Vatican City’s Green Initiative

Hey fellow adventurers! Today I want to touch upon Vatican City’s contribution to going green. When I talk about going green, I’m referring to their decision to make more environmentally conscious decisions. As some of you may know, some popes have been more concerned about being eco-friendly than others. So today I’ll talk a little about what Vatican City has done to be more green.

Several popes have brought up the desire to go carbon neutral (making it so no carbon dioxide gets released into the atmosphere), and they’ve taken several steps in this direction. According to several sources I read, Vatican City has enough solar panels to charge all of Vatican City. They’ve also been switching out their regular gas vehicles for hybrid vehicles. They originally had the goal to have all electric vehicles by the end 0f 2017, but it doesn’t look like they accomplished that.

It has been mentioned in the past that Vatican City plans on integrating a recycling center for the separate disposal of waste and compost, also referred to as an “ecological island.” However, I have not ready any reports about it being implemented so I don’t know much about it.

Pope Francis even sent out an encyclical (a papal letter sent to people within the Holy See) about the importance of responding to climate change. In the letter, he states “Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods.” To Pope Francis however, this is not merely a scientific debate, but a humanitarian one. The Pope argues that wealthier countries (and people) are the main ones contributing to climate change but that poorer countries are the ones that have the hardest time adapting. Pope Francis believes people like himself must get involved because “Scientists don’t have the moral authority to ask people to change behavior.” If you want to know more about Pope Francis’s view on climate change, National Geographic wrote an interesting piece on the subject:

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/150616-pope-climate-francis-vatican-global-warming-green-solar-carbon-sustainable/

Or you could always Google it. A lot of people have talked about it. But that’s all for today’s post. Thank you so much for reading! And as always, until our next adventure!