect, but cannot advocate for itself? Should the environment be forsaken because it does not have the faculties to demand preservation?

Or should we as autonomous individuals protect our common home and recognize its intrinsic value? Give our planet a voice, give our planet a chance.