Those who textually believe in the Bible are often behaving the worst with issues like overpopulation and the environment based on the account of creation found in the Bible, and particularly in Genesis 1:28, that states: 

“And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” 

For some, this appeal to religious scripture may seem ridiculous but in a country like the United States where religiosity still rides very high, this admonition is still giving too many Believers “carte blanche” for destroying and killing everything in sight. 

Fortunately, Pope Francis’ recent Encyclical Letter Laudato Si, addresses the charge that Genesis grants humans the right to exploit the natural world without limits. 

He says that the emphasis on keeping and caring is an important counterpoint to the notion of dominion and argues that we are sanctioned to take from the Earth what we need to subsist, but that this should be balanced with preserving the Earth for future generations. 

The problem is that American Catholics and their Evangelists counterparts don’t read Encyclical Letters like that one, but by a wide margin, prefer to listen to Fox News and other extreme-right media sources!