Popeapalooza, The Environmental Version

[hatrack]

OSLO/JOHANNESGURG — "The new pope being chosen by cardinals in the Vatican may have a huge impact on the environment depending upon which side he favours in the centuries-old Biblical debate about whether humans should exploit or safeguard nature, experts say. The outcome of that tussle among Christians might influence everything from the pace of exploitation of oil and gas to the level of protection for the world's forests, they say.

"The potential for world religions ... as well as indigenous religions, to contribute to the mitigation of environmental abuse is tremendous," said Baird Callicott, a professor of philosophy and religion studies at North Texas University. "The late Pope did little in that regard. One world religion leader, the Dalai Lama of Tibet, has done much more," he said. The Buddhist Dalai Lama stresses that humans should live in harmony with nature.

Pope John Paul II often criticised human abuse of the planet, saying for instance in 2002 that the world was living in an "environmental emergency". But he rarely made the environment a top issue for the world's more than one billion Catholics.

EDIT

"Despite some pronouncements on protecting the environment, this does not seem to have been a high priority for the previous Pope," said Bron Taylor, editor of the Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature and a scholar at the University of Florida. He said Pope John Paul's opposition to birth control had damaged the environment by spurring population growth. At a 2002 U.N. Earth Summit in Johannesburg -- setting the tone for environmental protection and debate for a decade -- Taylor said there was no major presence of Roman Catholics. Taylor also said that some other Christians had done more to champion the environment than Roman Catholics. The head of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, in 1997 became the first head of a major Christian Church to label environmentally damaging behaviour a "sin", Taylor said."

EDIT

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=7571