Brady Kesterholt 

SLA 400-01 
Care for God’s Creation 
9/10/2020 

In the news, there has been much debate over our planet's health and how we should take

care of it. Both sides have extreme viewpoints of we all going to die in a couple of years or that it

is not real. I tend to fall in the middle and acknowledge that we do have a severe trash and

pollution issue that needs to be fixed to make our planet healthy as God intended it to be.

However, I also know that the United States is trying to reduce pollution here, and we are lower

compared to other large countries such as India and China.

We should be concerned with the environment and how such a fragile balance is between

life and death. There are tons of plastic just floating and being consumed by wildlife in the ocean

that leads to disease and death and even possible extinction of species. This imbalance of

synthetic material being consumed kills off entire ecosystems while also lower food supply for

predators and even humans. The circle of life is thrown off, and everyone suffers, from the

animals to the plants to the fisherman and then the consumers. Needing to find different

materials to use to clean up the ocean and even recycle old plastics containers can help persevere

God's creation. We need to treat God's creation with love and respect as he made it just like he

made us.

Catholic Social Teaching says we should be concerned about God's creation because we

are to be stewards of the land and showing respect for the Earth as it is part of our faith to show

God's love and respect. This also falls to loving others as we love ourselves because people are

part of God's creation, starting with Adam and Eve. The world is also a gift and needs to be

preserved for future generations as well, so they can prosper and see God's beauty through his

creation.
 I believe there is a balance in nature between resources and conservation. We see many

animals become extinct just from overhunting and killing them. Imagine if those animals had no

place to live or if we did not have any shelter, food, or water, we would not be able to survive.

An example of this balance and how the imbalance ramifications can be the rainforest fires a few

months ago, an entire ecosystem lost that was already small from timbering the trees not even

smaller. This imbalance leads to a more condensed living area for all the animals. It leads to not

enough food for the predators or plants, causing numerous death and destruction of the Earth's

living population and even our oxygen supply.

We have reached a stage in our consumer lifestyle where we only take and do not give

back. Foresting and timbering are beneficial if there is an overpopulation of timber, but when the

forest is bare, and this happens, ecosystems are hurt. As we take away from the planet, we also

need to give back by keeping it clean and replacing it. To do this, we need to conserve our forest

and plant more trees and increase nature and not expand our society as we will run out of the

room from overpopulation and no resource to feed, cloth, or house everyone.

Environmental issues directly impact me because it is from the air I breathe to the food I

eat. If we do not take care of the planet, then processed food and air can be harmful and

carcinogens that lead to disease and bad effects on the human body. This is why we should all

take care of the planet given to us as a gift from God.

The people responsible for environmental stability are those who use it to make products.

For example, a logging company should be responsible for replanting trees that they have taken

away and not harvesting from the area until those trees are wholly mature to be cut down again.

This allows for environmental growth and replenishes the produce of oxygen in our ecosystem.
 The government's role can be positive or negative depending on the laws passed; for

example, an excellent governmental law is a hunting license that conserves animal population

and allows for population control for certain species such as deer. A lousy law was the low

regulations on oil companies and how well their drills were assembled. For example, the Gulf of

Mexico's oil spill was a disaster that could have been prevented. This leads to destruction to the

ecosystem and harms many fish and even ducks and otters that live there being covered in oil.

There is a balance of using fossil fuels, but regulations need to be made to have safe extraction of

the resource.

The Democratic nominee Joe Biden wants to find new energy sources without carbon

emissions and create clean energy that does not come from fossil fuels while adding more

regulations to companies and businesses. The Republican nominee Donald Trump took out

Obama's clean energy plan that was costly and created the affordable clean energy rule. While

also creating more jobs in the oils and gas industry and making our own in America instead of

buying it from the middle east that uses more natural resources and pollution to bring back to the

U.S., He also improved infrastructure by using clean energy resources. Both candidates are for

conservation of the forest but go about fossil fuels very differently.

The environment is God’s creation just as we are, and we should respect and protect the

gift he has given us and use it for his glory and not our selfish wants.