Nature
PUBLISHED
It’s not just top climate scientists at NASA who are worried about climate change – even Pope Francis has joined the debate and shown concern for the environment’s future.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.At a press conference last Thursday in Rome for the Catholic Church’s World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, Pope Francis said that people's destruction of the environment is a sin and called for humanity to take action against the "ecological debt" we have caused, the Official Vatican Press Office and Associated Press reported.
Pope Francis went on to say "we are participants in a system that 'has imposed the mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction of nature." The real victims of climate change, he added, will be those who already have the least, including the poor and victims of the refugee crisis.
Along with supporting the Paris Climate Agreement and giving some day-to-day tips on how to help the environment, he has even suggested that caring for the planet should be added to the seven "works of mercy" that Christians are called to perform.
Despite the somewhat "awkward" relationship between the Catholic Church and science over the centuries, many are heralding this as a positive move for the environment.
