Thursday, June 25, 2015

Need & Greed, The Takeaway from Pope Francis' Encyclical

We will continue to follow the Pope's new message on our personal responsibility to consume less and respect our environment more.  Focusing the emphasis, the burden on each of us individually, cuts off some of the hyperbole surrounding arguments around "climate change".  It puts the onus right where it belongs.

As the light passes on you and your family, are you an asset or liability in building a cleaner, brighter future?  See more this week at Renewable Now.biz.  Also, go directly to our site to access the video which is not embedded below but reflected in the story.



As a follow-up to Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’, ReNewable Now looked around the web for reaction and thoughts from opinion leaders on what they walked away with after hearing the address. We came across an interesting video from Father Robert Barron, and comments from Professor Ian Gough of the London School of Economics that we would like to share.

Professor Ian Gough
Pope Francis’s encyclical “on care for our common home” introduces two terms buried by modern economics: “need” and “greed”. These represent two opposing worldviews. One seeks to satisfy our wants or preferences, which are limitless, non-satiable, substitutable and amoral. The other prioritises meeting universal human needs, which are limited, sufficient, non-substitutable and with clear ethical grounding. By counterposing these and putting them centre-stage, he has clarified the egregious moral dilemma inherent in climate change in a way that can unite both religion and humanism.

The pope also takes issue with the arguments of green growth, which is the current dominant strategy to handle climate change. Yes, we must support the fastest possible decarbonisation of the global economy through eco-efficiency, as Nicholas Stern persuasively argues in his new book, but at some point, very soon, we will need to switch to post-growth strategies.

This revolutionary encyclical challenges both current ethics and economics.

Father Robert Barron on Pope Francis'
Encyclical "Laudato Si"



It seems no matter where you stand on this, the Pope is going in the right direction and we appreciate his willingness to take a leadership role in this very important time in our history.
- See more at: http://renewablenow.biz/renewable-living.html#sthash.0C5xHtNF.dpuf

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