Catholic Responses to Peacebuilding, Climate Change, and Extractive Industries

Abstract

The paper overviews the Catholic response to addressing climate change-related problems and its peacekeeping efforts in the conflict zones impacted by natural and manmade disasters. It argues for the importance of transforming the dominant economic paradigm based on extracting natural resources for sale around the world, into a more environmentally sound approach that promotes the sustainable use of renewable energy sources and the greenifying of the natural environment. It calls for a world in which humans are seen as stewards of creation and their cities are constructed with the view of tendering and caring for other living sentient species and life forms to better ensure ecological balance and a better-quality life for future generations to come.

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Keywords

extractivism, climate change, climate injustice, green house gases, Laudato Si, peacebuilding, preferential option for the poor, social justice, solar power, structural violence, subsidiarity, sustainability