Challenge of our times recognised - Encyclical on the environment

“THAT human beings destroy the biological diversity in God’s creation; that human beings compromise the integrity of the earth and contribute to climate change, stripping the earth of its natural forests or destroying its wetlands; that human beings pollute the water, soil, air; all these are sins.”

BEING called a sinner, even by a sitting Pope, may not have the dissuading impact it once had but leaked extracts from Pope Francis’s encyclical on the destruction of our planet, which is to be officially published tomorrow, are so radical, so challenging and so very difficult to ignore that it is hard to remember that the Pope’s office is one of the enduring pillars of the Western establishment.

The Pope’s analysis is profoundly inspiring and uplifting too; it is as if the scale of our challenge has at last been recognised by a world leader proportionate to the crisis, a leader capable of framing the issues in a way that cannot, or at least should not, be ignored any longer.