I may not travel frequently, but, for some years now, every time I take a plane and fly over the Tyrrhenian Sea, I notice that there is something different. The sea is no longer just an expanse of various shades of blue; here and there, year after year, it is becoming a polka-dot blue. But, what are these dots emerging from the blue? It is hard to tell from above, but it is plastic pollution. Of course, you do not see a large island, as it has been forming for years in the Pacific Ocean (Pacific trash vortex), but the pollution is there to see.

In Italy, environmental issues are becoming a political issue, and this is undoubtedly a good thing because politics is that human art which aims to regulate everyday life and to solve the problems that living together inevitably brings out. However, from a political theme, it has increasingly become an ideological one; I’ll try to explain myself: constantly in the Italian media, there are news reports that swing from apocalyptic alarmism (if you do not recycle paper, you are guilty of the destruction of humanity) to denial of pollution (there is no pollution, and, if there is, it is not a problem). Unfortunately, scientific data speaks for itself and tells us that microplastics are so widespread that they are even present in the food we eat. The growing unease that I feel is that talking about the environment today in Italy seems to mean that you side with a political party and, for this reason, automatically accept all the ideas of that same party in a process of militant simplification.

The problem that confronts me as a Christian is an environmental issue that arises when looking out the window of an airplane, waiting for the rain to stop without causing damage (in the spring, there were heavy rains that caused floods and landslides in the area of Romagna), or eating food that is contaminated to the point of making us ill. These are not the problems of political affiliation, but they challenge my belief-based conscience.

Taking care of creation is not an action of the right or left, but it is the invitation that the Creator addresses to us every day. In Genesis 2:15, we are invited to protect creation: by working, transforming it, and benefiting from its riches. However, preserving does not only mean consuming but also being responsible because the world is a gift that has been given to us together with the gift of our very lives. Taking care of the environment, then, is not an act that expresses my political beliefs, but it expresses the grateful response to the only Creator God who wants me to use His gift to live and to protect it for the good of our brothers and sisters.

Standing in contrast to the Christian perspective that supports the present’s needs while taking responsibility for the future is a path that some philosophers have begun to propose called “effective altruism.” This is a current philosophical movement that also seems to take care of environmental problems efficiently but, in fact, in the name of another ideology, is not willing to consider people's present needs with a view to a future good. Let us look after creation as the Creator calls us to do.