The pope's leaked letter blames humans for climate change


Pope Francis squarely blames climate change on the human race in a leaked draft of his encyclical, a formal 192-page document on the subject. Scheduled to be released Thursday, it was published in Italian by magazine L'Espresso on Monday.
"Numerous scientific studies indicate that the major part of global warming in recent decades is due to the high concentration of greenhouse gas… emitted above all because of human activity," The Atlantic reports he wrote in the much-anticipated document he's spent more than a year writing with advisers.
The pope placed a special emphasis on how climate change will affect developing countries, along with immigrant and refugee populations.
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A Vatican official told Bloomberg News the leak was a "heinous act."
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Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.
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