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Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church, vol. 7: Plastic Pollution, Theological Ethics, and the Call of Laudato Si
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A 2024 interdisciplinary conference brought together scientists and theologians to address plastic pollution through the lens of Catholic social ethics and Laudato Si, producing a volume of selected contributions on plastic pollution, planetary health, and social justice.
In the past century, the Earth has moved from the Holocene to the Anthropocene epoch, and the consequences both for planetary and human health have been profound. Scientific and technological progress has benefited humankind but at increasing cost to the planet. It has resulted in climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss—the ongoing ‘Triple Planetary Crisis.’ To address this complex crisis, the 2024 conference titled “Joining Science and Theology to End Plastic Pollution, Protect Health, and Advance Social Justice” offered an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together science and ethics. Selected contributions from this conference are gathered in this volume.
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The Need for New Strategies to Protect Human Health in the Age of Plastics
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This chapter reviews how plastic production and microplastic contamination are undermining planetary and human health, critically evaluates the failures of recycling as a solution, and calls on faith communities and civil society to respond to plastic pollution as an urgent moral and ecological crisis.
A multidisciplinary perspective on the role of plastic pollution in the triple planetary crisis.
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This perspective paper argues that plastics are a central driver of all three dimensions of the planetary crisis — pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss — and must be addressed with the same urgency as carbon emissions. The authors call for a multidisciplinary approach that recognizes plastics as a systemic environmental threat rather than a siloed waste management issue.
The Plastics Crisis and Catholic Social Teaching
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This chapter examines the plastic pollution crisis through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching, arguing that addressing global plastic pollution requires cultivating virtues of social trust, prudence, justice, and solidarity alongside a critical assessment of technological solutions. The author draws on Pope Francis's critique of the technocratic paradigm to argue that structural transformation requires both strengthened social awareness and education-based moral formation rather than technological fixes alone.
A Manual for Moral Collectives: Our Shared Responsibility to End Plastic Pollution, Protect Human Health, and Advance Social Justice for All
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This book chapter synthesizes the essays in a volume on plastic pollution and social justice, presenting a 'manual for moral collectives' that frames plastic reduction as a shared ethical responsibility requiring organized collective action rather than individual consumer choices.
Tackling the Ubiquity of Plastic Waste for Human and Planetary Health
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Researchers outlined the dual threat posed by plastic waste to human and planetary health, calling for urgent interdisciplinary action that bridges environmental science, public health, and policy to address the ubiquitous persistence of plastic pollution across ecosystems.
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