Pope Francis recently released a new document, called the “Laudato Si,’ ” that builds on the themes and ideas he presented eight years ago in his 2015 landmark encyclical of the same name. The update focuses on the urgent need for action on climate change and calls on people of all faiths to work together to care for our planet and its inhabitants. Simply put, Pope Francis believes we are not moving fast enough.
In the document, he writes, “With the passage of time, I have realized that our responses have not been adequate, while the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point. In addition to this possibility, it is indubitable that the impact of climate change will increasingly prejudice the lives and families of many persons. We will feel its effects in the areas of healthcare, sources of employment, access to resources, housing, forced migrations, etc.”
In the eight years since Pope Francis became one of the world’s most influential climate activists (there are 1.5 billion Catholics in the world), he believes things have only gotten worse. The United Nations’ first official report card a few months ago states in no uncertain terms that humanity has made only limited progress in averting the climate crisis. Extreme weather––record global temperature, wildfires, torrential floods––is affecting the world at an alarming rate. The use of fossil fuel continues to rise and is projected to do so for at least the next three to five years. The use of green technologies, though increasing significantly, is doing little to offset the increase in fossil fuel use.
Some of the key points of Pope Francis’ update include:
- A renewed emphasis on the interconnectedness of all life and the importance of caring for the environment as a moral responsibility.
- The urgent need to shift to renewable energy sources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming.
- The importance of a just transition to a sustainable economy that benefits all people, including the poor and marginalized.
- The need for greater cooperation and collaboration among nations and people to address the environmental crisis.
I encourage you to read the entire Laudato Si’ at https://bit.ly/48dJaV0.
It’s a remarkable document by one of the most influential climate activists of our time, detailing the current state of humanity’s work on the climate crisis and the urgent need for action.
Next month, I’ll review our 2023 climate successes and failures.
Rich Marcello is a novelist and a member of the Climate Initiative Committee. In writing his latest novel, “The Means of Keeping,” he spent several years researching the climate crisis.
Excerpts from the papal document Laudato Si’, an update to Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical on the environment
On the global climate crisis
Despite all attempts to deny, conceal, gloss over or relativize the issue, the signs of climate change are here and increasingly evident. No one can ignore the fact that in recent years we have witnessed extreme weather phenomena, frequent periods of unusual heat, drought and other cries of protest on the part of the earth that are only a few palpable expressions of a silent disease that affects everyone.
On human causes
It is no longer possible to doubt the human—“anthropic” —origin of climate change. Let us see why. The concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which causes global warming, was stable until the nineteenth century, below 300 parts per million in volume. But in the middle of that century, in conjunction with industrial development, emissions began to increase. While I was writing Laudato Si’, they hit a historic high—400 parts per million—until arriving at 423 parts per million in June 2023.
On great economic powers
Regrettably, the climate crisis is not exactly a matter that interests the great economic powers, whose concern is with the greatest profit possible at minimal cost and in the shortest amount of time.
On damages and risks
Some effects of the climate crisis are already irreversible, at least for several hundred years, such as the increase in the global temperature of the oceans, their acidification and the decrease of oxygen.
The same can be said about the decrease in the continental ice sheets. The melting of the poles will not be able to be reversed for hundreds of years … we are now unable to halt the enormous damage we have caused. We barely have time to prevent even more tragic damage.
On a growing technocratic paradigm
Artificial intelligence and the latest technological innovations start with the notion of a human being with no limits, whose abilities and possibilities can be infinitely expanded thanks to technology. In this way, the technocratic paradigm monstrously feeds upon itself.
Contrary to this technocratic paradigm, we say that the world that surrounds us is not an object of exploitation, unbridled use and unlimited ambition. Nor can we claim that nature is a mere “setting” in which we develop our lives and our projects. For we are part of nature, included in it and thus in constant interaction with it, and thus we do not look at the world from without but from within.
On the weakness of international politics
Our world has become so multipolar and at the same time so complex that a different framework for effective cooperation is required. It is not enough to think only of balances of power but also of the need to provide a response to new problems and to react with global mechanisms to the environmental, public health, cultural and social challenges, especially in order to consolidate respect for the most elementary human rights, social rights and the protection of our common home. It is a matter of establishing global and effective rules that can permit providing for this global safeguarding.
On climate conferences: Progress and failure
Today we can continue to state that the accords have been poorly implemented, due to lack of suitable mechanisms for oversight, periodic review and penalties in cases of noncompliance. The principles which they proclaimed still await an efficient and flexible means of practical implementation. Also, that international negotiations cannot make significant progress due to positions taken by countries which place their national interests above the global common good. Those who will have to suffer the consequences of what we are trying to hide will not forget this failure of conscience and responsibility.
