The October issue of Working Notes sounds the alarm about the accelerating ecological breakdown which threatens to dismantle all our notions of normality and meaningfulness. The crisis facing us now, it is argued in the core essay of the volume, is greater even than the 20th century crisis caused by the rise of fascism: “It is simply the case that climate and biodiversity breakdown is the biggest problem humanity has ever faced.”

Do we really feel fine?

Penned collaboratively by the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice team (Kevin Hargaden, Keith Adams, Ciara Murphy, and Martina Madden), the article, ‘Do we really feel fine?: Towards an Irish Green New Deal’, is as resolute in outlining a solution as it is in identifying the crisis. Its source of insight for this is Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’, especially his promotion of ‘integral ecology’, the understanding that everything – ecology, economy, public policy – is interconnected:

The world as we know it is falling apart, but in a thousand different ways. A pandemic rages, but contrary to what the dystopian movies taught us, society is intact. Climate stability is disintegrating, and the delicate ecological balance that allows life to flourish on Earth is severely compromised. But mostly, it’s business as usual. Those willing to look could not fail to notice the marked decline in biodiversity, but we still use toxic weed killer to ensure the verges between our motorways look neat to us as we sit in gridlocked traffic.

As a result of being a policy research centre informed by deep philosophical and theological commitments and active across a range of issues, we at the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice are keenly aware that there must be a coherent and compelling narrative that people can commit to. Simply restating the nightmare that will come upon us if we do not act will not be enough. No one wants to live in a horror movie. The story we are telling need not be a tragedy. There is time to act. There are grounds for hope. Recognising that there is no way to separate our care for the environment from our care for our neighbours is the first step out of the chaos of a world hurtling into dystopia. “Genuine care for our own lives and our relationships with nature is inseparable from fraternity, justice and faithfulness to others.” We do not yet know how all the pieces will fit together that will tackle this monumental challenge. We know grassroots democratic discourse is central. We know our entire political imagination must undergo an ever-deeper ecological conversion. We know that establishing this respect for others and for the earth as our fundamental value – not efficiency, not ideological purity, not even success – is the place to start.

The old normal is suicidal. Let’s start telling a better story.

Authors: The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice team

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