HOW POPE FRANCIS BESEECHES WORLD LEADERS TO PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT (#ActonClimate)

NEW YORK (AP) — Pope Francis declared Friday that there is a "right of the environment" and that mankind has no authority to abuse it, telling more than 100 world leaders and diplomats at the United Nations that urgent action is needed to halt the destruction of God's creation.

Hoping to spur concrete commitments at upcoming climate change negotiations in Paris, Francis accused the world's powerful countries of indulging a "selfish and boundless thirst" for money by ravaging the planet's natural resources and impoverishing the weak and disadvantaged in the process.

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He asserted that the poor have inherent rights to education and what he has termed the "three L's" — lodging, labor and land.

Francis' speech, the fifth by a pope to the U.N., was a distillation of his recent teaching document on the environment, "Praise Be," which has delighted liberals and environmentalists and drawn scorn from big business interests.

By bringing the document to life before the U.N., Francis made clear his priorities.

"Any harm done to the environment, therefore, is harm done to humanity," he said.

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