catholic enviromental responsobility

The Catholic attitude toward nature in one word is stewardship. Stewardship is the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care. From the first pages of the Bible, we are instructed to "cultivate and care for" God's Creation (Genesis 2:15). Created in the image and likeness of God, we are granted dominion over the rest of Creation (Genesis 1:26-28). Dominion means that we have sovereignty over and responsibility for the well-being of God's Creation. We resemble God primarily because of this dominion; hence our dominion must also resemble God's dominion. We must cultivate and care for the Earth as God does, with love and wisdom. We are called to exercise dominion in ways that allow God's original Creative Act to be further unfolded. And because we resemble the Creator, we are also in a sense co-creators with Him.
Dominion does not mean that God does not care how we use the material world. From the beginning, God insists that humans are not “little gods” with limitless authority. Not only does Genesis describe the creation of humankind as “very good,” it describes the creation of non-human creation as “good.” In other words, nature has its own value, and that value is given by God. God enables people to be intelligent and free causes in order to complete the work of Creation and to perfect its harmony.