Pope Francis Calls for 'integral ecology' in TED Climate Countdown Video

In his virtual TED talk, Pope Francis proposed three steps that can be taken to implement an “integral ecology” to respond to the needs of the poor by caring for creation.

The first step is “education in the care of the common home” to help people understand that “environmental problems are linked to human needs,” he said.

The pope’s second step is to focus on water access and adequate nutrition.

“Access to safe and safe water is an essential and universal human right. It is essential, because it determines the survival of people and for this reason it is a condition for the exercise of all other rights and responsibilities. Ensuring adequate nutrition for all through non-destructive farming methods should then become the fundamental purpose of the entire cycle of production and distribution of food,” he said.

The third proposal put forth by Pope Francis is “a gradual, but immediate, replacement of fossil fuels with clean energy sources.”

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“This transition must not only be rapid and capable of meeting present and future energy needs, but it must also be attentive to the impacts on the poor, on local populations and on those who work in the energy production sectors,” he said.

The pope pointed viewers toward his encyclical letter Laudato Si’ to learn more about “care for our common home.” He said that his recently published encyclical Fratelli Tutti also touches on this topic in how to build a better future.

“It will be necessary to go step by step, to help the weak, to persuade the doubters, to imagine new solutions and to commit to carrying them out. But the goal is clear: to build, in the next decade, a world where we can respond to the needs of present generations, including everyone, without compromising the possibilities of future generations,” he said.

Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.