"No matter how much we try to deny, hide, dissimulate or relativize them, the signs of climate change are there, increasingly evident”. On the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi, the Pope published Laudate Deum, a new apostolic exhortation that returns to the themes of the eight-year-old encyclical, Laudato Si, and addresses issues of energy transition. "With the passage of time, I realize that we are not reacting enough, as the world that welcomes us is crumbling and perhaps approaching a breaking point. Beyond that possibility, there is no doubt that the impact of climate change will increasingly harm the lives of many people and families. We will feel the effects in terms of health, jobs, access to resources, housing, forced migration and in other areas. No one can ignore the fact that in recent years we have witnessed extremes, frequent periods of abnormal heat, droughts, and other laments of the earth that are just some tangible expressions of a silent disease that affects us all," the encyclical reads. It is true that not all disasters can be attributed to global climate change. However, it is verifiable that some human-induced climate changes significantly increase the likelihood of more frequent and more intense extreme events". In 6 chapters and 73 paragraphs, Bergoglio issues a call to co-responsibility in the face of the climate change emergency, before it is too late. "A broader vision is urgently needed, one that allows us not only to marvel at the wonders of progress, but also to pay attention to other effects that probably could not even be imagined a century ago," the Pontiff wrote, "Nothing more is asked of us than a certain responsibility for the legacy we will leave behind us after our passage through this world”.
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