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ByNicoleWinfield, Rachel Zoll and Seth Borenstein The Associated Press VATICAN CITY Inasweep- ing environmental mani- festo aimed at spurring ac- tion, Pope Francis called Thursday for a bold cultural revolution to correct what he said was a "structurally perverse" economic system in which the rich exploited the poor, turning Earth into an "immense pile of filth." Francis framed climate change as an urgent moral crisis to address in his ea- gerly anticipated encycli- cal, blaming global warm- ing on an unfair, fossil fuel- based industrial model that harms the poor the most. The document released Thursday was a stinging indictment of big business and climate doubters, and aimed to inspire courageous decisions at U.N. climate ne- gotiations this year as well as in domestic politics and everyday life. Citing Scrip- ture and his predecessors, the pope urged people of ev- ery faith and even no faith to undergo an awakening to save God's creation. "It is not enough to bal- ance, in the medium term, the protection of nature with financial gain, or the preservation of the environ- ment with progress," the pope wrote. "Halfway mea- sures simply delay the inev- itable disaster. Put simply, it is a matter of redefining our notion of progress." Environmental scien- tists said the first-ever en- cyclical, or teaching docu- ment, on the environment could have a dramatic ef- fect on the climate debate, lending the moral author- ity of the immensely popu- lar Francis to an issue that has long been cast in purely political, economic or scien- tific terms. "This clarion call should guide the world toward a strong and durable uni- versal climate agreement in Paris at the end of this year," said Christiana Figue- res, the U.N.'s top climate official. "Coupled with the economic imperative, the moral imperative leaves no doubt that we must act on climate change now." Scientific data on Thurs- day backed up Francis' concerns. The U.S. Na- tional Oceanic and Atmo- spheric Administration re- leased figures showing that last month was the hottest May around the globe in 136 years of global records. In addition, the first five months of 2015 made up by far the hottest year on re- cord, with very real effects: some 2,200 people have died in India's heat wave. Veerabhadran Ramana- than, a Scripps Institution of Oceanography scientist who has briefed the pope on climate issues, said the en- cyclical is a "game-changer in making people think about this." "It's not politics any- more," he said, adding that science is often difficult to understand but that peo- ple respond to arguments framed by morality and ethics. The energy lobby, how- ever, was quick to criticize the encyclical's anti-fossil fuel message. "The simple reality is that energy is the essential build- ing block of the modern world," said Thomas Pyle of the Institute of Energy Re- search, a conservative free- market group. "The appli- cation of affordable energy makes everything we do — food production, manufac- turing, health care, trans- portation, heating and air conditioning — better." Francis said he hoped his paper would lead both or- dinary people in their daily lives and decision-makers at the Paris U.N. climate meet- ings to a wholesale change of mind and heart, urging all to listen to "both the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor." "This vision of 'might is right' has engendered im- mense inequality, injus- tice and acts of violence against the majority of hu- manity, since resources end up in the hands of the first comer or the most power- ful: the winner takes all," he wrote. "Completely at odds with this model are the ide- als of harmony, justice, fra- ternity and peace as pro- posed by Jesus." The timing of the encycli- cal was intentional: Nations across the world will meet in Paris at the end of the year to try to come up with a binding agreement to re- duce heat-trapping gases. The encyclical "Laudato Si, (Praise Be): On Care for Our Common Home" is 180 pages of pure Francis, named for a prayer penned by his namesake, the nature- loving St. Francis of Assisi. It's a blunt, readable booklet full of zingers by the Argentine "slum pope" that will make many con- servatives and climate doubters squirm, includ- ing in the U.S. Congress where Francis will deliver the first-ever papal address in September. Deke Arndt, a top U.S. federal climate scientist and Catholic, was brought to tears by the eloquence of the document. "There are certain things that science will never be able to say so beautifully," he said. "I think it speaks across the spectrum of human experiences ... It speaks to the soul and the inner part of us." But the leading skeptic in the U.S. Congress, Republi- can Sen. James Inhofe, said he feared the encyclical will be used by "alarmists" to push policies that will lead to big tax increases. 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