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POPE BENEDICT XVI AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Posted 8 Sept 2007

Pope Benedict has become increasingly concerned about environmental issues, particularly climate change.

On Sunday, September 2, 2007, the Holy Father addressed hundreds of thousands of young people in the Italian city of Loreto urging world leaders to make courageous decisions to save the planet "before it is too late."

Intentionally wearing green vestments, he said in a homily that, “a decisive 'yes' is needed in decisions to safeguard creation as well as a strong commitment to reverse tendencies that risk leading to irreversible situations of degradation." The occasion of his remarks was the Italian Catholic Church’s annual Save Creation Day.

These remarks come just five weeks after the Holy Father, in answer to a question from a priest in Northern Italy said:

“Today, we all see that man can destroy the foundations of his existence, his earth, hence, that we can no longer simply do what we like or what seems useful and promising at the time with this earth of ours, with the reality entrusted to us. On the contrary, we must respect the inner laws of creation, of this earth, we must learn these laws and obey these laws if we wish to survive. Consequently, this obedience to the voice of the earth, of being, is more important for our future happiness than the voices of the moment, the desires of the moment. In short, this is a first criterion to learn: that being itself, our earth, speaks to us and we must listen if we want to survive and to decipher this message of the earth. And if we must be obedient to the voice of the earth, this is even truer for the voice of human life.”

Finally, this past Wednesday, Benedict XVI reiterated his concern for the environment, especially for the just distribution of water.

Addressing the participants of the symposium titled "The Arctic: Mirror of Life"—a conference to be held in Greenland and begun by Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople—the Pope greeted “all the participants -- various religious leaders, scientists, journalists and other interested parties” to assure them of his prayers and support.

"Care of water resources and attention to climate change are matters of grave importance for the entire human family," he said. "Encouraged by the growing recognition of the need to preserve the environment, I invite all of you to join me in praying and working for greater respect for the wonders of God’s creation!"

"Man can destroy the foundations of his existence"
Gore receives Nobel Peace Prize for advancing the moral urgency of global warming debate

~ ~ ~

New moral urgency following IPCC Report:
US Bishops call for immediate action on global warming 19 Feb 2007

The Catholic Democrat view
On Energy & Environment

True stewardship requires changes in human actions—both in moral behavior and technical advancement. Our religious tradition has always urged restraint and moderation in the use of material goods, so we must not allow our desire to possess more material things to overtake our concern for the basic needs of people and the environment. Pope John Paul II has linked protecting the environment to "authentic human ecology," which can overcome "structures of sin" and which promotes both human dignity and respect for creation. Technological innovation and entrepreneurship can help make possible options that can lead us to a more environmentally benign energy path. Changes in lifestyle based on traditional moral virtues can ease the way to a sustainable and equitable world economy in which sacrifice will no longer be an unpopular concept. For many of us, a life less focused on material gain may remind us that we are more than what we have. Rejecting the false promises of excessive or conspicuous consumption can even allow more time for family, friends, and civic responsibilities. A renewed sense of sacrifice and restraint could make an essential contribution to addressing global climate change.
—Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good. U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, June 2001

The gradual depletion of the ozone layer and the related "greenhouse effect" has now reached crisis proportions as a consequence of industrial growth, massive urban concentrations and vastly increased energy needs. Industrial waste, the burning of fossil fuels, unrestricted deforestation, the use of certain types of herbicides, coolants and propellants,: all of these are known to harm the atmosphere and environment. The resulting meteorological and atmospheric changes range from damage to health to the possible future submersion of low-lying lands. While in some cases the damage already done may well be irreversible, in many other cases it can still be halted. It is necessary, however, that the entire human community—individuals, States and international bodies—take seriously the responsibility that is theirs.
—Pope John Paul II, World Day of Peace, 1 January 1990

1. A new pursuit of energy independence from Middle Eastern oil, rather than policies that enrich energy companies in the United States at the expense of consumers in America. Catholic Democrats has joined with a bipartisan coalition (http://www.setamericafree.org) to break the Bush Administration's addiction to petroleum politics that put us at the mercy of despots in the Middle East.
2. New automobile fuel efficiency standards that will decrease both U.S. fuel consumption and the destructive production of greenhouse gases.
3. New investment in alternative fuels that will be environmentally friendly.
4. Cleaner air—strengthening the Clean Air Act initially signed into law by President Nixon, to create reasonable limits on mercury emissions and acid rain by power plants.
5. Cleaner water—without the fealty the Bush Administration has shown to megaslaughter house polluters, and the gutting of the Superfund legislation that has stalled in cleaning up the most polluted industrial sites around the U.S.
6. Preserve the remaining forest land in U.S. National Parks, rather than essentially giving away timber and mineral resources to major campaign contributors.
7. Elevating the Environmental Protection Agency to a Cabinet-level status.
8. Not stacking environmental regulatory agencies with former lobbyists and lawyers for the polluting industries they will be regulating.

1. Mr. Bush acknowledged during his first year in office that he had no intention of honoring his campaign promise to seek ceilings on industrial production of greenhouse gases.
2. Without consultation in Congress or with other nations, Mr. Bush unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the first major international convention on global warming (the Kyoto Protocol) in 2001, which has since taken effect without United States participation.
3. Mr. Bush is now responsible for the deaths of more than 3700 U.S. servicemen and women in pursuit of his policy of permanent occupation of oil-producing countries in the Middle East.
4. Delayed Clinton-era regulations that would have dramatically decreased mercury emissions from U.S. power plants into the air, promoting instead the “Clear Skies” initiative in 2002 that provided for trivial reductions in mercury, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxides.
5. Initially proposed delays in implementation of new cancer-preventing standards for arsenic contamination of drinking water.
6. Has significantly decreased Superfund toxic cleanup implementation through underfunding and enforcement.
7. Has undermined meaningful fuel efficiency standards for SUVs or other vehicles, in part through new Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards announced under cover of the Christmas holidays last year that give automakers new incentives to make heavier vehicles.

1. The craven quid pro quos of so many former energy industry executives in the Bush Administration to the economic interests of their friends and campaign contributors has raised to new heights the tradeoff between greed and the public good.
2. The ostrich-like Bush approach to Global Warming should be anathema to any Catholic who believes in wise stewardship of the earth.
3. The insistence on keeping petroleum products at the center of Bush energy policy has directly thrust the U.S. into a position of further dependence on Middle East and Caspian Sea oil, resulting in foreign policy decisions that have left thousands of people dead in Iraq and in Israel. This focus on materialism over human life is among the greatest affronts to Catholic sensibilities.
4. “It is manifestly unjust that a privileged few should continue to accumulate excess goods, squandering available resources, while masses of people are living in conditions of misery at the very lowest level of subsistence. Today, the dramatic threat of ecological breakdown is teaching us the extent to which greed and selfishness - both individual and collective - are contrary to the order of creation, an order which is characterized by mutual interdependence.” Pope John Paul II, ibid. (1990)