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 In the first papal document dedicated to the environment, he calls
for "decisive action, here and now," to stop environmental
degradation and global warming, squarely backing scientists who say
it is mostly man-made.
In the encyclical "Laudato Si (Praise Be), On the Care of Our Common
Home", Francis calls for a change of lifestyle in rich countries
steeped in a "throwaway" consumer culture and an end to an
"obstructionist attitudes" that sometimes put profit before the
common good.
The most controversial papal pronouncement in half a century has
already won him the wrath of conservatives, including several U.S.
Republican presidential candidates who have scolded Francis for
delving into science and politics.
But Latin America's first pope, who took his name from St. Francis
of Assisi, the patron of ecology, says protecting the planet is a
moral and ethical "imperative" for believers and non-believers alike
that should supersede political and economic interests.
 The clarion call to his flock of 1.2 billion members, the most
controversial papal document since Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical
Humanae Vitae upholding the Church's ban on contraception, could
spur the world's Catholics to lobby policymakers on ecology issues
and climate change.
POLITICAL MYOPIA
The Argentine-born pontiff, 78, decries a "myopia of power politics"
he said has delayed far-sighted environmental action and says "many
of those who possess more resources and economic or political power
seem mostly to be concerned with masking the problems or concealing
their symptoms".
Because he has said he wants to influence this year's key U.N.
climate summit in Paris, the encyclical further consolidates his
role as a global diplomatic player following his mediation bringing
Cuba and the United States to the negotiating table last year.
Francis dismisses those who argue that "technology will solve all
environmental problems (and that) global hunger and poverty will be
resolved simply by market growth".
Time is running out to save a planet "beginning to look more and
more like an immense pile of filth" and which could see "an
unprecedented destruction of ecosystems" this century.
"Once more, we need to reject a magical conception of the market,
which would suggest that problems can be solved simply by an
increase in the profits of companies or individuals."
 Francis also dismisses the effectiveness of carbon credits, saying
they seemed to be a "quick and easy solution" but could lead "to a
new form of speculation" that maintains excessive consumption and
does not allow the "radical change" needed. "Doomsday predictions can no longer be met with irony or disdain. We
may well be leaving to coming generations debris, desolation and
filth," he writes in the nearly 200-page work.
"The pace of consumption, waste and environmental change has so
stretched the planet’s capacity that our contemporary lifestyle,
unsustainable as it is, can only precipitate catastrophes, such as
those which even now periodically occur in different areas of the
world ... we need to reflect on our accountability before those who
will have to endure the dire consequences," he said.
The release is timed to precede September addresses to the United
Nations and the U.S. Congress on sustainable development.
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SCIENTIFIC CONSENSUS
Saying he was "drawing on the results of the best scientific
research available," he calls climate change "one of the principal
challenges facing humanity in our day" and says poor nations will
suffer the most.
In several passages in the six-chapter encyclical, Francis confronts
head on both climate change deniers and those who say it is not
man-made.
"A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently
witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system," he says.
"Humanity is called to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle,
production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at
least the human causes which produce or aggravate it."
"It is true that there are other factors - such as volcanic
activity, variations in the earth’s orbit and axis, the solar cycle
- yet a number of scientific studies indicate that most global
warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of
greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides and
others - released mainly as a result of human activity," he says.
Francis calls for policies to "drastically" reduce polluting gases.
Technology based on fossil fuels "needs to be progressively replaced
without delay" and sources of renewable energy developed.
In a passage certain to upset conservatives, he says "a legal
framework which can set clear boundaries and ensure the protection
of ecosystems has become indispensable".
One of the major themes of the encyclical is the disparity of
wealth.
"We fail to see that some are mired in desperate and degrading
poverty, with no way out, while others have not the faintest idea of
what to do with their possessions, vainly showing off their supposed
superiority and leaving behind them so much waste which, if it were
the case everywhere, would destroy the planet," he says.
He criticizes those who "maintain that current economics and
technology will solve all environmental problems, and argue, in
popular and non-technical terms, that the problems of global hunger
and poverty will be resolved simply by market growth."
(Editing by Tom Heneghan)
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