Environmental Problem

Everyone certainly knows that in some parts of the world there is an imbalance between the
amount of arable land and the size of the population, and, in other parts, between the fertility of
the soil and available farm implements (persatuan sahabat alam malaysia, 2005). onse!uently,
necessity demands a cooperative effort on the part of the people to brin" about a !uicker
e#chan"e of "oods, or of capital, or the mi"ration of people themselves .
$atural resources are limited% some are not, as it is said, renewable. &sin" them as if they were
ine#haustible, with absolute dominion, seriously endan"ers their availability not only for the
present "eneration but, above all, for "enerations to come.... (fon", 20'0) (e all know that the
direct or indirect result of industrialization is, ever more fre!uently, the pollution of the
environment, with serious con se!uences for the health of the population. )nce a"ain it is
evident that development, the plannin" which "overns it, and the way in which resources are
used must include respect for moral demands ($inny). )ne of the latter undoubtedly imposes
limits on the use of the natural world. *he dominion "ranted to man by the reator is not an
absolute power, nor can one speak of a freedom to +use and misuse,, or to dispose of thin"s as
one pleases. *he limitation imposed from the be"innin" by the reator himself and e#pressed
symbolically by the prohibition not to eat of the fruit of the tree shows clearly enou"h that, when
it comes to the natural world, we are sub-ect not only to biolo"ical laws but also to moral ones,
which cannot be violated with impunity.
(e seem to be increasin"ly aware of the fact that the e#ploitation of the earth, the planet on
which we are livin", demands rational and honest plannin". .t the same time, e#ploitation of the
earth not only for industrial but also for military purposes and the uncontrolled development of
technolo"y outside the framework of a lon" term authentically humanistic plan often brin" with
them a threat to man,s natural environment, alienate him in his relations with nature and remove
him from nature.
E!ually worryin" is the ecolo"ical !uestion which accompanies the problem of consumerism and
which is closely connected to it. /n his desire to have and to en-oy rather than to be and to "row,
man consumes the resources of the earth and his own life in an e#cessive and disordered way. .t
the root of the senseless destruction of the natural environment lies an anthropolo"ical error,
which un fortunately is widespread in our day (0ayan", 2001). 2an, who discovers his capacity
to transform and, in a certain sense, create the world throu"h his own work, for"ets that this is
always based on 3od,s prior and ori"inal "ift of the thin"s that are. 2an thinks that he can take
arbitrary use of the earth, sub-ectin" it without restraint to his will, as thou"h the earth did not
have its own re!uisites and a prior 3od "iven purpose, which man can indeed develop but must
not betray (4in", 2005). /nstead of carryin" out his role as a cooperator with 3od in the work of
creation, man sets himself up in place of 3od and thus ends up provokin" a rebellion on the part
of nature, which is more tyrannized than "overned by him (6a-ar, 20''). /n all this, one notes
first the poverty or narrowness of man,s outlook, motivated as he is by a desire to possess thin"s
rather than to relate them to the truth, and lackin" that disinterested, unselfish and aesthetic
attitude that is born of wonder in the presence of bein" and of the beauty which enables one to
see in visible thin"s the messa"e of the invisible 3od who created them. /n this re"ard, humanity
today must be conscious of its duties and obli"ations towards future "enerations (7oon, 2008).
(hile the horizon of man is thus bein" modified accordin" to the ima"es that are chosen for him,
another transformation is makin" itself felt, one which is the dramatic and une#pected
conse!uence of human activity. 2an is suddenly becomin" aware that by an ill considered
e#ploitation of nature he risks destroyin" it and becomin", in his turn, the victim of this
de"radation. $ot only is the material environment becomin" a permanent menace pollution and
refuse, new illness and absolute destructive capacity but the human framework is no lon"er
under man,s control, thus creatin" an environment for tomorrow which may well be intolerable
(9reya, 2008). *his is a wide ran"in" social problem which concerns the entire human family.
*he hristian must turn to these new perceptions in order to take on responsibility, to"ether with
the rest of men, for a destiny which from now on is shared by all ()livia, 2008).
/n addition to the irrational destruction of the natural environment, we must also mention the
more serious destruction of the human environment, somethin" which is by no means receivin"
the attention it deserves (6a-ar 7. 9., 2008). .lthou"h people are ri"htly worried thou"h much
less than they should be about preservin" the natural habitats of the various animal species
threatened with e#tinction, because they realize that each of these species makes its particular
contribution to the balance of nature in "eneral, too little effort is made to safe"uard the moral
conditions for an authentic +human ecolo"y., (:riscilla 7usan, 2001) $ot only has 3od "iven the
earth to man, who must use it with respect for the ori"inal "ood purpose for which it was "iven
to him, but man, too, is 3od,s "ift to man. 6e must therefore respect the natural and moral
structure with which he has been endowed (4uan", 2005). /n this conte#t, mention should be
made of the serious problems of modern urbanization, of the need for urban plannin" which is
concerned with how people are to live, and of the attention which should be "iven to a +social
ecolo"y, of work.
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