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342 chapter 10 Safeguarding and Sustaining the Environment To safeguard and sustain the environment is a work for every locale and nation, and a momentous task for the whole world. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church says, “Modern ecological problems are of a planetary nature and can be effectively resolved only through international cooperation capable of guaranteeing greater coordination in the use of the earth’s resources.”1 This chapter will first explain the basic approach to the environment of the neo-Malthusian movement because of the influential framework of analysis it has provided. Then we will turn to the approach of Catholic social doctrine, which has the potential of being more effective than the extreme positions advocated by some neo-Malthusians. It is common today to speak of the safeguarding or sustainability of the environment. While the former term is readily understandable, the latter is not. Sustainability is still a word unknown to most people. The word “sustain” is derived from the Latin sustineo, meaning to hold up, to support, to maintain. Citing a 1965 source, The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) first says that sustainable means that something is “capable of being maintained at a certain level.” If something is maintained or sustained like economic growth or per capita income, it is kept in existence over an indefinite period of time. In its 2002 edition, the OED, citing sources no earlier than 1980, gave the following definition of sustainable in relation to ecology: “of, relating to, or designating forms of human economic activity and culture that do not lead to environmental degradation , especially the long-term depletion of natural resources.” This definition actually captures the most common use of the word “sustainability” today. It generally refers to the ongoing maintenance of (1) the economy, (2) the environment, and (3) society. 1. Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2004), no. 481. Sustaining the Environment 343 While much has been written about sustainable environments and economies, very little has been done by sustainability advocates to explain the concept of a sustainable society. This is quite understandable, since it is a highly philosophical topic requiring an approach from many different angles. It is the kind of thing usually discussed by political philosophers , political theorists, and theologians, usually with different terminology , such as justice, social justice, the common good, or the good society. These subjects must be addressed, because the environment and the economy depend on a sustainable society and vice versa. Recall our discussion of justice and the common good in earlier chapters. My subsequent comments about the environment will draw upon conclusions reached in those chapters. In order to study sustainability issues it is most important to keep in mind the number of people in the world as well as population trends. Everyone agrees that replacement level population is 2.1 children per woman . The extra .1 makes up for children who don’t live long enough to procreate . No one knows for sure what the population will be in 2050, but the United Nations regularly presents its projections to the public. In its World Population Prospects 2008 Revision (Executive Summary), the population division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat estimated that the population of the world, at 6.8 billion in 2008, would be 7 billion by late 2011.2 Between 2005 and 2009, the world added 79 million people annually. The UN has offered a low, medium, and high estimate of the population in 2050; the high estimate is more than 9 billion people. The birth rate in the developed nations —now estimated at 1.64 children per woman—would cause a huge decline in population, were it not for their constant immigration rate. Even with immigration, the more developed nations are only expected “to increase slightly from 1.23 billion in 2009 to 1.28 billion in 2050.”3 Without immigration the population would tumble to 1.15 billion. Between 2005 and 2010 twenty-five countries, mostly located in Southern and Eastern Europe, have had fertility rates below 1.5 children per woman. The world fertility level “is expected to fall from 2.56 children per woman in 2005–2010 to 2.02 in 2045–2050.”4 In the least developed nations the pro2 . UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, “World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision, Executive Summary”; available at http://esa...

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