Pope Francis to Issue Statement on Climate Change

According to VICE News, Pope Francis is expected to issue an "encyclical" about environmental issues, including climate change. An encyclical is essentially one of the most influential statements a pop could make, a sort of call to action. The statement is expected sometime early in 2015, and could have a strong impact on Catholics who sustain skepticism about climate change. According to VICE, James Martin, "a Jesuit priest and editor-at-large of the Catholic magazine America", thinks "When Francis weighs in on climate change...it will make it much more difficult for Catholic lawmakers to ignore the issue". Because of the strong moral character associated with the Pope, his stance on environmental issues such as global warming can impact and shift the viewpoints of many people who follow and admire him.

Pope Francis:              / from outsidethebeltway.com

VICE also points out the timeliness of this encyclical relative to the United Nations summit in December 2015, "where nearly 200 heads of state will attempt to hammer out a deal that could head off catastrophic climate change." Perhaps Francis' statement will influence the tides of the climate change discussion enough to further progress to find a solution--in time for the aforementioned summit. This article relates to the third and fourth learning objective for the class, that the Pope's statement could affect the future of how we act on and against climate change, including climate change policy determined by the UN summit.