TRANSCRIPT

Why is the Amazon burning?

As we face the real and immediate dangers of climate change, it may seem almost inconceivable that, even today, the Amazon rainforest continues to be burned down for short term profit. Not only do these rainforests play an essential role in helping to keep our planet cool, but their intentional burning releases tonnes of stored carbon into our atmosphere, leading us ever closer to the worst effects of climate change.

These precious rainforests, rich in biodiversity and home to millions of indigenous people, , serve as the biological heart of our planet. ^FD2 The push and pull of the water cycle of these forests feeds rivers and lakes around the world. If the Amazon were ever to disappear it would have a catastrophic impact on the planet as well as all life on earth, which makes its intentional destruction even more alarming.

While we may be quick to target our collective rage at those on the front line of its destruction – whether it be the farmers, the loggers, the large corporations or the politicians who all seek to extract these resources for short term financial gain – we may overlook our collective responsibility for the Amazon’s welfare.

With much of the rainforest being cleared to make way for cattle grazing and cash crops to meet our demands for meat, coffee, cocoa, palm oil and rubber, we all share some collective responsibility for the Amazon’s slow decline.

Which leads us on to asking some deeper questions: Why do we continue to treat the earth’s natural resources as if they are an unlimited resource? And why do we find it so difficult to live in harmony with our natural environment, given that we have done so for the past millennia? And why are we so blind to the harm we continue to inflict on our planet, despite the obvious dangers we face?

To answers to these questions we need to look deep within if we are to discover the source of one of the greatest tragedies of the modern age, which is the broken relationship between humanity and nature.

Because, it is worth reminding ourselves, that it has not always been this way. While we have always intervened in nature, we have always been in tune with it and have received what nature has allowed, as if receiving from nature’s own hand. ^LS106 Even today, indigenous communities throughout the world continue to live in harmony with their natural surroundings. But we no longer do; it would seem that we have lost something that we once had.

To understand the reasons why, we need to explore the dominant mindset that is shaping how we view and treat our world. Pope Francis calls this the technocratic paradigm, and this way of interpreting reality lies at the heart of the ecological crisis that we see today.

Due to the rapid growth of technology, our relationship with the natural world has been radically transformed. Just as technology gives us the power to control, manipulate and reshape our natural environment, we now view the natural world as an object ^LS106 which exists solely to serve our immediate needs. ^LS122

Instead of seeing ourselves as part of an interconnected, relational and complex ecosystem, whereby we live in harmony with our natural surroundings, through the technocratic paradigm we see ourselves as autonomous from the natural world. Through this one-dimensional view of reality, our natural world no longer holds intrinsic value, but rather its value is measured in terms of the profit it provides. As a result, rainforests are felled, fossil fuels extracted, natural resources mined, and the planet is squeezed dry beyond every limit.^LS106

Through technology we have never had more power over ourselves or our natural surroundings, and there is little evidence that this power has been used wisely. ^LS104

As the ecological crisis deepens, there is a growing awareness that scientific and technological progress cannot be equated with the progress of humanity.^LS113 Our mastery over nature has not been tempered by ethics, culture or a spirituality capable of setting limits and self-restraint. ^{LS 105}

This is why a new way of thinking is urgently required. One that moves away from a one-dimensional view to an integrated way of thinking. This would involve a broader vision, one that includes morality and insight, justice and mercy, truth and love, and above all wisdom.

And this wisdom, which is still held by indigenous communities who continue to live in harmony with their natural surroundings, is urgently needed for our times. The peoples of the Amazon, therefore, play an essential role in helping us to rediscover what we have sadly lost: that is our interconnection and dependency on the fragile ecosystems to which we belong, as well as a deep respect for God’s creation.

Because only then can we move beyond the technocratic paradigm towards an integrated way of thinking, where technology is at the service of a broader vision for humanity. And by doing so we can begin to heal and restore the broken relationship between humanity and nature, where we work together to care for the earth, our common home.

Laudato Si’, On care for our common home.

Pope Francis, 2015

106. The basic problem goes even deeper: it is the way that humanity has taken up technology and its development according to an undifferentiated and one-dimensional paradigm. This paradigm exalts the concept of a subject who, using logical and rational procedures, progressively approaches and gains control over an external object. This subject makes every effort to establish the scientific and experimental method, which in itself is already a technique of possession, mastery and transformation. It is as if the subject were to find itself in the presence of something formless, completely open to manipulation. Men and women have constantly intervened in nature, but for a long time this meant being in tune with and respecting the possibilities offered by the things themselves. It was a matter of receiving what nature itself allowed, as if from its own hand. Now, by contrast, we are the ones to lay our hands on things, attempting to extract everything possible from them while frequently ignoring or forgetting the reality in front of us. Human beings and material objects no longer extend a friendly hand to one another; the relationship has become confrontational. This has made it easy to accept the idea of infinite or unlimited growth, which proves so attractive to economists, financiers and experts in technology. It is based on the lie that there is an infinite supply of the earth’s goods, and this leads to the planet being squeezed dry beyond every limit. It is the false notion that “an infinite quantity of energy and resources are available, that it is possible to renew them quickly, and that the negative effects of the exploitation of the natural order can be easily absorbed”.[86]
107. It can be said that many problems of today’s world stem from the tendency, at times unconscious, to make the method and aims of science and technology an epistemological paradigm which shapes the lives of individuals and the workings of society. The effects of imposing this model on reality as a whole, human and social, are seen in the deterioration of the environment, but this is just one sign of a reductionism which affects every aspect of human and social life. We have to accept that technological products are not neutral, for they create a framework which ends up conditioning lifestyles and shaping social possibilities along the lines dictated by the interests of certain powerful groups. Decisions which may seem purely instrumental are in reality decisions about the kind of society we want to build.
108.  The idea of promoting a different cultural paradigm and employing technology as a mere instrument is nowadays inconceivable. The technological paradigm has become so dominant that it would be difficult to do without its resources and even more difficult to utilize them without being dominated by their internal logic. It has become countercultural to choose a lifestyle whose goals are even partly independent of technology, of its costs and its power to globalize and make us all the same. Technology tends to absorb everything into its ironclad logic, and those who are surrounded with technology “know full well that it moves forward in the final analysis neither for profit nor for the well-being of the human race”, that “in the most radical sense of the term power is its motive – a lordship over all”.[87] As a result, “man seizes hold of the naked elements of both nature and human nature”.[88] Our capacity to make decisions, a more genuine freedom and the space for each one’s alternative creativity are diminished.
     109. The technocratic paradigm also tends to dominate economic and political life. The economy accepts every advance in technology with a view to profit, without concern for its potentially negative impact on human beings. Finance overwhelms the real economy. The lessons of the global financial crisis have not been assimilated, and we are learning all too slowly the lessons of environmental deterioration. Some circles maintain that current economics and technology will solve all environmental problems, and argue, in popular and non-technical terms, that the problems of global hunger and poverty will be resolved simply by market growth. They are less concerned with certain economic theories which today scarcely anybody dares defend, than with their actual operation in the functioning of the economy. They may not affirm such theories with words, but nonetheless support them with their deeds by showing no interest in more balanced levels of production, a better distribution of wealth, concern for the environment and the rights of future generations. Their behaviour shows that for them maximizing profits is enough. Yet by itself the market cannot guarantee integral human development and social inclusion.[89]At the same time, we have “a sort of ‘superdevelopment’ of a wasteful and consumerist kind which forms an unacceptable contrast with the ongoing situations of dehumanizing deprivation”,[90]while we are all too slow in developing economic institutions and social initiatives which can give the poor regular access to basic resources. We fail to see the deepest roots of our present failures, which have to do with the direction, goals, meaning and social implications of technological and economic growth.
     110. The specialization which belongs to technology makes it difficult to see the larger picture. The fragmentation of knowledge proves helpful for concrete applications, and yet it often leads to a loss of appreciation for the whole, for the relationships between things, and for the broader horizon, which then becomes irrelevant. This very fact makes it hard to find adequate ways of solving the more complex problems of today’s world, particularly those regarding the environment and the poor; these problems cannot be dealt with from a single perspective or from a single set of interests. A science which would offer solutions to the great issues would necessarily have to take into account the data generated by other fields of knowledge, including philosophy and social ethics; but this is a difficult habit to acquire today. Nor are there genuine ethical horizons to which one can appeal. Life gradually becomes a surrender to situations conditioned by technology, itself viewed as the principal key to the meaning of existence. In the concrete situation confronting us, there are a number of symptoms which point to what is wrong, such as environmental degradation, anxiety, a loss of the purpose of life and of community living. Once more we see that “realities are more important than ideas”.[91]

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