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| Air pollution- smoke from an industry |
The earth is our common home. It is what her creator has given as an asset to all. We cannot be adamant to the duty of care. It is a shed responsibility. Laxity and deceit do not constitute care for our common home. We have to face the issues squarely and work in order to find viable solutions to them. The earth is a mother to all. We owe the earth nothing but care. Against this special duty of care for our common home is pollution.
Pollution has become a daily activity such that everyone is caught by its web. We witness to this all destructive activity and our responses to this perennial problem has, for a long time, been so weak.
This problem of pollution, the Pope notes, can be attributed to 'a throwaway culture.' This consists in the disposal of waste without considering possibilities of recycling them. It also engulfs the improper disposal of waste. The problem we have in our day and age lies in the term 'waste'. Waste, as we often perceive it to be, is not it. Nothing is a waste. Everything can be transformed, recycled to benefit humanity. The throwaway culture also consists in theorizing rather than practicalizing.
Catching a glimpse of the earth, we may agree with the Pope that “the earth, our home is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth” (no. 21). This should strike us to the core and lead us to rethink our attitude toward the earth. World leaders are always looking at possibilities to build factories while less attention is given to the harm they might cause the 'natural environment'. In fact, technology seems to have been supporting pollution. It solves one problem only to create another. The best technology is nature.
Pollution lies in the contamination of the environment with anything that is harmful and poisonous. Just look at the the harmful pollutants causing health hazards, especially for the poor. The poor always suffer the consequences because they lack the means of attending to the health effects, diseases, inter alia emanating from pollution. We tend to create global indifference when we pollute the earth. Always remember that you make another suffer whenever you improperly dispose off 'waste', when you refuse to recycle.
Pollution takes the forms of soil and water acidification, fumes from industrial work, non-biodegradable, highly toxic and radioactive wastes, and residue from homes, businesses, construction and demolition sites, clinical, electronic and industrial sources.
Whatever we do to the earth affects us. Consider the many who suffer respiratory diseases (asthma, etc). Can we be fair to them and cease to pollute? The earth takes care of us. The only way to gain respect from the environment is to reciprocate the respect and care for it.
We need to endeavour to reduce waste and recycle. Remember that we save not only the earth but fellow men who suffer the consequences of pollution. Our activity, from hence, will be to recycle and not throw away. Clean the environment of all waste. Desire more of the 'natural environment'.
Pax Et Bonum
Less pollution
Cosmology
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