Three people putting the protection of the planet before themselves. Three powerful stories from Latin America, the deadliest region for environmental activists.
Activism
Pope Francis gives Donald Trump the encyclical on the environment
Papa Francesco ha ricevuto Donald Trump in Vaticano. Dopo un colloquio di 30 minuti gli ha regalato l’enciclica sull’ambiente, sulla cura della casa comune.
Pope Francis has met with Donald Trump at the Vatican. A 30-minute meeting in which Francis decided to play his trump card to convince the US President to tackle environmental issues and remain in the Paris Agreement, a global accord aimed to curb climate change signed by the international community at COP21 and entered into force on 4 November 2016. This is most likely what happened during the meeting between the Pope and the US President, a moment that could provide plenty of inspirations to award-winning director Paolo Sorrentino, who is currently working on the making of The New Pope, the sequel of the success tv series The Young Pope.
Pope Francis’ gifts to Donald Trump
At the end of the meeting, Trump – who has always been sceptic about global warming and a conservative or even reactionary on environmental issues – received as a gift the copy of three encyclicals: the Evangelii Gaudium, the Amoris Laetitia, and – best of all – the Laudato Si’, the environment encyclical urging the protection of “our common home” and a more sustainable and circular development in support of the poorest. It’s a precious gift that only a personality like Pope Francis could afford to make without triggering uncontrollable reactions by Trump.
Greenpeace welcomes Trump to the Vatican
On the eve of the meeting, some Greenpeace activists burst into the Vatican and projected a message on the St. Peter’s basilica reading “Planet Earth first”, playing on Trump’s “America first” slogan. The police said the officers “allowed the action to proceed given the peaceable nature of the protest”. They identified all of the activists taking part in it, eight total.
“Climate change is the ultimate threat of our generation, and real world leaders are taking action now to safeguard our people,” said Jennifer Morgan, Greenpeace International’s executive director. “Ahead of his meeting with the Pope, we delivered to Trump a message that his first priority must be to people and planet, not the profits of polluters. Trump cannot stop the clean energy transition and should instead focus on accelerating it.”
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