Pope rallies mayors against climate change, human trafficking at Vatican conference

July 22, 2015

Laudato Si’ is not an encyclical on climate change, but a social encyclical, Pope Francis said in a July 21 address to 70 mayors, representing cities around the world, who were gathered for a Vatican conference on climate change and human trafficking.

The Pope explained, in an unscripted address, that his encyclical links the issues of climate change, poverty, and human rights. “Because we cannot separate care for the environment from the social context, the social life of mankind,” he said.

Pope Francis said that he hopes the coming negotiations in Paris will lead to effective action on climate change, and added that the UN should be involved in that effort as well as efforts to stop human trafficking. He encouraged the mayors to be involved in their own cities.

The Vatican conference, organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences under the direction of Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, culminated in a statement signed by the Pope and the mayors, calling for action to address climate change and stop human trafficking.

The public statement said that there is “overwhelming scientific evidence regarding human-induced climate change,” and “its effective control is a moral imperative for humanity.” The mayors observed that the poor face the greatest harms as a result of climate change, although they bear little responsibility for the problem.

During the 2-day conference at the Vatican, several speakers decried efforts to question the evidence of climate change. California Governor Jerry Brown claimed that in the US, powerful interests use their money and influence “to keep from office people such as yourselves and elect troglodytes and other deniers of the obvious science.” Bishop Sanchez Sorondo had earlier made a similar charge, saying that resistance to the universal acceptance of climate change as a reality was largely the result of lobbying by wealthy American corporate interests.

The mayors’ statement also included a pledge to work against human trafficking. “At the same time, we commit ourselves to ending abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of modern slavery, which are crimes against humanity, including forced labor and prostitution, organ trafficking, and domestic servitude,” the statement said.

In his address to the conference on Tuesday, Pope Francis warned against reliance on “technocracy” as a solution to problems of poverty. That attitude, he said, has caused a rise in unemployment, particularly among young people.

The Pope called attention particularly to the environmental problems caused by deforestation and by mining. Mining, he said, is too often associated with human-rights abuses and with use of dangerous techniques and harmful chemicals. The degradation of the environment by these activities, the Pope said, causes many people to leave their homes, thus feeding into the mass migrations that give rise to human trafficking.

 

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Further information:

• Pope to mayors: put environment and human trafficking at top of your agenda (Vatican Radio)
• In the meeting on climate change and modern slavery, the Pope warns against the idolatry of technocracy (VIS)
• Pope and mayors sign declaration on climate and trafficking (Vatican Radio)
• World mayors at Vatican: Climate change is real, man-made and must be contained (AP)