responsible stewardship for the earth is about a lot more than recycling, riding a bike instead of driving, or installing solar panels. It is about changing minds and hearts, placing life and respect for all humans on this planet as creatures in God’s image and likeness, and loving our neighbor as ourself. The biggest environmental activist is a pro-life activist. Right to life is the only moral stance and starting point that makes concern for the environment and human impact on the environment logical. One can honestly differ about the science of ecology (even the scientists disagree), or about political, social, governmental and private actions which will damage or protect the environment, but that is not the issue. There is a political and social framework to study and argue those things. The role of the Church and those who teach in her name is to foster that concern, and concern for social justice issues in general, in the name and light of Christ and his commandments, within the framework of the gospels.
we were big into recycling and re-using from the earliest days of our marriage, 70s era (there is nothing new under the sun) but for the last 20 years have almost abandoned it, in favor of a policy of drastic reduction of purchasing consumables. Rather than buying foods in recyclable containers and conscientiously driving the 17 miles to the recycling center, I take the same cleaned sanitized glass jar I have been using for years to the whole foods market and have it filled with fresh ground peanut butter, or fresh ground whole wheat flour, shelled nuts or whatever staple I am buying.
I buy used clothing and household furnishings and items whenever possible, used cars, when possible, etc. Read newspapers and magazines on-line, when possible, get taken of bulk mail marketing lists so I don’t receive the paper hogs in the mail. and so on. We just don’t drink soft drinks (or water) that come in cans and bottles so we don’t have a recycling bin for them. We filter drinking water at the source, into reusable pitchers, and make fresh lemonade or tea to drink.
I am on a “lean cuisine” type diet, but for the most part (there are exceptions and times when it is not possible) I make my own and freeze in reusable containers. No we don’t live this 100% of the time or in all circumstances, but it is an underlying goal. I have a continual battle with grocery store clerks to keep them from putting foods in plastic bags before they go in my canvas bags, but they are getting the message. Now our market sells canvas shopping bags. I do have 2 of their insulated plastic containers for meats and frozen foods, so that does keep the cloth bags cleaner.
A challenge is buying products I need, that come in mega-packaging safe from terrorist attack: bottle, wrapped in plastic, in a complicated box 4x its size, shrink wrapped, which takes longer to open than it takes to use the actual product. what is that about?
