The first and most enduring way the divine reveals itself to us is through creation the living, breathing world around us. This was followed and fulfilled in the revelation of Jesus Christ. What deeply moved me this 2025 Lenten season, as the world prepares for COP30, is the powerful appeal from the Catholic Bishops of Brazil for a season of “Fraternity and Integral Ecology.” They have heard the cry of our Common Home, and they have also acknowledged our failure especially within faith communities that focus primarily on spiritual practices to live up to our responsibility for the Earth. We are increasingly losing our sensitivity to the signs of the times, drifting away from our vocation to read and respond to the groaning of creation.

In his encyclical Laudato Si’ (Praised Be), Pope Francis criticized short-sighted politics driven by consumerist interests, emphasizing that climate change and social justice are deeply interconnected, forming “one complex crisis.”

He has consistently called for urgent climate action. Ahead of a visit to Southeast Asia last year, he remarked, “If we took the planet’s temperature, it would show a fever, the Earth is sick.” He urged everyone to take responsibility by protecting nature and transforming both personal lifestyles and community practices.

In this light, the cultural historian and theologian Thomas Berry once observed: “The enormity of what is happening and the consequences for every living being on the planet, we might reflect on the need to establish religious communities dedicated to protecting the earth from further devastation and to guide the human community toward a period when we would be present to the Earth in a mutually-enhancing manner.”

The upcoming COP30 climate summit, set in Belém, Brazil, is meant to signal a renewed global commitment to healing our planetary home. Yet, as construction crews tear through 13 kilometers of protected Amazon rainforest to build a four-lane road named Avenida Liberdade the “Avenue of Liberty” we are confronted by a sobering contradiction: is this liberty, or ecological amnesia?

The Amazon rainforest, often called the “lungs of the Earth,” is one of the most vital bioregions on the planet. It breathes for the world, regulates climate patterns, and holds an ancient web of biodiversity that is irreplaceable. To destroy it in the name of facilitating a climate summit is more than ironic it is tragically symbolic of the crisis we now face. As Berry wrote, “The environmental crisis is fundamentally a crisis of the mind, a crisis of thinking, a crisis of story.” ¹

Berry’s vision helps us frame this moment not just as a policy failure, but as a rupture in how we imagine our relationship with the Earth. He insisted that the Earth is not a collection of resources to be managed, but a communion of subjects a sacred community of which we are a part. The Amazon is not just a carbon sink; it is a living, breathing member of the Earth Community.

The Pará state government has defended the road project, claiming that it predates COP30 and includes “green” features like solar-powered lighting and wildlife crossings. But these gestures, however well-intended, cannot outweigh the deeper cost: the erasure of ancient trees, the displacement of Indigenous communities, and the disruption of delicate ecosystems. These are not technical problems with technical fixes. As Berry warned, we are living in an “autistic relation to the natural world” an inability to hear the cry of the Earth because we are trapped in a worldview of domination. ²

This crisis is not confined to Brazil. It is part of a global pattern: economic and political interests cloaked in the language of sustainability. Grand summits and pledges are made, while forests are felled, oceans warm, and species vanish. “We are talking only to ourselves,” Berry wrote. “We are not talking to the rivers; we are not listening to the wind and stars. We have broken the great conversation.” ³

What is needed now is not more symbolism, but transformation. Berry called this the Great Work of our time: to transition from a human-centered to an Earth-centered way of living. This means reorienting our economies, our politics, and our religions to align with the wisdom and limits of the Earth. It means listening to the forest not as an obstacle to development, but as a teacher, a sacred presence.

Pope Francis echoes this vision in Laudato Si’, where he calls for an integral ecology an approach that holds together environmental, social, and spiritual concerns. “It cannot be emphasized enough,” Francis writes, “how everything is interconnected.” ⁴ the loss of the Amazon is not just a local tragedy; it is a global unraveling. It affects rainfall in Africa, temperatures in Europe, and spiritual imagination everywhere.

People across the globe are raising their voices. A young woman from South India, responding to the documentary Amazon Rainforest Bulldozed to Build Highway for COP30 (Planet Pulse), pleads: “Please don’t let them cut down that beautiful rainforest. You have the right to protest and protect.” ⁵ Her voice joins a growing chorus of Earth’s defenders’ scientists, Indigenous leaders, spiritual teachers, youth activists all calling us to return to reverence, kinship, and responsibility.

If COP30 is to mean anything, it must start by honoring the forest. Not with token green technologies, but with a transformed consciousness that recognizes the rainforest as a living subject, not a convenience to be sacrificed. As Berry warned, “The universe is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects.” ¹ Until we reclaim this vision, every promise of sustainability will be built on the ruins of the Earth.

And if we still believe that the economy matters more than the environment, perhaps it’s time to ask: what kind of future are we really investing in? After all, we cannot count our money if we can no longer breathe.

What kind of sustainability are we actually hoping for? Is it just about greener packaging and carbon offsets, or are we ready to ask deeper questions about the way we live, eat, build, and consume? Too often, our idea of sustainability stops at convenience something that doesn’t challenge our comforts or habits too much. But sustainability isn’t a sticker on a coffee cup; it’s a radical shift in how we relate to the Earth and to each other.

How many of us really pause to ask where our food comes from, what was cleared to grow it, or who harvested it? When we eat out, are we reading the label or the story behind the label? These are not small questions. They are windows into how disconnected we’ve become from the land that feeds us.

We are a culture wired for short-term answers. Everything today is instant: fast food, instant coffee, next-day delivery. We’re conditioned to expect speed and convenience, often at the expense of depth, care, and long-term thinking. But the Earth does not operate on our deadlines. Climate change, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem collapse are not waiting for next quarter’s profits. They are already reshaping the world we’re handing to the next generation.

What we need is not a quick fix, but a long view rooted in care, humility, and the recognition that we are not the center of the story. True sustainability demands that we think seven generations ahead, not just until the next summit or election.

The road to COP30 should not be paved over the silence of felled trees and displaced lives. It should be built on reverence, restraint, and the courageous imagination to live differently for the sake of those who come after us, and for the Earth that still holds us.

So, what can we do?

Speak up. Share this story. Raise awareness. Whether you’re a student, a spiritual leader, a policymaker, or simply someone who cares lend your voice to the chorus calling for change.

Support frontline communities. Listen to Indigenous wisdom and follow their leadership. Advocate for policy that protects ecosystems instead of exploiting them.

Rethink your own patterns of consumption. Choose products and practices that align with Earth’s limits. Refuse the illusion that convenience is harmless.

And above all rediscover your place within the Earth community. Let the forest teach you again how to listen.

The time for transformation is now. Let COP30 not be remembered for the road that silenced a forest, but for the turning point when we chose to walk a different way together.

Francois BALGA GOLDONG, omi

Footnotes

1. https://youtu.be/DYtmc2JPIfM  watch this video
2. Thomas Berry, Evening Thoughts: Reflecting on Earth as Sacred Community, ed. Mary Evelyn Tucker (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books / Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), p. 17.
3. Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1988), p. 18.
4. Ibid., p. 19.
5. Pope Francis, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2015), §138.
6. Planet Pulse Documentary: Amazon Rainforest Bulldozed to Build Highway for COP30, N18G. Available on YouTube.