Rather than spiraling into panic, we should take a moment to appreciate the remarkable progress we’ve made in improving the environment, and acknowledge that a key factor is prosperity.

Contemporary everyday life includes stuff considered essential that was yet to come or wasn’t much foreseen in 1970.

In other words, it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and cry of the poor. Francis also addresses the issue of debt.