Kicking humanity’s addiction to oil, gas, and coal before those industries render the planet uninhabitable may take a miracle. So it’s a good thing that the climate movement found a patron saint.
I’m talking about Pope Francis, of course. Before an upcoming encyclical makes the Vatican’s stance official, he’s already spreading the gospel of a fossil-free future.
In case, like me, you’re not Catholic: An encyclical is a basically a memo the church sends its 1.2 billion believers – one out of six people alive in a community that includes 30 percent of Congress and a gaggle of GOP presidential hopefuls. Here’s looking at you, John Boehner, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and Ted Cruz.
Two years into what he says will be a brief tenure, the pope’s putting climate skeptics on the defensive.
Fretting about the fate of the Earth is part of his broader condemnation of the global status quo, which Francis considers to be a “throwaway culture.” And it explains why he and some of his top aides came to call for a transition to greener energy.
“The ever-accelerating burning of fossil fuels that powers our economic engine is disrupting the Earth’s delicate ecological balance on an almost unfathomable scale,” warned Cardinal Peter Turkson, the Ghanaian cardinal who is taking a leading role in drafting the climate encyclical. “Corporations and financial investors must learn to put long-term sustainability over short-term profit.”
Turkson spoke at a recent Vatican climate summit of religious and secular leaders.
The group, which included Francis, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the presidents of Italy and Ecuador, Nobel laureates, and leading scientists, released a statement urging a quick “transformation to a world powered by renewable and other low-carbon energy.”
Some Catholics believe that modern life requires the burning of every drop of oil and every last hunk of coal. Increasingly, this fossil-fuel fundamentalism leaves them at odds with their church.
Once the Holy See officially condemns worship at the altar of dirty energy, those fundamentalists may need to choose between what their church demands and what the oil, gas, and coal industries dictate. Boehner and other conservative Catholic lawmakers will surely squirm in their seats when Francis addresses Congress in September.
And who could be a stronger spokesman for bringing the power of religion to fuel this change?
Even Ban, who refuses to divulge whether he adheres to a specific faith tradition, can now connect with the pious. “Science and religion are not at odds on climate change. Indeed, they are fully aligned,” he declared at the Vatican’s climate summit. “It is a moral issue. It is an issue of social justice, human rights, and fundamental ethics.”
Vatican City has already shrunk its carbon footprint. Pope Benedict XVI installed solar panels on the roof of a big building next door to St. Peter’s Cathedral and ordered a hybrid popemobile.
Francis, however, will take things much further if his encyclical drives all Catholic-run outfits – including schools, hospitals, churches, and retirement homes – to take action.
Plus, he could divest from fossil fuels. Francis is the sole shareholder in the Vatican Bank, a financial institution with $8 billion in assets that previously lacked adequate oversight. He’s already shaken things up there by shutting down accounts belonging to money launderers, mobsters, drug-runners, and corrupt politicians. Barring its investments in oil, gas, and coal could be next.
With the recent news about Antarctica thawing out, there’s no time to lose. So it’s reassuring that Turkson, widely seen as a papal contender himself, speaks so eloquently about the urgency of climate action.
“God has given all of us this planet as a gift, to provide for our needs,” he declared. “And the correct response to receiving such a magnificent gift is surely one of gratitude, love, and respect.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy