资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Anyone who takes a breath, drinks a drop of water or eats a bite of food, and wonders where all this nourishment comes from, understands that every single one of us depends upon nature for our lives.

Unfortunately, since the Industrial Revolution, the awareness of this direct connection has become fainter and often ignored outright. Our market-based system glorifies economic activity or GDP, where cost-benefit analyses too often override the core values that shape our moral behavior. This is especially true regarding our relationship with nature. We have lost sight of her value to all of us.  There has been a breach of faith.

For years I have believed that we need an 11th Commandment: Thou shalt cherish the Earth. And we have needed a respected, unifying voice to carry this message to all people.

Today, Pope Francis is this voice, and this is the message he has sent the world.

And when the leader who guides 1.1 billion people in their faith makes such a clear call to protect our planet, I can’t help but wonder: Could this mark a turning point in how we care for our common home?

Faith can be a powerful force for environmental change, as one recent example shows.

In the high mountains just outside Mexico City are pine forests and bunchgrass meadows, part of a watershed that provides water for the 23 million people living in this massive metropolitan area. These pines and meadows make up an area called the “Bosque de Agua,” or Water Forest.

In Cuernavaca, a city in the Bosque de Agua’s watershed, a stream running through the town became polluted by people throwing trash down the sides of its steep ravine. The town’s mayor tried an innovative strategy to end it: Local artists created sculptures of the Virgin of Guadalupe and installed them throughout the ravine. Almost overnight, people stopped dumping garbage. Blessed by association with the community’s faith, a waste-strewn ravine turned into an urban oasis.

Pope Francis’ encyclical, published this week, is a reminder to all Catholics, and to all people, that we cannot care for each other without caring for our common home, the Earth. Nature provides our most fundamental needs — fresh water, nourishing food, clean air. There is a saying that nature is the treasury of the poor. The truth is that nature is the treasury of us all.

For the past several years, a group of like-minded people have focused on persuading governments and businesses to consider the economic value of nature in national accounts and corporate balance sheets. This is an important argument, and it helps to create an understanding of why we need to manage and invest in protecting nature.

But, the simple and powerful truth is that nature’s value goes way beyond GDP. Life begins with her. And, as the Pope has so powerfully communicated, it will end without her.

Peter Seligmann is the chairman and former CEO of Conservation International. 

Cover image: Pope Francis during a 2014 visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. (© European Union 2014 – European Parliament)