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Dominion and Stewardship

Part of: The Pope’s Encyclical and Climate Change Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Dinah Shelton
Dinah Shelton*
Affiliation:
George Washington University School of Law
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The Encyclical Letter of Pope Francis centers on an interpretation of Biblical texts that establishes human power over other creatures and the right to beneficial use of them, imposing a type of guardianship or a trust, not a right of ownership. The Pope emphasizes that message he presents is intended to be a universal one, not limited to all Catholics or even all Christians, but to “every person living on this planet.” The encyclical begins by reviewing several aspects of the present ecological crisis, then considers some principles drawn from the Judaeo-Christian tradition which can render commitment to the environment more coherent.

Type
Symposium: The Pope’s Encyclical and Climate Change Policy
Information
AJIL Unbound , Volume 109 , 2015 , pp. 132 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2015

References

1 In Revelation, the twenty-four elders worship God by saying “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” All things being created for God’s pleasure, humans err in extinguishing any of them. In Revelation the angels are commanded not to hurt the earth, the sea, the grass of the earth, nor any green thing including any tree. Rev. 7, 9. Only humans are marked and judged, at which judgment God will “destroy them which destroy the earth.” Rev. 11:18.

2 Cf. “for the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,” I Cor. 10:26. In speaking of the desolation of Egypt, God says “the river is mine and I have made it.” Ezek. 29:9.

3 Pope Francis, Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ of the Holy Father Francis on Care For Our Common Home, para. 3 (2015).

4 “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” Gen. 1:28. Notably, in Genesis 2 a different order of creation has God creating Adam just prior to the Garden of Eden, in which grew every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food. Adam is placed in the garden “to dress it and to keep it.” Only after this are all the animals created and named; none are found suitable to be with Adam and thus God creates woman. In this recounting of the creation, no reference is made to dominion and the guardianship of Adam over the garden is made clear in his mission to “keep” (i.e. conserve, maintain) the garden.

5 Pope Francis, supra note 3, at para. 66 (2015).

6 Id. at paras. 67-69. (emphasis added)

7 Id. at para. 33.

8 Id. at para. 95.

9 Id. at para. 8 (“Patriarch Bartholomew has spoken in particular of the need for each of us to repent of the ways we have harmed the planet, for “inasmuch as we all generate small ecological damage”, we are called to acknowledge “our contribution, smaller or greater, to the disfigurement and destruction of creation.” He has repeatedly stated this firmly and persuasively, challenging us to acknowledge our sins against creation: “For human beings . . . to destroy the biological diversity of God’s creation; for human beings to degrade the integrity of the earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the earth of its natural forests or destroying its wetlands; for human beings to contaminate the earth’s waters, its land, its air, and its life—these are sins.” For “to commit a crime against the natural world is a sin against ourselves and a sin against God.” Citations omitted.)

10 Islamic Principles for the Conservation of the Natural Environment, IUCN Environmental Policy and Law Paper No. 20, p. 45 (1983).

11 Id. at 20.

12 The Mahavamsa, Chap. 14, quoted in, Case Concerning the Gabçikovo-Nagymaros Project (Hungary v. Slovakia), Separate Opin ion of Judge Weeremantry, 1997 ICJ Rep. 88, n. 41.

13 See Callicott, J. Baird, Traditional American Indian and Western European Attitudes Toward Nature: An Overview, 4 Envt’l Ethics 293 (1982)Google Scholar; Johnson Donald Hughes, American Indian Ecology (1983).

14 Hannum, Hurst, New Developments in Indigenous Rights, 18 Va J. Int’l L. 649, 666 (1988)Google Scholar.

15 This is not to minimize the detrimental effects of air pollution on human health. In 2002, the Who and Unep estimated that between 1.4 and 1.6 billion urban residents experienced air quality that failed to meet Who guidelines on pollution, resulting in up to half a million deaths a year. See Unep, Global Environmental Outlook 3 (2002); Unece, The 2004 Substantive Report on the Review and Assessment of Air Pollution Effects and their Recorded Trends, Un Doc. EB.AIR/WG.1/2003/14, Rev. 1 (2004).

16 See e.g. Art. 32 of the Constitution of the German Land of Thuringia, “Animals are to be respected as living beings and fellow creatures. They will be protected from treatment inappropriate to the species and from avoidable suffering.” International and national legal texts have long protected species from inhumane treatment. See the 1968 European Convention on the Protection of Animals during International Transport (Dec. 13, 1968), E.T.S. No. 65, and the 1979 Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Sept. 19, 1979), E.T.S. No. 104.

17 Preamble, para. 3, Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Sept. 19, 1979), E.T.S. 104.

18 Preamble, para. 1, Convention on Biological Diversity (June 5, 1992), 31 ILM 818 (1992). Other international treaties that take into account the intrinsic value of nature include the 1980 Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (May 20, 1980), 1329 Unts 48, the 1991 Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty on Environmental Protection (Oct. 10, 1991), 30 ILM 1455 (1991), and the 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Mar. 3, 1973), 993 Unts 243.

20 Pope Francis, supra note 3, at para. 2.

21 There are no doubt other philosophical and ethical foundations to the conservation movement, some of which may lead to conflicting approaches. Similar problems exist in other areas of the law. During the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Jacques Maritain confessed that agreement could be reached on a catalogue of human rights so long as no attempt was made to agree on why human rights should be protected.