«We all live on the same planet, so we can say that we are on the same boat: it is an image that I often use in my popular conferences. I show the image of an inclined boat that has a flaw on one side; On board, with the feet already on the grip, there are two people who run to throw out the water out, while two others who are still dry comment: “Luckily the hole is not on our side”.
The same goes for the planet: in the face of the climatic crisis and its negative consequences, some believe that, since they are rich, if they will get away anyway. “If the earth goes to Ramengo, I move to Mars,” they think, but it is very wrong: of course, the poorest will be first of all on our boat, but in the end the problems will arrive for everyone. The boat is one and, if we destroy the earth, we will end up destroying ourselves ».
As Antonello Pasiniphysical of the climate of the National Research Council, tells the difficult relationship that between human beings and the planet today. The opportunity to talk about it is the ecumenical initiative Time of creation 2025which starts on 1 September with the X World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.
It was Pope Francis who joined this initiative in 2015, not surprisingly in the year of publication of his Laudato yesentirely dedicated to full ecology.
«When the encyclical came out, as a scientist I felt honored that our Pope had such a current vision of the complexity of the earth system, in which each part is interconnected with the others. In addition, in his text he sided against those simplistic approaches of solving problems that never work in complex systems, and that he defines as “technocrats”.
For example, we take a complex problem like that of people who migrate because in their country the climate has made survival impossible: to face it with a simple tool like a wall that keeps them out can work for a few years, but in the long run it will exacerbate the situation, which will end up falling on who has built the wall.
The Pope was the first of the moral and political leaders of the world to understand all this and to affirm, as I always repeat, that we are not the masters of the world, but only a node of the network of relationships that binds us all: we, other human beings, animals and nature. The concept of full ecology It’s precisely this: The moans of the earth are the groans of the weakest, the health of the planet is also ours».
(Image above: photo Carlo Gianferro)
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Read the complete interview with Antonello Pasini on the number of believing in distribution in newsstands and religious bookstores from Thursday 28 August and in the parishes from Saturday 30 August. Or buy a digital copy on www.edicolasanpaolo.it
