On White House lawn, Pope urges US action on climate change as thousands gather for Washington parade

Pope Francis on Wednesday urged the United States to help tackle climate change at a “critical moment of history” and called on Americans to build a truly tolerant and inclusive society.

In a speech on the White House South Lawn, the Argentine pontiff lauded President Barack Obama’s efforts to reduce air pollution.

“It seems clear to me also that climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation. When it comes to the care of our common home, we are living at a critical moment of history,” the pope said at a welcoming ceremony for his first visit to the United States.

The pope also invoked America’s best known civil rights leader, the late Reverend Martin Luther King, to make his point on the environment.

About 15,000 people who gathered in bright sunshine on the South Lawn watched Obama greet the 78-year-old pope, who departed from his usual practice and addressed the crowd in English.

A frequent critic of the damage caused to the world’s poor and the environment by capitalism’s excesses, Francis this year released a papal document, or encyclical, demanding swift action on climate change.