ROME — Pope Francis sent a message Saturday to the COP28 United Nations climate summit decrying the “unbridled exploitation” of the environment by first world nations.
Climate change “greatly endangers all human beings,” the pontiff said in his sternly worded address, and “time is short” to react to the current ecological crisis.
“It has now become clear that the climate change presently taking place stems from the overheating of the planet,” the pope declared, “caused chiefly by the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to human activity, which in recent decades has proved unsustainable for the ecosystem.”
Due to an “inflammation of the lungs,” the pope was unable to travel personally to Dubai to read his message, so the text was read instead by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
