Some helpful links for understanding Laudato Si'

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First things first: read the document. I saw someone suggest parents reading it to children.The full document can be found on the Vatican web page here:
http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html

What is Laudato Si' about? Perhaps a wordcloud, courtesy of Catholic News Service' twitter feed shows some of the document's points of emphasis.
Another helpful window to see something of it is this video prepared by the Vatican in English, Italian, and Spanish:



The Vatican press conference that presented the document can be seen here (long video: 2 hrs):

A handful of helpful summaries:

Scientific responses to Laudato Si':
  • In the press conference, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, founding director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, calls the science "watertight."

Responses to Laudato Si' from the political world:
  • Former Gov. Jeb Bush, prior to the document's release in The Atlantic. Quite likely, this makes for the weakest response from a political view.
  • Former Sen. Rick Santorum in early June said "Leave science to the scientists."
  • Sen. Marco Rubio offered critical remarks prior to the release of the encyclical.
  • Sen. Bernie Sanders made an official press release from his Senate office that "welcomes" Pope Francis' statement, but, as a pro-choice politician, he may have missed those paragraphs that explicitly linked abortion to our woes. As Thomas D. Williams writes, For Pope Francis, 'green' equals pro-life.
  • Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has not spoken directly to the Pope's document, but she spoke about climate change in her June 15th announcement speech as well as having a complicated history with competing interests around the issue. She would have the same issues as Sen. Sanders regarding the connection that the Holy Father draws between concern for creation and the most vulnerable, including the unborn.
  • Unsurprisingly, the Cato Institute slammed the encyclical.
  • Kofi Annan, former U.N. Secretary General endorsed Laudato Si' in a statement.
  • Ban Ki-Moon, the actual U.N. Secretary General, offered a statement about the encyclical.
  • President Obama offered the following statement:

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