To the editor:
Pope Francis was prophetic when he wrote his encyclical on climate change and care of creation, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home. Pope Francis released the encyclical on June 18, 2015.
This encyclical cannot be summarized in a letter, so I urge you to read it, but here is Pope Francis’ appeal: “I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all.”[14]
The climate change conference in Paris begins to fulfill this appeal. At the climate change conference just concluded December 12, 195 nations agreed to limit their use of carbon based fuels and seek alternatives that will not raise the earth’s temperature.
To do this, countries must develop policies that will, over the coming decades, truly transform their society. This transformation will, ultimately, be as great a change as the Industrial Revolution.
Governments will adopt policies to drive innovation for a sustainable future. Each government and the private sector will research and develop a variety of solutions that fit that country’s needs.
Pope Francis anticipated this process when he wrote in Laudato Si’: “. . . there is no one path to a solution. This makes a variety of proposals possible, all capable of entering into dialogue with a view to developing comprehensive solutions.” [60]
We Catholics must act to transform our civic, economic, political, and governmental systems into a society moving toward sustainable life on earth with respect for all God’s creation. Pope Francis has been prophetic in gathering the world together to meet this challenge; we must follow.
Bill Dagnon, Baraboo