VATICAN: “Health of Humanity Depends on that of Nature,” says Cardinal Turkson Ahead of COP15 Conference
Logo announcing Webinar on The road to COP15
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
Prior to the United Nations’ 15th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) slated for 11th to 24th October in Kunming, China, Cardinal Turkson has underscored the relationship between nature and the health of humanity.
Convention on biodiversity is a key international instrument for sustainable development whose objective has three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity; the sustainable use of its components; and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization genetic resources.
Addressing nearly 800 participants during the Tuesday, April 20 webinar the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development (PIHD) His Eminence Peter Cardinal Turkson highlighted that “the health of humanity depends on that of nature, and if nature is sick as a result of human cause or human centered pollution and destruction, then humanity also suffers.”
He referenced Pope Benedict XVI’s message in relation to health of humanity, as written in the Encyclical Letter Caritas Veritate published in 2009 on Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth that, “The way humanity treats environment, influences the way it treats itself and vice-versa.”
The Vatican official noted that this happens since everything is interconnected hence abuse of one element affects the other component in the society.
As written in the book of Genesis says the Cardinal, it is clear that diversity took its form from the beginning of creation where God not only created the human species but also “animals, birds, insects and everything that existed.”
“Every creature reveals God to us and is a manifestation of God’s own glory,” the Cardinal said adding that “the social teaching of the Catholic Church recognizes the ongoing works of God’s creation as a sacred gift from God and that each creature has an intrinsic value and a purpose known to God.”
According to Cardinal Turkson there is devastating deconstruction of God’s gift of creation in the contemporary society where biodiversity on the earth’s genetic and ecosystem are crying out for help and “thousands of plants and animals’ species are disappearing each year, resulting to a huge ecological debt for us.”
The Cardinal insisted that it is the primary responsibility of each person to safeguard biodiversity and to take care of nature following a framework provided by the International Conversion of Biological Diversity which “recognizes the need for transversal approach to ensure conversion and sustainability of biological diversity.”
Without caring for nature, the Cardinal observed, humanity has realized that “biodiversity loss has resulted in an increase in pandemics.”
“We experienced the shock of Coronavirus which has led to a collapse of the world’s economy and several other societal structures on which our lives depend,” Cardinal Turkson said and added in reference to Pope Francis’ message that the economic crisis has widened the gap between the poor and the rich and that one pandemic has “revealed several other pandemics which humanity has to pay attention to.”
The Cardinal also revealed that the vision of the forthcoming COP15 convention is to have “a world living in harmony with nature” where, by 2050, there is a transformation in society’s relationship with biodiversity; where nature is “valued, conserved, restored and wisely used while maintaining an ecosystem services sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people.”
Speaking during the session themed the road to COP15, another guest speaker Dr. Jane Goodall explored ways on how, together, human beings can respond to care for our common home and take responsibility for creating a better future biodiversity.
“We need to reduce the unsustainable life style we are living and think about the choices we make each day, Dr. Jane said and continued, “Millions of tons of food are being wasted when there are millions of people going hungry across the globe. We have to eliminate poverty.”
Dr. Jane underscored the need to move away from burning of fossil fuel and adapt to using more renewable energy. She further condemned factory farming and asked participants to support small scale farming and regenerative agriculture.
“Industrial agriculture is covering our food with poison which is bad for our health and is also destroying the soil which we depend on,” she said and added, “Through biodiversity loss, water is also becoming increasingly scarce because of climate change. We need to plant trees and work together for the future of our planet.”
The webinar on biodiversity was organized by various groups including the Vatican’s Dicastery for Integral Human Development and Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM), Rede Ecclesial Pan-Amazónica (REPAM), Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council (REBAC), River above Asia and Oceania Ecclesial Network (RAOEN), International Cooperation for Development Solidarity (CIDSE), Catholic Youth Network for Environmental Sustainability in Africa (CYNESA), International Union of Superiors General (UISG) ISVUMI, Columbans, LISTEN, Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology and Parliament of World Religions.
