By: Patrick Foley
Pope Francis has written an encyclical calling on the world’s more developed nations to begin paying their “grave social debt” to less developed countries, and to respond to this moral call to action by making substantial progress at an upcoming series of international summits seeking to negotiate a global treaty on climate change. This is by no means the first papal encyclical with political significance, nor is Pope Francis the first religious leader to advocate global cooperation in mitigating climate change. For example, the current leader of Orthodox Christians, His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, has emphasized taking care of the earth during his time in office to such a vigorous degree, he has gained the title, “The Green Patriarch”. It is apparent, however, that the past twenty-four years of advocacy by the Green Patriarch and those like him have not turned the proverbial and literal rising tide that global warming threatens to create. With this is mind, how much impact can this recent encyclical really expect?
Global warming seems to have become more a matter of politics than science. Despite the overwhelming agreement of 97% of scientists, the idea that global warming is man-made or that it is even occurring is still considered controversial in some countries such as, of course, the United States, where views on climate change are divided along political lines. About seven out of ten U.S. Catholics (71%) believe the planet is getting warmer. Just under half of Catholic adults (47%) attribute global warming to human causes, and a comparable proportion (48%) view it as a very serious problem. It is important to note that more than eight out of ten Catholic Democrats say there is solid evidence that the Earth is warming, but only about half of Catholic Republicans agree. Additionally, while six out of ten Catholic Democrats say global warming is a man-made problem that poses a very serious problem, only about a quarter of Catholic Republicans agree. Among the U.S. public in general, the belief that global warming is occurring at all is nearly twice as common among Democrats as Republicans (86% of Democrats and 45% of Republicans). The view that global warming is caused by human activity is about three times as common among Democrats as among Republicans (64% vs. 22%), and the view that it represents a very serious problem is equally split between Democrats and Republicans (67% vs. 21% respectively).
The Pope’s 180-page encyclical on the environment is essentially a moral call for action on phasing out practices which are detrimental to the environment. “This is his signature teaching,” said Austen Ivereigh, who has written a biography of the pope. “Francis has made it not just safe to be Catholic and green; he’s made it obligatory”. The aforementioned statistics show that the nation which routinely consumes exorbitant amounts of non-renewable resources needs to listen to what Pope Francis is saying. If the people which this encyclical targets actually read and accept what their spiritual leader is saying, then this document seems to have a real chance to change the conversation around climate change in the United States. The Pope wrote in his encyclical that he considered it imperative that “practical proposals not be developed in an ideological, superficial or reductionist way”. When a spiritual leader is calling for a group to be less ideological, maybe its time for that group to check the source of their convictions. For a list of Republican climate deniers in congress, click here.