Pope's call to save the environment was met with dismay by critics who have repeatedly pointed out that the Vatican's ban on contraception will effectively negate all attempts at protecting the environment and tacking climate change.
"Care of water resources and attention to climate change are matters of grave importance for the entire human family," Benedict XVI said today, on th eve of an international symposium on the defense of the Arctic. "Encouraged by the growing recognition of the need to preserve the environment, I invite all of you to join me in praying and working for greater respect for the wonders of God's creation."
But William Lawrence argues in New Scientist that Catholic church is responsible for denying women access to condoms that could halt the population explosion, which is the main cause of Planet Earth's environmental ills.
According Lawrence, the problems have been exacerbated by the unholy union between the Pope and United States President George W. Bush.
"The global impact of the Catholic church's antagonism to contraception has been magnified by the resurgence of moral conservatism in the US, under the administration of George W. Bush," Lawrence writes. "The US used to be the world's biggest and most effective donor for condoms and other contraceptives, but Bush slashed funds for such services, and replaced them with ideologically inspired programmes proffering abstinence as the sole means of reproductive planning for the unwed."
Paolo Conversi, who teaches human ecology at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University, does not share this belief.
According to Conversi, in Catholic thought, "it's not the number of people but the quality and style of life that determine the impact on the environment".
But as far back as 1996, the Ecological Society of America hosted a major conference on population growth which concluded "There is general agreement throughout the scientific community that growth of the human population, and the resultant increase in consumption, is exerting an unsustainable amount of pressure on global [eco] systems"
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