Pope Francis Gets Real About How Man Has Abused Nature

We have to say, Pope Francis is quickly becoming one of our favorite people. Not only is he a shining example of how compassion traverses all boundaries of race, creed and even species, but he has a wonderful way of delivering messages that come with a much needed dose of reality. Being humans ourselves, we completely understand the feeling that we are the center of the universe – but time and time again, Pope Francis has told us to ditch the ego and actually think about how our actions are impacting the planet and the other living beings around us.

In his latest, and arguably greatest, statement, Pope Francis discusses Climate change and how man has taken over nature. The Pope is expected to released an encyclical on man-made climate change later this spring, but spoke candidly about his thoughts on man-made Climate change while on the way to Philippines to meet with the survivors of Typhoon Haiyan.

The Pope explains that while there might be natural factors involved in global Climate change, man has effectively, “slapped nature in the face.”

Stating that “we have exploited nature too much,” he cites the examples of deforestation and monocultures to illustrate how we’ve shaped the natural world for the worse. We have used and abused nature and now we are facing the consequences, or rather the world’s most impoverished and vulnerable communities are facing the consequences.

There is no denying that humans have exploited the world’s natural resources and consequently altered natural systems, but it is time we started to take ownership of our own misinformed actions and make a change for the better. “Thanks be to God that today there are voices, so many people who are speaking out about it,” says Pope Francis.

When we slap nature in the face, its only fair that we expect an slap right back. It’s time that we ended this ridiculous fight with the planet we rely on and started to make amends and change our world for the better.

Image source: FoxRio