At his address before the United Nations General Assembly in New York City Friday, Pope Francis said humans are granted "a true right of the environment."

He gave two reasons for this: we are part of the environment, and every creature has value. In his words:

First, because we human beings are part of the environment. We live in communion with it, since the environment itself entails ethical limits which human activity must acknowledge and respect. Man, for all his remarkable gifts, which "are signs of a uniqueness which transcends the spheres of physics and biology" (Laudato Si', 81), is at the same time a part of these spheres. He possesses a body shaped by physical, chemical and biological elements, and can only survive and develop if the ecological environment is favorable. Any harm done to the environment, therefore, is harm done to humanity. 

Second, because every creature, particularly a living creature, has an intrinsic value, in its existence, its life, its beauty and its interdependence with other creatures. We Christians, together with the other monotheistic religions, believe that the universe is the fruit of a loving decision by the Creator, who permits man respectfully to use creation for the good of his fellow men and for the glory of the Creator; he is not authorized to abuse it, much less to destroy it. In all religions, the environment is a fundamental good (cf. ibid.).

Francis added that man's "boundless thirst" for material possessions and power has led to the "misuse and destruction" of the planet, as well as "the exclusion of the weak and disadvantaged." The pontiff described what he means by disadvantaged: "[E]ither because they are differently abled (handicapped), or because they lack adequate information and technical expertise, or are incapable of decisive political action.

The pope blamed "economic exclusion" for casting out the poor, making them "live off what is discarded," and ultimately allowing them to suffer "unjustly from the abuse of the environment."

With this self-proclaimed "grave responsibility," Pope Francis issued a call to all world leaders to commit to fight climate change, stop social and economic exclusion, and to put an end to their consequences: "human trafficking, the marketing of human organs and tissues, the sexual exploitation of boys and girls, slave labor, including prostitution, the drug and weapons trade, terrorism and international organized crime."