Sir, – It was heartening to read the report of Pope Francis's encyclical On the Care of our Common Home ("Pope Francis issues call on climate change", June 18th), with the pontiff's hard-hitting criticism of first world excess and of our reckless disregard for the environment.
Many of us have done little to change our habits, easing our conscience by choosing to ignore or doubt the science, rather than enduring the deprivations of moderation. Meanwhile the poor, who on an individual level contribute least to world pollution, are first to suffer the consequences of climate change. Pope Francis’s message is urgent and unabashed, and I hope I am wrong in fearing that his voice will not reach those who need to hear it the most.
He might hope for greater success in his efforts to address the problem of man-made climate change were he also to revisit Catholic teaching on contraception. The population crisis is a major factor threatening the environment, and it too impacts most severely on the poor. – Yours, etc,
COLIN WALSH,
Templeogue,
Dublin 6W.
A chara, – It is wonderful to find such wide coverage of climate change in your newspaper.
In response to the views of Prof Stephen Daly and Prof John Sodeau, quoted in Kevin Courtney’s article “Reset your watch for the Anthropocene epoch” (June 18th), many have argued that the term “Anthropocene” dissipates blame among all members of the human race, obscuring the fact, as observed by Pope Francis in his recent encyclical, that the majority of the world’s population has had little to no impact on climate change.
According to a recent study by Richard Heede, just 90 entities, such as ExxonMobile, Norway’s Statoil and BP, have driven the purported “Anthropocene” change of the last 200 years.
Half of all emissions have been produced in the last 25 years, which is unconscionable considering there has been scientific consensus on climate change since the late 1980s. As is well known, global inequality and poverty have also increased dramatically within this time frame.
Humans have lived in communion with the Earth for millennia. Instead of indulging in nihilistic self-guilt, we must look to the last few decades and ask what has driven, and who has benefited from, the tied correlation between our planet’s destruction and increasing worldwide inequality.
Climate change is not caused by a human race tainted by original sin (an argument rejected by Pope Francis himself), but the global structuring of our economy to benefit a small minority of the world’s population. This is a problem with clear perpetrators and that is relatively easy to correct. We could start with the dismantlement of the billions in government subsidies the oil, gas and coal industries receive each year worldwide. I would consider it quite wrong to place all of us in the same category as those unwilling to make such changes. – Is mise,
SINEAD MERCIER,
An Cheathrú Rua,
Co na Gaillimhe.