Pope Pouring the Punch on Man-Made Climate Change

Pope Francis says climate change is mostly man's fault

Pope Francis waded into the global debate about climate change on Thursday, saying that he believed that man was primarily responsible and that he hoped this year’s Paris conference would take a courageous stand to protect the environment.
The Pope said his long-awaited encyclical on the environment was almost finished and that he hoped it would be published in June, in time provide food for thought ahead of the UN climate meeting Paris in November.

Speaking to reporters on the plane taking him from Sri Lanka to Manila, he was asked specifically if man was mostly to blame for climate change.

“I don’t know if it is all (man’s fault) but the majority is, for the most part, it is man who continuously slaps down nature,” he said.

The words were his clearest to date on climate change, which has sparked worldwide debate and even divided conservative and liberal Catholics, particularly in the United States.

“We have, in a sense, lorded it over nature, over Sister Earth, over Mother Earth,” said Francis, who since his election in 2013 has made many appeals for the protection of the environment.

“I think man has gone too far,” he said. “Thank God that today there are voices that are speaking out about this.”

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