not succeeded in changing their harmful habits of consumptionwhich, rather than decreasing, appear to
be growing all the more. A simple example is the increasing use and power of air-conditioning. The
markets, which immediately benefit from sales, stimulate ever greater demand. An outsider looking at
ourworldwouldbe amazed at suchbehaviour,which at times appears self-destructive.
56.
In the meantime, economic powers continue to justify the current global systemwhere priority
tends to be given to speculation and the pursuit of financial gain, which fail to take the context into
account, let alone the effects on human dignity and the natural environment. Here we see how
environmental deterioration and human and ethical degradation are closely linked. Many people will
deny doing anythingwrong because distractions constantly dull our consciousness of just how limited
and finite our world really is. As a result, “whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenceless
before the interests of a deifiedmarket,whichbecome theonly rule”.
33
57.
It is foreseeable that, once certain resources have been depleted, the scene will be set for new
wars, albeit under the guise of noble claims. War always does grave harm to the environment and to
the cultural riches of peoples, risks which are magnified when one considers nuclear arms and
biological weapons. “Despite the international agreements which prohibit chemical, bacteriological
and biological warfare, the fact is that laboratory research continues to develop newoffensive weapons
capable of altering the balance of nature”.
34
Politics must pay greater attention to foreseeing new
conflicts and addressing the causes which can lead to them. But powerful financial interests prove
most resistant to this effort, and political planning tends to lack breadth of vision. What would induce
anyone, at this stage, to hold on to power only to be remembered for their inability to take actionwhen
it was urgent andnecessary to do so?
58.
In some countries, there are positive examples of environmental improvement: rivers, polluted
for decades, have been cleaned up; native woodlands have been restored; landscapes have been
beautified thanks to environmental renewal projects; beautiful buildings have been erected; advances
have been made in the production of non-polluting energy and in the improvement of public
transportation. These achievements do not solve global problems, but they do show that men and
33
ApostolicExhortation
EvangeliiGaudium
(24November 2013), 56:AAS 105 (2013), 1043.
34
JOHNPAUL II,
Message for the1990WorldDayof Peace
, 12:AAS 82 (1990), 154.
