Common Good Research Paper

Imagine a world without the east coast of the United States. Imagine the entire state of California evacuated due to severe drought conditions. Imagine continuous forest fires wiping out wildlife in the southern states. Although these disastrous events are not present in the world today, it may be heading in this direction due to the rapid increase in temperature, also known as climate change. The issue of climate change has been playing a variety of different roles throughout the world over the last several years. Land specifically located along the coasts have been wiped out and covered by large amounts of water due to the rapid increase in overall climate. Climate change is becoming an issue in the United States as well as in less fortunate …show more content…
The Common Good does not solely mean the good of the people. The Cosmic Common Good by Daniel P. Scheid quotes Pope Francis as he explains, “each organism, as a creature of God, is good and admirable in itself; the same is true of the harmonious ensemble of organisms existing in a defined space and functioning as a system.” Sheid continues to say that; “Earth solidarity calls humans to develop solidarity for the Earth in all three dimensions- humans, plants, animals, and whole ecosystems- in service of the planetary and cosmic common good” (Scheid). If the Common Good also includes animals and essentially all of nature, we must realize that these are being even more affected by climate change than humans. Animals, and more so plants, have less power to defend themselves than humans. If the ecosystems and environments in which they rely on for life are destroyed, they cannot get up and re-locate. They are not warned by signs in the news that their habitats are about to be destroyed. They are essentially powerless. Therefore, it is the duty of the human population, Christians; to help protect those who cannot protect