What Climate Change Tells Us About Ourselves

The issue of environmental justice is also being considered on a global scale. Franciscan friar and Fiola theology professor Martine Kerr baho Núñez is mounting a lecture series in Oceanside on the moral implications of climate change. Professor Núñez emphasizes the importance of reacquainting ourselves with the natural world. Hey PBS is Jane Hyneman sat down with Núñez to explore what climate change could be telling us about ourselves. Martine thank you so much for joining us today. Tell me a bit about what the connection is between morality and climate change. Well the condition morality is about our behavior how our behavior conditions everything. So the person to the current crisis environmental crisis is caused by human behavior. That's why it is morally relevant because if we are responsible for that we have to respond for what is happening to ours. You know I think when we hear about climate change we only think of scientific approaches to it out. So from a moral standpoint what can people do to help the environment. We have put the eye or the center. I think therefore I am and everything is around the eye. So we have to put it now instead. Now we are in another crisis or a mental crisis. So we have to think about what is our mentality the mentality that is behind our behavior that is conditioning our way of confronting them. And I think that if we don't change the way we understand ourselves we don't change our anthropology. The current crisis won't be phased properly. My thesis is that long history already from the great period we have had to do some Ontake ontological what we can say the thesis of humor exception that section we are exceptional. We are so different to the other creatures that we have nothing to do with them. That's raw material for us. These aren't dualism has conditioned our way of thinking and that onto dualism is reflected also in our ontological dualism when we separate completely from our spiritual part of the body. The court for instance used to say that the body is a machine and that every animal every creature our machines only that they are being created by God. They are perfect machines but at the end only machines nothing else. If we don't change that we cannot face it is this crisis because mental ecology goes first. That's an interesting point there. What do you say for people who don't believe that climate change is even caused by humans. Well I think that the basis is that we still have this conception that we do not depend on nature that we are different so we can be here we can be there. Our body contains so as we don't believe that when scientists tell us well there is a crisis we have to behave in a different way. We have to keep the global warming at this because otherwise we will be in trouble. But people say well maybe or maybe not. As we have other interests and we don't believe that that's important for us. We try to minimize the problems. If we change our mentality things will change when we go for instance to a hotel. We take care of the room of course because we know that you do something wrong when we leave. We have to pay. But that's it. There are no laws. Is something that comes from outside. We have not assumed that we are in our whole things teens is our home. So we do not take care of our home because we are afraid of something and we respect it because it is ours. The world is home and we depend on the world. It is not a question of mastery of being a master of the Ney of nature it's a custom of being ourselves. Our identity depends on that are being deepened so that if we change that everything will change. Otherwise we will play. How do you think people got so detached from nature when we are in this society that everything is understood in a conflict way so as it is must be a war to be ourselves. We have to be the first in everything in everything in eyes. I remember one person that says The second is the first of those who are unsuccessful. That is not true. That's true. So as Christians we believe in somebody that humanly speaking was not sex not successful person. He died at the cross. So accepting that unsuccess is part of our lives that will help us to see. Nature also in a different way. So our identity depends on our contact with that. Earlier you mentioned that nature is crying out in what ways do you see that nature is crying out until the 1960s 60s. Let's say we were strong using resources more or less in a moderate way. But after that no we have become too invasive. How is reacting the make macro organism with a fever with a global warming. So it is creating conditions to destroy us pathogens element we don't react we can destroy nature or nature will destroy us. Thank you so much for joining us. Professor Martin Kerr baho Núñez will be holding another lecture at the Franciscan School of Theology in Oceanside at 7:00 tomorrow night focusing on our hyperconnected generation.