COP 22 Religions Role in Climate Change

This video sees a panel discuss how religion plays a role in climate change. We begin with consumerism. The theory that a country that consumes goods and services in large quantities will be better off economically. Consumerism for example, is an industrial society that is advanced; a large amount of goods is bought and sold. Sometimes referred to as a policy that promotes greed, consumerism is also coined as a movement towards consumer protection that promotes improvement in safety standards and truthful packaging and advertisement. Consumerism seeks to enforce laws against unfair practices implement product guarantees.

However consumerism in turn encourages the production of goods and the use of plastics which we already know damage the environment. The consumerism approach makes humans feel unworthy and that they must constantly improve and change themselves to be better and remain current. The panel discusses how religion can counteract the damage done by consumerism.

The speaker addresses the fact that we are spiritual beings in a physical reality and how we need to change our mind-set from short term o long term. The archbishop Seraphim says that 84% of the whole population consider them religious and so they must consider themselves to be part of the problem. Seraphim says that people give priority to the return of profit and not the beauty of life and he thinks  it is a crime to build up properties on top of the earth we are destroying.

An archbishop seraph thinks religion can be part of the solution to show repentance which means to change your mind and this can be done and implemented with positive affect. We can use religion to spread positive attitudes about climate change and against consumerism. We must put more emphasis on developing ourselves internally not through physical consumption of pointless retail items and other useless goods. It’s a very materialistic society we live in which is not helped by promoting societal scum like the Kardashian family who are actually very stupid and have contributed nothing to humanity. The have actually distracted people and caused a terrible materialistic culture to get even worse.

In addition there is a discussion about the human population and whether we can grow enough food to feed the ridiculously large population. How do we avoid catastrophic climate change while also providing food for the ever increasing population? Most of the population in fact more than half live in urban areas which means they only produce money where as people who live in the countryside produce food and other important things for life.

The main issue was stated to be greed. With some rich families consuming resources far beyond what they should and the idea of a food cap to be introduced so no family can over consume. The issue of equity and how the wealthiest are actually not willing to share and want to continue consuming resources is a massive issue of greed. There has to be a limit to what single families can consume.

The Jewish speaker asks at what point is the planet considered full. At what point do we feel like humans have conquered the planet and when does it change to looking after the planet and adjusting it.

Links: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/consumerism.asp , http://climatescience.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228620-e-335 , http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160311-how-many-people-can-our-planet-really-support

By Alex Mitchison