Pope Francis was well known for his environmental activism. Time called him the “Climate Pope” for his prominent role in the global climate movement. He consistently talked about the consequences of human action on the planet and described the destruction of the environment as a “structural sin,” calling on people to act with urgency. As I reflect on the Pope’s passing, I remember being drenched in rain while waiting to see him in Manila, alongside a crowd of more than 6 million people for what would be the largest papal mass ever held. The record-breaking number was not surprising: the Philippines has one of the largest Catholic populations in the world, and at the time, Filipinos had a lot to pray for. When Pope Francis visited in January 2015, Filipinos were still reeling from back-to-back typhoons in 2014 and a slew of tragedies in 2013, including a devastating earthquake, a deadly armed conflict, and Super Typhoon Haiyan, which killed more than 6,000 people and left more than 1,000 missing. In 2013, I covered the impact of Haiyan on the Eastern Visayas region for a local news organization. Along the eastern coast, our news team saw flattened villages and destroyed coconut plantations. When we arrived in Tacloban City, where Haiyan hit the hardest, we were stunned by the overpowering smell of death and a city that appeared to have been bombed and turned into a war zone. Hearing the stories of Haiyan survivors eventually led me to climate reporting. And it…This article was originally published on Mongabay
From Conservation news via this RSS feed