Progressio welcomes Pope’s speech condemning “insatiable consumption”

Progressio has welcomed Pope Benedict XVI's stark message on the environment, which warned of the perils of pillaging the planet's natural resources.

Speaking to more than 200,000 Roman Catholics at a Christian youth event in Sydney, Pope Benedict said that "perhaps reluctantly we come to acknowledge the scars which mark the surface of our earth: erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world's mineral and ocean resources in order to fuel an insatiable consumption".

Progressio's environmental policy officer, Sol Oyuela, said: "It is absolutely the case that rich countries cannot continue to pursue the current trend of relentless consumerism and also have a healthy environment and reduce poverty. The communities we work with in Latin America, for example, tell us that Northern demand for timber is wreaking havoc on the region's forests and threatening poor people's livelihoods."

Pope Benedict also pointed to the threat of climate change, saying he was aware that some within his audience came "from island nations whose very existence is threatened by rising water levels; others from nations suffering the effects of devastating drought".

Sol Oyuela added: "Climate change is just one example of how rich countries' lifestyle choices are impacting the world's poorest people. Wealthy populations and governments have a moral obligation to reflect on how their consumption patterns are exacerbating environmental degradation and poverty."