How can RCS students and teachers be better stewars of Earth's resources?

Two years ago, Resurrection welcomed a new member to its faculty, Ms. Jeffcoat. She immediately noticed how little Resurrection did for the environment. Her first year at Resurrection she started Pascagoula Clean Up, where a group of students come together after school to pick up trash around Pascagoula. RCS students were inspired by the things she was doing. She started the 1st annual Earth Day Extravaganza at RCS. It was held on Earth Day and the outdoor lawn of RCS. Speakers from various organizations spoke to students, refillable water bottles and reusable bags were handed out, and healthy snacks were eaten. There was also a drawing for a tree. It was a really fun day for students at RCS! Ms. Jeffcoat and one of her students, Taylor Lawerence, started a recycling program at the school. Plastic water bottles in the cafeteria were now able to be recycled. Ms. Jeffcoat also has bins in her room for paper and plastic. Since her arrival on campus, RCS has become A LOT more environmentally friendly.

RCS can definitely improve on many things. First off, if you walk around the campus and look into classrooms, you will sadly find that Ms. Jeffcoat seems to be the only teacher that has bins for recycling. This is not good. If you look in the cafeteria trash cans, you will find plastic water bottles when the recycling bin to literally two steps away. This is EVEN worse!! As students of RCS, we have noticed that not all the teachers print back-to-back. This waste a lot of paper that could be used for other things. The windows at RCS should be opened a lot more than they are and the lights could be turned off more. Other than these few big problems, RCS is very eco-centric!!! "I make the environment a better place to live by educating others about humans connection to the natural world. This is done in both the classroom and in extra circular activities and through my interaction with a diverse group of people," Ms. Jeffcoat said. Thanks Ms. Jeffcoat for all the things you do to improve the environment at RCS!! YOU ROCK!!

Let's take a look at a school in Miami called Miami Northwestern Senior High. They won $250,000 in a contest because they had the most earth-friendly overhaul of a campus. They had major upgrades, including lighting retrofit, wind tribune, green roof, water systems that are more efficient, outdoor garden areas, and a brand new recycling program. They put cardboard boxes in every classroom and collected paper, cans, and bottles. Then, they hauled the goods outside themselves. Very good MNSH. Looks like RCS has a loooong way to go!!!!

The Catholic environment

In the Catechism, we have a section on where they talk about the respect of the integrity of creation. I think it is important for people to understand that we Catholics do care for our environment not just for the poor as Mark Stoll had said, and I quote, "Catholics have not been prominent environmentalists in the past because their religious worldview encouraged a sense of sacredness among a community of people rather than with nature." Even Pope Benedict XVI has seen that environmentalism is a part of a deeper spiritual away from what he called in Australia the “folly of consumerism,” toward a lifestyle rooted in the traditional virtues of self-sacrifice and solidarity. The pope also sees care for the earth as part of a whole of moral truths, including defense of human life and dignity. He shows us that we should treat our environment with the most respect. In the Catechism there is a section (2415) and it says:

"The seventh commandment enjoins respect for the integrity of creation. Animals, like plants and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the common good of past, present, and future humanity.195 Use of the mineral, vegetable, and animal resources of the universe cannot be divorced from respect for moral imperatives. Man's dominion over inanimate and other living beings granted by the Creator is not absolute; it is limited by concern for the quality of life of his neighbor, including generations to come; it requires a religious respect for the integrity of creation."

To us this quote really sums 2415 in the Catechism and is a really good perspective. This quote says, "In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations."- From The Great Law of The Iroquois Confederacy

Another part of the Catechism where it really talks about the environment and how man should treat it is 346 which says:

"In creation God laid a foundation and established laws that remain firm, on which the believer can rely with confidence, for they are the sign and pledge of the unshakeable faithfulness of God's covenant. For his part man must remain faithful to this foundation, and respect the laws which the Creator has written into it."

Really all that this is saying is that humans have the domain over the animals and that we have the responsibility to take care of them and their environment.