Laudato Si’ and the Wisconsin Idea: A Dialogue on Care for Our Common Home

1. Laudato Si’: The Wisconsin Idea & Papa Francesco’s Invitation to All People on Earth to Dialogue ‘on care for our common home’ Global Hot Spots Lecture & Discussion September 18,2015 Calvin B. DeWitt Nelson Institute

2. Laudato Si’---Care for Our Common Home • Published worldwide in a single day. • Addressed to “every person on earth.” • An impressively comprehensive treatise on understanding and caring for the Earth System as Our Common Home

4. St. Francis:Patron Saint of Ecology • “Saint Francis is the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically.” (¶ 10) • He was particularly concerned for God’s creation and for the poor and outcast. (¶ 10)

5. Laudato Si:On care for our common home • An Encyclical Letter that ddresses: • climate change • biodiversity loss • ocean degradation • atmospheric pollution& • social degradation • Its 246 paragraphs reintegrate fragmented disciplines and specialties to propose an Integral Ecology

6. Integral Ecology • Human Ecology & Natural Ecology come fully together in “Integral Ecology, says Pope Francis. • “Saint Francis is the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically.” (¶ 10) • He was particularly concerned for God’s creation and for the poor and outcast. (¶ 10) • There can be no renewal of our relationship with nature without a renewal of humanity itself. (¶118) • There can be no ecology without an adequate anthropology. (¶118)

7. Fragmentation of Knowledge: • “fragmentation of knowledge and the isolation of bits of information can actually become a form of ignorance, unless they are integrated into a broader vision of reality” (¶ 138). • Each specialty promotes its “isolation and the absolutization of its own field of knowledge” • —all of which “prevents us from confronting environmental problems effectively” (¶ 201).

8. My University of Wisconsin Assignment: To Address the Problem of the Fragmentationof the Disciplines

9. The Wisconsin Idea views the boundaries of the University of Wisconsin-Madison as the boundaries of the state, and by extension, the boundaries of the biosphere and beyond. • In this view the university consists of the people, the land, and the systems that sustain planetary life • —and thus the university is an institution in which theoretical knowledge intersects with actual practice by people and institutions in the state and around the world. • Implementing the Wisconsin Idea means informing praxis with knowledge and informing knowledge with praxis.…

10. .....Discovery

11. Posted by the Ecological Society of America from its Past-President, President, and President Elect -- Jill Baron, David Inouye, and Monical Turner

12. ESA Past-President, President, and President Elect:Jill Baron, David Inouye, and Monica Turner “The Ecological Society of America commends Pope Francis for his insightful encyclical on the environment.Addressed to everyone on this planet, the letter issued on 18 June 2015 is an eloquent plea for responsible Earth stewardship. “We hope his leadership will lead to serious dialogue among – and action by –the world’s religious, political and scientific leaders on the environmental challenges facing this and future generations of humanity.” -- • June 29, 2015 ---

13. … with website links to Laudato Si’: • Maryknoll • Columban • Interfaith Power & Light • NETWORK • Church World Service • Presbyterian Church USA • CRC - Christian Reformed Church in North America • Evangelical Lutheran Church in America • Friends Committee on National Legislation • Lutheran World Federation • National Council of Churches • Sisters of Mercy

15. Timmermanssays the Christian Reformed Church affirms that the gospel must always be both proclaimed in word and demonstrated in deed, and thata central component of this task includes taking seriously God’s command in Genesis 2:15to serve and to protect the rest of the created order and to exercise responsible stewardship

16. The Biblical Stewardship Commission“relación de reciprocidad” • Fosters a “culture of care” (¶ 231) • that implies a reciprocal relationship (“relación de reciprocidad”) • “a relationship of mutual responsibility between human beings and nature” (¶67). • Reciprocal service (avad) “Con-Service”

18. The Stewardship Commission • Genesis 2:15 gives the Stewardship Commission to avad the Garden and to shamar it. avadshamar Choose ye this day whom you shall avad… (Joshua 24:15) (Numbers 6:24): The Lord bless you and shamar you… 0

19. The Stewardship CommissionGenesis 2:15…to avad and shamar from garden to globe: • “This implies a “relaciónde reciprocidad” (mutual responsibility)between human beings & nature.” (¶67) • “Each community can take from the bounty of the earth whatever it needs for subsistence, • but it also has the duty to protect the earth & to ensure its fruitfulness for coming generations.” (¶67) --Laudato Si’ – Pope Francis

20. Masteryvs.Responsible Stewardship • Laudato Si’ confronts “an excessive anthropocentrism” handed us as • “ a Promethean vision of mastery over the world • which gave the impression that the protection of nature was something that only the faint-hearted cared about” (¶ 116). • Laudato Si’ confirms the biblical commission of Genesis 2:15 ---understood “in the sense of responsible stewardship”(¶ 116)

21. The Con-Service Principle (“mutual responsibility between human beings & nature”) Con-Service We must return creation’s service to us with service of our own. ‘avadGenesis 2:15

22. —as a “culture of care” (¶ 14) • Such caring relationship • opens us to awe & wonder, • speaks of fraternity & beauty, & • unites us intimately with all that exists (¶ 11). • It sees earth’s climate system as • “a common good, • belonging to all & • meant for all • ... a complex system linked to many of the essential conditions for human life” (¶ 23).

23. Earth Stewardship as a Culture of Carefrom the 246 paragraphs of Laudato Si’ • the vulnerable (¶ 10) • all that exists (¶ 11) • creation (¶ 14, ¶ 211) • safeguarding species (¶ 42) • nature ¶ 64, ¶ 228) • the environment (¶ 64, 229) • neighbor (¶ 70) • our own lives (¶ 70) • a fragile world (¶ 78) • the world (¶ 144, 246)) • indigenous communities and traditions (¶ 146) • the land (¶ 146) • the interior of homes of the poor (¶ 148) • our body (¶ 155) • the ecosystem of the entire earth (¶ 167) • our brothers and sisters (¶ 208) • the natural environment (¶ 208) • other living beings (¶ 211) • all creatures (¶ 213) • ecology (¶ 225) • the common good (¶ 225) • the quality of life for the poor (¶ 232)

24. Parallel Actions on Integral Ecology • Encyclical of Pope Francis • Ecological Society of America’s Earth Stewardship” Initiative (Chapin et al. 2015) • Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency --- “RCP2.6” scenario -meets 2 ̊C cap (van Vuuren et al. 2011) • Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change-IIGCC representing US$24 trillion assets—support of 2 ̊C cap • Papal Discussions and Talks in the U.S. (Sept 23-25, 2015) • White House, President Obama • Joint Session of Congress • United Nations • -*/+

25. Toward a Global Culture of Care Global society is now in transition toward a global “culture of care.” This transition in many ways has been a stormy one, and is described well by Sir John Houghton’s The Eye of the Storm (2015). Society is coming to understand earth’s climate system and has begun working seriously toward restoration of earth’s long-standing atmospheric carbonic temperature regulation. This transition has made Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’required reading as the only comprehensive treatise on understanding and caring for the earth system as our common home. And its title invites every person on earth to “gratefully admire the beneficent arrangement which permits the Earth to be clothed with verdure and abundant life.”

26. Earth Stewardship: Science for Action to Sustain the Human-Earth SystemF. Stuart Chapin, III, Mary E. Power, Steward T. A. Pickett, Amy Freitag, Julie A. Reynolds, Robert B. Jackson, David M. Lodge, Clifford Duke, Scott L. Collins, Alison G. Power, and Ann Bartuska –--Ecosphere 2011 • As Earth Stewardship advances, • it should broaden the scope of ecology & integrate it with other sources of knowledge & understanding • to stimulate new interactions & collaborations that add to basic research & better guide the actions needed to shape a sustainable future.

27. Required Reading • Restoration of earth’s long-standing atmospheric carbonic temperature regulation. • This transition in knowledge and action made Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ required reading as the only comprehensive treatise on understanding and caring for the earth system as our common home. And its title invites every person on earth to “gratefully admire the beneficent arrangement which permits the Earth to be clothed with verdure and abundant life.”

28. “…when media and the digital world become omnipresent, their influence can stop people from learning how to live wisely, to think deeply & to love generously. In this context, the great sages of the past run the risk of going unheard… ---Pope Francis (¶ 47) “…the first rule of the criticism of books: you have to read them before you criticize them.” ---Wendell Berry

29. Pope Francis’ visit to the United StatesSeptember 23-25 (W-F), 2015 • White House Meeting with President Obama, 9/23 • Speech to Joint Session of Congress, 9/24 • Address to U.N. General Assembly, 9/25

30. Take Home Talking-Points • Integral Ecology • Culture of Care • Relación de reciprocidad (Con-Service)

32. Decarbonization & Culture of Care • With these and other significant actions, world ecology and economy are moving toward global “decarbonization” and “culture of care.” • Society is coming to understand earth’s climate system and its inseparable integration within the earth system. • Society is coming to work seriously toward restoration of earth’s long-standing atmospheric carbonic temperature regulation

33. Explanation of Scenario RCP2.6 • Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency --- The RCP2.6” scenario -meets the 2 ̊C cap (van Vuuren and 18 other researchers 2011) • This scenario reduced global IR-active gas emissions by 70% from 2010 to 2100 and by more than 95% in 2100-- a “technically feasible goal.” • The Carbonic Thermostat:

37. The Long-StandingStewardship Tradition • Emerged in Antiquity • Ancients recognized the ordered cosmos and responded by working to sustain habitability • Developed in Classical Thought • e. g. Roman period: Varro, Columella &Pliny • Expressed by Early Church Fathers

38. The Long-StandingStewardship Tradition • Flickered & extinguished in the industrial revolution… • Re-emerging in recent decades • in faith, civic, & scientific communities • Re-kindled on June 18, 2015 Laudato Si’ from Pope Francis

39. “Integral Ecology” Requires that we now hear “both the cry of the earth & & the cry of the poor.” ---Laudato Si’ - Pope Francis