SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Pope Francis attends the Chrism Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on March 29, 2018 in Vatican City, Vatican. (Photo: Alessandra Benedetti - Corbis/Getty Images)
Face-to-Face With Oil Execs, Pope Francis Says Continued Use of Fossil Fuels Will 'Destroy Civilization'
"Carbon dioxide emissions remain very high. This is disturbing and a cause for real concern," Francis warned.
Jun 09, 2018
During a closed-door meeting with oil executives at the Vatican on Saturday, Pope Francis gravely warned against further fossil fuel exploration and extraction, arguing that continued use of dirty energy could ultimately "destroy civilization."
"Our desire to ensure energy for all must not lead to the undesired effect of a spiral of extreme climate changes due to a catastrophic rise in global temperatures, harsher environments, and increased levels of poverty."
--Pope Francis
"Carbon dioxide emissions remain very high. This is disturbing and a cause for real concern," Francis said in an address at the close of a two-day conference titled Energy Transition and Care of Our Common Home. "More worrying is the continued search for new fossil fuel reserves, whereas the Paris Agreement clearly urged keeping most fossil fuels underground."
In attendance at the conference were several major players in the oil and gas industry, according to Reuters, including ExxonMobil and Shell--both of which denied the reality of climate change in public for decades despite knowing privately about the threat soaring carbon emissions posed to the planet.
A total of fifty industry executives were reportedly in attendance at the two-day event.
Denouncing "unlimited faith in markets and technology" exuded by corporate executives in an effort to justify the disastrous status quo, the pontiff argued that a just transition to clean, renewable energy is "a duty that we owe towards millions of our brothers and sisters around the world, poorer countries, and generations yet to come."
"We know that the challenges facing us are interconnected. If we are to eliminate poverty and hunger...the more than one billion people without electricity today need to gain access to it," Francis said.
"Our desire to ensure energy for all must not lead to the undesired effect of a spiral of extreme climate changes due to a catastrophic rise in global temperatures, harsher environments, and increased levels of poverty," he added.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
During a closed-door meeting with oil executives at the Vatican on Saturday, Pope Francis gravely warned against further fossil fuel exploration and extraction, arguing that continued use of dirty energy could ultimately "destroy civilization."
"Our desire to ensure energy for all must not lead to the undesired effect of a spiral of extreme climate changes due to a catastrophic rise in global temperatures, harsher environments, and increased levels of poverty."
--Pope Francis
"Carbon dioxide emissions remain very high. This is disturbing and a cause for real concern," Francis said in an address at the close of a two-day conference titled Energy Transition and Care of Our Common Home. "More worrying is the continued search for new fossil fuel reserves, whereas the Paris Agreement clearly urged keeping most fossil fuels underground."
In attendance at the conference were several major players in the oil and gas industry, according to Reuters, including ExxonMobil and Shell--both of which denied the reality of climate change in public for decades despite knowing privately about the threat soaring carbon emissions posed to the planet.
A total of fifty industry executives were reportedly in attendance at the two-day event.
Denouncing "unlimited faith in markets and technology" exuded by corporate executives in an effort to justify the disastrous status quo, the pontiff argued that a just transition to clean, renewable energy is "a duty that we owe towards millions of our brothers and sisters around the world, poorer countries, and generations yet to come."
"We know that the challenges facing us are interconnected. If we are to eliminate poverty and hunger...the more than one billion people without electricity today need to gain access to it," Francis said.
"Our desire to ensure energy for all must not lead to the undesired effect of a spiral of extreme climate changes due to a catastrophic rise in global temperatures, harsher environments, and increased levels of poverty," he added.
During a closed-door meeting with oil executives at the Vatican on Saturday, Pope Francis gravely warned against further fossil fuel exploration and extraction, arguing that continued use of dirty energy could ultimately "destroy civilization."
"Our desire to ensure energy for all must not lead to the undesired effect of a spiral of extreme climate changes due to a catastrophic rise in global temperatures, harsher environments, and increased levels of poverty."
--Pope Francis
"Carbon dioxide emissions remain very high. This is disturbing and a cause for real concern," Francis said in an address at the close of a two-day conference titled Energy Transition and Care of Our Common Home. "More worrying is the continued search for new fossil fuel reserves, whereas the Paris Agreement clearly urged keeping most fossil fuels underground."
In attendance at the conference were several major players in the oil and gas industry, according to Reuters, including ExxonMobil and Shell--both of which denied the reality of climate change in public for decades despite knowing privately about the threat soaring carbon emissions posed to the planet.
A total of fifty industry executives were reportedly in attendance at the two-day event.
Denouncing "unlimited faith in markets and technology" exuded by corporate executives in an effort to justify the disastrous status quo, the pontiff argued that a just transition to clean, renewable energy is "a duty that we owe towards millions of our brothers and sisters around the world, poorer countries, and generations yet to come."
"We know that the challenges facing us are interconnected. If we are to eliminate poverty and hunger...the more than one billion people without electricity today need to gain access to it," Francis said.
"Our desire to ensure energy for all must not lead to the undesired effect of a spiral of extreme climate changes due to a catastrophic rise in global temperatures, harsher environments, and increased levels of poverty," he added.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.