"In the Vatican, Global Ethical Stocktake, religious and spiritual leaders discuss tackling climate change" Article Reflection No. 157 (10/6/2025)

Article: “In the Vatican, Global Ethical Stocktake, religious and spiritual leaders discuss tackling climate change”

Reflection: The article “In the Vatican, Global Ethical Stocktake, religious and spiritual leaders discuss tackling climate change” by MMA describes an October 1 meeting where attendees from across the world came together to discuss the role of values in the fight against the climate crisis. As Minister Marina Silver notes, past declarations about fighting climate change have not been carried through with true action and implementation. The article also emphasizes that this meeting was an opportunity to further apply ethics to this discussion of environmental health.

I wanted to write about this article especially because of the last portion about ethics. I believe that ethics has so much potential to make change but also that it has an immeasurably, intangible weight that can make creating this change much, much more difficult. For example, if the ethical line of reason that Global Ethical Stocktake members are resonant with that of the members in the public, there is a great likelhood that there will strong and---perhaps most importantly---lasting support behind those thoughts. However, at the same time, if people are strongly against that same line of logic, it will likely be very difficult to convince that specific group to support which I think makes sense because one's personal ethics are an imperative part of one's identity. Also, especially since religion is something that is so deeply rooted in people’s day-to-day lives, I think this sort of collaboration across multiple groups of faith will allow for a more meaningful discussion because hopefully its takeaways will resonate with more people. 

How can we hold these discussions more regularly? And how the world will be affected if media featured it more?