‘Laudato Si’ The Importance of Biodiversity

Sean McDonagh kindly provides the text of an interview he did with Brian Rowe of the National Catholic Reporter during his recent 10-day speaking tour of the East Coast of the U.S. which focused on his new book on Pope Francis’ encyclical, “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home.”
Sean tells us “This is potentially an extraordinary moment for the church,” … “… Now do we take it or do we go back into our burrows? I hope we take it.”

Seán McDonagh, drawing on the wisdom of ‘Laudato Si’ brings to our attention the impact the consumption of meat is having on Humans and the Global Environment.
“We might think that this generation is merely following the tradition of our ancestors when it comes to eating meat. In reality the global meat industry has grown dramatically in recent decades. Between 1963 and 2014 meat production globally has grown from 78 million tons to 300 million tons.”
“to reach a healthy level of meat consumption, citizens of the United States would have to cut their meat consumption by two-thirds, while in Britain and Ireland we should be eating half as much meat as we do.”

Seán McDonagh continues to draw our attention to the wealth of knowledge and teaching there is to be gleaned from ‘Laudato Si’ and to the urgency of Pope Francis’ message.
“Coral reefs, for example, have declined by 40 percent worldwide. This has been caused by climate-change warming of the oceans and deforestation in the tropics. Even though they constitute only 1 per cent of the ocean seabed, coral reefs are home to 25 percent of the species of the ocean.”
“there is time for humans to halt the damage with effective programmes limiting the exploitation of the oceans.”