Photo Credit: Sycamore Land Trust’s Sam Shine Foundation Preserve in northwest Monroe County, Indiana
Deacon Tom Cervone, Ph.D., Sister Maureen Houlihan, D.C., and Nicole Cervone-Gish, Ed. M.S.
Our Planet Earth
Author’s note: This website encourages, inspires, and informs citizens to act now, and to practice ecological principles in our journey “On Care for Our Common Home.”
Introduction
Do you believe our planet is precious, and realize Earth is our only home? If so, we must be precious too including our ecosystems, plants, wildlife, land, water and air, which make our world extraordinarily splendid. Our feelings about who we are as a human race require that we approach nature with love, thankfulness, and dependency, and our intelligence forces us to change our way of life.
The United Nations Development Program is committed to a positive environmental change through collective action, and gives seventeen sustainable goals, as listed below, that will transform our world.
- No poverty
- Zero hunger
- Good health and well being
- Quality education
- Gender equality
- Clean water and sanitation
- Affordable and clean energy
- Decent work and economic growth
- Industry, innovation and infrastructure
- Reduced inequalities
- Sustainable cities and communities
- Responsible consumption and production
- Climate action
- Life below water
- Life on land
- Peace, justice and strong institutions
- Partnerships for these goals
Pope Francis in his encyclical letter On Care for our Common Home, Laudato Si’ offered similar thoughts that we as a human race need to be at peace with ourselves and others in achieving his desired seven Action Platform goals in addition to the United Nations goals above.
What Can You Do?
There is so much you can do that can make all the difference in the world. First, you can be aware of what needs to be done, and take just one thing and make it your goal. Slowly over time you will master more steps you need to make a better world, e.g., maybe adjust your life style for a simpler way of living with fewer needs that in most cases, only add to more clutter, space, and pollution.
We could also get involved in groups that protect, preserve, conserve, and restore nature. By preserving and planting trees, restoring wetlands and prairies, going no-till farming, planting gardens, increasing biodiversity, reducing our carbon footprint, using leaves for compost, helping keep soils absorbent with plenty of worms so there is little run-off and greater groundwater recharge, and keeping development where it exists today.
So much habitat destruction has occurred by converting natural habitats. In contrast, keep what we have and preserve our natural areas. Maybe support a local nonprofit land conservation organization in your area, like Sycamore Land Trust, which “preserves land, restores habitat, and connects people to nature in southern Indiana” in perpetuity. The more lands we protect from development, the more we will keep our air, water and land clean. Value your relationships with conservation groups, and know that they are helping us every day. Dave Hudak, retired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and former Sycamore Land Trust board member, talks about “saving the dirt” in the YouTube video below.
Another option is to get involved in a Community Supported Agricultural Farm like Seton Harvest which grows all natural produce by farming, hydroponics, and aquaponics. Within its website, an excellent YouTube video says, “soil is a living, breathing organism; in the morning, breathing out; evening, breathing in.”
Quote: “We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it.” — Barack Obama
Dr. Tom Cervone is a deacon and ecologist in Evansville, Indiana. He graduated from St. Bonaventure, a Franciscan University. Sister Maureen Houlihan D.C. is a member of the “Care of Earth” Committee - St. Louise Province of the Daughters of Charity USA and member of Seton Harvest Farm, a Community Supported Agriculture Farm that grows all natural produce for shareholders and the poor. Nicole Cervone-Gish, Ed. MS. is an English Language Learner teacher, who lives in Evansville, Indiana with her family, and teaches at Holy Spirit Catholic School.