Independent Brooklyn publisher Melville House has acquired the rights to be the first secular publisher of Pope Francis’ climate change encyclical: On Care for Our Common Home. The volume focuses on the fates of poorer nations, should current greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated. It comes at an apt time, with the crucial UN climate talks (where leaders will try to reach a new global agreement aimed at reducing greenhouse gases) due in Paris this December.
Melville House has previous experience in taking institutional texts to a wider audience, having published the CIA’s torture report to much success late last year.
The book will include an introduction by Harvard professor Naomi Oreskes. “Historians looking back often recognize turning points, but ordinary people living through them rarely do,” said Oreskes. “Pope Francis’s Encyclical is a call to action.”
Pope Francis has made environmental issues one of his major causes, and it’s expected he will address the issue during his visit to the U.S. in September.