The Pope has spoken! And look at what a timely and relevant topic he touched on in his "Laudate Deum": the Environmental Issue, which cannot be ignored as a priority at a global level and which should be a source of concern not only for those who serve as world leaders, but for the entire population, because in some way it is related to the future of life itself on Planet Earth.

Addressed "to all people of good will regarding the climate crisis," this kind of papal exhortation should shake the world's conscience about the serious deterioration that is observed and felt today on the Environment and above all promote the measures that specialists recommend in order to somehow contain the deterioration and avoid as far as possible that it worsens.

Pope Francis is aware that there are those in the world who try to trivialize and even deny the harsh reality of the environmental disaster, and so he attacks the indifferent and unbelieving:

"No matter how much they try to deny, hide, conceal or relativize, the signs of climate change are there, increasingly evident."

This observation is perfectly valid and reasonable, because there are deniers who try to underestimate the warnings that have been made for many years by scientists, specialists and organizations that deal with environmental issues.

Pope Francis continues lecturing and says:

"No one can ignore that in recent years we have witnessed extreme phenomena, frequent periods of unusual heat, drought and other groans of the Earth, which are only some palpable expressions of a silent illness that affects us all."

And the harsh reality is there for everyone to see, but there are those who, intentionally or out of ignorance, act dumb when the seriousness of the issue is addressed. For them, the biblical quote is valid:

"Son of man, you live in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see and do not see, they have ears to hear and do not hear, for they are a rebellious house.

And the harsh reality is there, in plain sight for all to see. The Planet speaks to us and we do not listen, The Planet is wounded and we do not feel it.

Every day, thanks to the advance of the Social Communication Media, we receive information that sometimes overwhelms us: Territorial areas that were once comfortable now subjected to extreme heat or cold; hurricanes in places never seen before; torrential rains that current generations do not even remember having ever seen; landslides and mudslides with considerable loss of life; unexpected electrical storms that not even weather observers predict; huge plots of land in various places in the world that are already suffering from desertification; global warming; and seas and oceans, with the consequent melting of polar zones that may cause the disappearance of entire cities in coastal areas in the future; the contamination of water sources. And if we look up, the Ozone Layer, our protective layer, felt and hollowed out and the contamination by space debris.

Many will say and I have already read and heard that these situations are the product of the natural evolution of the earth. We recognize that in its evolution the earth is transformed and many of these transformations can affect us, but we cannot ignore, in all the current deterioration of the Environment, the footprint of human beings, who take advantage of it irrationally, without measuring the future consequences, or taking remedial action when the damage is produced.

Faced with the traditional deniers and those who trivialize the environmental issue, Pope Francis wisely tells them:

"To ridicule those who speak of global warming, we resort to the fact that extreme cold is also common. We forget that this and other extraordinary symptoms are nothing more than various alternative expressions of the same cause: the global imbalance that causes global warming."

For me it is significant and of primary importance that Pope Francis has addressed this issue, because the Catholic Church has millions of followers in the world and the warnings and guidelines of the Pope on this matter that should concern us all, will surely influence the behavior of his followers. Hopefully, this awareness will be promoted from the churches, so that citizens assume the Defense of the Environment through their daily behavior and so that the world's political leadership does not continue with the mess of signing treaties and agreements, which no one follows up on and in practice are not fulfilled. Enough of words, we want action on this subject.