The cry of the earth is the cry of the poor

By Cedric Prakash, SJ

Where is India on the Environmental Performance Index (EPI)? On the 2024 EPI India is ranked at a pathetically low position of 176 out of 180 countries. The abysmally low ranking is due to poor air quality, high projected emissions and low biodiversity scores. The EPI uses 58 indicators to assess a country’s environmental performance. Indicators, include biodiversity, air pollution, air and water quality, waste management, emission growth rates, projected emissions, etc., under the three main heads of ecosystem vitality, environmental health and climate change.

To assess how well countries are safeguarding their natural treasures, the EPI added a new category this year: biodiversity and habitat. This category revealed a worrying trend – many protected areas worldwide are being overtaken by buildings and agriculture.

The annual observance of World Environment Day is supposed to make us commit ourselves to protecting the environment.  But what we witness is the usual jostle to plant saplings, the plethora of long, boring speeches on the importance of the environment ‘ad nauseam’ and plenty of photo-ops with faces turned towards the cameras. We see plenty of ‘tokenism’ and ‘cosmetic’ action – most of which, will be soon forgotten.

Trees are necessary but is there someone who will nurture the saplings and ensure their growth? Public awareness on the importance of the environment is a prerequisite – but then words ring hollow when the ones who wax eloquent are the very ones who are in nexus with those who destroy nature.

Interestingly, the theme for World Environment Day 2025 is ‘Ending Global Plastic Pollution’. It focuses on the widespread impact of plastic pollution, from visible waste to microplastics in various ecosystems, and calls for action to reduce and eliminate it. But who cares? Some of the big manufacturers will continue rolling out their reams of plastic without any qualms of conscience – after all, they will always have the protection of the powerful. Our seas and rivers are polluted with plastic waste. There are practically no checks and balances, to ensure that plastics below 120 microns are not used as carry-bags or for that matter there is strict segregation of garbage disposal and nothing is dumped into our seas, rivers and other water-bodies.

India’s heavy reliance on coal is a key factor hindering its environmental performance across multiple indicators. The use of coal not only fuels high greenhouse gas emissions but also contributes significantly to India’s severe air pollution problem. This is reflected in India’s rankings. With regard to air quality India is ranked 177 out of 180 countries – above only Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal.

India’s heavy reliance on coal is a key factor hindering its environmental performance across multiple indicators. The use of coal not only fuels high greenhouse gas emissions but also contributes significantly to India’s severe air pollution problem.

This grim reality cries for environmental justice. It is the cry of the poor! The cry of the earth!

‘Environmental justice’ is today a global social movement that addresses injustice that occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has generated hundreds of studies showing that exposure to environmental harm is inequitably distributed. Additionally, many marginalized communities are disproportionately impacted by natural disasters.

The primary goal of the environmental justice movement is to achieve agency for poor and marginalized communities – particularly the excluded and exploited – in making environmental decisions that affect their lives. The global environmental justice movement arises from local environmental conflicts in which environmental defenders frequently confront multi-national corporations in resource extraction or other industries. Local outcomes of these conflicts are increasingly influenced by trans-national environmental justice networks.

In India we experience today how mega-corporations and the mining mafia are literally ruling the roost. What is happening in the tribal areas of Manipur and the Adivasi areas of Bastar, Chhattisgarh today are clear examples of how environmental justice is denied to these sections of people!

The 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that is COP 30 will take place from 10 to 21 November 2025 in Belém, Brazil. During this climate summit, governments must take new steps to limit the climate crisis and achieve the target of a maximum of 1.5 degrees of global warming.

In this context the Society of Jesus have launched globally ‘Jesuits for Climate Justice SB62 and COP30 campaign’ stating that, “the climate crisis can no longer be denied. Its most severe effects are felt in countries where extreme weather devastates communities, rising sea levels threaten coastal regions, and ecosystem collapse jeopardizes livelihoods. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report warns of “a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.” This crisis demands immediate and decisive actions, and COP30 is a critical event for the global community in addressing the climate emergency.

The primary goal of the environmental justice movement is to achieve agency for poor and marginalized communities in making environmental decisions that affect their lives.

In the spirit of the Jubilee of Hope, all people of goodwill should join to work for a just and sustainable future, urging delegates to COP30 and governments to: 1.Cancel the debt of underdeveloped countries and strengthen the Loss and Damage Fund. Unjust and unpayable debts from underdeveloped nations should be cancelled so that resources could be free for climate adaptation and mitigation efforts, and a grant-based Loss and Damage Fund must provide adequate resources to address the devastating impacts of climate change.

2. Accelerate agreements and set targets for a Just Energy Transition to reduce CO2 emissions. A Just Energy Transition should consider historical responsibilities, respect indigenous rights, value nature, and prioritize sustainable livelihoods over profit-driven models. 3. Set concrete targets to build a Global Food Sovereignty System based on agro-ecological practices. A system that promotes culturally adapted modes of production, transformation, distribution, and food consumption, applying ecological principles to agriculture.

The COP process is imperative for making international progress on the climate crisis. Pope Francis stated, “It is a matter of establishing global and effective rules that can permit ‘providing for’ this global safeguarding” (LD, 43). Long years ago Mahatma Gandhi reminded us that, “the world has enough for everyone’s needs, but not everyone’s greed.” In his path-breaking encyclical Laudato Si’, our beloved late Pope Francis echoes a similar sentiment “we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.”

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