coolness

That's so cool Margaret-- whose speech was it (which politician)?

Another cool thing: an article about the Pope and his support of sustainability as a "moral obligation". Yay Pope! A co-worker sent the article to me; you can read it below...

"Pope to make climate action a moral obligation"
Independent Online Edition
Europe 09/22/2007 11:32 AM
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2987811.ece
Pope to make climate action a moral obligation
By James Macintyre
Published: 22 September 2007
The Pope is expected to use his first address to the United Nations
to deliver a powerful warning over climate change in a move to adopt
protection of the environment as a "moral" cause for the Catholic
Church and its billion-strong following.
The New York speech is likely to contain an appeal for sustainable
development, and it will follow an unprecedented Encyclical (a
message to the wider church) on the subject, senior diplomatic
sources have told The Independent. It will act as the centrepiece of
a US visit scheduled for next April the first by Benedict XVI, and
the first Papal visit since 1999 and round off an environmental
blitz at the Vatican, in which the Pope has personally led moves to
emphasise green issues based on the belief that climate change is
affecting the poorest people on the planet, and the principle that
believers have a duty to "protect creation".
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, head of the Catholic Church in the
UK, said last night: "This is a crucial issue both today and for all
future generations. We are the stewards of creation and we need to
take that responsibility seriously and co-operate to care for the
created world."
A Papal tour of America will be particularly potent during election
year in the US, where Catholics number around 73 million, and is
being discussed in Rome after Pope Benedict accepted an invitation
from the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon. For the Pope to take his
climate-change message to the high-profile UN platform will be
considered hugely influential to the fifth of the world's population
who are Catholics, and will act as a rallying call for action in
Africa and Asia, which have seen a rise in Catholics in recent years.
News of the speech comes as Vatican City has become the first fully
carbon-neutral state in the world, after announcing it is offsetting
its carbon footprint by planting a forest in Hungary and installing
solar panels on the roof of St Peter's Basilica in Rome.
It also follows a series of interventions by the Pope on the
environment. On 2 September he told a 300,000 youth audience: "Before
it is too late, it is necessary to make courageous decisions that
reflect knowing how to re-create a strong alliance between man and
the earth." On 7 September, he said there was a "pressing need for
science and religion to work together to safeguard the gifts of
nature and to promote responsible stewardship".
UK diplomats have held a number of behind-the-scenes meetings with
Vatican officials on the environment. A Whitehall source said last
night: "Benedict is the spiritual head of 19 per cent of the world's
population and a highly respected figure. If the Pope's words are
taken on board by his community that is one big constituency for
change and could well turn the tide on climate change and
environmental degradation."
© 2007 Independent News and Media Limited