In a few weeks, Pope Francis will visit the Philippine city of Tacloban, which was devastated by super Typhoon Haiyan in 2012. Shortly thereafter, according to the Guardian, he is expected to present an encyclical on climate change, “urging all Catholics to take action on moral and scientific grounds.” Wow. And no sarcasm there; I mean it. Wow. This is a very big deal, for many reasons. One is that encyclicals are published on issues of high priority to the Pope, and what’s high priority to him is high priority to the church. There are more than a billion Catholics on the planet, so this could have a profound effect. Another reason is that, also according to the Guardian article, he is doing this to directly affect the outcome of a very important meeting late in 2015: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will meet, and their express intent is to create a legally binding global agreement about actions to take on climate change. I find this to be very good news. High profile figures speaking up about our ever-warming world will go a long way toward taking the action we so very desperately need to take.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 20:11:05 +0000
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