A guide to caring for our living planet

A guide produced by the Stockholm Environment Institute and the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, inspired by Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato si’. The document outlines the interconnected crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, air pollution, and unsustainable consumption, advocating for a fundamental shift from exploitative economic models to stewardship and social justice.

• The current climate crisis is driven by economic and social systems reliant on fossil fuels, with greenhouse gas emissions from industry, transport, heating, intensive farming, and deforestation causing more frequent and severe droughts, storms, and floods. By mid-century, 150 million people are projected to live on land that will be below the high-tide line.
• Industrialization and mass consumption have led to a mass extinction of species and the degradation of ecosystems. Freshwater plant and animal life has decreased by 84 per cent, and the Amazon rainforest faces potential collapse into a dry, scrubby landscape within 50 years if climate change and deforestation continue.
• Water scarcity affects approximately 4 billion people for at least one month annually, particularly in rural areas and poorer countries. Additionally, 3.6 billion people lack safely managed sanitation, while 1.7 billion lack basic sanitation, increasing exposure to waterborne diseases like cholera.
• Air pollution is a global health crisis where 9 out of 10 people breathe air with high pollutant levels. Indoor air pollution, caused by burning charcoal, wood, and dung for cooking and heating, results in at least 3 million deaths every year, disproportionately affecting women and children.
• Industrial agriculture, characterized by mechanization and synthetic inputs, is unsustainable and responsible for approximately one-third of greenhouse gas emissions. While acute hunger is rising in over 50 countries, one-third of all food is wasted.
• Global consumption patterns are unsustainable, with 20 per cent of the population using 80 per cent of the world's resources. A significant symptom is plastic pollution, with over 5 trillion pieces of plastic currently floating in the seas; half of all plastics ever produced were manufactured in the last 15 years.
• Environmental crises are inextricably linked to social injustice, as the poor and marginalized suffer the worst impacts despite contributing the least to the harm. By 2050, the climate crisis could force more than 140 million people to migrate from Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2023). A guide to caring for our living planet. http://sei.org/ourcommonhome/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. A guide to caring for our living planet. 2023. http://sei.org/ourcommonhome/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=A guide to caring for our living planet |date=14 February 2023 |url=http://sei.org/ourcommonhome/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2023guide, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{A guide to caring for our living planet}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2023}, month = feb, url = {http://sei.org/ourcommonhome/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }