The ecological crisis is the external manifestation of the ethical, cultural and spiritual crisis of modernity (LS 119). Integral ecology invites us to look at today’s situation in a different way, in the understanding that the socio-environmental crisis derives from a distorted anthropology, which, while reducing the human person to an isolated individual – understood mostly as homo oeconomicus -, considers nature exclusively as a resource to be exploited, thus leading us away from the vital relationship we should have with the Creator.
Integral ecology, in fact, is based on an integral view of life, starting with the conviction that everything is connected, that we are all interdependent, and that we depend on our Mother Earth. It also advocates the need for new forms of thought and practice in order to pursue “God’s dream for all of us who are his children” (Pope Francis).
Integral ecology suggests a renewed understanding of human relationships and with nature. This leads to a new economy, in which the production of wealth is directed towards the integral well-being of human beings and the improvement – not the destruction – of our common home. This also entails a renewed politics, conceived as one of the highest forms of charity (Paul VI), involving both all peoples and nature itself.
Integral ecology is a multifaceted approach to the ecological crisis, because it simultaneously addresses the economic, social and environmental crises we are experiencing, and considers it essential to seek integral solutions, that is, solutions that consider the interactions of natural systems with each other and with social systems, including the cultural and spiritual dimensions.
