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He offered the address upon receiving an honorary degree from the School of the Environment at Ionian University.
“Undoubtedly, the natural environment is threatened in our time as never before in the past,” he said. “The consequences of the ecological crisis know no borders of states and civilizations, and affect the conditions of survival not only of the human race, but also of life in general on the planet.”
He added that this was not a hypothetical situation, but an imminent threat. “The climate crisis is not a ‘future scenario,’ but a painful reality, with the rapid decline of biodiversity, deforestation, pollution of the atmosphere and seas, catastrophic fires and floods,” he said. “Despite the reactions and resistance to this threat, geocide continues, while at the same time the unwavering view that nature has the power to renew itself is cultivated.”
The Ecumenical Patriarch stated that “the Christian approach to the problem requires repentance for abuses, restraint and an ascetic ethos, which constitute an antidote to overconsumption, and at the same time, cultivating in man the consciousness that he is a ‘steward’ and not the owner of creation.” The Holy and Great Council of 2016, he pointed out, “never ceases to emphasize that future generations also have a right to the natural goods entrusted to us by the Creator.”
Ecumenical Patriarch: ‘A Third World War Against Nature Is Being Waged’
