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VATICAN CITY, June 18 (UPI) -- Pope Francis has released his encyclical on climate change, urging for worldwide environmental policy and warning that humans threaten the planet. Climate change "represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day. Its worst impact will probably be felt by developing countries in coming decades," the Pope wrote.
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Francis has called for renewable fuel subsidies and "maximum energy efficiency." He urges the use of public transportation, carpooling and recycling.
Francis also had a few words to write on climate change skeptics, whom he scolds for their "denial."
"It must be said that some committed and prayerful Christians, with the excuse of realism and pragmatism, tend to ridicule expressions of concern for the environment," Francis wrote, adding that "doomsday predictions can no longer be met with irony or disdain."
"We are not gods. The Earth was here before us and has been given to us," the Pope wrote.
"There can be no renewal of our relationship with nature without a renewal of humanity itself," according to Francis, adding that "We are not faced with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather one complex crisis which is both social and environmental."
Leader of the Vatican's Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, said during a news conference unveiling the encyclical that human's treatment of the earth is similar to that of the disenfranchised.
"Our sister, mistreated and pillaged and abused is lamenting and its groans join all those of all the world who are forsaken and uninvited," Turkson said.
The Pope also wrote that reaching a consensus on climate change will be difficult, but a conversation about it is necessary.
"The Church does not presume to settle scientific questions or to replace politics. But I am concerned to encourage an honest and open debate so that particular interests or ideologies will not prejudice the common good," the Pope wrote.
