International Centre for Environmental Health

The ICEH logo was drafted by Robert Rogan of Dublin, Ireland in 1990. The intention was to present the human person as an ‘international centre’ for environmental health stewardship. Each one bearing a responsibility for the care of the environment and of each and every other human person.

A personal thumb-nail cosmology on fostering environmental health sustainability is provided below.

The environment is gifted with its own integrity and dynamic balance; and each and every person and the communities of people bear a responsibility for the care of the environment and of each other.

Environmental health sustainability can never be established, never guaranteed, except by the diligent observance of the divinely established pattern of the created order. cf. Peace on Earth encyclical (1963) 1

Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty? As our great elder, Job, recommends, we should ask the animals, birds, plants and the fish of the sea and they will teach us. Which of these does not know that the hand of God has done this? In Creator’s hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being. See JOB 11:7, 12: 7-10

Pouring out a thousand graces, He passed these groves in haste; and having looked at them clothed them in beauty. Spiritual Canticle of St. John of the Cross Stanza 5

God clothed his creatures in beauty
by imparting to them supernatural being.
This he did when he took on our human nature
and elevated it in the beauty of God,
and consequently all creatures,
since in human nature
he was united with them all.
He clothed them entirely in beauty and dignity. St. (commentary of St.John)

Other species are our relatives

A study of the recent encyclical of Pope Francis, Laudato Si’, prompted David Suzuki to categorise it as: brilliant science. Other species provide us with the very things that we need to survive- clean air, clean water, clean soil, and food and clean energy… And so long as we regard them as just resources, then we will exploit them without a second thought. But regarding them as our relatives, as beings that have every right to exist on this planet means that we treat them in a very different way.”

Quoted in On care for our common home: A dialogue guide for Laudato Si’; Jesuit Forum for Social Faith and Justice, p. 41; CCCB, Ottawa

Liam’s Legacy

A massive Celtic cross discovered in a forest in County Donegal, Ireland was spotted by passengers flying into City of Derry Airport this autumn (2016) sparking speculation about its origins. UTV reporter Gareth Wilkinson went to investigate

Mysterious Celtic cross discovered in Donegal forest

Let the trees of the forest clap their hands and all creation shout for joy (see Isaiah 55:12 & Psalm 98:8)

Views expressed are personal and not necessarily those of the International Federation of Environmental Health. Fred O’Brien, Founding Director IFEH(1986)