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Pope Francis last month attracted international attention with the release of his environmental encyclical, in which he described climate change as “a global problem with grave implications” that needs to be urgently addressed.
Particular attention was placed on the failings of political leaders and the importance of people changing their lifestyles, making sacrifices to help combat climate change.
Then the pope, having become the darling of environmentalists, departed Sunday on a whirlwind tour of Latin America.
The pope’s journey from Rome to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay will inevitably involve a considerable amount of air travel, known to be a form of transportation that is incredibly damaging to the environment.
Francis’ first journey of the trip was a VIP flight from Rome to Quito, the Ecuadorean capital, put on by Alitalia especially for the papal visit.
The pope’s Latin America trip will see him travel more than 14,900 miles, mostly by air, creating a large carbon footprint that appears to go against his environmental message.
A quick glance at the pope’s 2015 foreign travel agenda — 11 countries across five continents — and the size of the pope’s carbon footprint starts to look quite large.
As explained by James Lees from the U.K.’s Aviation Environment Federation, which campaigns for sustainability in the industry, air travel accounts for about the same amount of emissions as Germany produces as a country.
“So for both individual and collective action, aviation has the potential to undo good work to cut emissions elsewhere,” he said.
But Lisa Sideris, director of the Indiana University Consortium for the Study of Religion, Ethics and Society, said the pontiff is just one of a number of climate activists who must travel extensively to achieve their goals.
“On purely utilitarian grounds – judging these actions in terms of their consequences – the pope’s carbon footprint could easily be justified. The good that he does by raising awareness of climate change, particularly given the pope’s great symbolic significance, outweighs the carbon expenditure his travels entail,” she said.
Selling the encyclical in bookstores and broadcasting the pope’s voice from the Vatican is simply not as effective as having him speak in person to crowds around the world.
Francis is already bringing his environmental message to Latin America. On Tuesday, he told an audience that people must no longer turn their backs on “Mother Earth.” Continue reading
Rosie Scammell is a freelance journalist in Rome. She tweets Italy & international news and takes photos.
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