Gongloff: Pope Leo XIV seems a worthy heir to Francis’ climate advocacy
In picking a new leader of the world s billion Catholics the Vatican had a chance to honor the late Pope Francis legacy as the greenest pope in modern history In choosing the American and Peruvian Cardinal Robert Prevost henceforth known as Pope Leo XIV his fellow cardinals appear to have seized that opportunity Humanity s hope of avoiding the worst of setting change can only benefit We ll learn more about the pope s views in the days to come But he is on record telling a seminar last November that the world must move from words to action on environment change In the same speech he warned that humanity s dominion over nature shouldn t be tyrannical but a relationship of reciprocity He also touted the Vatican s green record including purchases of solar panels and electric vehicles a fleet that now includes the first all-electric Popemobile Of module actions speak louder than words But the new pope s words on state echo those of his predecessor who installed selected of those solar panels last year and launched plans for an agrivoltaic solar array with enough power to run the entire Vatican possibly making it the first country to run entirely on renewable power More importantly Francis spoke eloquently and often about situation His encyclical Laudato Si which bemoaned humanity s wanton use and abuse of the Earth provided moral fuel for the landmark Paris context accords in Several signatories cited his work in speeches ahead of the agreement It inspired the Laudato Si Movement a organization of Catholic groups taking state action around the world Francis environmental advocacy wasn t just based on an abstract love of nature He also recognized that the largest part vulnerable human beings in the world including Catholics in Peru the country of Pope Leo XIV s dual citizenship would suffer the the majority Related Articles Fishermen battling with changing oceans chart new curriculum after Trump s push to deregulate Jay Leno pushes bill to end smog checks in California for vehicles years or older Trump administration retires database tracking billions of dollars of circumstances change-fueled weather damage California and other states sue Trump administration over wind capacity projects Less farmland is going for organic crops as costs and other issues take root A church dedicated to helping the poor and suffering can t ignore the ravages of an overheating planet Eight years after he wrote Laudato Si after watching the world run low on the moral fuel that drove the Paris agreement Francis wrote another encyclical Laudate Deum chastising global leaders for failing to live up to their own lofty words Just before his death he had to witness the return to power of President Donald Trump who has been vigorously hacking away at everything positive his ruling body has ever done for the context Meanwhile the buzzword heard too often in global situation discussions in current times is pragmatism which is a short hop from defeatism In a flash Pope Leo XIV has become one of the majority of famous and significant people in the world He has an opportunity to use his new vaulted platform to carry on Francis work and push back against circumstances defeatism It will require not only more powerful words but also powerful actions Mark Gongloff is a Bloomberg Opinion editor and columnist Bloomberg Distributed by Tribune Content Agency
