NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) —
Pope
Francis warned Thursday that it would be "catastrophic" for world
leaders to let special interest groups get in the way of a global
agreement to curb fossil fuel emissions as he brought his environmental
message to the heart of Africa on the eve of crucial climate change
talks in Paris.
Francis issued the pointed warning in a speech to
the U.N.'s regional office here after celebrating his first public Mass
on the continent. The joyous, rain-soaked ceremony before 300,000
faithful saw the Argentine pope being serenaded by ululating Swahili
singers, swaying nuns, Maasai tribesmen and dancing children dressed in
the colors of Kenya's flag.
Francis has made ecological concerns a
hallmark of his nearly 3-year-old papacy, issuing a landmark encyclical
earlier this year that paired the need to care for the environment with
the need to care for humanity's most vulnerable. Francis argues the two
are interconnected since the poor often suffer the most from the
effects of global warming, and are largely excluded from today's
fossil-fuel based global economy that is heating up the planet.
On
Thursday, Francis repeated that message but took particular aim at
those who reject the science behind global warming. In the United
States, that includes some Republican presidential candidates and
lawmakers, who have opposed steps President Barack Obama has taken on
his own to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
"It would be sad, and
dare I say even catastrophic, were special interests to prevail over the
common good and lead to manipulating information in order to protect
their own plans and interests," Francis said.
He didn't elaborate,
but in the United States at least, there has been a well-funded
campaign that rejects the findings of 97 percent of climate scientists
that global warming is likely man-made and insists that any heating of
the Earth is natural. Politicians have cited these claims in their
arguments that emissions cuts will hurt the economy.
Francis' message was praised by NASA historian Erik Conway, who
co-wrote the 2010 book "Merchants of Doubt," which detailed the
attempts by far-right institutions and like-minded scientists to
discredit the science behind global warming and spread confusion in the
public.
Conway said it was difficult to determine today how much
money is still being directed into climate change denial since much if
it goes through foundations.
"But what that funding has achieved
is the nearly complete conversion of Republican Party leadership into
denial of human-caused climate change as well as public confusion over
the content of the science," he said in an email.
Francis, who has
said global warming is "mainly" man-made, said the world was faced with
a stark choice in Paris: either improve or destroy the environment. He
said he hoped the Paris talks would approve a "transformational"
agreement to fight poverty and protect the environment by developing a
new energy system that depends on minimal fossil fuel use.
"Many
are the faces, the stories and the evident effects on the lives of
thousands of people for whom the culture of deterioration and waste has
allowed to be sacrificed before the idols of profits and consumption,"
he said. "We cannot remain indifferent in the face of this. We have no
right."
His speech followed a similarly emphatic one before the U.N.
General Assembly in New York in September, and in various speeches on
his travels to South America and Asia.
Thursday was the second day
in a row that Francis had touched on environmental concerns after he
arrived in Kenya for a six-day pilgrimage that also takes him to Uganda
on Friday and the conflict-ridden Central African Republic.
Francis'
first full day in Africa began with a meeting with about 25 Kenyan
Christian and Muslim leaders. He warned them that they had little choice
but to engage in dialogue to guard against the "barbarous" Islamic
extremist attacks that have struck the country.
"Dialogue is not a luxury. It is not something extra or optional, but essential," he said.
He
later celebrated Mass before about 300,000 people at the University of
Nairobi, where he received a raucous welcome from the crowd as he zoomed
around in his open-sided popemobile,
some 10,000 police providing
security. Some people had been at the university since 3 a.m., braving
heavy showers that turned the grounds into enormous, slick mud puddles.
Others waited in queues 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) deep to get close to
the venue.
"I am a Catholic and I believe he is godsend," said Nelly
Ndunge, 29, as she waited to see Francis at the Mass. She said Francis'
visit to Kenya was a blessing because it would renew her faith - and had
boosted her printing business: She said she had already sold nearly
3,000 copies of a 2016 calendar with the pope's portrait on it.
Still others turned back, fearing a stampede given the disorganized security.
"We were all disappointed," said Sarah Ondiso, a senior government official. "The organizers could have done better."
The
size of the crowd - estimated by both police and the Vatican - was far
smaller than the 1.4 million that Kenyan authorities had expected after
declaring Thursday a national holiday. Vatican officials had predicted a
maximum of a half-million people, and said the lower number was
apparently due to accreditation and ticketing problems.
In his
homily, Francis appealed for traditional family values, calling for
Kenyans to "resist practices which foster arrogance in men, hurt or
demean women, don't care for the elderly and threaten the life of the
innocent unborn."
The African church is
among the most conservative in the world, and African bishops have been
at the forefront in insisting that traditional church teachings on
marriage and sexuality, and its opposition to abortion, be strongly
emphasized.
Francis obliged,
but also stressed issues of his own concern: He called for Kenyans to
shape a more just society that looks out for the poor and to "reject
everything that leads to prejudice and discrimination, for these things
are not of God."
It wasn't
immediately clear what he was referring to. But in the crowd, there were
Kenyans wearing t-shirts and toting umbrellas reading "Who Am I to
Judge" - a reference to Francis' famous quip when asked about a
purportedly gay priest. The citation has often been taken to embody
Francis' insistence that gays must be welcomed in the church and not
discriminated against.
