As we begin to talk about ecology and our place in it, we must start with joy and simply acknowledge our joy in creation and in being alive. So what is environmental justice?

It gets complicated when people start to come into the picture. Rainforests in Amazonia and Asia are cut so the poor can have a livelihood and have a dignified life. This is the way the world works. It is a concern for social and ecological justice. What is the right and wrong thing to do? Freshwater lakes of Africa are used for flowers marketed in Europe, where is the justice for the local environment there?

If life on earth is to thrive, then we have to make sure the ecosystems carry on doing what they do. Without the healthy functioning of oceans, forests, grasslands, wetlands, etc we can't rely on the earth supporting us. Can the Jesuits, Christians, and faiths sit at the environmental table and contribute meaningfully to the solutions being discussed? Will our sense of justice have a voice? Will Christ be heard?

Is this something the Jesuits want to get involved in? Should they be involved? Martin Luther King once said, "Cowardice asks the question ‘is it safe?' Expediency asks the question ‘is it politic?' And vanity comes along and asks the question ‘is it popular?' But conscience asks the question, ‘is it right?'" If the Jesuits do think it is right, what can you bring to the environmental table?

The Jesuit tool kit

I believe the Society of Jesus brings a much needed tool kit:

God is in all things: This is really different and missing from present thought. This is a fundamental base of Jesuit spirituality and philosophy. If we all really did see the face of God reflected in all things, we would have a very different attitude to the world.

Discernment: Rarely is there a black and white answer to these big environmental problems. It is never that simple. So how do we discern the right way? It is through prayer and into decision - discernment. If discernment was applied in Copenhagen, we may be in a different place now. If world leaders listed the Gifts of the Holy Spirit at the top of the page and applied them before working out decisions that would affect the world, there would be a very different outlook of life.

One example of a complex situation: There is a plan is to build a barrage (an artificial barrier) across the Severn Estuary in the UK to generate clean, renewable energy from the very high tides. But the estuary is a migration path for birds and fish and the impact of building the barrage is unknown. So do we build this on the estuary? I do not know. We need to be global citizens doing our part to create clean energy, but what about the rights of the wildlife on the estuary? How do we answer and discern such complicated problems?

Jesuits live and share the concept of simple, holy living. If we live this way, many problems would dissolve but not necessarily easily. With families, I find it very complicated, especially in how to bring up children in a consumerist society. My son when 11 wanted a Play Station. He was so cross at not getting it that he shouted, "How can you expect me to be a kid if I don't have a Play Station?" It shows how much we have come to rely on things for a feeling of identity and belonging in society. But simple, Christian, holy living is not about Play Stations.

Living in community is a lovely idea of solidarity and community sharing. The Jesuits work in and influence all levels of society from mud huts to theology departments. And working out what it means to live simply and in harmony with the earth in all these situations is a challenge.

Christianity also brings a sense of celebration and hope, a belief in time unfolding into the future. Not everything is for us to know now, but we must do what we can at this moment.

There is a terrible feeling of guilt. We can see that what we do in our own lives goes beyond us to the wider world. We cannot solve the problems of the world alone, but we can live in the very best way we can, and that is all we are asked to do. Oscar Romero in "The Master Builder," reminds us that we do not have the overall plan. We are just the workers and we have to do the best we can. David Attenborough when asked about all the wonders of nature he has seen and how they are being lost and degraded, said, "As long as I can look into the eyes of my grandchildren and say, ‘I did the best I could,' even if we don't succeed, then I will be content."

God in all things; it is so easy to find God in a sunset, a whale fluke and a beautiful flower, but this is a tiny measure. Nature is not just beautiful. Nature is also very dangerous. It bites and stings, it shakes its plates and many people are buried alive. This must be acknowledged if we are to have a healthy understanding of our place in nature. We must acknowledge we are a species along with all other species and so act in competition with the forest or grassland and compete with nature. Where is the theology of competition? Where is God in the suffering in the wildebeest attacked by wild dogs and dying on the savannah while being eaten alive? We need to be a lot less rosy in what we choose to see; only in awe, wonder, fear and humility will we find the right answer.

The problem is if God is only in the sunset, then God does not become God of all things. Gerry Hughes, a Jesuit theologian engaged with issues of spirituality, says that we have developed a "split spirituality" where "God and the things of God are divided off from ordinary everyday life." God is in the sunset, but not in the aisles of the supermarket and in the chicken we buy. How do we bring God into the supermarket and to the petrol pumps? If we understand the awe of the carbon, we would be much more respectful.

Discernment needs to be brought back into the decisions in our world. We need to bring in an understanding of suffering, a view of God in all things and simple living. All this comes to the environmental table. Before he was executed, Dietrich Bonheoffer, a German Lutheran pastor and theologian who courageously opposed the Fuehrer and his policies during the Nazi era, said, "It is the nature, and the advantage, of strong people that they can bring out the crucial questions and form a clear opinion about them. The weak always have to decide between alternatives that are not their own."

Are Jesuits weak or strong? Will they have clear opinions about our relationship with the natural world? Or will they have to decide between alternatives given by politics, NGOs, and science?

People need to survive and therefore we need to take from nature, but we need to look at how we do it and our mindset. Wealth often means disconnection with the natural world. What of the aspiration of countries to be where we are, who want their first television, computer or small car? We need a new vision for development and for the world. We need to accept mission and give witness.

Mary Colwell, a consultant on the relationship between people and the natural world, recently spoke with some Jesuits meeting in Rome and shared her thoughts. Mary describes herself as a TV, radio, and Internet producer and makes programmes for the British Broadcasting Corporation and the independent sector. She lives in Bristol on the Severn Estuary in SW England where the curlew calls. Mary cooperated in the preparation of the Seven-Year Plan, participated at the World Social Forum in Belem (2009), and is working at the interface of religions and the environment. You may consult her website at Curlew Media & Consultancy .