In the dwindling days of October, my dorm room was almost 80 degrees. Around that time of year, I am usually itching to give up on fall, turn on my six-hour long Christmas playlist and light a balsam-scented candle. However, I couldn’t find it in me this time around. Nobody on campus seemed very concerned about the weather or the fact that it was over 20 degrees above average for late October. I heard a lot of “Wow, it’s so unseasonably warm!” and “I’m really enjoying the nice weather!” But people didn’t seem to want to talk about why this was going on.

Undoubtedly, this was part of a larger pattern. I’ve found that climate change tends to be a touchy subject for a lot of people. To an extent, I understand — it never feels good to think about what the planet will look and feel like 10, 20 or 50 years down the line, especially when we can barely find the time to make our PATH plans for next semester. Some people outright deny that anything is changing at all, but others may just want to put it out of their minds. I get that it isn’t a top priority for everyone. However, I would argue that, as Christians, we owe God’s creation a lot more than what we pay it currently.

Any basic theology class typically begins with Genesis 1 and 2, the Bible’s famous accounts of how God meticulously created the world and human beings over the course of six days. Notre Dame’s theology curriculum is no exception. In my Foundations of Theology course this fall, we read how God spoke the land, sea, sky, vegetation, animals and humans into existence. Why, then, are we destroying it with little to no remorse or attempt to fix our actions?

Some of the solution is far out of our reach and instead lies in the hands of big corporations and government officials. As a result, it is hard to talk about climate change and global warming without getting political. In a perfect world, the two might be separated. Everyone might just acknowledge that they have a collective duty to this planet with which we were so graciously provided. Unfortunately, politics and the Earth’s fate have historically been (and will continue to be) closely intertwined. So when I sat at my friend’s dorm on Nov. 5 and watched the votes for Donald Trump climb on the TV, a pit grew in my stomach.

President Trump has called climate change a hoax on multiple occasions, and he plans to roll back environmental regulations after he is inaugurated in January. Additionally, his recently-announced pick for Energy Secretary, Chris Wright, is the CEO of a fracking company and a big proponent of fossil fuels, the burning of which is a source of pollution.

Notably, a large proportion of Trump’s supporters are devout Christians who praise him for upholding the values of their faith. While it is likely that some of them didn’t even consider the issue of climate change when voting and instead focused on issues such as the economy or immigration, those issues will be rather trivial on an unlivable Earth.

When God gave us the command in Genesis 1:28 to “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth,” He was trusting us with an immense responsibility. We were not supposed to simply populate it, industrialize it and then treat it carelessly as our stomping grounds for the years to follow. We were also supposed to protect it, which is largely the very opposite of what we are currently doing.

If you are Catholic and don’t find yourself particularly moved by what I’ve had to say thus far, take a look at Pope Francis’s views on the matter. His second encyclical, “Laudato si’,” centers around caring for the Earth and draws upon the ideas of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and ecology. The Pope writes that, in the eyes of St. Francis, “... our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us” (par. 1), and “This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her” (par. 2). I think Pope Francis is pretty spot-on. We should treat the Earth like it is a part of our family. With this in mind, what can we do?

Scientists have long warned that we are on the brink of many “tipping points” concerning environmental features like coral reefs, glaciers and the Amazon Rainforest. Once past these points, the climate will have little to no chance of reverting back to what it once was. This is intimidating, so it is easier to ignore it and write it off as incorrect or an exaggeration. In order to tackle climate change head-on, however, we cannot look the other way, and we certainly cannot be silent.

The first change we need to make is to our mindsets. In Matthew 22:39, Christ says one of the two greatest commandments is to “love your neighbor as yourself.” I will be the first to admit that, in college, it is easy to act more out of our own interests than those of the people around us. We go to a high-stress, high-pressure, competitive university, and we’re all trying to set ourselves up for future success. But there is room in our hearts for more than that. Any of us planning on having kids should think about the world we want them to grow up in. It is no secret that the future of the next generation is partly in our hands.

Also, as Notre Dame students, we frequently hear about “being a force for good,” not just on our campus, but in the world. Climate change certainly ties into this saying in addition to the notion of loving our neighbor. Many low-income countries feel its effects more severely than we do in the United States, especially in terms of natural disasters and loss of crops — even though they are some of the smallest contributors to the climate crisis. If we truly want to live up to this ever-important motto, we need to recognize this disproportionality and take steps to combat it.

While I don’t believe the issue of climate change should be political, one of the most important actions we can take against climate change is voting, especially at the local level. Additionally, remember that individual actions matter. Whenever possible, take public transportation, walk or bike. Save energy in your home by choosing energy-efficient appliances and using LED lightbulbs. Shop secondhand. Take only what you’re going to eat at the dining hall. If everyone thinks their actions won’t make a difference, change will be a lot harder to come by.

My goal is not to claim to know everything about climate change, science or politics. But I hold my Catholic faith close to my heart, and I think it’s important to use its principles to guide our actions and make for a better world. I have seen so much good and potential in the Notre Dame community from only a few months of being here, and I am certain that it can be channeled into caring more deeply for our common home.