Kathryn Brown finds much to commend in the latest papal offering on the environment.
On October 4 Pope Francis published an apostolic exhortation on climate change, following on from Laudato Si’, his 2015 encylical on the same subject. Laudate Deum entreats “all people of good will” to understand and address the cli- mate change crisis for what it is: one of the most significant threats to human life and the natur- al world that the human race has experienced.
This is a well-timed intervention in the run up to the 28th UN climate change conference which will take place in Dubai at the end of November. The period leading up to this critical meeting of countries has been described behind closed doors as “a nosedive into a hell-scape” with petty arguing amongst negotiators in the UN pre-meetings, governments ignoring the hard facts of climate change, and doing little to ensure that the public understand and are equipped to react to what is coming.
