Laudato Si

Pope Francis has issued his Encyclical letter on "care for our common home"  It is destined to become a classic letter of social teaching from the Holy See.  How fitting it is that this heartfelt and profound Encyclical was authored by a Pope who takes his inspiration from a saint known for his genuine austerity and poverty, Saint Francis of Assisi, who called creatures around him "brother'" and "sister".  Pope Francis says that the Poverello's identification with his fellow creatures was "no mere romanticism, but something "much more radical: a refusal to turn reality into an object simply to be used and controlled."  The entire letter may be read at this link.  It is a welcomed if belated scrutiny of the stark physical and spiritual poverty facing humanity if we allow our greed to destroy our "very good" common home.  At an atomic and metaphysical level, we are of the Earth.  To have dominion over the planet does not mean despotism; we are to "till it and keep it".  Even beasts of burden common to the Israelites were to have rest on the seventh day. (Ex 23:12)  Animals are also endowed with senses to superior to man's. (Nm 23:25) Nature is not divine in Judaeo-Christian thought, but neither is tyrannical anthropomorphism tolerated.  Suffice it here to quote from the beginning of Francis' letter:

This sister [Earth] cries out now to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will.  The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and it all forms of life. This is why the Earth itself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she "groans in travail". We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the Earth; our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air, and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.

You do not have to be Roman Catholic believer or even a believer in God to understand the wisdom and appreciate the urgency in these words. Earth is finite; humanity as a matter of survival has to protect its abundance.