This is Democracy Now democracy now.org the war and peace report I mean Goodman with their main chair. We turn now to the Vatican where Pope Francis has called for swift action to save the planet from environmental ruin urging world leaders to hear a quote the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor. Earlier today, the Vatican published the pope's long awaited encyclical on the environment and climate change, Pope. France has called for a change of lifestyle and rich countries steeped in a quote throw away consumer culture and an end to obstructionist attitudes that sometimes put profit before the common good. NASDAQ. Our house is going to ruin and that harms everyone had expressed through the poorest my is therefore an appeal for responsibility, based on the past, the guy has given to many crescendo to and keep the in which he was placed I invite everyone to accept with open hearts stock you know I've which follows the church's social document. Hope Francis said. Protecting the planet is a moral and ethical imperative for believers and nonbelievers alike that should supersede political and economic interests. He also dismissed those who argue that technology will solve all environmental problems in the global hunger and poverty will be resolved simply by market growth . A major 3 theme of the encyclical as the disparity between rich and poor, he said. Quote we fail to see that some are mired in desperate and degrading poverty with no way out. While others have not the faintest idea of what to do with their possessions vainly showing off their supposed superiority and leaving behind them so much waste which if it were the case, everywhere would destroy the planet. Environmental groups have welcomed the pope's action on climate change just settle on a free oil is the executive director of Greenpeace in Italy on the globe isn't. As Greenpeace. We have already expressed our gratitude to his holiness because we need to see climate change as a mostly moral and ethical issue climate change is already happening and its effects have already been disastrous on the poorest countries and the poorest people who don't have the means to defend themselves from it. There are also part of the human population who, at the least responsibility for what is happening. Being that they consume less fossil fuels. So we are absolutely grateful for this in cyclical that for us is a source of inspiration. We're joined now by 2 guests Naomi Klein is the author of this changes everything, capitalism versus the climate. She's been invited to speak at the Vatican, where she will speak at the people and planet first the imperative to change course conference she's joining us by Democracy Now video stream from Canada and here in New York. Nathan Schneider joins us columnist in America magazine a national Catholic weekly magazine published by the Cheshire. Thank you both Naomi let's begin with you respond to the Pope's encyclical on climate change and the environment. Yes, you know. Good morning. Iranian and and before I you know I would really like to express my deep deep sadness and outrage at The Hague crime in Charleston. This is a grief-stricken warning there were having this conversation. And it was an attack on a religious institution, which is also worth bearing as well as an attack on an African Americans. I you know I think that this you know in the quicker we cannot overstate the importance of it, the impact that it will have. It's hard to respond to a document that runs a close to 200 pages . When it was just released, you know I'm right forum few hours ago where are still dangerous to hear anybody is very clear. A door has just been opened and and I've got strong wind is blowing through where it is now possible to to say some very powerful truth about that the real implications of climate change, it really the root causes. And I think a lot of discussion about and cyclical in the US media cycle has focused and will continue to focus on the impact on Republican, and while it's not heroes, many of whom are Catholic, and it is certainly a challenge to that demographic. In the United States because the pope is coming out so clearly on the side of climate science and saying this is real, and this is happening, but I think it's too easy to say that this is just a challenge to Rick Santorum. But frankly, it is also a challenge to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama large part of the green movement because it is a rebuke of a slow action very specifically says that climate denial is not just about denying the science is also about denying the urgency of the science. The document is very strong into journey delays half measures so-called market solutions it very specifically criticizes carbon markets a carbon offsetting an inadequate measure that will encourage speculation and rapid consumption everything. Probably the most significant parliament that the picture is the foreign grounding of the culture of frenetic consumption in the wealthy world among the wealthy, and this is a really significant because I think large parts of the climate change discussion trial they have it all ways and say no, we just will just have a green growth. Well just how well it will consume green products and you know this goes a lot deeper than that and says no. We need to get at the underlying there are used there are feeling this cultural frenetic conception that is entirely unsustainable. Now like you mentioned the fact that the pope calls repeatedly in the encyclical for radical change, I want to ask you about a specific citation from the leaked document that period earlier this week, he said. And in a corrupt culture we can't believe that laws will be enough to change behaviors that affect the environment, could you talk specifically about that about the laws that he may be referring to there. Well, I think that when he referring to corruption and I believe he referring to the influence of polling companies and multinational corporations which we also put out the encyclical and I think this is one of the most significant thing about the darkness. One might expect of a religious talking about climate change you erased difference right say we're, we're all in this together and certainly a possibility. Earth has our common home but it also recognizes explicitly the power dynamics in capitalism, which is to say that there are forces witnesses and they're actively working against change and and that is probably well he's referring to when he's talking about how there may be lots that the laws are enforced. And you know I do you know the laws are also inadequate, which is also addressed in the in the dark and it has a very specific calls for know I'm not aware of all the environmental law. I wish to pay the darkness. I haven't been able to look at, look at you know closely enough and another thing I have to say if you know I am. You know I have accepted and this invitation to seek a confidence which is a do you more deeply into the darkness. Because there is an understanding that it does take time to digest a document at this this multi-layered and it requires that kind of deeper and I think that this intervention 5 months ahead of the UN climate conference in Paris is tremendously significant, it's going to push political leaders should go further. It's gonna be a tool for social movements, a lot of the language of the kind of justice movement has just been adopted by the pope and you you know phrases like ecological debt. The pub is talking about the death well world owes to the poor. This is a frightening that comes, originally from Ecuador from the against drilling in the Amazon and you know that he's he's. This is a phrase that was you never heard in mainstream circles. Until now, just now actually, I mean, I've never seen such a mainstream use of that term. So it is very important in that way, but I mean I have to say on a personal level, that as as thrilled as I am that the, that that that the Vatican is leading in this way, you know this pope is leading this way and bringing together the fight against poverty with the fight on climate change. That doesn't mean there's a complete merger between the crime and justice movement in the Vatican, you know, I mean obviously there are huge differences that remain over issues like is quality a reproductive rights and freedom to name just a few. Nathan Schneider your columnist with the Catholic weekly America you've been covering Catholic engagement with climate change. Talk about the scope of this, I mean just for people to understand what this encyclical is the number of languages. It's been released and how large it is and what it means for the Catholic community. Well, this is really the first 3rd world and cyclical you know this is coming from a pope who was shaped in really significant ways by economic crisis during the Cold War in Argentina and being in the middle of a battleground between between the first and second world powers it was drafted by a cardinal from Ghana, so this is coming from the side of the world that we don't normally hear from and it's very much in line with things that popes have been saying for decades. You know, going back to Paul. The 6th and John Polis second Benedict, the 16th, so a lot of the content is actually not so new for Catholics but the emphasis and that that that that that the language of climate debt the language is the recognition that there is a a divide here between the rich countries in the poor and this is a cry from the developing world from what has been labeled the 3rd world for change. We're gonna break and when we come back, we'll hear the words of Cardinal Peter Turks and himself of Ghana. 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