THY4 OL2020 3april PDF
THY4 OL2020 3april PDF
Hello class,
Last week, we saw the negative impacts of Climate Change. But as we go through
various natural calamities throughout the years, it becomes apparent that the poor
are the hardest hit not to mention women i.e. mothers and their children. Pope
Francis said:
“…the deterioration of the environment and of society affects the most vulnerable
people on the planet.”
In August 2018, 15-year old Greta Thunberg started spending her school days
outside the Swedish parliament to call for stronger action on climate change by
holding up a sign reading Skolstrejk för klimatet (School strike for climate). Soon,
other students engaged in similar protests in their own communities. Together, they
organised a school climate strike movement under the name Fridays for Future.
Watch her speech to world leaders at the UN Climate Action Summit on Sept 23,
2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAJsdgTPJpU
“All is not lost. Human beings while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising
above themselves, choosing again what is good, and making a new start… We are
able to take an honest look at ourselves, to acknowledge our deep dissatisfaction,
and to embark on new paths to authentic freedom. No system can completely
suppress our openness to what is good, true and beautiful, or our God-given ability
to respond to his grace at work deep in our hearts. I appeal to everyone throughout
the world not to forget this dignity which is ours. No one has the right to take it from
us.”
Pope urges us to respond to the signs of the times, e.g. the ecological crisis we are
all experiencing especially the global problem: Climate Change.
In fact, the deterioration of the environment and of society affects the most
vulnerable people on the planet:
Both everyday experience and scientific research show that the gravest
effects of all attacks on the environment are suffered by the poorest. -
Laudato Si, 48
Many problems of today’s world stem from the tendency: To make the methods and
aims of science and technology an epistemological paradigm, which shapes the
lives of individuals and the workings of society. (LS107)
The paradigm urges us to accept that technological products are not neutral. The
reason is that they create a framework which ends up conditioning lifestyles and
shaping social possibilities along the lines dictated by the interests of certain
powerful groups. Decisions which may seem purely instrumental are in reality
decisions about the kind of society we want to build. (LS 107)
Technocratic Paradigm:
Chinese ships leave broken reefs in West PH Sea after ‘destructive’ clam
harvest — report
Chinese vessels left trails of broken reefs in the West Philippine Sea (WPS)
following a resumption of clam harvesting activities in the last six months, a
Washington-based think-tank reported. Satellite images from Asia Maritime
Transparency Initiative (AMTI) showed the damage brought by the “destructive”
methods used in the harvesting clams.
**
Technocratic Paradigm is the opposite of synthesis or integration; it is the greatest
example of reductionism - (Stollenwerk Daniel J.)
How are (1) environmental deterioration, and (2) human and ethical
degradation closely linked?
1. Economic powers continue to justify the current global system where priority
tends to be given to … the pursuit of financial gain, which fail to take into account
the effects on human dignity and the natural environment.
2. Economists, financiers and experts in technology believes in this Lie: That there
is an infinite supply of the earth’s goods, and this leads to the planet being
squeezed dry beyond every limit. (LS 106)
Many people will deny doing anything wrong because distractions** constantly dull
our consciousness of just how limited and finite our world really is. As a result,
“whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of a
deified market, which become the only rule.” (LS 56)
Anthropocentric environmental world view sees man as the most important creature
or species and therefore all forms of development that will supply his needs and
wants are deemed justifiable.
This results to a mechanistic regard for all the elements of nature “as merely
objects to which humans attach utilitarian values.”
With this kind of environmental worldview, man continues to believe that the rich
and teeming natural resources are always at his disposal and therefore can be
exploited.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Puv0Pss33M