Page 79 - Supplemento 2-2016 (ENG)

Tackling Environmental Crime throUgh standardized Methodologies

Luigi Ciotti
President, “Libera”

I was asked to talk about the connection between social inequality and
environmental degradation. This is the topic which inspires most of Pope
Francis’s encyclical, “Laudato sì”. The Pope writes about this with particular
emphasis: “The cry of the Earth is the cry of poor”. Indeed, that’s the way it
is: just like people seeking help, shelter, dignity, also the Earth cries.

However, in order to hear such cry, one needs that sort of perception
which has been largely lost, since we have become subdued to a system that
considers the planet as a deposit to be ruthlessly exploited, without any consi-
deration for its existence and, by reflection, for ours. Therefore we cannot say
that there are two types of crisis, one affecting the economy and one affecting
the environment, there is only one crisis resulting from a deep educational and
cultural gap in addition to the fact that politics, with due exceptions, has bent
to the logic of profit, of accumulation, of the unlimited exploiting of social
and environmental goods.

An integral ecology

For this reason the Pope talks about “integral ecology”: we must consider
the world as an ecosystem where everything is linked to everything, and we can-
not damage or nurture a single part of it without interfering with the whole
system. For this reason the construction of good and justice urges our con-
science and commitment.

Allow me to give you an example which is familiar to me, something I
experience, we could say, day after day. On this particular event, I represent
“Libera” which is not just an individual association but the coordination of
1,600 other associations, with different backgrounds, paths and roots.

This rather complex and delicate frame is not a whim, but the result of
the belief that any social engagement – in our case, the target fixed by the asso-
ciation “Libera”- is not a matter for a loner seaman, it cannot be the burden for
an individual or for a limited group, however strong and capable they may be.

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