Pope Leo XIV’s Views on the Environment and Climate Change
“It’s time to move from words to action.” That’s what the new Pope, Leo XIV, said at a Vatican climate conference in 2024. The pontiff also warned that humanity has a tyrannical dominion over nature and urged a return to a “relationship of reciprocity” with creation. Prior to his election as pope, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost had said that addressing the environmental challenges facing the world must be based on the Social Doctrine of the Church, and he reiterated the Vatican’s commitment to protect the planet, which it has demonstrated by installing solar panels and shifting to electric vehicles, according to Vatican News.
Leo shares views expressed by his predecessor, Francis, who in 2015 issued an encyclical, saying that Earth is our common home and is like a sister or a mother on whom we have inflicted harm because of the use and abuse of her goods. He mourned consumerism and irresponsible economic development. The new pope has also warned against the harmful consequences of unchecked technological advancement, according to ABC News. Leo XIV is the first American to be chosen. He grew up on the South Side of Chicago, and spent about 20 years in Peru, where he is a naturalized citizen.
Before becoming pope, he said on social media that the U.S. Vice President, J.D. Vance, was wrong to say that Christian doctrine tells us to rank our love for others. Vance had said on Fox News, "There is a very Christian concept that you love your family and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritize the rest of the world. A lot of the far left has completely inverted that." The new pope’s criticism of Vance was based on an opinion piece in the National Catholic Reporter, in which Kat Armas wrote that the love Jesus spoke of is not about a choice between our families, neighbors, or immigrants; instead, love is a river that flows wild and without restraint.
While Leo has been outspoken on climate and the environment, he has attracted some criticism from LGBTQ+ Catholics for remarks he made about ten years ago, condemning what he said was the “homosexual lifestyle” and gay marriage.
According to the late academic Immanuel Wallerstein, who was a renowned American sociologist, it’s important for non-Catholics to be concerned about the papal selection because the Vatican is a major geopolitical actor, and the head of the church is just like other world leaders.
A Shortage of Omega-3 Is Being Made Worse by Climate Change
We need omega-3 fatty acids in our diets to be healthy, but the human body can’t produce much of these lipids, so we have to get them from our food. Currently, 85 percent of people in the world’s countries don't get enough omega-3, and according to a new study, they are about to get less.
That’s because the main source for omega-3—a polyunsaturated fatty acid—is seafood, but there’s a growing shortage because of climate change, overfishing, and pollution. That is not just a public health problem, it’s a planetary one, says lead author Timothy Ciesielski, a research scientist at Case Western Reserve University.
In a conversation with H2O Radio, he said the problem begins with algae, which are the powerhouses of omega-3 production. If you were willing to eat enough kelp or seagrass, you could possibly get your needs met but most of us would probably prefer a nice salmon filet. Unfortunately, warming ocean waters are reducing how much omega-3 that algae can produce. Since they’re at the bottom of the food chain, that means less omega-3 is taken up by small fish, which are then eaten by bigger fish that have less of the lipids to offer us on our dinner plates.
Making matters worse, many fish contain contaminants like methylmercury, PFAS compounds, and plastics, which might make you turn to supplements that contain omega-3 extracted from fish oil and then purified. However, Ciesielski said that if there is a shrinking amount of omega-3 in fish, then companies will need to acquire more fish to get the same concentrations, which will compound the problem of overfishing. Also, it’s not practical to think most people worldwide can access fish oil pills, some of which might be of lower quality or with oils that have oxidized and lost their potency. (Ciesielski says if your omega-3 supplement smells fishy, it has probably oxidized.) Adding to these problems is global warming, which is causing ocean acidification that can disrupt food chains.
There are other sources of omega-3 called ALA (Alpha-linolenic acid), derived from plants, versus the EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) found in fatty cold-water fish, like salmon, mackerel, and sardines. However, plant sources tend to have a different fatty acid called omega-6. While omega-3 helps reduce inflammation in the body, omega-6 is pro-inflammatory.
For most of human history, we’ve had balanced diets, so eating both fats wasn’t a problem, but today’s western fare contains about 20 times more omega-6 than omega-3, mostly from vegetable oils, and Ciesielski says that can lead to a host of health problems. To be clear, omega-6 lipids are beneficial, and we don’t need to reduce the amount in our food. Instead, we need to add more omega-3 to have them in proportion to reduce conditions tied to chronic inflammation, like heart disease, cancer, preterm birth, and some mental-health issues.
So, what to do? Clearly addressing climate change, overfishing, and pollution would be ideal to keep ocean food webs intact, but action has been slow. One bright spot is a plant called purslane (Portulaca oleracea), which most people might recognize as a weed growing in cracks in sidewalks or in lawns. It is a rare case where a plant contains both EPA and DHA but from a terrestrial source—and putting more of it on the menu could offset concerns about sourcing omega-3 from the ocean. Ciesielski says you should make sure to eat purslane in moderation and from a source free of herbicides to get the full benefit, but the plant could help us to protect ocean health—and our own health at the same time.
The study was published in the journal AJPM Focus.