[Whale biologist]

Pope Francis’ 9 commandments for a just economy

1. He asked “the great pharmaceutical laboratories to release the patents” of the Covid-19 vaccines.
2. He called on financial groups and international credit institutions “to allow poor countries to assure ‘the basic needs of their people’ and to cancel those debts.
3. He pleaded with “the great extractive industries—mining, oil, forestry, real estate, agribusiness—to stop destroying forests, wetlands and mountains, to stop polluting rivers and seas, to stop poisoning food and people.”
4. He called on the great food corporations “to stop imposing monopolistic systems of production and distribution that inflate prices and end up withholding bread from the hungry.”
5. He appealed to arms manufacturers and dealers “to completely stop their activity.”
6. He pleaded with “the technology giants to stop exploiting human weakness, people’s vulnerability, for the sake of profits without caring about the spread of hate speech, grooming, fake news, conspiracy theories, and political manipulation.”
7. He asked “the telecommunications giants to ease access to educational material and connectivity for teachers via the internet so that poor children can be educated even under quarantine.”
8. He called on “the media to stop the logic of post-truth, disinformation, defamation, slander and the unhealthy attraction to dirt and scandal, and to contribute to human fraternity and empathy with those who are most deeply damaged.”
9. He appealed to powerful countries “to stop aggression, blockades and unilateral sanctions against any country anywhere on earth.”