Health Homes and Climate

The relationships between health services, housing needs, and the climate crisis are many. The tension between market based action and government control in these areas compels us to carefully analyze trends and progress.

Health and Housing in Climate Crisis

The Ottawa Citizen reports on privatization of orthopedic surgery that may be impacting staffing for hospital health care. Elizabeth Payne reports:

“We are not able to provide the service we want for oncology patients because nurses are working in a higher paid environment,” said the unnamed source. “My view is that this is confirming the concerns that we are limited in terms of the service we can provide in the public system because nurses are obviously being poached by this private clinic.” (Payne, 2023)

Nicole Munro, at Saltwire, contributes an article on West End Mall redevelopment in Halifax.

By the time the master plan is finished, Coun. Shawn Cleary (Halifax West Armdale) said, the inclusionary zoning bylaw should be in place at about the same time, giving HRM the power to ensure there is a percentage of affordable units included.

While Cleary suspects most of the units will be market-based rents, he said the inclusionary zoning bylaw would allow some affordable units.

“We’ll have the power to actually say, ‘No, no, you don’t have a choice. You’re going to have this per cent of those units that have to be affordable.’” (Halifax's West End Mall Redevelopment Will Go on Despite Pushback, Councillor Says, 2023)

Matt McGrath, environment correspondent for BBC News, contributes an article about fossil fuel emissions falling in worldwide electricity generation.

One significant player impacting the overall trend is China. Around 50% of the global addition of wind power came from China and about 40% of the world's new solar came from from the country that's also the world's biggest use of coal power.

"There is a chance that at the rate that China is building wind and solar and all types of clean generation, that they achieve that peak in coal generation earlier than 2025, which would be significant," said Mr Jones.

Energy experts acknowledge that curbing fossil fuels in power generation could well be a "turning point", but much more remains to be done. (McGrath, 2023)

We monitor important trends as we ponder the best economic approach to address these serious concerns that impact the common good.

References

Halifax's West End Mall redevelopment will go on despite pushback, councillor says. (2023, April 12). SaltWire. Retrieved April 14, 2023, from https://www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/business/halifaxs-west-end-mall-redevelopment-will-go-on-despite-pushback-councillor-says-100843479/ 

McGrath, M. (2023, April 11). Climate change: Fossil fuel emissions from electricity set to fall - report. BBC. Retrieved April 14, 2023, from https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-65240094 

Payne, E. (2023, March 21). Surgeries at for-profit orthopedic clinic already impacting hospital staffing, some insiders say. Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved April 14, 2023, from https://ottawacitizen.com/news/surgeries-at-for-profit-orthopedic-clinic-already-impacting-hospital-staffing-some-insiders-say 

CST and Papal Positions

Tony Annett's book Cathonomics explores how Catholic tradition can create a more just economy. The encyclicals published during the papacies of recent decades offer a view of economic activity in relation with the pursuit of the common good.

Better world

The rise of neo-liberal attitudes to economic development in recent decades has created a paradigm that threatens the priority of striving for the common good.

John Paul II incorrect as neo-liberal

John Paul II was concerned about some aspects of market ideology.

JPII concern about markets

Profit seeking, self interest and accumulation in the market were concerns of Pope Benedict.

Benedict's concern about profit seeking

Pope Francis identifies a technocratic paradigm that cannibalizes economic and political life.

Pope Francis identifies a technocratic paradigm

From 1978 to 2023, encyclical publications from the Vatican have presented the case for concern about the effect on the common good of the dominant economic policies of our time.

References

Annett, A. M. (2022). Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy. Georgetown University Press.

Virtues Selflessness and Children

The three theological virtues, faith, hope, and charity, are practiced in some form by most people regardless of any affiliation with spirituality or religious organizations. Perhaps these virtues may provide some common ground for discussion of the polarizing topics of the culture wars. These virtues may be a foundation for our selfless actions. I recently reflected that my grandchildren belong to the face of hope for future generations.

Hope for the future

 

The colours in the table represent the three theological virtues: Green - hope; White - faith; Red - charity. The top row is a suggested definition of each virtue that may be more applicable to our time than definitions from religious tradition.

	Faith: Trust the people who are caring for you and for whom you care	Hope: Contributing to the vision we work towards for the future	Charity: Action that is directed to love that works to support the needs of others.
Abortion	Trust there are several caring choices for yourself and to know care and support from others	A seed has been planted. We may be starting to be the change we seek.	Action that gives love to others reveals a supporting community for you.
Capital Punishment	Sincere efforts to change lives need trust in a process of transformation	Rehabilitation is hope that good can triumph	Acting to address the needs of victim and offender is a way to reduce retribution and revenge
Euthanasia	Trust that each day of life is an opportunity to deepen our humanity and allow others to be agents of our comfort.	Our hopes for the future may transmit to others as we live fully in our last days.	Our life is made full by relationships with others. Give them time to complete the story with you.

 

An article on the Al Jazeera web site reported that Pope Francis suggested people who substitute pets for kids exhibit ‘a certain selfishness’. In the article, the Pontiff urges easing of adoption procedures to increase possibilities for parents to experience one of the highest forms of love, fatherhood and motherhood.

In 2014, the 85-year-old told Il Messaggero daily that having pets instead of children was “another phenomenon of cultural degradation”, and that emotional relationships with pets was “easier” than the “complex” relationship between parents and children. On Wednesday, while inviting couples who are unable to have children for biological reasons to consider adoption, he urged potential parents “not to be afraid” in embarking on parenthood. “Having a child is always a risk, but there is more risk in not having a child, in denying paternity,” he said. “This kind of choice is among the highest forms of love, and of fatherhood and motherhood,” he said of adoption. “How many children in the world are waiting for someone to take care of them!” The Argentinian pontiff has in the past denounced the “demographic winter”, or falling birth rates in the developed world.1 

When common ground in the most confrontational issues in the culture wars, abortion, capital punishment, and euthanasia, is sought in the context of trust, future potential, and addressing needs of the people involved as kin in our broader human family, we may find selfless action for the common good results.

 1 (2022, January 5). Having pets instead of kids robs us of 'humanity', pope says. Retrieved January 5, 2022, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/5/having-pets-instead-of-kids-robs-us-of-humanity-pope-says

Catholic Social Teaching in the 21st Century

In the turmoil of the end of the 19th Century Catholic Social Teaching (CST) was expressed in an encyclical of Pope Leo XIII.  John W. Miller reports on the America Magazine website that he learned 10 things in a year of writing about the economy through the prism of Catholic social teaching.

Catholic Social Teaching Review

 

In a remarkable book scheduled to appear in January, Cathonomics (Georgetown University Press), Tony Annett, a former speechwriter for the International Monetary Fund and an Irish Catholic, traces the roots of Catholic social teaching from ancient Greek philosophy through Thomas Aquinas to Pope Leo XIII’s “Rerum Novarum” (1891). 

1. Wages need to go up.

The biggest issue that bedeviled people in our economy was insufficient pay. .. a high-profile effort by some chief executive officers and companies to team up with the Vatican to promote changes to their business practices. Thus far, the Council for Inclusive Capitalism says it has “487 commitments from 200 organizations.” But only two private employers, Bank of America and the energy company BP, have promised the concrete thing that will really make a difference, wage increases. 1

2. Unions are back. 

Some two-thirds of Americans “approve” of labor unions... “Unions lift up workers, both union and non-union, and especially Black and brown workers,” said President Biden, who is the most pro-union president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Leo XIII “correctly saw unions as necessary for protecting the dignity and rights of workers and their families, given that capitalists, who hold an imbalance of power over workers, often do not give workers their just due,” 1

3. Forgiveness creates prosperity.

 What really changed the life of Ray Miles, an ex-prisoner and activist in Pittsburgh, was getting a full-time job that guaranteed income for the next 12 months. Many companies and governments refuse to hire ex-prisoners, keeping them stuck in a vicious cycle of poverty and crime. Coming out of jail is “like being in critical condition,” said Mr. Miles. “You need life support.”1

4. We need to save local news.

 In a chaotic world, communities need local journalism. As Pope Francis said in a 2019 speech, local news helps citizens address “the same reality” and it spotlights “poverty, challenges [and] sometimes urgent issues” in families, neighborhoods and workplaces.1

5. Learning history can lead to justice.

 Telling the story of our past can lead to justice. A moving example of this is the private reparations movement, which has led institutions and people to offer reparations to the descendants of victims of slavery, even as the national reparations movement has stalled. This is the result of decades of work by activists, scholars and writers to highlight the wealth gap created by slavery.1

6. Urban planning is loving. 

learn of the easy convergence of urban planning and Catholic social teaching’s emphasis on building tighter communities. Robert Beauregard, for example, in his influential 2006 book, When America Became Suburban, takes the moral point of view that modern suburban life lacks “a moral center that would enable people to reach outside their communities and embrace diverse peoples” and also lacks “a widely shared sense of purpose.” When he looks at urban planning, Jamie Kralovec, an instructor in the urban and regional planning department at Georgetown University, said, he sees “this potential to build just and equitable use of the neighborhood, and bring about all these things Pope Francis talks about, like social friendship and solidarity.”1

7. Animals are important, too. 

Pope Francis, along with many theologians, seems to be calling for an increased appreciation for animal rights. “Clearly, the Bible has no place for a tyrannical anthropocentrism unconcerned for other creatures,” he wrote in “Laudato Si’,” … Advocates for animals say, is to make meat a delicacy that comes from small farms, instead of a factory-farmed staple of every meal.1

8. What and where we buy changes the world. 

It is easy to forget that we did not always live in a world with one-click shopping… Americans and Europeans went for the cheap stuff, and gobbled up television sets, shoes, washing machines and a million other products from companies like Walmart, Target and the French retailer Carrefour. These companies helped create hyperglobalization, which is why American highways and neighborhoods have almost all the same big-box chain stores and fulfillment centers for shipping out online orders… The fair trade movement has created alternative supply chains that help small businesses around the world.1

9. Women still aren’t paid enough. 

For modern interpreters of Catholic social teaching, there is little question that women deserve equal pay and a chance to build successful careers that align with their desires for family and home life. The Catholic solution to the gender pay gap requires affirming women’s right to equal pay while pushing back against a purely capitalist impulse. “We’re affirming women should be treated equally in work,” said Kate Ward, a professor of theology at Marquette University. “We’re not just saying that women should become better capitalists and have fewer families” and children.1

10. There are no utopias. 

In Cathonomics, Mr. Annett emphasizes that Catholic social teaching resists utopian thinking, which is why the church rejects both communism and libertarian capitalism.1

Cindy Wooden writing for the Catholic News Service notes that Pope Francis issued his social encyclical, "Fratelli Tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship," in October 2020, then proceeded to explain and apply it in 2021 in meetings with migrants and refugees, in hosting religious leaders making a plea to governments to act on climate change and in setting out his vision for a synod process that listens to and relies on the prayers of all.

There, at the birthplace of the patriarch Abraham, the first person to believe in the one God and father of all, the pope called all believers to demonstrate their faith by treating one another as the brothers and sisters they are. "From this place, where faith was born, from the land of our father Abraham, let us affirm that God is merciful and that the greatest blasphemy is to profane his name by hating our brothers and sisters," the pope said. "God loves us as his children; he wants us to be brothers and sisters," the pope said Dec. 5 in the camp on the shore of the Mediterranean on the Greek island of Lesbos. "He is offended when we despise the men and women created in his image, leaving them at the mercy of the waves, in the wash of indifference." In a public service announcement in August, Pope Francis had said, "Being vaccinated with vaccines authorized by the competent authorities is an act of love. And contributing to ensure the majority of people are vaccinated is an act of love — love for oneself, love for one's family and friends, love for all people."2

 

Catholic Social Teaching as applied by the Church since Pope Leo XIII’s “Rerum Novarum” (1891), an encyclical that declared the church’s support of trade unions and collective bargaining, and established concepts like a living wage, worker safety and regular time off from work, has depended on example rather than exhortation for action among Catholics and people who share these concerns about the welfare of people.

 

References

1	(2021, December 28). Ten things Pope Francis and Catholic social teaching taught me .... Retrieved December 28, 2021, from https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2021/12/28/pope-francis-economy-catholic-social-teaching-242106
2	(2021, December 28). example than exhortation: Pope's 2021 illustrated teaching on kinship. Retrieved December 28, 2021, from https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/more-example-exhortation-popes-2021-illustrated-teaching-kinship

 

Poor engineering design and ethics

The press frequently reports on incidents where it appears that disastrous outcomes may have been avoided if engineers had focused more on the common good or public safety.

GHG emission management

 

Danny Crichton, writing in TechCrunch,  suggests there is a fundamental thread that binds the disparate and heinous stories of the decline of engineering ethics together. The increasingly noxious alchemy of complexity and capitalism is a thread that binds the 737 MAX, FB data leaks, PG&E grid fires, and VW's emissions.

Ethics starts with leadership at the top, and specifically with better communication around safety and regulatory concerns to all stakeholders, but most definitely shareholders. Owners of stock in companies with complex technical products need to be told — again and again — that the companies they own will prioritize safety over immediate profits. The tone must always be to value long-term growth and sustainability… Yet, short-term traders aren’t the only investors available. The capital markets are diverse, and there are trillions of dollars of wealth handled by managers seeking to invest in long-term growth, without the downsides of inevitable disasters. One key part of investor relations is to acquire the investors that match the culture of the firm. If your investors don’t care about safety, no one else will either.1

 

The website of Engineers Nova Scotia states that Members of Engineers Nova Scotia must adhere to the Code of Ethics adopted by Council motion, effective September 30, 2012. This was adopted based on the Engineers Canada Code of Ethics as set out in the Engineers Canada publication “Guideline on the Code of Ethics”, dated April 2012.2

 

Facebook post from someone who takes the engineer's oath seriously 

Hyunjoo Jin reports, for Reuters, that the South Korean engineer Kim Gwang-ho flew 7,000 miles to Washington last year to do something he never dreamed he would: he reported alleged safety lapses at Hyundai Motor Co - his employer of 26 years - to U.S. regulators.

In a culture which values corporate loyalty, Kim was moving against the tide when he handed the NHTSA 250 pages of internal documents on the alleged defect and nine other faults. South Korea has been buffeted by corporate scandals, many within its family-run conglomerates or chaebol, but has seen few whistleblowers. A high proportion are sacked or ostracized, despite legislation to protect them, according to advocacy groups. Kim, fired in November for allegedly leaking trade secrets about the company’s technology and sales to media, has since been reinstated by Hyundai after a ruling by a South Korean government body under whistleblower protection laws. Hyundai has filed a complaint disputing the decision. “I will be the first and last whistleblower in South Korea’s auto industry. There are just too many things to lose,” Kim said in an interview at a bakery cafe run by his eldest daughter. “I had a normal life and was better off, but now I’m fighting against a big conglomerate.”3 

The ambiguity between loyalty to employers and clients who support the engineering enterprise and the safety or common good of society in expressions of engineering ethics makes decisions about inadequate designs an exercise in tension for practicing engineers.

 

References

 

1(2019, April 28). The demise and rebirth of the ethical engineer | TechCrunch. Retrieved May 1, 2019, from https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/28/the-demise-and-rebirth-of-the-ethical-engineer/ 

2(n.d.). Welcome to Engineers Nova Scotia. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://engineersnovascotia.ca/ 

3(2017, May 14). Blowing the whistle in South Korea: Hyundai Man takes on chaebol .... Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hyundai-whistleblower/blowing-the-whistle-in-south-korea-hyundai-man-takes-on-chaebol-culture-idUSKCN18B0J5