His main duty is to ensure that he's preaching and living according to the word of God, but Pope Francis also looks at other pressing matters other than Catholicism, and his latest call for action is the need for people to protect the earth.

Although the encyclicals, papal teacher letters to the Roman Catholics, rarely gather a lot of attention, Today Online said that the Pope's take on the environment and the poor has been awaited by scientists and environmentalists, and with such interest, the Vatican has prepared a carefully rolled-out plan to spread the pope's message to Catholics around the world.

According to Italian magazine L'Espresso as printed by News Day, the Pope said in his leaked encyclical that "the bulk of global warming" is caused by human activity. He also called on everyone to take steps to mitigate the damage humans are causing the earth by reducing the consumption and reliance on fossil fuels.

The pope wrote on his draft that the Earth "is protesting for the wrong that we are doing to her, because of the irresponsible use and abuse of the goods that God has placed on her."

He also discussed the people's carelessness as its caretakers, adding that "We have grown up thinking that we were her owners and dominators, authorised to loot her. The violence that exists in the human heart, wounded by sin, is also manifest in the symptoms of illness that we see in the Earth, the water, the air and in living things."

The draft also noted that while the Pope accepts that global warming is rooted in natural causes, it is also mostly a man-made problem. He wrote in the draft, "Numerous scientific studies indicate that the greater part of the global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases ... given off above all because of human activity."

However, despite his best efforts to address climate change, the Pope's radical take on environmental issues may likely attract resistance and conservatives, particularly in the United States, where Catholic Climate skeptics are rampant, according to The Guardian.

Director of the Catholic Climate Covenant, Dan Misleh said that although an encyclical is among the highest levels of the Pope's authority, not everyone will embrace what he has to say about climate change, adding that "there is a contingent of Catholics here who say he should not be getting involved in political issues, that he is outside his expertise."

What do you think of the Pope's stand against climate change?