Writing in 2015, Pope Francis
addressed the problem of climate change and suggested what he, or the Vatican
more broadly, considered to be necessary systemic changes on the road to
recovery. In the encyclical, the patient may be human nature itself—specifically,
its self-destructive propensity and trait of power-aggrandizement. In other
words, we had lost control of our built-up (i.e., artificial) societal systems
and structures, which could wind up strangling us in their protection of the
status quo. In this essay, I discuss the Pope’s portrayal of the problem of
climate change from the standpoints of culture, power, and wealth. I then
address the feasibility of the Pope’s prescription.
The full essay is at “Pope
Francis on Climate Change.”
