5 III Loss of Biodiversity No one looking for quick and easy profit is truly interested in preserving ecosystems Pope Frances attributes this terrible injustice which is making our earth less rich and beautiful, ever more limited and grey (34) to short-sighted approaches to the economy, commerce and production (32) which see species merely as potential ‘resources’ to be exploited (33), missing their essential value. He acknowledges that while some countries have made significant progress...in the protection of biodiversity (37), degradation of the world’s rainforests and oceans highlights the reality that all creatures are connected, each must be cherished with love and respect (42). IV Decline in the Quality of Human Life and the Breakdown of Society In the digital world, relationships can be chosen or eliminated at whim In this section, Pope Francis examines more closely how environmental deterioration affects people’s lives. Many cities, he says, are huge, inefficient structures, excessively wasteful of energy and water where citizens are inundated by cement, asphalt, glass and metal, and deprived of physical contact with nature (44). Our access to places of beauty where an appreciation of nature can change our hearts in relation to our understanding of creation can be restricted, particularly in areas where the disposable of society live (45). He lists many of the detrimental social effects of global change: unemployment, social exclusion, an inequitable distribution and consumption of energy and other services, social breakdown, increased violence and a rise in new forms of social aggression, drug trafficking, growing drug use by young people, and the loss of identity (46). In addition, the ever-present media and digital world can stop people from learning to live wisely, to think deeply and to love generously (47). Living in this digital age can shield us from direct contact with the pain, the fears and the joys of others and the complexity of their personal experiences (47), which gives rise to many of the social effects listed above and increases a harmful sense of isolation (47). We must hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor V Global Inequality The human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together Here we are again reminded that the gravest effects of all attacks on the environment are suffered by the poorest (48) - billions of people who are the majority of the world’s population, but who can become collateral damage (49) in the political and economic agendas of groups at the centre of power who are often far removed from the poor (49). This inequity can affect entire countries and results in a true ecological debt (51) which rich countries owe to poor countries for the environmental imbalances and devastation, and the disproportionate use of resources...over long periods of time (51). In facing what are global
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