More so than any other pontiff in history, Pope Francis has assumed a major role in the fight against climate change and the outspoken Catholic leader looks set to cause major waves at this year's United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. In an interview with German news portal Spiegel Online on Tuesday, Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences, says Francis was disappointed by last year's UN climate conference in Lima and was now seeking to fire up this year's talks. While the Pope is not expected to personally take part in the Paris conference, he is working to inspire with divine influence through the publication of his encyclical on ecology and climate change later this year. Speaking to reporters about his views on climate change while traveling to the Philippines earlier this month, the Pope said he did not know whether it was all the fault of humans, "but the majority is, for the most part, it is man who continuously slaps down nature." Francis made the point that humans had, "lorded over nature, over Sister Earth, over Mother Earth," adding, "I think man has gone too far. Thank God that today there are voices that are speaking out about this." A violent storm forced ...Den vollständigen Artikel lesen ...