Dorothy Stang: Monkeys Cry and the Poor Die, Earth Stewardship as Liberation Ecology - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 401

27.4 Unity of Social Questions and Environmental Questions

Certainly a basic concern of environmental ethics in the context of the theology of
liberation is to maintain the unity of social questions and environmental questions.
The Uruguayan environmentalist Eduardo Gudynas underlines the importance of
recognizing that “human systems are in a continuous and strict interrelation with
environmental systems. Neither of the two can be thought of or understood isolated
from the other” ( 1995 , p. 141; cp. Gudynas 2001 ). Dorothy Stang understood social
struggle and environmental struggle as a single struggle. As she said in reference to
the poor farmers who lived in the forest, “They have a sacrosanct right to aspire to
a better life on land where they can live and work with dignity while respecting the
environment” (Murphy 2007 , p. 124).
Sister Dorothy lifted up the magnifi cence of the forest as she simultaneously
demanded justice for the poor. In testimony before the state senate, she lamented the
destruction of biodiversity and criticized the anti-environmental practices of both
the poor farmers and the ranchers and lumber companies. But she understood envi-
ronmental destruction as a consequence of social injustice.

So this magnifi cent Amazon forest suffered year after year as they cut down another area of
the forest and burned it off. And they kept burning off more and more. Then the big land-
owners began to arrive with cattle and ranches and all this forest land was further degraded.
[T]he big landowners paid lots of poor farmers to invade our [PDS] reserves. We kept
crying out that our reserve was being invaded (Murphy 2007 , pp. 115, 116).
Then she asked the senators, “Have you ever heard a monkey sobbing in pain as
his trees are being burned?” (Murphy 2007 , p. 116)
From the temperate forests of southern Chile, the Mapuche leader Nilsa Raín
also unifi es these dimensions: “we are fi ghting to reconstruct a way of life harmoni-
ous with nature.” Are these social justice activists? Or are they environmental activ-
ists? Both dimensions are integrally intertwined in their thought and struggles. For
Dorothy Stang, Nilsa Raín, Andrés Tamayo, and many other activists, the two can-
not be separated.

27.5 Dimensions of Earth Stewardship

The foregoing suggests that what is in question is the nature—human relationship.
At bottom it is a question of relations and recognition. Clearly this about commu-
nity and alterity.