Last week I brought a group of my Bellarmine students to the Falls of the Ohio State Park, a natural treasure located right across the Ohio River from Louisville in Clarksville, Ind. This place boasts acres and acres of rock layers teeming with fossils of ancient sea creatures.
During 16 years of teaching, I’ve brought hundreds of students here to walk along the river and see the fossils, but I never get tired of seeing the expressions of wonder and awe on their faces when they realize what they are looking at. Students often remark to me how humbled they feel when they realize that all of these creatures lived and died so long before humans were even on the planet.
I think we all need experiences like these from time to time — a reminder that humanity is a part of a wider God-given creation teeming with life that sometimes goes unnoticed until we slow down and give ourselves the opportunity to go out and see it for ourselves.
In Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical on the environment, “Laudato Si’,” he points out the need for this kind of environmental education, which imparts an ethic of responsibility and compassion towards each other and the natural world. Traditional forms of environmental education are essential in many contexts, including the church, but we should also consider that the first step in environmental education is to take a step outside.
Our ancestors in pre-industrial times were so much more connected to the natural world than many of us are today. It is not to say that life was idyllic during those times, as life was certainly much harder without many of the conveniences of the modern era. Every bit of food consumed then was grown in the local soil, or produced by animals carefully tended to by the people who depended on their milk, eggs, honey, and meat for survival.
Humanity was attuned to the seasons, with the hard work and beauty that comes with spring planting, the abundance of summer, the harvest of autumn, the lean, cold, quiet months of winter. There were blessings and hardships that accompanied each change of the weather as communities labored to provide the food and goods needed to survive.
Catholic teaching tells us that we are created in the image and likeness of God and are also created to be in relationship with the natural world and to be its caretakers. In my professional and spiritual life, I found that the more I learn about and encounter the Earth, the more I feel called to protect this precious gift from God.
I invite all of you to find a way to foster your own “environmental education,” whether it be through identifying and appreciating the trees in your neighborhood, stargazing in your backyard or planting a garden. In doing so, you will have the opportunity to enter into relationship with creation and to reap its spiritual gifts.
Dr. Kate Bulinski is an associate professor of geosciences in the Department of Environmental Studies at Bellarmine University. She is also a member of the Archdiocese of Louisville’s Creation Care Team and Faith and Science Dialogue Group.
