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https://theconversation.com/laudato-si-a-look-back-on-pope-franciss-environmental-legacy-255604>
"The Vatican’s College of Cardinals will soon gather in Rome to elect a new
head of the Catholic Church following the death of Pope Francis.
As the church prepares for the papal conclave, the world is assessing Francis’s
legacy and his stance on the role of women in the church, LGBTQ+ rights and the
needs of migrants and refugees.
However, every assessment should include a discussion of
Laudato Si’: On Care
for Our Common Home, his 2015 encyclical on climate change.
In many ways, it’s a remarkable document. At once rational and urgent, it calls
on all of us — “every person living on this planet” — to think about what we
are doing to the only planet we have.
Our common home, Francis wrote, “is like a sister with whom we share our life
and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us.” And yet, we “have
come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at
will.”
The end result? Runaway climate change in the form of higher temperatures,
extreme weather events and biodiversity loss. In this sense, reading
Laudato
Si’ — “Praise be to you” in Italian — is like reading an assessment report by
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Unlike the IPCC report, however, Francis didn’t pull his punches. “The Earth,
our home,” he wrote, “is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile
of filth.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
