Vatican working group calls for concrete steps to combat climate change

(May 10, 2011) Nations and individuals have a duty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enact policies that mitigate global warming, said a Vatican-sponsored working group. "The business-as-usual mode will not be possible because of both resource depletion and environmental damages," the group said a recent report released by Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences . The cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing reforestation, cutting air pollutants and helping poor regions adapt to climate change pales in comparison to the price the world will pay if we fail to act now, it said. "We call on all people and nations to recognize the serious and potentially irreversible impacts of global warming caused by emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, and by changes in forests, wetlands, grasslands, and other land uses," it said. The 15-page report on the impact human beings have on the environment was titled, "Fate of Mountain Glaciers in the Anthropocene." It was compiled and signed by 23 internationally renowned scientists, mountaineers, and lawyers. The academy's chancellor, Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, was also a signatory of the working group report.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said in a written statement that while the report reflects the findings of the authors and is not "an act of the magisterium of the church," it is still "a significant scientific contribution to be valued in the context of the concerns about environmental problems often shown in recent magisterial documents and in the words of the Holy Father."
Pope Benedict XVI has been very vocal about his concern for environmental degradation and has criticized a lack of real commitment to mitigating climate change.