Integral ecology, connection, and prevention: Moving forward together after Covid-19

Abstract

In 2015, Pope Francis issued the encyclical Laudato Si’, in which he discussed “integral ecology,” a thesis that all of nature and all of human life is interconnected. When broken, the connection to nature in particular has deleterious results for human beings, effects which reach beyond the natural world to social, cultural, and economic realms. The emergence of SARS-COV-19, a zoonotic illness which spilled from animals to human beings and has had economic, social, political, and cultural effects in addition to health effects, seems to have confirmed many of the points made by Pope Francis in his encyclical. Francis could have been writing specifically about COVID-19 when he wrote: “we are not faced with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather one complex crisis which is both social and environmental.” (LS 139) This paper examines the major environmental issues moving forward after COVID-19, with an emphasis on recovering from the current crisis in a way that is sustainable and will help to prevent future pandemics. Moving forward will require unprecedented levels of cooperation that begin with an acceptance of the reality that all people globally are connected and interdependent.
Keywords: Laudato Si’, integral ecology, Covid-19, pandemic, Pope Francis