Protecting planet is an ethical and moral obligation, says Pope Francis

The vulnerability of the poor and of future generations to the impact of climate change creates a “serious ethical and moral responsibility to act without delay and as free as possible from political and economic pressure” to slow climate change and protect the environment, Pope Francis said.

In a written message to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference in Marrakech, Morocco, Pope Francis praised the 100 countries that formally joined the Paris climate agreement adopted last year, but emphasised that implementing the agreement must involve multidisciplinary cooperation and special measures of solidarity with the poor.

“Technological solutions are necessary, but not sufficient,” the Pope wrote to the conference, which was meeting from November 7-18. Governments must recognise there are “ethical and social aspects” of working for a new model of development that is sustainable and respectful of both the planet and the poor.

“The current situation of environmental degradation,” he said, is “strongly connected with human, ethical and social degradation.”

Human creativity and intelligence must be devoted to finding ways to promote development that does not harm the environment, he said. But individuals and nations also must be willing to “limit their power” in the service of a new kind of progress, which is “healthier, more human, more social and more integral, capable of putting the economy at the service of the human person, building peace and justice and saving the environment.”

Education, particularly in promoting lifestyles and styles of consumption that are more sustainable, also are needed, he said.

While news coverage of the Marrakech conference focused on questions about the challenge of moving the Paris process forward if President-elect Donald Trump withdraws US support for the agreement, Pope Francis called for the promotion of “a culture of care,” not just for the environment, “but also for our neighbors, whether they are close or far off.”

I’m not sure what you are saying. I’m concerned with our care of our planet. Sure, we could be hit by an asteroid, and that wouldn’t be our fault; but a lot of stuff IS our fault.

I’ve spent my entire life in Maryland, where the Chesapeake Bay, for centuries, produced enough food to feed millions.

During the last century, pollution killed the bay grasses, to the point where the Bay didn’t produce at all as it had in the past.

The pollution was man-made, a result of technology outpacing our concern for and knowledge about the ecology.

There are cities in Asia where people have to walk around wearing masks, to protect their respiratory systems from the air pollution.

I don’t believe in ‘global warming’, as it is being promoted as an economic redistribution scheme. But human beings HAVE definitely caused deleterious changes to the natural environment.

We have to get ahead of these things, all aside from politics and greed, simply so that future generations can survive healthily.

God isn’t going to ‘fix’ this. He expects us to help ourselves, using all of the resources that He gave us. He expects us to husband our Earth wisely.

Preserving plants and animals is important to future generations. Too often, we find man messes with one species and throws things out of balance. We sometimes don’t understand the importance of certain plants and animals and how it impacts the habitat.

That certainly can't be denied. A textbook example of that is Yellowstone National Park :

Playing God in Yellowstone: The Destruction of America's First National Park – December 17, 1987 by Alston Chase (Author)

Incomplete understanding of a complex problem cannot justify ignoring that good intentions often contributes significantly to a permanent serious mistake.

Worth a glance...

I don’t believe in ‘global warming’, as it is being promoted as an economic redistribution scheme. But human beings HAVE definitely caused deleterious changes to the natural environment.

Not on the scale that you keep implying. And usually premised on two factors.First the limit of knowledge about the "project."
Second, The rational invariant conscious decision, to the extent possible, of the benefit to humanity outweighing the "damage" to Gaia, as an arbitrary end in itself.

We probably would not approve of the Egyptians' "Environmental Report" before wholesale degradation that some, today might arbitrarily deem a unique sensitive desert environment.

We have to get ahead of these things, all aside from politics and greed, simply so that future generations can survive healthily.

That drifts solidly into the realm of faith, which is a fool's errand to challenge. Politics and greed are no less a virtue than arrogance and ignorance as a moral pulpit.

God isn’t going to ‘fix’ this. He expects us to help ourselves, using all of the resources that He gave us. He expects us to husband our Earth wisely.

Forgive my reluctance at accepting the statements of a scientific "Elmer Gantry," combined with the arrogance to speak for God.
My money remains on God, with the help of man's obligation to exercise his God-given sense of survival to the best of his ability, with the tools at his disposal.
If the last 60 years are any indication, speculative coercive promoters of doom have been unanimously wrong with both their interpretation of past climate records AND their 100% (to date) utter failure of predictive computer models, while not hesitating to issue new "predictions," every few years without the bother of investing the time and effort to find new verifiable facts; i.e., actual science.

But that is a whole other discussion.

That doesn’t mean I believe in global warming.

What's really important now is that Trump does NOT believe in the global warming scam either.

What is even more important is that Trump is going to gut Hussein's EPA. Coal is one of America's economic advantages over the rest of the world. Cheap coal means cheap electricity. Hussein was destroying electric generation more efficiently than any well organized terrorist attack on our electric infrastructure could have.

Plan on the electric rates you pay to go down.

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