Pope's Draft Encyclical Says Climate Change Is Real, Man-Made And Globe's Economic Powers Are To Blame
God Says Climate Change Is Real And We're To Blame
Paul Vale— The Huffington Post UK
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God says climate change is real and we're to blame. Or at least that’s the word from his corporeal representative on Earth. The long-awaited encyclical from Pope Francis, detailing the Catholic Church's official stance on global warming, was leaked on Monday, days before its scheduled release.
Within the text, Francis states, “numerous scientific studies indicate that the majority of the global warming in recent decades is due to the large concentration of greenhouse gases... emitted above all due to human activity.” That’s anthropogenic climate change backed by the Vatican, though the paper does note other factors will be involved.
Italian Magazine L’Espresso published the document online on Monday causing some disquiet around St. Peter's with Vatican officials moving quickly to suggest the 192-document was not the final version.
A Vatican official told Bloomberg that the release was a "heinous act".
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Pope Francis attends a meeting with the Roman Diocesans in St. Peter's Square on June 14, 2015 in Vatican City
One Vatican wonk even tweeted asking journalists to respect the embargo. That prayer went unanswered, with the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Independent and various other publications jumping on the story.
Using words bound to stir deniers in the US, the encyclical accuses the globe’s great economic powers of "making the problems or hiding the symptoms," while describing climate change as the Earth’s way of protesting “irresponsible use and abuse of the goods that God placed in her.”
According to a Guardian translation, the draft reads: “We have grown up thinking that we were her owners and dominators, authorised to loot her. The violence that exists in the human heart, wounded by sin, is also manifest in the symptoms of illness that we see in the Earth, the water, the air and in living things.”
“The attitudes that stand in the way of a solution, even among believers, range from negation of the problem, to indifference, to convenient resignation or blind faith in technical solutions,” it continues. "Today we cannot help but recognise that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach, which must integrate justice in the discussions of the environment, to hear the cry of the Earth as much as the cry of the poor."
Earlier this month Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, perhaps the most devout papist in American political life, excoriated Francis, telling Christ's Vicar on Earth to stay out of climate change and “leave the science to the scientists.” Unfortunately for Santorum, Francis has a Masters degree in chemistry making him very much a scientist.
The impacts of climate warming in Alaska are already occurring, experts have warned. Over the past 50 years, temperatures across Alaska increased by an average of 3.4°F. Winter warming was even greater, rising by an average of 6.3°F jeopardising its famous glaciers and frozen tundra.
Venice(02 of09)
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The most fragile of Italian cities has been sinking for centuries. Long famous for being the city that is partially under water, sea level rise associated with global warming would have an enormous impact on Venice and the surrounding region. The Italian government has begun constructing steel gates at the entrances to the Venetian lagoon, designed to block tidal surges from flooding the city. However, these barriers may not be enough to cope with global warming.
Antarctica (03 of09)
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The West Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest warming areas on Earth, with only some areas of the Arctic Circle experiencing faster rising temperatures. Over the past 50 years, temperatures in parts of the continent have jumped between 5 and 6 degrees F— a rate five times faster than the global average.A 2008 report commissioned by WWF warned that if global temperatures rise 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial averages, sea ice in the Southern Ocean could shrink by 10 to 15 percent.
The Great Barrier Reef(04 of09)
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The rapid decline of the world's coral reefs appears to be accelerating, threatening to destroy huge swathes of marine life unless dramatic action is swiftly taken, leading ocean scientists have warned. About half of the world's coral reefs have already been destroyed over the past 30 years, as climate change warms the sea and rising carbon emissions make it more acidic.
The Himalayas(05 of09)
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The world's highest mountain range contains the planet's largest non-polar ice mass, with over 46,000 glaciers. The mammoth glaciers cross eight countries and are the source of drinking water, irrigation and hydroelectric power for roughly 1.5 billion people. And just like in Antarctica, the ice is melting.
The Maldives(06 of09)
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An expected 2°C rise in the world’s average temperatures in the next decades will impact island economies such as the Maldives with extreme weather patterns and rising sea levels.
The Alps(07 of09)
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Over the last century, global warming has caused all Alpine glaciers to recede. Scientists predict that most of the glaciers in the Alps could be gone by 2050. Global warming will also bring about changes in rain and snowfall patterns and an increase in the frequency of extreme meteorological events, such as floods and avalanches, experts have warned.
The Arctic(08 of09)
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The Arctic is ground zero for climate change, warming at a rate of almost twice the global average. The sea ice that is a critical component of Arctic marine ecosystems is projected to disappear in the summer within a generation.
Micronesia and Polynesia(09 of09)
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Called the "epicenter of the current global extinction," by Conservation International, this smattering of more than 4,000 South Pacific islands is at risk from both local human activity and global climate change.