Pope Francis has called for his most significant encyclical to date, Laudato Si (Be Praised), sub-titled "On the Care of Our Common Home", to be part of the debate at a major UN summit on climate change later this year in Paris. It is clear that the challenges it presents go beyond individual countries. It is not merely "tagging God into the global conversation on climate change". His target is far beyond the world's 1.2 billion Catholics in what is an arresting message which, according to lead author Cardinal Peter Turkson, is designed to highight the need for "serious moral responsibility" to protect the environment.
"The pope is offering the world a moral vocabulary for talking about climate change, shifting global attention from the macro solutions of policy summits to the personal ethics of environmental stewardship," Emma Green noted in TheAtlantic.com. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus remarks in relation to five sparrows about to be sold off, "not one of them is forgotten before God".
“Francis has taken this parable and turned it back on humankind: policymakers and scientists may try to stop the warming of the earth, but ultimately, we are each responsible for the destruction of creation,” Green observed.
In outlining the ongoing impact of that destruction, Pope Francis spells out uncompromisingly the scale of human failures, while dismissing the notion that the application of new technology will somehow solve matters. The scale and detail of an accompanying environmental audit of the world is breathtaking.
Much of it focuses on sustainable energy use, including a need for green building standards, while careful to not resort to the hysteria of some campaigners. The jury is still out on genetically-modified crops, for example; they may have a role in countering world hunger, in spite of evidence they may have damaged some eco-systems.
The science may be balanced, but the warnings are blunt, such as the decree to stop developing fossil fuels. But one of the most trenchant parts of the 200-page document is a citing of damage to the planet that has exacerbated poverty; especially in the developing world. “A true ‘ecological debt’ exists, particularly between the global north and south” because of over-exploitation of resources, and a throw-away lifestyle of the better off that is frequently incompatible with the best interests of a sustainable world.
Within that context the pope is brutally frank on where obligations rest; almost totally among wealthier countries – and within them, with the powerful multinational corporations. Again here, the message goes beyond individual responsibility for ensuring we make meaningful efforts to secure a better global environment. The call to action applies to humankind.