Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality: On Care for Our Common Home

Written by Pope Francis

Narrated by Linda Korn and Mark Bramhall

The complete text of the landmark encyclical letter from Pope Francis that, as Time magazine reported, "rocked the international community"

In the Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality, the beloved Pope exhorts the world to combat environmental degradation and its impact on the poor. In a stirring, clarion call that is not merely aimed at Catholic listeners but rather at a wide, lay audience, the Pope cites the overwhelming scientific evidence of climate change, and does not hesitate to detail how it is the result of a historic level of unequal distribution of wealth.

It is, in short, as the New York Times labeled it, "An urgent call to action . . . intended to persuade followers around the world change their behavior, in hopes of protecting a fragile planet."

With an insightful and informative introduction by Harvard professor Naomi Oreskes, famed for her bestselling Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio
• Release date: Aug 4, 2015
• ISBN: 9780399568718

Pope Francis

Pope Francis is the first Latin American to be elected to the chair of St Peter. Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he was ordained as a priest in 1969. He served as head of the Society of Jesus in Argentina from 1973 to 1979. In 1998 he became the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, and in 2001 a cardinal. Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in February 2013, Bergoglio was elected as his successor. He chose the papal name Francis in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Reviews for Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality

[dinadansfriend · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The encyclical is a good read, and demonstrates a tread in the Catholic Church, should the bishops as a whole get on board with its concepts, a useful framework for achieving work towards coping with the climate changes we all face. I'm not a Catholic, but the work seems to approve of the involvement of that community of believers in the struggle to survive the the next century, and thus is worthy of favourable comment. It is short on hard data, but I am sure does provide useful precepts and good pithy quotes on the overall topics. Like Naomi Klein's "This Changes Everything", the modern Oil business does get a good deal of criticism in these pages. It is well deserved.