International Mother Earth Day: A Collective Responsibility
International Mother Earth Day celebrates the interdependence that exists among human beings, other living species, and the planet. It acknowledges that the Earth and its ecosystems provide its inhabitants with life and sustenance and recognizes a collective responsibility, as called for in the 1992 Rio Declaration, to promote harmony with nature and the Earth to achieve a just balance among the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations of humanity.
The Ten "R's" of Responsibility
- Respect - for self, nature, culture. the other
- Refuse - what is wrong and harmful to self or nature
- Reduce - waste, over consumption of food
- Reuse - reclaim and reprocess items
- Renew - rebuild and reconstruct
- Recycle - items to be used again by others
- Responsibility - moral, economic, personal, spiritual
- Rethink - cause no harm
- Replant - prevent degradation
- Restore - return to their original condition
What Is a Carbon Footprint?
A carbon footprint is historically defined as the total sets of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an organization, event, product or person. You can use this online "Carbon Footprint Calculator" to estimate your own carbon footprint.
“Celebrating and caring for creation is an instruction of God. But we are losing our attitude of wonder and contemplation, of listening to creation, to the rhythm of the love story between God and humanity.”
