Six panellists share concerns and ideas one year after Laudato Si’ released
The B.C. Catholic
Local business, city, and faith leaders discussed climate change and the environment on the first anniversary of Laudato Si’.
“The earth is a sister with whom we share our life, and our mother who opens her arms to embrace us,” said Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, drawing from the encyclical Pope Francis penned one year ago. “We should all care for our common home.”
The archbishop shared his thoughts about Laudato Si’ with more than 100 people at the SFU Wosk Centre for Dialogue Oct. 11.
Pope Francis said the earth is looking “more and more like an immense pile of filth,” that needs to be urgently restored, he said.
“At the centre of the Pope’s thought is his notion of what he calls integral ecology. For him, environmental degradation, which includes the harmful effects of climate change, and poverty have the same root and have to be faced together.”
Archbishop Miller shared the stage with five other panellists from business, research, or political backgrounds. Among them was Vancouver City Councillor Andrea Reimer.
She said the city embarked on an ambitious journey in 2009 when it decided to become the “world’s greenest” by 2020. “I think the Pope would approve of what we did.”
The Greenest City Action Plan included goals such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 33 per cent, reducing landfill or incinerator waste by 40 per cent, and having more than 50 per cent of trips in the city made on foot, bicycle, or public transit rather than by car.
Some of those goals have seen progress, she said. A report released in July reveals 50 per cent of trips are now made by walking, cycling, or transit and there has been a 23 per cent decrease in waste sent to the landfill or incinerator.
Panelist Praveen Varshney of Varshney Capital Corp. said businesses can be a good tool for bringing about environmental change. “Too many people have focused on making money for too long without focusing on the planet.”
He has worked with many organizations that are interested in making a positive impact on the globe, groups that create electric vehicles, run ride-sharing programs, or encourage people to grow food in their own gardens or on their own balconies.
Varshney said some cities have done well and banned plastic shopping bags, but there are many other disposable plastic items in the landfill; he himself has started avoiding them by taking metal utensils to fast food stores and asking waiters to serve his drinks without straws.
“I’d like to see Vancouver become the first ‘no plastic straw’ city,” he quipped.
Simon Fraser University’s Interfaith Centre and Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions sponsored the public gathering.
SFU chancellor Anne Giardini said taking care of the environment requires an “individual and collective” response.
Sybil Seitzinger, who rides an electric bicycle to her job as a PACS executive director, said reducing this country’s impact on the planet is a giant task that requires rethinking transportation, construction, and energy.
“Anything that’s made from steel; anything that has cement in it; aviation and anything that has to do with flying: your food that’s flown in, the trips you make; shipping; trucking; that all requires, right now, fossil fuel.”
Panellist Paul Kariya, the executive director of Clean Energy B.C., said aboriginal people are interested in caring for our common home.
“First Nations who have been left behind by post-colonial industries are demanding more, not of oil, gas, and pipelines (though some of them are) but they are demanding more clean energy.”
“They are not against development,” nor are they environmentalists, he said, but most First Nations are concerned about the effects development projects will make on their land, the salmon population, etc., and they are interested in picking up jobs in the renewable energy sector.
After the panel discussion, 12 awards were given to individuals and organizations in the categories of research and academics, business, and the arts, for their environmentally friendly efforts.
