Healing a Broken World - Society of Jesus

Healing a Broken World
climate change, not separate aspects but linked in mutual interdependence. 71
The mechanisms that ultimately link human development and poverty
reduction to climatic changes are now more evident, showing the links with
employment and livelihoods, health, gender and security. To give just one
example: rural women are heavily dependent on the natural environment
for their livelihoods, which are directly affected by climate-related damage
or scarcity of natural resources.
56] The second type of people comprises those who live at the centre, the
rich. People at the centre are those who add to the ecological crisis through
excessive consumption and huge production of waste. The ferocious
demand for food and other resources has led to dramatic changes. The
world is rapidly converting nature into agricultural land to meet growing
demands, draining rivers of all water to produce food, and polluting water
with pesticides and fertiliser. 72
57] People of the third type comprise the growing middle class, the neo-rich.
Liberalisation of the economy expanded the horizon of new opportunities
and ushered in higher standards of living to those who could afford it. In
India, for example, the social and political changes of the 1980s and 1990s, in
which the middle classes were such significant actors, were associated, too,
with a shift in their values. 73 The phenomenal growth of the middle class
with its clamour for more is seen in many of the developing countries. The
World Bank estimates that the global middle class is likely to grow from 430
million in 2000 to 1.15 billion in 2030. The geographical distribution of this
middle class is striking. In 2000, developing countries were home to 56 per
cent of the global middle class, but by 2030 that figure is expected to reach 93
per cent. China and India alone will account for two-thirds of the expansion,
with China contributing 52 per cent of the increase and India 12 per cent. 74
Mitigation, adaptation and social contract as transformative agenda
58] In dealing with restorative ecological justice we take up the concepts of
mitigation, adaptation and social contract. In the global North, mitigation is
the primary and much needed approach to addressing climate change.
Mitigation is dependent upon technological responses that reduce the
sources of carbon production, particularly from the energy sector, and on
finding alternatives that are less ecologically damaging. 75 Deliberate or
unintentional adaptation is the adjustment of natural or human systems to
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