"VATICAN CITY -- Nations and individuals have a duty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enact policies that mitigate global warming, said a Vatican-sponsored working group.

'The business-as-usual mode will not be possible because of both resource depletion and environmental damages,' the group said in a report released by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences May 2.

The cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing reforestation, cutting air pollutants and helping poor regions adapt to climate change 'pales in comparison to the price the world will pay if we fail to act now,' it said.

'We call on all people and nations to recognize the serious and potentially irreversible impacts of global warming caused by the anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, and by changes in forests, wetlands, grasslands, and other land uses,' it said."

Carol Glatz reports for Catholic News Service May 9, 2011. [2]