“Global warming continues,” the pope said. “2015 was the warmest year on record, and 2016 will likely be warmer still. This is leading to ever more severe droughts, floods, fires and extreme weather events.
Francis argued for adding environmental stewardship to the Christian works of mercy, in a message marking the Catholic World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.
“Climate change is also contributing to the heart-rending refugee crisis. The world’s poor, though least responsible for climate change, are most vulnerable and already suffering its impact,” Francis noted.
Perhaps most boldly, Francis charged that man is turning the planet into a “polluted wasteland full of debris, desolation and filth.”
Nigerian Cardinal Peter Turkson, the pope’s point man on the environment, said: “The first step is to humbly acknowledge the harm we are doing to the Earth through pollution, the scandalous destruction of ecosystems and loss of biodiversity, and the specter of climate change.”
“Realize that when we hurt the Earth, we also hurt the poor,” Turkson added, echoing the people.
Francisis seen as favorable to many politically progressive causes, without altering official church doctrine. His predecessor Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who was generally seen as more conservative, also sounded the alarm on the environment, however.
“Preservation of the environment, promotion of sustainable development and particular attention to climate change are matters of grave concern for the entire human family,” Benedict wrote in 2007.
The Vatican under Benedict listed pollution as a “new sin” in 2008.