“Pope Francis among the people at St. Peter’s Square – 12 May 2013” by Edgar Jiménez from Porto, Portugal – Papa rock star. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
It looks like those who dispute the necessity for action on climate change will now have to take on one of the world’s most popular figures: Pope Francis.
“Humanity is called to take note of the need for changes in lifestyle and changes in methods of production and consumption to combat this warming, or at least the human causes that produce and accentuate it…. Numerous scientific studies indicate that the greater part of the global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases … given off above all because of human activity.” – Excerpts from a leaked draft of a papal encyclical, as translated by the Guardian
The pope’s essay, Laudato Si’, On the Care of Our Common Home, is set for official release on Thursday, and the Vatican noted that the leaked version published by an Italian magazine was not necessarily final.
