RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) 鈥� Brazilian laid down an eco-friendly carpet in front of the world-famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday and called for the protection of the environment ahead of .
Tapestries are a fixture of the Corpus Christi religious feast when Catholics celebrate what they believe is the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
This year, the colorful carpet was made from approximately 460 kilos (1,014 pounds) of recycled plastic caps. Over the past few years the Christ the Redeemer sanctuary has increasingly used the attention the iconic statue generates to spotlight environmental concerns.
鈥淭hese caps could be polluting the environment. Today they鈥檙e here as a carpet,鈥� said Marcos Martins, environmental manager and educator at the sanctuary. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the circular economy: we take the material, we鈥檙e reusing it here and then we鈥檙e going to reuse it again with an exhibition.鈥�
Just after day break and before the first flock of tourists arrived Thursday, Cardinal Orani Jo茫o Tempesta led celebrations at the site overlooking Guanabara Bay and Rio鈥檚 famed Sugarloaf mountain.
The caps are 鈥渁 good reminder of our co-responsibility with ecology, of our concern for the environment, which are very characteristic of Christ the Redeemer,鈥� Rio鈥檚 archbishop told journalists.
Thursday鈥檚 celebration also paid homage to the late Pope Francis and his Laudato Si鈥�, in which he cast care for the environment in stark moral terms. In the papal letter Francis called for a bold cultural revolution to correct what he said was a 鈥渟tructurally perverse鈥� economic system in which the rich exploited the poor, turning Earth into a pile of 鈥渇ilth鈥� in the process.
鈥淭he COP30 is coming up and we鈥檝e just had the . Nothing makes more sense than Christ being a great spokesperson for this issue,鈥� said Carlos Lins, the sanctuary鈥檚 marketing director.
Earlier this month, the sanctuary held workshops, discussion groups and actions focusing on environmental preservation. The statue 鈥� perched on the Corcovado mountain -- is itself located in the Tijuca National Park.
has been hit by a series of environmental disasters in recent years, including severe droughts in the Amazon, wildfires in the Pantanal and flooding in the south.
This week heavy rains killed in the southern region Rio Grande do Sul, just over a year after it was hit by .
Scientists say extreme weather is happening more frequently due to human-caused .
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El茅onore Hughes, The Associated Press
