Letter: We have a God-given responsibility for this wonderful blue planet

The Blue Marble - taken during Apollo 17 Lunar Mission 1972 - NASA

My main concern right now is the growing threat of climate change which, if not stopped or greatly reduced, looks like being the biggest challenge that human beings, of all faiths and of no faith, will need to face up to within no more than about 10 years at the most.

I was born into a Catholic family in Cork City in 1938 so it is unlikely that either climate change or global warming will trouble me very much before I die. However, in Cardiff, where I have lived since 1960, I see parents escorting their bright and cheerful kids along the road which I can see from my windows. It is a daily heartwarming and enchanting scene that I always appreciate until I remember that it is those young children who will have to endure and to face the possibly disastrous consequences of the combined effects of both global warming and climate change.

Most of us have now heard of the Swedish teenager, Greta Thunberg, who has made it her life's mission to avert. Greta has even visited Pope Francis to discuss his remarkable encyclical, 'Laudato Si'. In that encyclical, the Holy Father sets out to remind us all of our God-given responsibility for this wonderful blue planet, a planet which it is our privilege to share with about seven billion other human beings of every language, culture and creed. Amen.


Patrick F Tobin
Cardiff