Catholic groups sound alarm at Trump's life-threatening climate polices

The Catholic Climate Covenant and Laudato Si' Movement have expressed alarm at the extensive reversal of US domestic and international climate policies by the Trump administration. In their joint statement entitled: Protecting Our Common Home: A Catholic Appeal to the Trump Administration, they say:

Scientists have been warning us for many years that our continued burning of fossil fuels is heating the atmosphere and creating current and future chaos for decades to come. Yet this alarm does not appear to be reaching the new administration.

In Laudate Deum, Pope Francis bookmarks his apostolic exhortation by uplifting the concern of the US Bishops for communities negatively impacted by climate change. As quoted in a 2019 statement, US Bishops said: "Our care for one another and our care for the earth are intimately bound together. Climate change is one of the principal challenges facing society and the global community. The effects of climate change are borne by the most vulnerable people, whether at home or around the world."

Pope Francis concludes Laudate Deum by pointing to the outsized contributions of the US to carbon emissions, saying: "If we consider that emissions per individual in the United States are about two times greater than those of individuals living in China, and about seven times greater than the average of the poorest countries, we can state that a broad change in the irresponsible lifestyle connected with the Western model would have a significant long-term impact. As a result, along with indispensable political decisions, we would be making progress along the way to genuine care for one another."

As Catholic institutions working within the US to ensure that all human life is protected and justice for all is promoted, we urge our fellow citizens - and especially those in power - to take a serious look at not only our own carbon and resource-intensive lifestyles, but our impact on all of God's creation, human and non-human.

Rather than embrace and advance this country's essential role in domestic and global responsibilities to confront this existential crisis, this new administration has chosen to relinquish scientific and economic potential, freeze US commitments, and abdicate leadership on climate policies.

A primary function of any government is to promote the common good of all. And "an integral ecology is inseparable from the notion of the common good, a central and unifying principle of social ethics. The common good is 'the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfillment'" (Laudato Si', 156).

Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, cutting global adaptation funding, freezing Infrastructure and Inflation Reduction Act funds helping the most vulnerable, gutting environmental organisations and agencies, and working to stop US progress on renewable energy, energy efficiency, and adaptation programs place our country outside of the family of nations confronting this crisis and increase the threat facing future generations. These rollbacks especially impact the poorest people at home and abroad, who will experience temperatures continuing to rise, droughts becoming more intense, wildfires more ubiquitous, and flooding events even more devastating. The executive orders outlining these choices not only call into question the administration's claims of caring for our country and its economic well-being - they threaten the rights to life and dignity of all people, which are key to Catholic Social Teaching.

We call on the Trump administration to reverse these decisions. We call on Congress to hold firm on commitments to domestic and international climate programs and financing.

Together, as people of faith and goodwill, we will continue to open our hearts to God's will for ourselves, our neighbors and the good gift of creation. Our Holy Father reminds us, "When human beings claim to take God's place, they become their own worst enemies" (Laudate Deum, 73). We stand deeply committed to our faith-filled values, upheld by the depth and breadth of our faith and the chorus of the multitude of the faithful, given to us by the witness of Christ - to collaboratively build a nation and a future in which all of God's creation - people and planet - can thrive with the health and joy which God desires.

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Catholic Climate Covenant: https://catholicclimatecovenant.org/