For the first time a faith pavilion will be part of COP28, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, to inspire ambitious goals and call for concrete commitments on climate change. The Pope is attending the opening.
Shane Goldie, a 22-year-old Indigenous student minister from Alberta Canada, notes: “In many Indigenous cultures the Earth is viewed as sacred . . . the spiritual relationship to the Earth fosters a sense of responsibility and stewardship.”
He also said: “I see the effects of climate change on our Indigenous communities . . . I think it’s important for people of all faiths, denominations and backgrounds to be able to have a space where they can . . . share something that is globally common.”
Back in June 2015, a few months before the Paris Climate Change Summit, then CNN religion editor Daniel Burke reported these powerful quotes from Pope Francis’s Paris COP 21 encyclical:
“Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last 200 years.”
“We are not God. The Earth was here before us and was given to us.”
“The idea of infinite or unlimited growth, which proves so attractive to economists, financiers and technology experts . . . is based on the lie that there is an infinite supply of the Earth’s goods, and this leads to the planet being squeezed dry at every limit.”
“Yet all is not lost. Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good, and making a new start.”
“The exploitation of the planet has already exceeded acceptable limits and we still have not solved the problem of poverty.”
“Doomsday predictions can no longer be met with irony or disdain.”
More than anything, I believe Pope Francis’s 10th commandment on the subject: Believe you can make a difference. Indeed, I have confidence and faith that I can, and for that reason, I do this.
Finally I join in with this message from the Pope: Hey you, stop ignoring climate change.
Plus, we are all in this together. As yet, there is still no planet B.
Bob Hughes
