Experts in biodiversity and extinction are gathering at the Vatican this week to discuss biological extinction—and how to save the natural world on which we all depend.
The conference focuses on the alarming signs, from various branches of science, that we are outstripping out planet's ability to sustain us. It follows on Pope Francis' 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si, calling for better care and concern for "our Common Home," as well as an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report suggesting we are on a course to destroy up to 40 percent of biodiversity on Earth by century's end.
The conference is co-sponsored by the Pontifical Academy of Science and the Pontifical Academy of Social Science.
Our desire for enhanced consumption grows more rapidly than our population, and Earth cannot sustain it," the sponsors say. "Nothing less than a reordering of our priorities based on a moral revolution can succeed in maintaining the world in such a way as to resemble the conditions we have enjoyed here."
