While the encyclical drew praise from church, science and government leaders, some politically conservative Catholics criticized its economic analysis, and some U.S. Republican politicians said religion had no place in climate policy.
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He also took on big business, appearing to back “what consumer movements accomplish by boycotting certain products” in order to force companies to respect the environment.
Meanwhile Rick Santorum questioned whether the Pope was credible on the issue of climate science.
He said the Pontiff’s position was one of “global moral leadership” and that raising environmental issues was part of the role.
John F. Picciano, of Westbury, who attends St. Kilian Roman Catholic Church in Farmingdale, said he was uncomfortable with the pope wading into scientific debates such as climate change.
The short answer from climate and environmental scientists is that he did, at least to the degree possible in a religious document meant for a broad audience.
Citing the deforestation of the Amazon, the melting of Arctic glaciers and the deaths of coral reefs, Francis rebuked “obstructionist” climate doubters who “seem mostly to be concerned with masking the problems or concealing their symptoms”.
The Obama administration and congressional Democrats welcomed Pope Francis’ call for sweeping action against climate change Thursday, but the pontiff’s message was swiftly dismissed by GOP lawmakers.
“The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an enormous pile of filth”, he writes.
“Once more, we need to reject a magical conception of the market, which would suggest that problems can be solved simply by an increase in the profits of companies or individuals”. It is hard for United States to accept that the way natural ecosystems work is exemplary: plants synthesize nutrients which feed herbivores; these in turn become food for carnivores, which produce significant quantities of organic waste which give rise to new generations of plants.
“We’re delighted that CAFOD supporters like Mark and Jean and the many others across Bristol and the West Country are responding to Pope Francis’s call to action”.
Global warming is blamed by nearly all experts on man-made greenhouse gas emissions for causing more heatwaves, downpours and rising sea levels.
VATICAN CITY/ LONDON: Pope Francis blamed the rich and powerful for placing the planet in unprecedented danger as he demanded urgent and concerted global action against climate change. In an almost 200-page encyclical, Francis called climate change a crisis that political leaders have failed to address for too long. According to a translation by the Wall Street Journal of the 192-page document, the Pope says there is a “very consistent scientific consensus that we are in the presence of an alarming warming of the climatic system”.
He wrote that fossil fuels, especially coal, would have to be progressively replaced to limit the effects of climate change.
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