The Vatican’s next big moral mission

By Jessica Hellmann
4 minute read
Published 4:26 PM EDT, Mon April 27, 2015
The consequences of climate change go far beyond warming temperatures, which scientists say are melting the polar ice caps and raising sea levels. Click through the gallery for a look at 10 other key effects of climate change, some of which may surprise you.
Melting polar ice caps —
The consequences of climate change go far beyond warming temperatures, which scientists say are melting the polar ice caps and raising sea levels. Click through the gallery for a look at 10 other key effects of climate change, some of which may surprise you.
Josef Friedhuber/Getty Images/File
In the coming decades climate change will unleash megadroughts lasting 10 years or more, according to <a href="http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00282.1" target="_blank" target="_blank">a new report</a> by scholars at Cornell University, the University of Arizona and the U.S. Geological Survey. We're seeing hints of this already in many arid parts of the world and even in California, which has been rationing water amid record drought. In this 2012 photo, a man places his hand on parched soil in the Greater Upper Nile region of northeastern South Sudan.
Drought —
In the coming decades climate change will unleash megadroughts lasting 10 years or more, according to a new report by scholars at Cornell University, the University of Arizona and the U.S. Geological Survey. We're seeing hints of this already in many arid parts of the world and even in California, which has been rationing water amid record drought. In this 2012 photo, a man places his hand on parched soil in the Greater Upper Nile region of northeastern South Sudan.
Julien Behal/PA Wire/AP/File
There's not a direct link between climate change and wildfires, exactly. But many scientists believe the increase in wildfires in the Western United States is partly the result of tinder-dry forests parched by warming temperatures. This photo shows a wildfire as it approaches the shore of Bass Lake, California, in mid-September.
Wildfires —
There's not a direct link between climate change and wildfires, exactly. But many scientists believe the increase in wildfires in the Western United States is partly the result of tinder-dry forests parched by warming temperatures. This photo shows a wildfire as it approaches the shore of Bass Lake, California, in mid-September.
Darvin Atkeson/YosemiteLandscapes.com/AP
Scientists say the oceans' temperatures <a href="http://blog.nature.org/science/2014/03/31/ipcc-coral-reefs-science-climate-change/" target="_blank" target="_blank">have risen by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit</a> over the last century. It doesn't sound like much, but it's been enough to affect the fragile ecosystems of coral reefs, which have been bleaching and dying off in recent decades. This photo shows dead coral off the coast of St. Martin's Island in Bangladesh.
Coral reefs —
Scientists say the oceans' temperatures have risen by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit over the last century. It doesn't sound like much, but it's been enough to affect the fragile ecosystems of coral reefs, which have been bleaching and dying off in recent decades. This photo shows dead coral off the coast of St. Martin's Island in Bangladesh.
Majority World/UIG/Getty Images/File
<a href="http://ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/" target="_blank" target="_blank">A U.N. panel found in March</a> that climate change -- mostly drought -- is already affecting the global agricultural supply and will likely drive up<strong> </strong>food prices. Here, in 2010, workers on combines harvest soybeans in northern Brazil. Global food experts have warned that climate change could double grain prices by 2050.
Food prices —
A U.N. panel found in March that climate change -- mostly drought -- is already affecting the global agricultural supply and will likely drive up food prices. Here, in 2010, workers on combines harvest soybeans in northern Brazil. Global food experts have warned that climate change could double grain prices by 2050.
Andre Penner/AP/File
Are you sneezing more often these days? Climate change may be to blame for that, too. Recent studies show that rising temperatures and carbon dioxide levels promote the growth of weedy plant species that produce allergenic pollen. The worst place in the United States for spring allergies in 2014, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America? <a href="http://www.aafa.org/pdfs/FINAL_public_LIST_Spring_2014.pdf" target="_blank" target="_blank">Louisville, Kentucky</a>.
Pollen allergies —
Are you sneezing more often these days? Climate change may be to blame for that, too. Recent studies show that rising temperatures and carbon dioxide levels promote the growth of weedy plant species that produce allergenic pollen. The worst place in the United States for spring allergies in 2014, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America? Louisville, Kentucky.
GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP/Getty Images/File
Climate change has not been kind to the world's<strong> </strong>forests. Invasive species such as the bark beetle, which thrive in warmer temperatures, have attacked trees across the North American west, from Mexico to the Yukon. <a href="http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2012/03/14/discovery-pine-beetles-breeding-twice-year-helps-explain-increasing-damage#sthash.PCdFWhdi.dpuf" target="_blank" target="_blank">University of Colorado researchers have found</a> that some populations of mountain pine beetles now produce two generations per year, dramatically boosting the bugs' threat to lodgepole and ponderosa pines. In this 2009 photo, dead spruces of the Yukon's Alsek River valley attest to the devastation wrought by the beetles.
Deforestation —
Climate change has not been kind to the world's forests. Invasive species such as the bark beetle, which thrive in warmer temperatures, have attacked trees across the North American west, from Mexico to the Yukon. University of Colorado researchers have found that some populations of mountain pine beetles now produce two generations per year, dramatically boosting the bugs' threat to lodgepole and ponderosa pines. In this 2009 photo, dead spruces of the Yukon's Alsek River valley attest to the devastation wrought by the beetles.
Rick Bowmer/AP/File
The snows capping majestic Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, once inspired Ernest Hemingway. Now they're in danger of melting away altogether. Studies suggest that if the mountain's snowcap continues to evaporate at its current rate, it could be gone in 15 years. Here, a Kilimanjaro glacier is viewed from Uhuru Peak in December 2010.
Mountain glaciers —
The snows capping majestic Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, once inspired Ernest Hemingway. Now they're in danger of melting away altogether. Studies suggest that if the mountain's snowcap continues to evaporate at its current rate, it could be gone in 15 years. Here, a Kilimanjaro glacier is viewed from Uhuru Peak in December 2010.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images for Laureus/File
Polar bears may be the poster child for climate change's effect on animals. But scientists say climate change is wreaking havoc on many other species -- including birds and reptiles -- that are sensitive to fluctuations in temperatures. One, this golden toad of Costa Rica and other Central American countries, has already gone extinct.
Endangered species —
Polar bears may be the poster child for climate change's effect on animals. But scientists say climate change is wreaking havoc on many other species -- including birds and reptiles -- that are sensitive to fluctuations in temperatures. One, this golden toad of Costa Rica and other Central American countries, has already gone extinct.
U.S Fish and Wildlife Service
It's not your imagination: Some animals -- mostly birds -- are migrating earlier and earlier every year because of warming global temperatures. Scholars from the University of East Anglia found that Icelandic black-tailed godwits have advanced their migration by two weeks over the past two decades. Researchers also have found that many species are migrating to higher elevations as temperatures climb.
Animal migration —
It's not your imagination: Some animals -- mostly birds -- are migrating earlier and earlier every year because of warming global temperatures. Scholars from the University of East Anglia found that Icelandic black-tailed godwits have advanced their migration by two weeks over the past two decades. Researchers also have found that many species are migrating to higher elevations as temperatures climb.
Shutterstock
The planet could see as many as 20 more hurricanes and tropical storms each year by the end of the century because of climate change, according to <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/110/41/16361.full.pdf+html" target="_blank" target="_blank">a 2013 study</a> published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This image shows Superstorm Sandy bearing down on the New Jersey coast in 2012.
Extreme weather —
The planet could see as many as 20 more hurricanes and tropical storms each year by the end of the century because of climate change, according to a 2013 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This image shows Superstorm Sandy bearing down on the New Jersey coast in 2012.
Norman Kuring/Ocean Color Web/NASA
Effects of global warming around the world

Editor’s Note: Jessica Hellmann is the research director of the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index, which aims to enhance understanding of adaptation and inform public and private investments in vulnerable communities. The views expressed are her own.

Story highlights

Vatican scheduled to hold meeting Tuesday to discuss climate change

Jessica Hellmann: Climate change is about justice, dignity and equity

CNN  — 

The Vatican hasn’t been shy about tackling controversial issues head on since Pope Francis assumed the papacy. Indeed, from gay marriage to inequality, the Vatican has reinvigorated debate, sometimes in surprising ways, on a range of social issues. So it should probably come as no surprise that it is set to weigh in on one of the biggest issues facing society today: global warming.

While officials from across the globe continue negotiations on policies aimed at managing and reducing changes to the world’s climate, the Vatican has turned a spotlight on the impact climate change will have on the world’s poorest through a workshop this Tuesday that will set the stage for an anticipated encyclical later this year.

Jessica Hellmann
Jessica Hellmann
University of Notre Dame

This workshop on “moral dimensions of climate change” is a welcome move, because climate change is as much about justice, dignity and equity as it is about computer models, atmospheric chemistry and carbon taxes. After all, its devastating effects – bigger, more destructive hurricanes; hotter, longer droughts; record-breaking wildfires and devastating floods – are poised to disproportionately harm the poor.

In a typical year, more than one-fifth of the Earth’s population is impacted by climate-change, with the poor placed at greatest risk. Meanwhile, according to scientists involved in the University of Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index (ND-GAIN), an annual index ranking more than 175 nations on their vulnerability to climate change, those residing in the least-developed countries are 10-times more likely to be impacted by a climate disaster than those in wealthy countries. Further, the world’s poorest countries lag more than a century behind the richest nations in preparing for climate change.

Not everyone is happy about Pope Francis’ challenge to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics to embrace their moral duty to protect the poor in a climate-changed world. In the United States, squabbles continue over what the Pope should or should not say, while a report in The Guardian this month suggested that one U.S.-based activist group is dispatching a team to “inform Pope Francis of the truth about climate science,” and to warn him about the United Nations’ “unscientific agenda on the climate.”

The Pontiff’s moral message should be a call to action to Catholics and non-Catholics alike: Tell the hard truth, lend a voice to the silent and remain true to one’s morals and data in the face of criticism. In other words, strive, as expressed by the late Fr. Ted Hesburgh, president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame, “To avoid the taint of intellectual and moral mediocrity, to be willing to stand for something unpopular, even if it is good, to be willing to be a minority of one if need be – this is part of the commitment.”

Once we commit ourselves to meeting the humanitarian challenge posed by climate change, there are potential solutions. For example, ND-GAIN data suggest that climate-change resilient countries share certain characteristics: high access to amenities such as electricity, sanitation and clean drinking water; less dependency on natural capital; better preparation for natural disasters; and good governance. This information points where we should head in terms of investment to improve resiliency to climate change around the world. Encouragingly, many countries are already quickly improving – Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Angola and Rwanda have made particular strides in investing in improved readiness over the past two decades.

Scientists have long understood the risks of climate change, but the meeting this week offers a chance to ensure that message and urgency is extended to Catholics and beyond. Ensuring justice for the world’s poor will require overcoming significant tests of moral courage – our future will be dominated by complex issues that sit at the intersection of science, values, and politics. This is why the Vatican’s decision to address the climate issue head on is so invigorating – it offers a much-needed moral compass for the wealthy and a voice for the poor.

Let’s hope that the world’s richest countries will take the cue, if they have not already, to offer undivided support for the poor in confronting what is the greatest humanitarian challenge of our time. In 2015, the world will hear the Vatican’s voice. Let’s hope it is listening.

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