The Pope Gets It

In his recent address to the masses, Pope Benedict was talking in Sydney . Australia is one of the countries that was hit hardest by global changes, with abnormal UV radiation levels and exceptionally high skin cancer rates.

The pope goes straight to the point: "erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world's mineral and ocean resources in order to fuel an insatiable consumption".

He is not shy from getting to the root of the problem: "Insatiable consumption". And this separates him from most other leaders that have a serious problem with cooling down consumption, fearing that it will slow down their local economies.
The pope on the other hand takes a different approach, where we have to get to the root of the problem, even is there are some repercussions. Unlike most national leaders, he has a global view and not a local view, thinking about environmental issues on a global scale.

This puts the long term view in higher importance then the short term view, since as we know economies adapt to changes over time. But the pope is not a politician that thinks in a 4 year cycle, he overstates the strategic goal over short term thinking.

The Pope joins an array of religious leaders that take stand on the issue. Other than the theological aspect of man destroying gods creation, there is a more practical issue of the impacts of global environmental changes that all religious leaders have to address (such as increasing food prices).