[SustainableTompkins] Prelate Addresses Panel on Sustainable Development

[Cnielsen56 at aol.com]

Holy See Appeals to U.N. for an "Ecological Conversion"
Prelate  Addresses Panel on Sustainable Development

NEW YORK, OCT. 26, 2006  (Zenit.org).- The Holy See stated at the United
Nations that an "ecological  conversion" is necessary so that sustainable
development can take  place.

The statement was delivered Wednesday afternoon by Archbishop  Celestino
Migliore, the Holy See's permanent observer to the United Nations,  to the
General Assembly's committee discussing sustainable development  and
ecology.

"If we wish to make sustainable development a rooted,  long-term reality, we
must create a truly sustainable economy," said the  papal representative.

"Even in the context of its fast transition and  mutation, our economy
continues to rest basically upon its relation to  nature," the archbishop
said. "Its indispensable substratum is soil, water  and climate; and it is
becoming rapidly ever clearer that if these, the  world's life-support
systems, are spoiled or destroyed irreparably, there  will be no viable
economy for any of us.

"Therefore, rather than being  external or marginal to the economy,
environmental concerns have to be  understood by policy-makers as the basis
upon which all economic -- and even  human -- activity rests."

Archbishop Migliore continued: "The  environmental consequences of our
economic activity are now among the world's  highest priorities. The
environmental question is not only an important  ethical and scientific
problem, but a political and economic problem too, as  well as a bone of
contention in the globalization process in  general.

"It means not just integrating sustainable development into  programs for
poverty reduction and development, but also reflecting the  preoccupations
and environmental problems in security strategies, and in  developmental and
humanitarian questions at the national, regional and  international levels."


Time to rethink

"In a word," the Holy  See official said, "the world needs an ecological
conversion so as to examine  critically current models of thought, as well
as those of production and  consumption."

The archbishop insisted: "Serious public investment in  clean technology
must accompany this pragmatism as an urgent part of national  and
international strategies to diminish as fast as possible the impact of  air
and sea transport pollution and those sectors' continued use of  outdated
technology.

"Progress is slowly being made in clean  technologies in other fields,
including even that of car transport. But the  time is now ripe for major
investment in cleaner air- and sea-transport  technologies before the
ecological balance is tipped by culpable  neglect."

Archbishop Migliore recalled that for the United Nations, 2006  is the
International Year of Deserts and Desertification, and that the  problems of
"desertification and drought now affect more than one in six of  the world's
population."

"The international community," he added,  "must take concrete actions to
reverse this alarming phenomenon through  internationally  coordinated
responses."
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