Editor,

Pope Francis’ encyclical on climate change is a significant document. It not only expands the range of interested parties discussing climate change — it clearly turns the discussion on its head.

Instead of a poverty of resources, like “not enough oil,” our real problem, according to the Pope, is our abuse of wealth. The problem is one of consumption, waste, pollution and inequality.

The problem is all the worse for its social disparity — the large disparity between those who qualify to do the consuming and wasting and those who don’t.

So, as the Pope steps from the pulpit into the real world, the question becomes, “How do we care for our ‘common home,’ God’s creation?”

The pope is particularly tough on fossil fuel. The fossil fuel industry is naturally kicking about the Pope, saying that it is a problematic, fossil fuel-based industrial model. Industry says it’s plenty “ethical” — oil removes us from poverty.

Seemingly, the industry sees no downside for its product.

I look forward to reading all 191 pages of the encyclical to see if Pope Francis writes about world conflict around petroleum. Oil, especially, embodies wealth. It has the amazing combination of energy density and portability. But oil is attracting war like a magnet. We fight over it, and oil-producing countries exchange their oil for weapons and more war.

If this isn’t a poster child for the kind of misuse of wealth that the Pope is talking about, I don’t know what is.

For the combined reasons of misuse of natural wealth and blatant waste of a highly polluting resource, we need to take seriously the Pope’s call. Halfway measures will not work. “Put simply, it is a matter of redefining our notion of progress,” he wrote.

What can guide us to real progress? “Everything is related,” said the Pope, “and we human beings are united as brothers and sisters on a wonderful pilgrimage, woven together for the love God has for each of his creatures and which also unites us in fond affection for brother sun, sister moon, brother river and mother earth.”

Chief Seattle said pretty much the same thing. The science of ecology is all about this.

What will we hear this time? How will we use our wealth? And particularly, will we step up creation care by investing more in alternatives to fossil fuel?

Lee James

Coupeville