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Carlos Sintado in the Globethics.net event in Geneva. © WCC/Albin Hillert

Carlos Sintado in the Globethics.net event in Geneva. © WCC/Albin Hillert

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Publications focusing on eco-theology, ethics and climate change were presented by their authors in an event hosted by Globethics.net – a Geneva-based global ethics network in collaboration with the World Council of Churches (WCC). The event was held on 3 March in Geneva, Switzerland.

Among authors who presented their publications were Dr Carlos Sintado, Latin American scholar and a former WCC staff member, Dr Frédéric-Paul Piguet, academic and researcher from the Institut Biosphère, and Dr Christoph Stückelberger, executive director and founder of the Globethics.net.

While presenting his book Social Ecology, Ecojustice and the New Testament – Liberating Readings, Carlos Sintado shared a critique of sustainable development. “It has proved to be a total failure, particularly when implemented in a liberal, capitalist society where development equals growth,” he said.

Sintado commented that “most of the ecological problems we face today are actually social problems, so these social problems may be what we need to solve.”

“What I am trying in my thesis is to combine the approaches of social ecology, a secular discipline, with an exegetical critical view of a number of biblical texts of the New Testament,” he concluded.

At the event Frédéric-Paul Piguet presented his publication Justice Climatique et interdiction de nuire.

The focus of the publication, he stated, is that there needs to be a distinction between the notions of the biosphere, as the organism in which we live, and that of the economy.

Piguet suggested that “the metabolisms of the biosphere and of the economy are crucially different, so climate action based on the concept of the economy, such as for example the practice of distributive justice, cannot succeed in solving our current issues.”

“If we instead can apply a no-harm principle to these issues, we can perhaps find a way both to respect the biosphere thresholds and its integrity, and to share its richness,” he concluded.

Stückelberger introduced his publication We are all Guests of Earth – A Global Christian Vision for Climate Justice and referred to the early 1980s, saying that “a lot of progress was made, but we also know that we are late. Environmental issues are time sensitive. Even if you do the right thing, if you do it too late, it becomes ethically wrong.”

He stated that one of the questions forming the foundation of his publication is “how we can speed up the process of climate adaptation and climate justice”.

“We need a new anthropology, to know what our place in creation is,” he said.

“The concept of being a guest on earth means the earth is a gift. The earth is a gift, and we are not the owners. We know the rules of a guesthouse: we leave it as we found it.”

“This is not only true for tourism, but also for climate justice,” he commented.

And additionally, “being a guest on earth is a common ground of humanity, understood world-wide. And we also have a large biblical foundation on what it means to be a guest of God,” he continued.

Thus, “to make progress in climate-related questions, we need this new model and to apply it to the economy also. Where we are not shareholders looking for the material benefit of the shares only, but instead careholders, who care for creation,” Stückelberger concluded.

WCC news release produced with reporting from Albin Hillert.

More information: Globethics.net