News from a Changing Planet -- This Week On Earth #16

Pope Francis' renewed call for climate action, more on why cars don't need to be the future, renewable energy YIMBY and New England superiority

From a declaration following a Vatican conference on climate change. Credit 350.org

IF THE POPE SAYS IT, IT HAS TO BE TRUE (HE’S INFALLIBLE): Pope Francis makes another urgent call for climate action. (Washington Post)

Eight years after his papal encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’ (a truly remarkable document that makes a really strong theological case for environmental protection and justice), which was released before the negotiations that produced the Paris agreement in 2015, Pope Francis has another message, this time aimed at world leaders about to meet at COP28.

In this new document (released on the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and the environment and ecology), the pope wrote, “The world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point,” and also called out world leaders for their paltry accomplishments since the Paris agreement , which he described as “a failure of conscience and responsibility.”

I will take any opportunity to plug The Two Popes and to look at this picture. Credit Netflix via Vox

He also singled out the United States among developed countries for its contribution to this crisis: “If we consider that emissions per individual in the United States are about two times greater than those of individuals living in China, and about seven times greater than the average of the poorest countries, we can state that a broad change in the irresponsible lifestyle connected with the Western model would have a significant long-term impact.”

Just over half of American Catholics say that the planet is warming mostly because of human activity, despite an infallible pope telling them it is. About 90 percent of atheists know this. Riddle me that.

Which one of these looks like it would be nice to live in? Credit Antonio Huerta via Yale Climate Connections

MORE ABOUT THE PROBLEM WITH CARS: A historical deep-dive into the mythology about Americans and their cars (Yale Climate Connections)

For anyone looking to learn more about the problems with electric vehicles and the underlying problem of relying on cars in general, look no further: Sarah Wesseler wrote the historical essay I wish I’d written debunking the idea that Americans want/love/need cars. Instead, she cites the work of historian Peter Norton, who has found that, at every turn for the last hundred or so years, Americans have been fighting the dominance of the car in our society.