Pope Francis calls for radical changes to secure sustainability

Social Justice Ireland strongly endorses the key messages on climate change contained in the new encyclical from Pope Francis.  In this 184-page document entitled ‘On Care for Our Common Home’ Francis urgently calls on the entire world's population to act, lest we leave to coming generations a planet of "debris, desolation and filth."

The document endorses a "very solid scientific consensus" that humans are causing cataclysmic climate change that is endangering the planet. It also strongly criticises global political leaders for their "weak responses" and lack of will over decades to address the issue.

Pope Frances states that "An outsider looking at our world would be amazed at [our] behavior, which at times appears self-destructive,"

He goes on to state: "As often occurs in periods of deep crisis which require bold decisions, we are tempted to think that what is happening is not entirely clear. ... Such evasiveness serves as a license to carrying on with our present lifestyles and models of production and consumption. This is the way human beings contrive to feed their self-destructive vices: trying not to see them, trying not to acknowledge them, delaying the important decisions and pretending that nothing will happen."

The document first reviews scientific conclusions on climate change and other environmental degradation and then addresses the deeper implications of these developments for both the church and the global international system.

Addressing world leaders directly, Francis asks: "What would induce anyone, at this stage, to hold on to power only to be remembered for their inability to take action when it was urgent and necessary to do so?"

Tackling climate change in the first of its six chapters, Francis states bluntly: "A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system."

He continues, "Humanity is called to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which produce or aggravate it. It is true that there are other factors (such as volcanic activity, variations in the earth's orbit and axis, the solar cycle), yet a number of scientific studies indicate that most global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases ... released mainly as a result of human activity."

Other major issues and themes addressed in the letter are:

• Environmental degradation causing lack of access to drinking water, loss of biodiversity, and decline in quality of human life;
• Pervasive global inequity that leaves billions experiencing "ecological debt";
• The search for long-term solutions to replace fossil fuels and other unsustainable energies;
• Tying together the ecological crisis with a global social crisis that leaves the poorest in the world behind and does not make them part of international decision-making;
• Changes in global lifestyle that could "bring healthy pressure to bear on those who wield political, economic and social power."

The full text of ‘‘On Care for Our Common Home’ may be accessed here.

Social Justice Ireland’s position on climate change and related environmental and sustainability issues has, most recently, been set out in chapter 11 of our Socio-Economic Review 2015 published in April, 2015.  It may be accessed here.