(cache)Pope makes ethical case for action on climate change

Pope makes ethical case for action on climate change

Papal document on the environment urges care for “our Sister, Mother Earth.”

We see plenty of news stories about climate science and the politicians who reject that research, but not many people can command international attention by discussing the moral implications of all that science. The Pope is one of those people.

On Thursday, the Vatican released a highly anticipated “encyclical”—a weighty letter from the Pope to the rest of the Roman Catholic Church—on the environment and, yes, climate science. The encyclical was a priority for Pope Francis, who took his name from Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and—as of 1979—ecologists. The pontiff had the assistance of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in preparing the 184 page document (published in eight languages), which includes some pretty detailed discussions of environmental science.

Although the hype leading up to the document’s release centered on the issue of climate change, it is actually aimed more broadly at the relationship between humanity and our environment. The Pope quotes St. Francis’ description of “our Sister, Mother Earth,” and writes, “This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the good with which God has endowed her.”

The letter rejects the idea that biblical descriptions of humans having dominion over the Earth justify all exploitation of resources. Instead, the Pope highlights the intrinsic value of all living things, and writes, “Each community can take from the bounty of the Earth whatever it needs for subsistence, but it also has the duty to protect the Earth and to ensure its fruitfulness for coming generations.”

The letter’s emphasis is clearly on helping the world’s poor, and on what it calls “the ethical and spiritual roots of environmental problems.” Global inequality is exacerbated by environmental degradation, and the Pope decries profit-above-all-else economic behavior for leading to both.

One option not supported for helping the poor, of course, is contraception. The problem is not population growth, the Pope writes, but “extreme and selective consumerism on the part of some.”

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As for climate change, the encyclical states, “It is true that there are other factors (such as volcanic activity, variations in the Earth’s orbit and axis, the solar cycle), yet a number of scientific studies indicate that most global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides and others) released mainly as a result of human activity.”

The Pope calls climate change “one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day” and says there “is an urgent need to develop policies so that, in the next few years, the emission of carbon dioxide and other highly polluting gases can be drastically reduced.” Those policies should have a “global perspective” that moves wealthy nations to help poor nations adapt to climate change and bypass the use of fossil fuels. When it comes to building renewable energy sources in developing countries, the Pope writes that “these are primarily ethical decisions, rooted in solidarity between all peoples.”

The letter ends with a pair of prayers. One, titled “A prayer for our Earth” reads, in part, “Bring healing to our lives, that we may protect the world and not prey on it, that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction. Touch the hearts of those who look only for gain, at the expense of the poor and the Earth.”

This encyclical is one piece of the Pope’s ambition to influence the key international climate negotiations in Paris later this year. In September, the Pope will take his plea to the United Nations General Assembly. The small and less-developed nations are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and he would like to see the nations that have emitted the most greenhouse gases aid them. The details of that aid, however, have been a considerable sticking point in negotiations so far, and the Pope no doubt hopes to grease those skids ahead of the Paris talks.

What about the public and political polarization in countries like the United States? Can the first chemist to head the Catholic Church precipitate a sudden conversion of religious conservatives who still harbor doubts about climate science? That’s unlikely, but it can’t hurt. We know that people are more trusting of voices they identify with, culturally, and voices like the Pope’s can help break down the belief that climate change is a “liberal” issue.

However, a number of conservative politicians in the US have already asserted that the Pope is wrong about climate change and shouldn’t even be talking about it in the first place.