Interview: Environmentalists Celebrate Pope's Eco-Encyclical

Asad Rehman, senior campaigner for the environmental organization Friends of the Earth, celebrated the position taken by Pope Francis in defense of the planet in his encyclical released Thursday.

“It is a significant intervention by the church. It is more significant in the sense that it is a moral call for all of humanity to act and to act urgently on the issue of climate change,” said Rehman in an exclusive interview with teleSUR.

Rehman said that the Pope's statement, being referred to as the eco-encyclical, “takes a justice approach to ecology.”

The papal document makes a deliberate effort to link the struggle over the well-being of the planet with a thirst for social justice, something Pope Francis has repeatedly embraced since becoming the head of the Catholic Church.

"We are not faced with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather one complex crisis which is both social and environmental,” reads one portion of the papal document.

The eco-encyclical did not shy away from political issues, openly criticizing some solutions, such as carbon credits, that have been floated by policymakers in richer countries.

“It also says very clearly that there are some things that are being promoted that are what he calls false solutions... merely ways to delay change that is required that ultimately benefit multinationals.. these things are the wrong approach,” said Rehman.