Greed is Destroying Earth, Says Pope in Crusade Against Climate Change

The New Indian Express , Friday, June 19, 2015
Correspondent :
VATICAN CITY/ LONDON: Pope Francis blamed the rich and powerful for placing the planet in unprecedented danger as he demanded urgent and concerted global action against climate change.

The Earth is rapidly being turned into "an immense pile of filth" by unbridled greed, he warned in a critique of the "sin" of environmental destruction.

In a landmark papal encyclical, addressed to "every person living on this planet", he said there was a "solid scientific consensus" that mankind was at least mostly responsible for global warming.

The document, which will become part of the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, demanded the phasing out of fossil fuels and urged the world to find a way to pay for the transition to green energy, with the rich rather than the poor shouldering the burden.

It castigated governments and hit out at climate change sceptics, whom it accused of being in "de-nial of the problem" and even, in some cases, responsible for a cover-up. The Pope also deflected criticism that the Vatican was partly responsible for the environmental crisis through its opposition to birth control. "To blame population growth instead of extreme and selective consumerism on the part of some is one way of refusing to face the issues," he said.

However, this did not go far enough for some Catholic groups who voiced dismay that he did not explicitly reaffirm the ban on contraception.

The encyclical was applauded by environmentalists, aid agencies, religious leaders and politicians led by Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General.

But the Pope's assertions on the human causes of climate change pit him against powerful figures, including those on the US Right, before a visit to America where he will address Congress.

A Vatican spokesman said he had never seen such intense speculation over a papal document in his 25 years there.

While the encyclical will influence the political debate, its most powerful impact could come in its instruction to the world's 1.2 billion Catholics through an "ecological conversion", transforming their own lifestyles to cut waste and end the "throwaway culture".

If taken as seriously as previous encyclicals, such as Humanae Vitae of 1968 which prohibited artificial birth control, it would mean millions of families committing themselves to cooking less food to avoid waste, switching off lights and recycling.

"Nobody is suggesting a return to the Stone Age, but we do need to slow down and look at reality in a different way, to appropriate the positive and sustainable progress which has been made, but also to recover the values and the great goals swept away by our unrestrained delusions of grandeur," the Pope said.

Prof John Schellnhuber, a German climate scientist who played a leading role in the drafting of the encyclical, said the document "brings together two strong powers in the world, faith and morals, and reason and ingenuity".

 
SOURCE : http://www.newindianexpress.com/world/Greed-is-Destroying-Earth-Says-Pope-in-Crusade-Against-Climate-Change/2015/06/19/article2875023.ece
 


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