A couple of decades ago Sojourners, the Christian magazine, published a book of essays called Holy Ground: A resource on faith and the environment. I rummaged around and unearthed my copy to look at the section Environmental Racism and Justice. This may have been the first time I made the connection between care for the Earth and care for those humans on the margins who are most affected by environmental degradation.
This book came to mind when I heard and saw the media reports about the Lancet medical journal's Commission on Pollution and Health report on the effects of pollution on human health, worldwide. Here is how the CBC reports it:
Environmental pollution — from filthy air to contaminated water — is killing more people every year than all war and violence. More than smoking, hunger or natural disasters. More than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.
One of out every six premature deaths in the world in 2015 — about nine million — was attributed to disease from toxic exposure...The financial cost from pollution-related death, sickness and welfare is equally massive, the report says, costing some $4.6 trillion in annual losses — or about 6.2 per cent of the global economy.
This is staggering. given the caution that this is a preliminary study and the numbers could well be much higher. The study also notes that it is the poor of the planet, including those who are poor in developed countries who are most likely to be the victims. About 90% of those who die are in what we used to call Third World countries, many of which have lax regulations and insufficient monitoring. Their economies are attempting to catch up with more affluent nations, often with a huge human health cost.
The study points out the EPA has found that for every dollar spent in the US over the past fifty years to combat pollution there have been $30 in benefits. Yet the Trump administration is working diligently to dismantle parts of the Clean Air Act. In case we are feeling smug, a report this week says that the Alberta Tar Sands projects are producing are producing far more air pollution than previously estimated.
This is a matter of faith and justice. If the goods and lifestyle I have are at the price of the health of brothers and sisters in other parts on the planet then I have made a mockery of Jesus' response to the question "who is my neighbour?" My affluence isn't in isolation. My choices matter. When I see the dense fogs of air pollution enveloping Chinese cities or hear that the Ganges River is toxic from industrial waste I can't breathe easy. I need to pray and act.
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