Abstract
Pope Francis’s new concept of “integral ecology ”(Francis P, Encyclical: Laudato Si′ On Care of Our Common Home. The Holy See, Rome (http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa.francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html), 2015, nos 10, 62 and 137–162) appears to transcend “human ecology (Wackernagel M, Rees W, Notre empreinte écologique, [Our Ecological Footprint]. Les Editions Ecosociétés, Montréal, 1999, p. 25: “The ecosphere is the place where we live; humanity depends on nature and not the other way around. Sustainability requires that we shift our focus from managing resources to managing ourselves, that is, learning to live as a part of nature. Finally, the economy becomes human ecology.” [Translation by Andrene C. Everson.]),” which has become popular worldwide through its iconic ecological and water “footprints” (Hoekstra A, The Water Footprint of Modern Consumer Society. Routledge, London, 2013). In his call for change and solidarity, the Pope incorporates spirituality as an additional dimension. Practically speaking, his encyclical could have at least two virtues when understood as follows. First, it could raise awareness among political leaders, global citizens and worshippers about the dangerous depletion of invisible water. Second, his remarks about the water’s problem being an educational and cultural issue could more specifically address women’s status with respect to water management in the developing world. These are two crucial matters that I will highlight in this essay. However, speaking to these issues from the standpoint of a moral authority is not enough. There must be justice too, and even more: specific action is required, in accordance with thought no. 298 from Blaise Pascal ’s Pensées: “[…] make what is just strong, or what is strong just” (Pascal B, Pensées. Trans. W. F. Trotter. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1958, p. 85, no. 298). Could Singapore’s success story in water management and economics be, with its unique combination of justice with force, a model answer to Pope Francis’s appeal? That is the question.
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Notes
- 1.
Lee Kuan Yew 2000.
- 2.
Pope Francis 2015, no 3: “[…] I would like to enter into dialogue with all people about our common home.”
- 3.
Pope Francis 2015, no 30.
- 4.
HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal 2012.
- 5.
MENA is the acronym for “Middle East and North Africa.”
- 6.
“In the Arab world, 300 million people may have to live with only 500 m3 per person per year by 2025. This amount is below the water poverty threshold, which is usually considered to be 1000 m3 per person per year.” [Translation by Andrene C. Everson.] As I recalled in my dissertation, these numbers must be understood as representing the amount of water available per person in general—that is, reserves, not the amount that is accessible and actually used, which in France for example is about 150 liters of water per day and 55 m3 per year, while residents of a country such as Jordan must get along on 100 liters per day.
- 7.
Faruqui et al. 2001, p. 25.
- 8.
Pogge 1994.
- 9.
Rawls 1999, p. 65. “Assuming the framework of institutions required by equal liberty and fair equality of opportunity, the higher expectations of those better situated are just if and only if they work as part of a scheme which improves the expectations of the least advantaged members of society. The intuitive idea is that the social order is not to establish and secure the more attractive prospects of those better off unless doing so is to the advantage of those less fortunate.” See also pp. 53 and 107, “[…] The two principles of justice (in serial order) 1. The principle of greatest equal liberty 2. (a) The principle of (fair) equality of opportunity (b) The difference principle.”
- 10.
Vujik 2012, p. 6 [translation by Andrene C. Everson].
- 11.
Fiechter-Widemann 2015, title VI, no. 5.
- 12.
Peppard 2012b.
- 13.
Fiechter-Widemann 2015.
- 14.
Saint-Exupéry 1967, p. 166.
- 15.
Gorbachev 2013 [translation by Andrene C. Everson].
- 16.
HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal 2012.
- 17.
See note 6.
- 18.
Tignino and Yared 2006, pp. 159–195.
- 19.
Faruqui et al. 2001.
- 20.
- 21.
Faruqui et al. 2001, p. 132.
- 22.
Faruqui et al. 2001, pp. 33–34.
- 23.
Peppard 2012a, p. 338.
- 24.
Peppard 2012b, p. 16, note 1.
- 25.
Pope Francis 2015, no 30: “[…] there is a growing tendency, despite its scarcity, to privatize this resource, turning it into a commodity subject to the laws of the market. […].”
- 26.
Stiglitz 2002, pp. 56–57.
- 27.
Stiglitz 2002, pp. 58.
- 28.
Stiglitz 2002, p. 54.
- 29.
CSR is the acronym for “Corporate Social Responsibility.”
- 30.
ISO is an abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization.
- 31.
Darany 2009, p. 103 [translation by Andrene C. Everson].
- 32.
Pope Francis 2015, no 189.
- 33.
ILO is the acronym for “International Labour Organization.”
- 34.
Girardin 2013, p. 25.
- 35.
Pope Francis 2015, no 29.
- 36.
UNESCO, World-wide Hydrogeological Mapping and Assessment Programme: http://www.whymap.org/.
- 37.
Girardin 2013, p. 25.
- 38.
Pope Francis 2015, no 31.
- 39.
Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses 1997.
- 40.
Draft of the Law of Transboundary Aquifers 2008.
- 41.
- 42.
Girardin 2013, p. 26.
- 43.
Fiechter-Widemann 2015, Title VI no. 4.
- 44.
Arrangement for the Protection, Use, and Recharging of the Franco-Swiss Aquifer in the Geneva Area 1978.
- 45.
Girardin 2013, p. 25 and http://www.agu.org/journals/wr1201/2011WR010562.
- 46.
Girardin 2013 , p. 28, note 5.
- 47.
Le petit Larousse illustré, p. 877: a publicist is “a legal scholar specializing in public law” [translation by Andrene C. Everson].
- 48.
Girardin 2013, p. 28.
- 49.
SIG is the acronym for “Services industriels genevois” [Geneva Industrial Services].
- 50.
Arrangement Concerning the Protection, Use, Recharging and Monitoring of the Franco-Swiss Aquifer in the Geneva Area 2008.
- 51.
Girardin 2011.
- 52.
Girardin 2011, p. 122–123.
- 53.
It is apropos to recall here that this issue’s complexity has already been addressed in two ecumenical declarations on water as a human right: the Ecumenical Declaration on Water as a Human Right and a Public Good, signed on April 22, 2005 in Fribourg, Switzerland by the National Council of Christian Churches of Brazil (CONIC), National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB), Swiss Conference of Bishops (SES), and Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches (FSPC); and the Statement on Water for Life, signed in February 2006 in Porto Alegre, Brazil by the World Council of Churches.
- 54.
Jonas 1984.
- 55.
Between 7.5 and 15 liters per person per day, according to “How much water is needed in emergencies,” technical note 9, updated July 2013, p. 2, http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health.
- 56.
Between 20 and 70 liters per person per day, according to “How much water is needed in emergencies,” technical note 9, updated July 2013, p. 2, www.who.int/water_sanitation_health (Maslow’s hierarchy).
- 57.
Adiaphoron and adiaphora: See Fiechter-Widemann 2015, Title V, Chapter II, no. 2.2.
- 58.
For suggestions concerning “reasonable price,” see Ramseier 2012 and Watteville 2012.
- 59.
Girardin 2011.
- 60.
See Fiechter-Widemann 2015, Title IV, Chapter III, no. 4.4.
- 61.
See Fiechter-Widemann 2015, Title III, Section I, Chapter I, no. 3.6 and the role of governing authorities according to Calvin.
- 62.
See Fiechter-Widemann 2015, Title I, Chapter II and Title VI.
- 63.
Kissinger 2011.
- 64.
Jayacumar 2015.
- 65.
Tortajada et al. 2013, pp. 131–132.
- 66.
Fiechter-Widemann 2015, Title II, Chapter III.
- 67.
Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. 1992 .
- 68.
Tortajada et al. 2013, p. 133.
- 69.
Fiechter-Widemann 2015, Title II, Chapter III “Water happens to be implicated in each of these components of the sustainable development concept. For example: as a natural resource, water is part of the environmental realm; as an essential resource it comes under the social sector, and as a basic resource for agriculture, food production, industry, and leisure, it falls within the economic sphere. Of course, in practice this assignment of water to three distinct and therefore theoretical conceptual spheres is not a perfect match. While it does not seem terribly difficult to place water used for industry and leisure in the economic sphere, water used for agriculture comes under both the social and economic spheres, and water used for food falls within all three—environmental, to ensure unpolluted potable water; social, to ensure that it is distributed at an affordable price; and economic, to ensure that waste is avoided and water is managed according to the principles of good governance.”
- 70.
Tortajada et al. 2013, p. 134–135: “Relocation campaigns received broad media coverage. Nevertheless, the groups to be resettled were reluctant to move even after receiving compensation offers and new and much improved housing and/or businesses facilities. […]. Since the government was very keen on carrying out the operation with as minimal confrontation and bad press as possible, the resettlement of unauthorized hawkers […] and squatters continued, but the speed of the removal proceedings remained slow.”
- 71.
Tortajada et al. 2013, p. 132.
- 72.
Tortajada et al. 2013 , p. 9.
- 73.
Tortajada et al. 2013 , p. 14.
- 74.
Tortajada et al. 2013 , p. 25.
- 75.
Tortajada et al. 2013 , p. 120.
- 76.
Tortajada et al. 2013, p. 238.
- 77.
Mahbubani 2015.
- 78.
Quah 2015.
- 79.
Dermange 2003.
- 80.
Dermange 2003, pp. 20–21.
- 81.
Smith 1904.
- 82.
Smith 1853.
- 83.
Dermange 1995, p. 167.
- 84.
Smith 1853 p. 348.
- 85.
Jonas 1984.
- 86.
See for instance the work of the German Alexander von Humbolt (1769–1859).
- 87.
Pascal 1958, p. 24, no. 82.
- 88.
Ricœur 1992 , p. 235, note 52: “This lexical or lexicographic order is easy to comment on: the first letter of any word is lexically first […]. The lexical order gives a specific weight to all the components without making them mutually substitutable.”
- 89.
Rawls 1999, p. 53.
- 90.
Rawls 1999, p. 65.
- 91.
Fiechter-Widemann 2015, Title IV, Chapter III, no 1.2; Title V, Chapter I, no 2.2.3.
- 92.
Ricœur 2007, p. 326.
- 93.
By the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches, co-signed by three Catholic entities: the National Council of Christian Churches of Brazil (CONIC), the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) and the Swiss Conference of Bishops (CES).
- 94.
By the World Council of Churches.
- 95.
His way of qualifying the cosmos, which today is called the environment.
- 96.
Calvin 1574, ninety-sixth sermon on the book of Job, covering Job 26:8–14.
- 97.
Calvin 2005a, p. 77.
- 98.
Calvin 2005b, vol. 2, p. 481.
- 99.
Calvin 2005b, vol. 3, p. 138.
- 100.
There were persecutions in France against thinkers of the new faith.
- 101.
Fiechter-Widemann 2015, Title I, Chapter IV, no. 2: “A number of concepts at the root of capitalism - a term which, incidentally, did not exist in the sixteenth century - are often attributed to Calvin. To a certain extent, one of the decisive factors in the spread of this assumption is probably his approach to the concept of money, the ultimate medium of exchange, which was very novel in the early 1500s. At that time no one would have taken the liberty of questioning the sacrosanct rule laid down by Scholastic Thomas Aquinas, who subscribed to Aristotle’s metaphorical catch-phrase “money is sterile.” In other words, for Aristotle and medieval thinkers, money could not bear interest.” Calvin felt that it could.
- 102.
Fiechter-Widemann 2015, Title I, Chapter IV, no. 2: “To encourage economic development, Calvin also considered elevating the concept of ‘work’ to the rank of the desirable virtues, not only for people who needed it to survive, but also for the well-to-do who, being privileged, were in the best position to share the benefits of their well-being with the most needy. In this respect he was refuting the Scholastic tradition […].”
- 103.
D’Humières 2010.
- 104.
Pope Francis 2015, no 30.
- 105.
Pope Francis 2015, no 1.
- 106.
Dostoyevsky [1995], p. 301.
- 107.
Pope Francis 2015, no 30.
- 108.
Fiechter-Widemann 2015, Title IV Chapters I to III.
- 109.
Edith Stein was a German philosopher.
- 110.
See Philibert Secrétan 2007 “Autorité et responsabilité” [Authority and responsibility] (unpublished).
- 111.
IPCC is the acronym for “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.”
- 112.
Pope Francis 2015, nos 29 and 31.
- 113.
Schwab 2016.
- 114.
Pascal 1958, p. 85, no. 298.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Marc Woodward Services for its continuing support after translation of my dissertation into English in 2015. The translation team of Marc Woodward himself and Andrene Everson agreed to undertake a stylistic review of my English text. I also express my gratitude to my husband, Eric Fiechter. He convinced me to spend a few years in Singapore, which happened to be the best place to be in order to gain a better understanding of the changing world, especially where Asia is concerned.
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Fiechter-Widemann, E. (2017). Pope Francis’s and Singaporeans’ Insights on Environment and Economics. In: Mathis, K., Huber, B. (eds) Environmental Law and Economics. Economic Analysis of Law in European Legal Scholarship, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50932-7_6
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