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 In back-to-back speeches on the third day of his trip to Ecuador,
the pope made his first full-court press on environmental issues
since the publication last month of his landmark ecology encyclical
"Laudato Si.".
Speaking before a group that included indigenous people of the
Equatorial Amazon, he also renewed his call for special protection
for the area because of its vital importance to the planet's
ecosystem.
The pope has said he wanted the encyclical to influence a United
Nations climate change summit in Paris in December and has now
effectively taken his campaign to convince governments on the road.
In September he takes his message to the United States and the
United Nations.
"One thing is certain: we can no longer turn our backs on reality,
on our brothers and sisters, on Mother Earth," he said in a first
speech at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador.
While he did not specifically mention climate change or its causes,
he quoted often from the encyclical, which said there was a "very
solid scientific consensus" on global warming and its human causes.
He appeared to be making a clear reference to climate change
doubters when he said: "It is wrong to turn aside from what is
happening all around us, as if certain situations did not exist or
have nothing to do with our lives."
 In the encyclical Francis demanded swift action to save the planet
from environmental ruin, called for policies to "drastically" reduce
polluting gases and gradually cut dependence on fossil fuels.
"We are also invited to care for it (the planet), to protect it, to
be its guardians. Nowadays we are increasingly aware of how
important this is. It is no longer a mere recommendation, but rather
a requirement ..."
His choice of Ecuador to make his first post-encyclical speeches on
the environment was not casual.
Ecuador is heavily reliant on oil and mining while boasting some of
the world's greatest biodiversity including the Galapagos Islands,
on which Charles Darwin formulated his ideas on evolution.
The leftist government of President Rafael Correa, which introduced
austerity measures after a major drop in oil prices, is walking a
tightrope between business and protecting the environment.
'SOCIAL MORTGAGE'
In both speeches the first pope from Latin America, who has made
defense of the poor a key plank of his papacy, also touched on the
politically delicate issue of whether nature could be considered
private property.
"The goods of the earth are meant for everyone, and however much
someone may parade his property, it has a social
mortgage," the Argentine pontiff told a group of civic leaders in
Quito's St. Francis Church, the oldest religious building in Latin
America.
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"In this way we move beyond purely economic justice, based on
commerce, towards social justice, which upholds the fundamental
human right to a dignified life," he said in the church, whose
construction began in 1536.
"The tapping of natural resources, which are so abundant in Ecuador,
must not be concerned with short-term benefits. As stewards of these
riches which we have received, we have an obligation toward society
as a whole and towards future
generations," he said.
His words in Ecuador were a foretaste of his September trip to the
United States, where most of the criticism of the encyclical has
come. Conservatives, including several Republicans seeking their
party's nomination to run for president in 2016, have said the pope
should not meddle in scientific affairs.
But he has won wide backing from advocates of environmental
protection, including U.S. President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon.
At the second meeting on Tuesday, representatives of two Amazon
indigenous people, the Tagaeri and the Taromenane, were due to give
him a letter saying they were living "in the shadow of
extermination".
In that speech, the pope quoted from his encyclical, saying the
Amazon "requires greater protection because of its immense
importance for the global ecosystem … it possesses an
enormously complex biodiversity which is almost impossible to
appreciate fully."
Francis started his last full day in Ecuador by saying an open-air
Mass for nearly a million people on the grounds of a former airport
in the Ecuadorean capital, Quito. He visits Bolivia on Wednesday and
the last leg of the trip is Paraguay.
(Additional reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Editing by Mary
Milliken and Grant McCool)
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