The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how the Earth can recover “if we allow it to rest” and must spur people to adopt simpler lifestyles to help a planet “groaning” under the constant demand for economic growth, Pope Francis said Tuesday.
In his latest urgent appeal to help a fragile environment, Francis also renewed his call for the cancellation of the debts of the most vulnerable countries. Such action would be just, he said, since rich countries have exploited poorer nations’ natural resources.
“In some ways, the current pandemic has led us to rediscover simpler and sustainable lifestyles,” Francis said in a written message.
“Already we can see how the Earth can recover if we allow it to rest: the air becomes cleaner, the waters clearer, and animals have returned to many places from where they had previously disappeared,” he wrote.
“The pandemic has brought us to a crossroads.”
The pontiff urged people to seize the opportunity to reflect on their habits of energy usage, consumption, transportation and diet.
Until now, “constant demand for growth and an endless cycle of production and consumption are exhausting the natural world,” the pope said, adding, “Creation is groaning.”
People must be aware of their rightful place in nature, never thinking themselves masters of what Francis described as the “interconnected web of life.”
Disintegrating biodiversity, climate disasters and the “unjust impact of the current pandemic on the poor and the vulnerable” amount to a “wakeup call in the face of our rampant greed and consumption,” the pope wrote.
No comments:
Post a Comment