Conference will address plastic pollution crisis
Boston College faculty will host scientists and theologians from around the world on October 4 and 5 for the conference “Joining Science and Theology to End Plastic Pollution, Protect Health, and Advance Social Justice.”
In addition to addressing a crucial global issue, the conference represents the latest milestone in the University’s initiatives and investments in scientific research and its use for the public good, as well as the expansion of BC’s historical strengths that have made it one of the world’s top Catholic universities and leading theological centers.
Philip Landrigan, M.D. (Gary Wayne Gilbert)
“This conference is based on the recognition that the plastics crisis is more than an environmental challenge,” said one of the conference’s lead organizers, Global Public Health and the Common Good (GPHCG) Program Director Philip Landrigan, M.D. “Like climate change, air pollution, biodiversity loss, and escalating inequality, the plastics crisis is also a social and ethical challenge. It threatens human health and is responsible for widespread environmental injustice.”
Fittingly, campus co-sponsors represent multiple areas of the University: GPHCG, the Theology Department, Institute for the Liberal Arts, Clough School of Theology and Ministry, Connell School of Nursing, BC School of Social Work, and the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society. External co-sponsors of the conference are Australia’s Minderoo Foundation, the Centre Scientifique de Monaco, and MMHBO Fund at Schwab Charitable.
Conference co-organizers include Michael P. Walsh Professor of Bioethics and Theology Chair Andrea Vicini, S.J., BCSSW Professor and GPHCG Associate Director Summer Hawkins, and BCSSW Louise McMahon Ahearn Endowed Professor Karen Bullock.
Speakers from BC include Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley, Connell School Dean Katherine E. Gregory, DeLuca Professor in Biology and Vice Provost for Research and Academic Planning Thomas C. Chiles, Clough School Dean Michael C. McCarthy, S.J., BC Law School Dean Odette Lienau, BCSSW Dean Gautam Yadama, and Nobel laureate and Carroll School of Management Seidner University Professor Paul Romer.
Among the visiting speakers are University of Virginia Professor of Religious Studies Willis Jenkins; Beyond Plastics President Judith Enck; Sarah Dunlop, director of the Minderoo Foundation Plastics & Human Health research program; United Nations Environment Program Senior Economics Advisor Pusphpam Kumar; Monterey Bay Aquarium Chief Conservation and Science Officer Margaret Spring; epidemiologist Adetoun Mustapha of Nigeria’s Lead City University; Hervé Raps of the Centre Scientifique de Monaco; and Rev. Mitchell C. Hescox, president emeritus of the Evangelical Environmental Network.
“This conference is the result of a tremendous amount of work that has taken place on campus during the past decade and highlights Boston College’s unique ability to join science and moral theology to address a key issue in global health,” Landrigan said.
The Minderoo Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health, anchored at Boston College, found that plastics harm human health at every stage of their life cycle—from extraction of the crude oil, fracked gas, and coal that are plastics’ principal feedstocks, through transport, manufacture, use, recycling, and on to disposal into the environment.
“Like climate change, air pollution, biodiversity loss, and escalating inequality, the plastics crisis is also a social and ethical challenge. It threatens human health and is responsible for widespread environmental injustice. . .This conference highlights Boston College’s unique ability to join science and moral theology to address a key issue in global health.”
Plastics’ harms fall disproportionately on the poor, people of color, and marginalized communities. Groups at particularly high risk include employees in the fossil fuel and chemical industries, as well as people who live near such facilities and supply chains. More than 400 million tons of plastic are produced annually and the output is projected to double in the next 16 years. Plastic waste can be found in nearly every environment.
In response to the worsening plastics crisis, the U.N. Environment Assembly voted in March 2022 to develop a Global Plastics Treaty. An Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee will hold its fifth and final meeting in Korea in November.
The Minderoo Monaco Commission argues that the treaty requires a legally binding global cap on new plastic, restrictions on single-use plastics, and comprehensive regulation of plastic chemicals.
Building on this recognition, the purpose of the BC conference is to bring moral clarity to the conversation on plastic pollution, Landrigan said. In addition to reviewing the current crisis and potential solutions—including their ethical dimensions—the conference will produce a declaration that urges the treaty negotiators to produce a legally binding, just, and equitable treaty prioritizing the protection of human rights and health for all people.
Drawing inspiration from Pope Francis, the declaration concludes: “Plastic is not an isolated problem. Like climate change, air pollution, and escalating inequality, the plastics crisis is a social and ethical challenge…We need to embrace a new approach that transforms our way of living in the world, our lifestyles, our relationship with the earth’s resources, and generally how we look at humanity and all life. Such an approach is essential if we wish to leave a habitable planet for our children, our children’s children, and the generations yet to come.”
Conference sessions on Octrober 4 will take place in Gasson Hall; the October 5 program will be conducted in the Corcoran Commons Heights Room. For information about the conference, visit the conference website.