Commit to sustainable development, fight global warming, Vatican tells U.N.

5/15/2006
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

UNITED NATIONS (Catholic Online) � The international community must commit to sustainable resource management policies that place the needs of the human family and protection of the environment above commercial and industrial concerns, the Vatican's representative to the United Nations told a May 11 session of the U.N. Economic and Social Council�s Commission on Sustainable Development here.

Progress toward global sustainable development pales in comparison to �a sobering picture� of the world�s environment, said Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the permanent observer of the Holy See to the international body.

�Essential improvement in living standards for all, while assuring our world�s environmental future,� he said, will only occur if there is an integrated international environmental and developmental policy coupled with �committed political follow through.�

In his remarks, Archbishop Migliore also pointed �the serious destruction of the human environment,� the diminishing of water resources, food security, global warming and renewal energy.

He said that, while many are �rightly worried� about the �irrational destruction of the natural environment,� too little attention is focused on protecting �the moral conditions for an authentic human ecology.�

The human person, the archbishop said, should be at �the center of environmental concerns� in the affairs of nations, corporations and individuals, while there is a simultaneous promotion of the urgency of �human responsibility for the Earth.�

�As the essential symbiosis of life on the planet becomes plain,� he said, �there is already a growing acknowledgement that good environmental policies are by extension good people policies, too.�

He pointed to the critical importance of water in the effort of building sustainable development and the dire predictions for the global community in access to that resource.

�This is already a humanitarian and environmental crisis, as well as a question of social justice, Archbishop Migliore said, noting that 34,000 people die every day due to a lack of clean water and that 1.5 billion people lack such access today, a figure that may double by 2025.

�Within 20 years, the reserves of water per person will be a third of what they were in 1950 and, by 2025, a third of the world�s nations will have catastrophically low levels of water,� he said. �Encouraging change in consumption patterns and in increasing access to water supply and sanitation is also a matter of developmental common sense, since both yield very high rates of return, making them extremely attractive from a social investment standpoint.�

The Vatican representative pointed to the reality of global warming and its relation to the burning of fossil fuels and the use of other pollutants. �We can no longer pretend that human activity has little or no impact� on the worldwide �changing climatic conditions,� he said.

�The Earth�s climate system has demonstrably changed on both global and regional scales since the pre-industrial era,� Archbishop Migliore said. �Even if greenhouse gas emissions were to be stabilized at present levels � an unlikely eventually as things stand � the global warming trend and sea-level rise would continue for hundreds of years, due to the atmospheric lifetime of some greenhouse gases and the long timescales on which the deep ocean adjusts to climate change.�

While noting the �legitimate priority needs of developing countries for the achievement of sustained economic growth and the eradication of poverty,� the archbishop said that these goals �cannot be achieved at any price.�

The international community must transform its global energy systems from traditional to renewable forms, he said. �As current approaches are causing serious harm to human health, the Earth�s climate and ecological systems on which all life depends,� he said, �the development of renewables continues to be a human, ecological, economic and strategic necessity and should have a priority in public research projects.�

With more than 1.6 billion people lacking access to electricity, �improving access to reliable, affordable and environmentally friendly energy services is a major challenge to poverty eradication,� Archbishop Migliore added.

He singled out the combustion engine as the engine behind the large proportion of worldwide energy consumption, and major source of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, urging its �long overdue� replacement with �clean, renewable alternatives.�

�Sustainable patterns,� he said, are �essential to our common future.�

�The dovetailing of environmental and developmental concerns with commercial and industrial policymaking will surely lead to a safer, more prosperous future for all,� he added.

- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

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1 - 10 of 10 Comments

Stop Stupidity
2 years ago
I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS! You really think all of this? In Genesis it tell humanity that it has domain over the Earth but it must not be tyrannical. Humanity is raping the Earth for its resources and destroying our atmosphere and biological diversity. We cannot continue this current course without reaping some terrible consequenses. If you truely believe in social justice you should stand with the Church on this one. Your complaints about the Democrats abortion support is true. BUT! The Republicans are just corportate puppets that spread the exact lies you are spewing! The evidence is overwhelming just look it up! It will bottleneck the human race if we are not careful, WE HAVE TO CHANGE!
Chuck Michaud
3 years ago
What about concepts like Social Justice. Why is the church giving support to American "Cap and Trade" with it's impact on middle and lower income citizens in fuel and shipping cost on food; based on junk science, dishonesty and political agendas. Have you thought of the impact on third world countries which rely on us for charity and food with which high the cost of shipping will lead to starvation. Please think more deeply about stuardship as the cost of fuel goes up, the cost of wheat goes up, as the cost of rice goes up.
mindy rodriguez
3 years ago
before the Catholic Church (I am a member) gets involved in the global warming which I do not believe in....they should get involved in fighting against saul alinsky marxist health take over! Americans are in the Second American Revolution and we need help....read about the Tea Party Movement before you tell us about Al Gore's green. That green is nothing but lies so gore and blood can make billions of dollars!
Tim Brogdon
3 years ago
Manmade global warming has no basis in science. The so called proof was doctored and the facts simply don't support it. If there is some science that supports it please provide it to me, I am an engineer I'll understand it. Let's not get caught up in the lies of our politicians. Make no mistake, global warming is about money and power, not science.
Laurie
3 years ago
I'm confused. Why has the Vatican joined the global warming bandwagon which is essentially a ploy of population control and a new world order? Have they not heard of Lord Christopher Monckton's (&CFACT's)uncovering of the facts and exposing the fraud? Reduce polution, yes. But central global control of CO2 emmisions....no. www.climatedepot.com
AntonioSosaIsStupid
3 years ago
Hey Antonio, Your "famed" climatologist Dr. Singer is more an infamous climatologist. He is well known as working for Exxon, Shell, Sun Oil, GM, and Ford. His obvious conflict of interest in this debate makes him a laughable reference, as does his attempts at trying to dispell the connection of second hand smoke to cancer, and his refusal to believe there's any connection between UV radiation and skin cancer. Dr. Singer is a joke.
jerry Loberger
3 years ago
Global warming has deep roots from reincarnation of pagan beliefs than under different packaging than are thousands of years old. The same thing is with communist believe, than is under a different name, but can be found in old testament of every day living back at that time. My point is, than these ideas are not new , but should be very carefully where these roads, will lead too the old ways, of life style than could lead us, against the first commandment of God.
AntonioSosa
4 years ago
Catholics and Christians in general were manipulated into voting for a pro-abortion candidate and now they are being manipulated into supporting Obama's plans. Obama and his accomplices are trying to manipulate us so we support their Orwellian Cap-and-Trade scheme, based on their global warming scam.

Cap-and-Trade �would be the equivalent of an atomic bomb directed at the U.S. economy�all without any scientific justification,� says internationally famed climatologist Dr. S. Fred Singer. Cap-and-Trade will increase taxes; increase the cost of energy; force many companies to close; and multiply unemployment, poverty and despair.
Michael Fitz
4 years ago
How can any non-scientific person have a say or input into global warming( or is it climate change!) First we lay people need to know what exactly is going on so please stop using ambiguous language such as "climate change" etc. Is it a change for cold or warm that we should be concerned with?
Justin Chow
4 years ago
I would like to know that the Archbishop did some scientific study on global warming, and not just played around with the left-wing politicians.

There are many controversies surrounding global warming, the least of which is it's marketing potential.

While I believe pollution is bad in every sense of the word, global warming is hardly a concrete scientific fact. Do a Google search.

I'm a Catholic post-confirmant living in Malaysia.

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