In too many places, farm lands are being used to feed cattle, to provide beef for the rich, while the poor are left with no land on which to grow food to feed their families. To leave an unneeded light or air conditioner on, or the house or water hotter than they need to be, are moral decisions with consequences for the environment. The hard choices listed above are designed to better care for the earth. The truth is, however, that it is not we who give the earth life, it is the earth and its living systems that give us life. The earth cares for and sustains us.
Human arrogance needs to give way to a new humility.
Conversion, fasting, and asceticism have always been integral to the spiritual life. The ecological crisis is calling us to convert our life styles, to fast from consuming and wasting. The new asceticism needed today is to live more simply and wisely, to walk more softly upon the earth.