Michael Striebel's paper: "Reading Eco-Justice Threats and Challenges in the CEEC Region" - presented at the Pax Christi International - Central/Eastern European Consultation, 27-29 April 2011 in Vukovar/Croatia.

Reading Eco-Justice  Threats and Challenges in the CEEC Region
(Final Version)

In this short overview only a part of the present problems can be mentioned. To avoid the impression that only the CEE-States have problems, those of Western Europe will be included, if they have a common structure. It is also clear that the socio-economic status' of the CEE countries are so different that some of the following remarks might not be true for all of them.

The term Eco-Justice is used in different ways. According to the Budapest Call for Climate Justice (2010) which addresses poverty, wealth and ecology, the term is used here in this wider sense. Shalom in the first testament stretches the meaning even further, comprising the harmony of four areas. They will used as the structure of this presentation.

1 Ecology (in the narrower sense) as "peace with nature"

The ecological problems - still sometimes addressed as "protection of the environment" or "responsibility for the creation" - are strictly understood as question of radical adaptation to a preset world that existed before us and will remain after us, if we do not adapt to its rules. So if we are to protect something, or to feel responsible for it at all, it would be the long-term survival of the human species.

Human caused climate change

On a global scale, human induced climate change is mainly caused through overconsumption of non-renewable energy. The average European should only consume half of his current energy. Other important factors are private travel, meat production and poor use of energy saving techniques. Those are really great challenges for all European countries. Solutions can include technological or economical steps, but in the long run those probably will not be enough. A redefinition of what is enough for a good life is needed.

Green economy

Increasing numbers of people from rural areas are still moving into big towns. This is mainly caused by an agro economy which is not sustainable in three ways: it does not support enough people to live on it, it does not furnish healthy food and it does not preserve delicate ecosystems. Eastern states especially have considerable areas that should be protected. We have to educate farmers, consumers and an increasingly organized civil society (e.g. churches) to work together on meeting those three challenges. Amongst other steps this has to be accomplished - especially in Western Europe - by paying much more for our daily food. Detailed information for Eastern Europe can be found under http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/black_sea_basin/danube_carpathian/our_solutions/green_economy/ .

Affordable access to drinking water

In many countries outside the EU there is little knowledge about the quality of good drinking water. Consequently, people there tend to buy expensive bottled water, and then the plastic pollutes the environment. To solve this problem on a large scale, big public investments would be necessary. An immediate mitigation would be to reliably and regularly measure the quality of drinking water everywhere, so that at least in some areas people would not be forced to buy water in small quantities daily.

Sustainable energy management

Atomic power was wrong from its beginning forty years ago. It is neither safe for us, nor for the following generations. In the long run we will have to rely on plentiful renewable sources directly or indirectly linked to the sun, our biggest energy provider. As long as we have not solved these widely discussed problems, we have to save energy to an extend, that it is enough for everyone in the world. The Global Footprint Network (http://www.footprintnetwork.org) gives a good estimate of how much we have to save and it delivers the necessary hints how to achieve it.

Waste management

We need recycling systems for the household waste we produce. Whereas in the EU-states this problem is largely dealt with, it is still insufficient in some of the Eastern European states. We need awareness-raising campaigns by civil society (e.g. schools and churches) or NGOs on how to avoid litter, but also greater investments in waste management and recycling.

This includes the ecologically adapted management of sewage by, amongst other steps, renaturation of rivers and wetlands. There are very good side effects for biodiversity and the adaptation to the consequences of climate change, such as floods.

2  Peace with my fellow men and women

Economic solidarity

The countries we are talking about here, are very different when considering their average income: some are well off, some are economically very poor, such as Bulgaria, Moldova, Albania, Belarus or Kazakhstan. Whereas all states within the EU have a relatively good institutionalized system of economic solidarity, they show a lack of solidarity with European states outside the EU.

Local exchange trading systems

In regions where financial resources are scare, one could consider the introduction of alternative trading systems, which basically create a currency based on time. For details see e.g. http://talentiert.at.

Fair international trade structures

The wealth in Europe is partially due to the open exploitation structures of the old colonialism, and by the covert rules of international trade and its protectionism.

The latest atrocious example is land grabbing by certain nations buying or renting huge areas of fertile land in the southern hemisphere, especially in Africa. Although this conference is about Europe, one should not forget economic and military conflicts emerging elsewhere.

A still small but growing positive example is the international fair trade movement (http://www.fairtrade.net/) with its followers like Clean clothes Campaign (http://www.cleanclothes.org/) or Fair Flowers (http://www.fairflowers.de/)

Good governance

Corruption is a scourge of humanity. It has negative economic and ecologic consequences and often neglects the real interests of the local people. Well known negative examples are major projects such as a bridge over the strait of Messina in Italy or the Ilisu Dam in Turkey. Here the task must be to safeguard the rights of the local population. One of the most outstanding examples for that is the fight by bishop Erwin Kräutler against the Belo Monte Dam on the Rio Xingu in Brazil (http://www.rightlivelihood.org/krautler.html).

Controlling the financial economy

The most powerful forces at the moment are the financial markets. These anonymous bodies of private and semi-public investors assemble huge amounts of money, which they allocate in an uncontrolled and undemocratic manner following one single goal: Let's make more money! They are able to control national economies such as Hungary and Rumania, and continue to do so in Greece, Ireland and Portugal. They also significantly influence the "classical" economy and thus negatively effect the economic and social well-being of the full population of a targeted country. Specialists agree that establishing control over those financial markets is the most important challenge mentioned in this paper. One of the few established initiatives is the network Attac (http://www.attac.org) which aims to introduce a worldwide, or at least a Europe-wide, transaction tax.

An outrageous example of the uncontrolled financial economy is the misuse of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for speculation with food.

Peace prevention / Democracy at stake

After hundreds of years of conflicts between national states within Europe, the challenges today are within national states:

The increasing inability of political parties to cooperate in governments

After respective national elections in Hungary, the Czech Republic, and especially in Belgium, an ever increasing time for a political compromise, necessary to build stable governments, is evident. Political inability to compromise, results in a frozen policy, allowing others, especially the so called "financial markets", to exploit the power vacuum.

Ignoring needs of minorities

The larger and smaller minorities (such as Russians in Estonia or Latvia, ethnic Turks in Germany and Austria, migrants from the Maghreb in France, displaced people in the Balkan, the Roma in many countries, migrants from Africa and the Middle East) are not seriously taken into account by churches, intellectuals, politicians and the national majorities. This neglect allows nationalistic, restorative and borderline antidemocratic parties to form throughout Europe. Minorities, especially foreign migrants, are not welcomed but merely suffered in most European countries.

A prerequisite of engaging into peace making within societies and with nature is a real peace with oneself and with God.

3 Peace with myself

As a late result of the Philosophy of Enlightment, Europeans have a strongly over-emphasized concept as individuals. This leads, summarized, to too much consumerism, use of energy and nature resources. We still attach our well-being to living standards that are neither feasible for the whole world, nor for future generations. Here is a huge psychological, spiritual and philosophical task of defining anew the concepts of luck, fulfilment or a good life.

4 Peace with God (and its representatives in the world)

In the Roman Catholic churches of many western European countries there is a mood of being close to a schism. More and more people think and act as if there were no hierarchy (which here means bishops and higher). This apparent conflict consumes a disproportionate and unproductive amount of psychic, social and monetary resources, fighting child abuse, ignorant interpretations of nature crises, systematic discrimination of women and the like.

* * *

On closer examination, there is enough economical, educational and empowering work to do, problems to study scientifically, challenges for new philosophical and theological thinking. Finally everything must lead to action.

 

References