ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the reasons offered in Laudato Si’ for the twin condemnation of global poverty and environmental destruction. The first cry of Laudato Si’ is the cry of the earth. Industrial production and agriculture as well as mass consumption have exacted a toll in the form of biodiversity loss, pollution, climate change, and other environmental problems. The encyclical’s suggestion for reconciliation is too vague to offer any practical guidance. The view seems to allow interventions in the natural order of things. The encyclical seems to suggest the possibility of a kind of reconciliation between humanity and nature. The encyclical’s affirmation of the intrinsic value of species and organisms entails a non-anthropocentric view of the value of nature. In the context of species preservation, it is especially important to note that something’s intrinsic value is not necessarily weightier than its instrumental disvalue.
