POPE'S ENCYCLICAL
Pontiff dives deep into climate change.
VATICAN CITY • He warns of “synthetic agrotoxins” harming birds and insects and “bioaccumulation” from industrial waste. He calls for renewable fuel subsidies and “maximum energy efficiency.” And although he offers prayers at the beginning and end of his heavily anticipated missive on the environment, Pope Francis unmasks himself not only as a very green pontiff, but also as a total policy wonk.
In the 192-page paper released Thursday, Francis lays out the argument for a new partnership between science and religion to combat human-driven climate change — a position bringing him immediately into conflict with skeptics, whom he chides for their “denial.”
Francis urges taking public transit, carpooling, planting trees, turning off unnecessary lights, recycling — and boycotting certain products. He called for an “ecological conversion” for the faithful.
“It must be said that some committed and prayerful Christians, with the excuse of realism and pragmatism, tend to ridicule expressions of concern for the environment,” he writes.
A highly accurate draft leaked Monday had already begun dividing politicians and theologians. As the Vatican rolled out the official version to scenes of Francis on a big screen planting a tree, the debate over the proper role of a pope immediately intensified. Environmental activists, meanwhile, widely cheered the rise of an unlikely ally in the fight against climate change, one whose voice could resonate not only in major global conferences but also in prayer groups and church pews.
What effect the document — known as an encyclical — will have isn’t clear. Polls show that Francis, leader of the world’s largest faith community, is one of the most trusted, popular and re-tweeted people on the planet. Yet the encyclical comes at a time when institutional religion’s influence is waning in many parts of the world.
Nevertheless, green activists held out hope that the pope’s message would touch religious skeptics of climate change — particularly those who are Catholic. In the document, a reforming pope who has set a new tone for the Church on issues including homosexuality laid out a green view of faith that embraced the moral imperatives of everything from animal rights to solar panels.
And he backed up his science with Bible verse, largely rejecting the notion that man had “dominion” over the Earth.
“He is giving us a moral legitimacy to continue campaigning,” said a jubilant Giuseppe Onufrio, executive director of Greenpeace in Italy. “Climate change is now an issue of social justice.”
In the document, Francis linked global warming to the overarching theme of his papacy — fighting inequality and global poverty. “The Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth,” Francis wrote, blaming a toxic cocktail of overconsumption, consumerism, dependence on fossil fuels and the errant indifference of the powerful and wealthy. He described a hell on Earth should nothing be done, one filled with more methane and carbon dioxide, acidification of oceans and the crippling of the global food supply.
In Europe, at the United Nations and else where, kudos streamed in from those thrilled by the pope’s stand. UN-backed talks seeking a global pact to combat climate change are scheduled to open in Paris on Nov. 30.
In a statement, German environment minister Barbara Hendricks hailed the document. “The clear language of this encyclical and its depth of thought are offering impulses, which will have an effect far beyond the Catholic world,” she said. “The encyclical is an incentive for all to take dedicated action for the protection of the environment and climate.”
At a news conference Thursday unveiling the document, one of the pope’s top advisers for the encyclical compared humans’ treatment of the Earth to that of the disenfranchised.
“Our sister, mistreated and pillaged and abused is lamenting, and its groans join all those of all the world who are forsaken and uninvited,” said Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, leader of the church’s Council for Justice and Peace.
Asked about the comments of some U.S. Republicans. critics and climate change deniers who were saying the pope should not speak about science, Turkson quipped that politicians “are not experts either.”
“That the pope should not deal with science sounds a little bit strange,” he said. But, he suggested, by ruling out the pope’s words on climate change, they were effectively buying into attempts in recent years to sideline the voice of religion, and aiding those who say that “religion has, or faith has, no role in public accounts.”
The pope, who has a degree in chemistry and worked early on as a chemist, also made an unprecedented papal dive into policy detail — for example, assessing carbon credits as unlikely to reduce “the overall emission of polluting gases.”
For a document timed ahead of several major conferences aimed at forging a broad new global treaty on climate change, Francis also sought to wield his influence to shape a fair deal for the developing world. Climate change “represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day,” the pope wrote. “Its worst impact will probably be felt by developing countries in coming decades.”
‘The Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.’
— Pope Francis