www.cafod.org.uk

Creation and StewardshipA unit for Post-16 Core RE.

Suitable for use with NOCN framework and Extended Project.

Unit: Creation and Stewardship

…with a particular emphasis on developing countries

Section Two Climate Change – causes, effects, responses and case studies

Section One Introduction – Creation: gift and responsibility

Section Three Scripture, Catholic Social Teaching …and action!

Section Four Evaluation and assignments

By the end of this unit you will:

have considered your own views on creation and its stewardship

be familiar with scripture and Catholic Social Teaching about stewardship of creation

understand what leading scientists in the IPCC say about climate change, and have considered alternative views

be able to give examples of how climate change affects people in developing countries (LEDCs)

have taken action to make a difference.

Treat the earth well – it is not inherited from your parents, it is borrowed from your children.

Kenyan proverb

Section One Creation: gift and responsibility

What does Creation mean to you?

Look at this photo in

silence for one minute.

What thoughts does it bring to your mind?

I’m worried about

BIODIVERSITY and how our actions are wiping out species

WE have to look

after creation – it’s our responsibility

There are TOO many of us for the planet to sustain

Living simply

is the answer

What does Creation mean to you?

Here are some people’s reactions:

Our planet is AMAZINGCREATION?

Not interested – I’m more of a city person!

It’s POLLUTION that bothers me

Recycling is the ANSWER!NUCLEAR power is the answer!

What does Creation mean to you?

WE MUST PERSUADE PEOPLE to reduce their carbon emissions

We can’t force people to reduce their carbon footprint – IT’S THEIR CHOICE

It’s TOO BIG TO THINK ABOUT What difference can I make?

CREATION is ours to use any way we want

Scientists will come up with a

CLEVER SOLUTION to climate change

Climate change?

RUBBISH! This is just a temperature cycle

Other countries have a right to industrial development;

WE’VE NO RIGHT to tell them to stop emitting carbon

What do

YOU think?

Defining ‘stewardship’

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Compare it with this dictionary definition:

the conducting, supervising, or managing of something ; especially : the careful and responsible management of something

entrusted to one's care

What is ‘stewardship’?Take a moment to think. Write down your own definition.

What do you think stewardship of creation should include?

Defining ‘stewardship’

What is ‘stewardship’?

Genesis 1:28 says

…fill the earth and subdue it. Be masters of… all the living creatures that move on Earth.

Some modern theologians say that the term ‘stewardship’, developed from this language, can give the impression that it is acceptable to exploit the Earth for humanity’s benefit.

What are your own views?

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Problem Tree

Brainstorm one way that you believe creation is not being well stewarded. Think about both causes and effects.

Use a Problem Tree to stimulate your thinking.

Write:• the issue on the trunk• immediate causes on shallow roots • deeper causes on deeper roots• effects on the branches.

For example, if your concern were pollution, your tree might include labels like these…

Dirty airP

ollu

tion

Undrinkable water

IllnessLoss of work

Poverty and

hunger

Unregulated industrialisatio

n

Crop pesticides flowing into

streams

Heavy use of non-organic fertilisers

Chemicals emitted into air/ flow into

rivers

Poverty

Putting profit before people

Lack of educationIrresponsibility

The Church calls us to put the needs of the poor first:

The Gospel instructs us in the preferential respect due to the poor and the special situation they have in society: the more fortunate should renounce some of their rights so as to place their goods more

generously at the service of others.

Octogesima Adveniens (A Call to Action), Pope Paul VI, 1971

Look at your Problem Tree again.Have you considered how your chosen issue affects the poor?Are there roots or branches that could be added to your tree?

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Can you produce a Solution Tree for the same issue?

Keep your Problem and Solution Trees. We will return to them later in this unit.

Solution Tree

Clean airN

o

pollu

tion

Clean water

Healthier population

More people able to work

Councils, companies etc plan cleaner ways of working

Cleaner practices in

industry

Anti-pollution laws in place

Changed practices in

homes, towns, farms

Social pressure for change

Rising demand for greener fertilisers, detergents, etc

Clean streets

New jobs in green economy

• Describe how the picture makes you feel.

• What do you imagine to be the story of this picture?

The picture shows the effects of drought in Kenya, where villagers say that drought now occurs more often and more severely.

What is your own experience of the awesome beauty and power of the created world?

Pause for reflection

Thank you, God, for the gift of creation and all its beauty.Teach us how to be good stewards of creation, so that everyone can enjoy its benefits. Amen

Section Two Climate change – causes, effects, responses and case studies

Heat from the sun shines onto the Earth.

It passes through a blanket of gases in our atmosphere.

Some of the heat energy is reflected back into space.

Some of the heat energy gets absorbed by the blanket of ‘greenhouse’ gases.

Human activities are creating more greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide, CO2.

As we burn more fossil fuels, for example, the blanket of greenhouse gases becomes thicker.

More greenhouse gases in the atmosphere mean that more heat energy is absorbed.

This increase in the temperature of the earth, or ‘global warming’, is what causes climate change.

Do you think climate change has affected the UK? If so, how?

Climate change in the UK?

Watch a clip about flooding in the Somerset Levels, at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25879909

How might the experiences of the people in the film have differed if they had been living in an LEDC?

It is not possible to say definitely that any one weather event is due to climate change. However, the IPCC says that climate change will lead to less predictable and more intense weather events.

Do you have personal experience of extreme weather events like storms, floods or droughts?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), made up of leading scientists, says that:

•Warming of the climate system is unequivocal. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has risen

•Carbon dioxide concentrations have increased by 40 percent since pre-industrial times, primarily from fossil fuel emissions

•Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth’s surface than any preceding decade since 1850

•Climate change will impact on food production and economic growth, making poverty reduction more difficult.

(For sources, see notes field of this slide)

Human influence on climate

Carbon-emitting world map

Visit: The Guardian interactive map and investigate which countries are most and least responsible for climate change.

If left unchecked, climate change will increase the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems. However,

options are available to adapt to climate change and stringent mitigation activities can ensure that

the impacts of climate change remain within a manageable range, creating a brighter and more

sustainable future.

Press release from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2 Nov 2014

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Research supporting and opposing views on climate change.

Among all the concerns on stewardship of creation, should climate change be our top priority? Why/ why not?

Conduct a debate, with half of your class arguing for and half against the motion: “Addressing climate change should be humanity’s top priority.”

What do people in less economically developed countries say?

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We believe that if our forest is lost all life is also lost.

I had never heard about climate change, but if it continues we could

lose this forest.Ke Kachok, Kroeng group leader, Cambodia

““The rains come at the

wrong times now – like it rained in January for four days. It’s no use to

farmers if the rains come at unexpected times. Many had no seeds

left or were scared to plant them. Farmers are confused. Who knows how many days these wrong-time

rains will last?

Charles Wangeneye, Director of Caring for Environment for Development (CED), Kitui, Kenya

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Non-indigenous people have been destroying nature for

money because they do not value or respect the environment...

I want to say to non-indigenous peoples that you need to listen

and learn from us

Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, President of Hutukara Yanomami Association, Brazil

Our ancestors had it right – when they cut down a tree they had to ask the earth...

Trinidad Sánchez, executive director, COMAL, Honduras

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“ In Mayan culture, the Earth is our mother, we are her children. But now

we are destroying our Mother Earth and this has global effects.

Virgilio Ramirez, Director of Radio Balam Estero, Guatemala

What can indigenous people and farmers in developing countries teach us about climate change and caring for the Earth?

CAFOD in Latin America

Focussing on one region can give a deeper insight into how climate change affects people in LEDCs.

CAFOD has been working with partners in Latin America since the 1960s.

In recent years this work has been greatly affected by climate change.

We will look at examples of this in Peru, Bolivia and Brazil.

Find out more about CAFOD’s work

PERU

BOLIVIA BRAZIL

The Cruz de Mayo community, just below the Parón lagoon in Peru, is surrounded by seven glaciers, reaching up to 6,600 metres.

It is estimated that all the glaciers under 5,000 metres will have melted completely by 2030.

Some years ago, Peru’s government sold the Parón lagoon to Duke Energy, a hydroelectricity company.

Peru

We live from the ice, because our water comes from the ice. How will we live when there is no ice?

Julio Granados

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Peru

Sometimes the company released large quantities of water from the lagoon gates, destroying crops. At other times, it closed the gates and the crops died from drought. Water levels in the lagoon fell. In 2008, thousands of people marched to the lagoon to protest.

Now the Cruz de Mayo community manages the lagoon, with support from local government and consent from Duke Energy, and the lagoon is gradually refilling.

I feel happy when I see the lagoon refilling. For me it represents life, the life that God has created.

Flor Vilma Dueñas Olivo, farmer and community activist

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Bolivia

Bolivia is rich in natural resources, yet in rural areas nearly three in five people live in extreme poverty.

About every five years, trade winds change and warm ocean waters move eastwards.

This is called El Niño and upsets normal weather patterns (eg. causing floods in Bolivia’s lowlands and drought in the highland plains and valleys in 2007 and 2008).

A changing climate will have a direct impact on El Niño.

Rural communities have also noted changes in temperature since the 1970s and in rainfall in recent years.

Bolivia

One of our partners, Fundación Nuna, talks to a family about their water resources - the well in the photo - which have become scarcer each year.

Extremes of climate are more common, the growing season is shorter, and higher temperatures are leading to a change in some crops.

The glaciers that provide water to the capital, La Paz, are predicted to disappear by 2045.

Felipa Charque Chambi (72) lives in a rural community called Villa Arbolitos:

When I was a little girl… this area was very green, and people used to bring their sheep, llamas and cattle from other villages to drink the water. But now drought is causing real problems and making things tense with our neighbouring community.

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Bolivia

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Bolivia

Our partners work to ensure that the poorest and most excluded Bolivians, particularly the indigenous majority, have a say in the policies that affect them.

CAFOD has helped indigenous farmers to set up the Bolivia Climate Change Platform to lobby on climate change at national and international level. United, those most affected by climate change have a stronger voice.

Click the icon for the Declaration of Indigenous Peoples on Climate Change.http://www.forestpeoples.org/topics/un-framework-convention-climate-change-unfccc/publication/2011/declaration-indigenous-peoples

Bolivia

Brazil

Hutukara Yanomami Association represents Yanomami indigenous people living a traditional way of life in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest.

In 1992, Brazil’s government finally agreed to officially protect Yanomami land but the forest continues to be under threat. In 2014, around 4,000 illegal gold miners destroyed trees and polluted rivers with mercury. Now, unpredictable seasons are affecting the Yanomami’s ability to grow food and live sustainably.

Hutukara lobbies Brazil’s government to keep its promises to protect the Yanomami people and their land. Protecting the Amazon helps to protect the earth from climate change.

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Click the icon. Davi talks about climate change and how it affects his people. http://youtu.be/QO_Fd4AbNbU

The rain has changed. Now it rains in the summer…

The life of the Yanomami people is being affected - the destruction of the forest has increased a lot, there are lots of cracks in the earth.

We Indians are saying: Look at the sky, it’s changing, the sun is changing, the rain is changing. The men in the cities, the industrialised world, we want them to listen to us and believe us for the future, see the pollution, destruction, poverty, illness. But they don’t see it. They let it happen.

Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, President, Hutukara Yanomami Association

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Brazil

Effects of climate change in less economically developed countries

Are these outcomes inevitable? Create a mind map showing positive responses to the challenges of climate change.

more intense weather events: hurricanes, altered

monsoons, etc

landslides

homes and businesses destroyed

vulnerability, hunger, conflict, displaced people, poverty

Climate change

floods

crops destroyed

droughts

water shortages

livestock die

water sources contaminated

rising sea levels

melting glaciers

rising river levels

land losses

melting ice caps

At the 1992 Earth Summit, 189 countries agreed to establish the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Five years later the ‘Kyoto Protocol’ was signed, with legally binding emissions reduction targets for 37 more economically developed countries from 2008 until 2012. Some countries, like the US, refused to sign.

The international community has been developing a successor to the Kyoto Protocol at annual meetings known as Conferences of the Parties (‘COPs’). The last meeting look place in Lima, Peru. It is highly anticipated that a new binding global agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions will be signed in Paris in 2015.

One view on the outcome of the talks in Peru, 2014www.thetablet.co.uk/blogs/1/524/the-day-the-church-went-green

Suggest why some MEDCs refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol. Should LEDCs and MEDCs have the same obligation to reduce

CO2 emissions? Why/ why not?

Who decides climate change rules?

Whilst China and others must reduce their emissions, we in the developed world must not abdicate our responsibility for the historic backlog of emissions

sitting in the atmosphere right now and the new damage we continue to wreak on the climate.

Instead of muddying the waters with buck-passing, we should show leadership.

People’s lives in poor countries are already devastated by climate change and it’s getting worse. We

need a climate change agreement with justice for the poorest people at its heart.

Neil Thorns,Head of Advocacy at CAFOD

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What does CAFOD say?

What does CAFOD say?

CAFOD is campaigning for a global deal that puts the world’s poorest people at its heart by:

Helping poor communities – who are hit hardest by climate change - to adapt to the impact of a changing climate and benefit from sustainable development. The poorest have done least to cause climate change; they should not be the ones to pay the price.

Providing necessary support for LEDCs - This includes adequate and predictable financial support and capacity building for adaptation, and for building low carbon development.

Beyond the Paris deal, supporting the shift away from using polluting fossil fuels - the main cause of climate change - to ensuring sustainable, affordable, safe and reliable energy for everyone, including the billions that currently live without energy.

Review what you have studied about the causes of climate change and its effects on LEDCs.

You are a delegate at the international talks on climate change in Paris in 2015 with a chance to address the assembly. What will you recommend in your speech?

In 2014, young people around the world made videos urging the UN to act on climate change:www.askwhywhynot.org/

Hear what the top eight young film-makers said to the UN: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtQyg1l3p9g

Pause for reflection

See our website to find out how to enter this year’s Close-up on Climate film competition!

Section Three Scripture, Catholic Social

Teaching …and action!

“The plight of the earth demonstrates that… materialism cannot be allowed to drive out responsibility and love… care for those in need, and respect for the rights of future generations...”

The Call of Creation, Catholic Bishops of England & Wales, 2002

Look again at your Problem and Solution Trees from earlier in this unit.

Note any questions that they raise for you with regard to religious faith.

Keep these questions in mind as we explore scripture and Catholic Social Teaching.

If you attended a Catholic school, you will have studied Creation and Stewardship in Key Stage 3.

Here is a quick reminder of what you may have learned:

• Nothing exists that does not owe its existence to God.

• The creation story in Genesis is a theological, not a scientific, truth.

• Because God is infinitely good, creation reflects that goodness.

• God created humankind in God’s own image and likeness.

• Adam and Eve represent humankind, appointed as stewards of creation, but rejecting original holiness.

• Yet God does not abandon creation, but loves and sustains it.

• In love, God sent Jesus so that everyone might have life to the full.

Revision

What does scripture say?

Read these quotations from the Bible:

How would you summarise in one sentence (it can be long!) the Bible’s teaching on creation and on its stewardship by human beings?

“ God took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and take care of it.Genesis 2:15 ”

…you shall leave [the gleanings of your harvest] for the poor and for the alien. Leviticus 23:22

Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are? Matthew 6:20

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”Ever since God created the world [God’s] everlasting power and deity – however invisible – have been there for the mind to see in the things [God] has made. Romans 1:20

…the land belongs to me; and you are only strangers and guests of mine.Leviticus 25:23

I establish my Covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; also with every living creature to be found with you.Genesis 9:9-10

Justice for the poor is a major theme in scripture.For example:

How might the above quotation change your response to the previous slide?

Jot down any amendments to your response:

Find more scripture and Catholic Social Teaching on this topic by looking at Pope Francis’ encyclical on human ecology

What does scripture say?

Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute.

Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.

Proverbs 31:8-9

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Catholic Social Teaching

Read these quotations:

What would you say are the Church’s main concerns about the stewardship of creation?

[We must be] committed to making joint decisions ‘…aimed at strengthening that covenant between human beings and the environment, which should mirror the creative love of God.’Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 50

God destined the earth and all it contains for… all peoples so that all created things would be shared fairly by all.Pope Paul VI, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, 69

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…dominion over inanimate and other living beings granted by the Creator is not absolute; it is limited by concerns for the quality of life of [one’s] neighbour, including generations to come; it requires a religious respect for the integrity of creation.Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2415

Today’s society cannot respond adequately to the duty connected with the responsibility to protect the environment if it does not seriously review its lifestyle, its patterns of consumption and production. Archbishop Migliore, Speech to the U.N., 28 October 2008

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Catholic Social Teaching

The Call of Creation is a document written by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales. It encouraged Catholics to voice their views on the environment ahead of the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. Click the icon to read it.www.cbcew.org.uk/content/download/34849/258827/file/call-of-creation-cafod-2008.pdf

Read:Section II- The impact on the world’s poorSection IV- Human beings are dependent but responsibleSection V- Personal responsibility and conversion of life

What reason do the bishops cite in Section II for ‘People’s supply running short’? What is your own opinion?

How is being created in the image of God both a gift and a challenge? (Section IV)

If you were to fully live what the Bishops are saying in the paragraph from Section V, how would your life be different?

Catholic Social Teaching in action

Individual choices can seem insignificant when faced with such global challenges. But multiplied individual

actions can indeed make a real difference.The Call of Creation

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”CAFOD belongs to the global Caritas network, a federation of 170 international Catholic aid agencies.

Download our video showing how Caritas responded to Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.https://s3.amazonaws.com/CAFOD-main-website-films/John+Manuel+CAFOD+Version.mov

Click the icon to find out how to campaign with CAFODwww.cafod.org.uk/secondary/climate

Decide one action that you or your class will take. There are more ideas in the next section of this unit.

How can you put Catholic Social Teaching into action?

Plenary

Return to the questions you had

at the start of this section.

How do scripture and Catholic Social Teaching

shed light on them?

Research any questions that remain unanswered.

Compare what the Catholic Church says about thestewardship of creation with what you have learned about international decisions on climate change.

In what ways does international stewardship of the Earth conform to and differ from the ideals of the Bible and of Catholic Social Teaching?

Pause for reflection

At the end of the vast horizon, we perceived mountains whose indistinct contours would have escaped us had not

their snowy summits made visible by the sun come to add one more charm to the beautiful

lake, which thrilled us so. When I saw all these beauties very profound thoughts came

to life in my soul. I seemed to understand already the grandeur of God and the marvels

of heaven… I shall remember what my eyes have seen today.

St. Therese of Lisieux

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Never will I forget the impression the sea made upon me; I couldn’t take my eyes off it, since its majesty, the roaring of its waves, everything spoke to my soul of God’s grandeur

and power.

St. Therese of Lisieux

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Life is not a simple product of laws and the randomness of matter,

but within everything and above, there is a personal will, there is a Spirit who in Jesus has revealed

Himself as Love.

Pope Benedict XVI

Evaluation and assignmentsSection Four

Think about what has been covered

in this unit

What have I learned?

Where have I felt challenged?

What did I find exciting or interesting?

What was difficult to understand?

What would I like to explore further?

Can I say ‘I am a steward of the earth’ and mean it? Why/ why not?

What is God saying to me about my role in stewardship of creation, now and in the future?

Evaluation

Assignment ideas

1. Research the causes and impacts of climate change, using the library, the internet, newspapers, and local experts.

Prepare a ten-minute talk for your class or for a younger class.

Your presentation should include:• introduction to the issue• where it occurs• who it affects most and how• possible ways forward• at least two differing viewpoints on the issue• your own viewpoint (with reasons) • summary and conclusion.

TIPS• Remember to use your own expertise too!

If you are studying English Literature you could take a literary angle, if you are studying science you could research the scientific viewpoints, etc.

• Remember to include scripture and Catholic Social Teaching.

2. Write an essay:

Examine and assess the implications that Genesis 1:27 has for Christians in terms of their treatment of Creation.

Hints!

• Think about how God treats Creation.

• Show that you have weighed up different sides of the argument.

• Include relevant quotations from scripture and from Catholic Social Teaching.

3. Organise action in your school or college to tackle climate change:www.cafod.org.uk/Education/Secondary-schools/Climate

4. If your school or college is not yet an eco-school, write a plan of action to help work towards this award.

Find out more at www.eco-schools.org.uk/

Assignment ideas

5. Invite your local MP into school to ask how s/he will work to prevent climate change pushing people deeper into poverty: cafod.org.uk/Education/Young-people/Climate-action-young-people

6. Organise a performance of the ‘Degrees of Change’ play about climate change: cafod.org.uk/Media/Files/Resources/Youth/Degrees-of-Change

7. Fundraise for poor communities affected by climate change:cafod.org.uk/Fundraise/Guide-to-fundraising

8. Organise an exhibition of photographs, paintings or recycled artefacts, alongside relevant information, to raise awareness of how climate change affects LEDCs, or make a film (see slide 36).

9. Plan, design and set up a school allotment.

10. Use your artistic or IT skills to produce a piece of communication to promote action for climate change in your school.

Assignment ideas

Publications

• Ellen Teague, Between the Flood and the Rainbow: Climate Change and the Church’s Social Teaching, Missionary Society of St. Columban, 2008

• Michael P.Hornsby-Smith, An Introduction to Catholic Social Thought, CUP, 2002

• CAFOD, Climate Change photocards, images, facts, stories and reflections. From http://shop.cafod.org.uk

Weblinks

• Developing countries and climate change: www.cafod.org.uk/Campaign/Get-clued-up/Climate-and-energy

• Becoming an eco-school: www.eco-schools.org.uk

• Our campaign for young people, plus other resources on climate change: www.cafod.org.uk/secondary/climate

Other useful resources

www.cafod.org.uk

Picture creditsAnnie Bungeroth, Richard Wainwright, Francesca Hoyle, Karen Luyckx, Marcella Haddad, Philippe Mougin, Maria Marshall, Luciano Padrão, Nasa/wikipedia, CAFOD.

Spring 2015

CAFOD is not responsible for the content of external websites

CAFOD is a member of Caritas InternationalRegistered Charity No. 285776

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