To His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
Your Holiness,
Over the past months your position on the environment appears to have softened, primarily in recognising the connection between conflict and resource scarcity which you emphasised on 2010 Earth Day with the statement, "If we want peace, we must preserve the environment."
To be concerned about the environment and the security and happiness of our children and their children after them is the only humane and responsible position given the scientific understanding of today.
In a recent Catholic Climate Covenant the US Bishops join you in accepting “the scientific consensus that climate change is upon us, that prudence calls us to act now to faithfully care for Creation and avoid more severe consequences in the future.” The Bishops urge Catholics throughout the world to take the St. Francis Pledge to Care for Creation and the Poor.
I greatly welcome Catholicism’s new environmentalism – but I urge you to go further. It is well known, ever since the Lisbon Earthquake in 1755, let alone the many ecological and environmental challenges which we now face, that God does not intervene in natural or man-made disasters. But climate change may well prove the greatest disaster humanity will ever have to face… and all religions, including Catholicism, must adapt and adjust to meet this challenge. And, whatever the Church does, few measures will succeed if we continue to endorse unlimited population growth.
We may indeed live in the best of all possible worlds – a world that is miraculous in its complexity and beauty – but this only serves to heighten the importance of our taking full responsibility for our impact upon it.
Yours with great concern,
William Tarkovsky
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