The Supreme Pontiff made this appeal this morning, while receiving in audience at the Apostolic Palace the participants in a meeting promoted by the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences, with the theme From Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience, according to a note from the Vatican press office.

“The work must be symphonic, harmonious, of all together”, said the Bishop of Rome, who pointed out that climate change is “a global social issue and intimately linked to the dignity of human life”, emphasized and regretted that the data on it worsen every year “and, therefore, it is urgent to protect people and nature”.

Francis expressed that orderly progress is hindered by the voracious pursuit of short-term profits by polluting industries and by misinformation, which creates confusion and hinders the collective effort to reverse course.

“The refusal to act quickly to protect the most vulnerable, exposed to man-made climate change, is a grave sin,” he said.

The Pontiff said that “it is the poor of the earth who suffer the most, even though they contribute the least to the problem” and gave as an example that the richest nations, with some one billion inhabitants, produce more than half of the heat-trapping pollutants.

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