*Humble Pope Blasts Market Economy
*Adds Voice to Man-made Warming Arguments
*But Fails to Address Contraception
*Birth Control and Population Limits Not on Agenda
ROME— Pope Francis’ much-discussed Full text of encyclical on the environment is a burning indictment of the global financial sector, but it does nothing to address the single biggest cause of the Earth’s environmental ills – population growth.
The humble Argentinian, who has given up many of the perks enjoyed by previous holders of the his office, weighs into multinational banks and companies like Unilever – accusing them of plundering the Earth at the expense of the poor and of future generations.
But population campaigners were frustrated that the Pope failed to mention the single biggest cause of global warming – the burgeoning population of the developing world. Both the consumption of energy and other resources, and the production of waste depend more on population size than any other single factor.
In passionate language, the pontiff attributed global warming to human activity, blamed special interests for holding back policy responses, complains that we have raised the Stock Market above God Himself, and said the global North owes the South “an ecological debt.”
The 183-page document, which Pope Francis addresses to “every person living on this planet,” includes pointed critiques of globalization and consumerism, which he says lead to environmental degradation.
“The Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth,” he writes.
The encyclical’s severe language stirred immediate controversy, signaling the weight the pontiff’s stance could have on the pitched debate over how to respond to climate change.
“Economic powers continue to justify the current global system where priority tends to be given to speculation and the pursuit of financial gain,” he writes. “As a result, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of the deified market, which become the only rule.”
The Vatican published the document, titled “Laudato Si” (“Be praised”), on Thursday. In the encyclical, Pope Francis wades into the debate over the cause of global warming, lending high-profile support to those who attribute it to human activity.
A “very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climactic system,” contributing to a “constant rise in the sea level” and an “increase of extreme weather events,” he writes.
“Humanity is called to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which produce or aggravate it,” he adds.
While acknowledging natural causes for climate change, including volcanic activity and the solar cycle, Pope Francis writes that a “number of scientific studies indicate that most global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides and others) released mainly as a result of human activity.”
The …
