Recycle or go to hell

In the good old days all you had to do to earn your place in heaven was control your anger, not lust after next door's wife and eat only what you need to lead a healthy life, and generally stay away from pride, envy, greed and sloth.

But this is the noughties and you've got to try a little harder now. Degrading the environment, for instance, could get you a ticket to hell.

That, at least, is what the Vatican believes. Yesterday it updated its list of mortal sins with seven new ones in its newspaper L'Osservatore Romano (the English translation is not yet available but should soon be posted here).

"You offend God not only by stealing, blaspheming or coveting your neighbour???s wife, but also by ruining the environment, carrying out morally debatable scientific experiments, or allowing genetic manipulations which alter DNA or compromise embryos," bishop Gianfranco Girotti, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican body which oversees confessions and plenary indulgences, told L'Osservatore.

That's three then. The remaining four are:

taking or dealing in drugs
social injustice which causes poverty or "the excessive accumulation of wealth by a few"
paedophilia
abortion

Girotti says that while the old sins are highly individualistic the new sins have "social resonance" and are "a corollary of the unstoppable process of globalisation".

I'm curious to see how the "pollute and you go to hell" campaign works, and how it compares to the Daily Mail's recent campaign against plastic bags in the UK. And what, exactly, qualifies as a "morally debatable scientific experiment"?

Where do experiments involving animals stand with respect to this "sin"? Is there a risk that these new "sins" could encourage more violence against women seeking abortion, the doctors who carry out the procedure, and researchers who work with animals?

Catherine Brahic, online environment reporter

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