Religion and environmental accountability

Hindu religion places much emphasis on reverence toward nature and preservation of natural materials. Like American Indians who regarded the land and animals as sacred and Islam that teaches peace towards all animals, Hindus have a morally based respect for the land and consider wastefulness and destruction of resources ethically erroneous. Trees, rivers and animals are not to be taken advantage of and should be treated with reverence and frugality.
America has bred a different religion toward the use of natural resources. The nation of abundance, consumerism and capitalistic greed has led to abuse of the environment, wastefulness of natural resources and complete ignorance in areas of preservation and respect. It is a country that thrives on more of everything and profusion of materials. Americans use the most electricity, constructed a society based on the need for an automobile and turn on water taps as if there is unlimited availability of this precious resource. No where else in the world is such waste produced and so little done to alleviate the consequences of energy use, air pollution and lack of recycling.
Only now have measures been taken to help reduce the erroneous effects of environmental neglect and abuse. Governments have begun to focus their efforts to alternative energy sources and ways of urging individuals to “go green” on their own by offering incentives. But because America is the country of religious freedom, it is difficult for a religion to hold its followers morally accountable for environmental damage. Religions would argue that it is only up to God to impose such regulations and that holding followers “morally responsible” is not the church’s jurisdiction. Indeed this would make little difference in America where the population of atheists and agnostics is larger than in other countries and most citizens who claim a religious affiliation never practice it anyway.
The Catholic church has recently taken actions into their own hands and in early March the Vatican officially announced that “environmental pollution” is on the list of the “Seven Sins of the Modern Era.” Feeling that the Biblical sins outlined and made popular by works of literature such as Dante’s Inferno are outdated and irrelevant to important ethical issues at hand today, the Vatican made several changes to the moral sins that are punishable. Among them included engaging in research pertaining to genetic engineering, accumulation of obscene riches and surprisingly, environmental pollution. Although not explicitly a strong belief of Catholicism and certainly not one practiced in Biblical times, pollution is now considered a moral sin and a part of the Catholic repertoire of belief.

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