Pope Francis demanded action to “invert the global warming curve” in a May 16 address to participants in a Vatican-sponsored conference on climate change.
In a highly detailed talk, the Pope said that the problem of climate change is becoming steadily more acute, and told an international group of political leaders that “we are working for a culture of life or for a culture of death.”
The Pope said that climate change is attributable not only to human activity— a theory that remains controversial— but to human greed. He said: “The wealthier nations, around 1 billion people, produce more than half the heat trapping pollutants,” said the Pope. “On the contrary, the 3 billion poorer people contribute less than 10%, yet they suffer 75% of the resulting damage.”
The damage to the world’s climate caused by human activity is “an offense against God,” the Pope insisted. “We find ourselves faced with systemic challenges that are distinct yet interconnected: climate change, the loss of biodiversity, environmental decay, global disparities, lack of food security and threats to the dignity of the peoples affected by them.”
Pope Francis said that pollution causes millions of deaths every year, and demanded efforts to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Vatican News reported: “He mentioned especially the Amazon Basin and the Congo, peat bogs, mangroves, oceans, coral reefs, farmlands, and glacial icecaps.”