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posted by CoolHand on Thursday April 30 2015, @07:03PM   Printer-friendly
from the mixing-religion-with-climate-change dept.

The Telegraph reports that as the Vatican forges an alliance with the UN to tackle climate change, skeptics accuse Pope Francis of being deeply ill-informed about global warming. The Pope discussed climate change with Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary-General, who then opened a one-day Vatican conference called "The Moral Dimensions of Climate Change and Sustainable Development". Organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, SDSN and Religions for Peace, the goal of the conference is to help strengthen the global consensus on the importance of climate change in the context of sustainable development.

But a group of British and American skeptics say the Pope is being fed “mistaken” advice from the UN and that he should stick to speaking out on matters of morality and theology rather than getting involved in the climate change debate. "The Pope has great moral authority but he’s not an authority on climate science. He’s a learned man but the IPCC has got it wrong,” says Jim Lakely of the Heartland Institute, a conservative American pressure group partly funded by billionaire industrialists who question climate change. "The Pope would make a grave mistake if he put his moral authority behind scientists saying that climate change is a threat to the world. Many scientists have concluded that human activity is a minor player. The Earth has been warming since the end of the last Ice Age.”

It was the first time the Heartland Institute, which is based in Chicago and has been described by the New York Times as "the primary American organization pushing climate change skepticism," has traveled to Rome to try to influence a pope. "The sideshow envisioned by these organizations will not detract from the deep concern that Pope Francis has for the truth and how it relates to the environment," says Dr. Bernard Brady, Professor and Chair of the Theology Department at the University of St. Thomas. "Pope Francis will probably follow his predecessor, Benedict XVI, recognizing the interrelatedness of climate change with other moral issues and calling for persons, organizations, communities, nations, and indeed the global community, to reconsider established patterns of behavior."

 
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  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday April 30 2015, @07:11PM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday April 30 2015, @07:11PM (#177214) Homepage Journal

    I don't doubt that. But how fast has it been warming? Has the speed of warming increased with human CO2 and methane output?

    There is no question that both polar caps are melting and that the ocean is becoming acidic. With the warming of the ocean comes the evaporation of the methane that was previously bound up as methyl hydrate on the seafloor - methane is a far-worse greenhouse gas than is carbon dioxide.

    When water melts, it absorbs heat but does not increase its temperature. The melting of the polar caps is a recent phenomenon, causing a pause in the temperature increase. Once the ice is all melted there will be nothing to delay the temperature increase.

    Even if global warming were a purely natural phenomenon, that doesn't mean it would not make the earth uninhabitable. What can we do to halt the warming??

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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 30 2015, @08:03PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 30 2015, @08:03PM (#177240)

    But how fast has it been warming?

    precipitously. Faster than previous warming periods.

    Has the speed of warming increased with human CO2 and methane output?

    Yes, CO2 increase has been a leading indicator of temperature rise. It correlates heavily with human activity

    When water melts, it absorbs heat but does not increase its temperature. The melting of the polar caps is a recent phenomenon, causing a pause in the temperature increase. Once the ice is all melted there will be nothing to delay the temperature increase.

    Ocean temperatures have risen as well, as well as a general slowing of the currents that regulate global temperature which has caused more extreme weather and a weaker jet-stream.

    Even if global warming were a purely natural phenomenon, that doesn't mean it would not make the earth uninhabitable. What can we do to halt the warming??

    Cut our meat intake, work with countries like China to lower carbon output and increase carbon sequestration. Renewable fuels, higher fuel efficiency standards, less stupid people. Develop tech to sequester the carbon from the air and water and stop pig farm waste runoff from poisoning the Gulf of Mexico.

  • (Score: 1) by jcm on Thursday April 30 2015, @09:01PM

    by jcm (4110) on Thursday April 30 2015, @09:01PM (#177256)

    Even if global warming were a purely natural phenomenon, that doesn't mean it would not make the earth uninhabitable.

    It would not be uninhabitable, but catastrophic weather phenomenons (like tornadoes, drought and earthquakes) will happen more and more often.

    The simplest way to understand this is to imagine that the Earth is a dog, and that we are fleas.
    Of course, the dog will try to chase these fleas.

    What can we do to halt the warming??

    It's very simple: stop deforestation !
    Trees absorb CO2, and I remember reading that we needed a few trees for each individual on this earth.
    As the human population increases and the number of trees decreases, it's quite obvious that CO2 levels will continue rising.
    Of course, reducing emissions of CO2 is important, but I believe trees are more efficient (and cheaper too).

    • (Score: 1) by GoodBuddy on Friday May 01 2015, @12:38AM

      by GoodBuddy (4293) on Friday May 01 2015, @12:38AM (#177333)

      It would not be uninhabitable, but catastrophic weather phenomenons (like tornadoes, drought and earthquakes) will happen more and more often.

      Where do you get that information or are you just speculating? Earthquakes due to global warming? You need to learn about plate tectonics. Also, we are currently in an ice age. For the majority of Earth's recent history, the Cenozoic Era, there have been no polar ice caps or glaciers. I think your dire warnings are a bit much.

  • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday April 30 2015, @10:59PM

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Thursday April 30 2015, @10:59PM (#177302) Homepage

    " What can we do to halt the warming?? "

    Not a damn thing now. It's too late. The best thing we could do is admit that we have failed as a species, possessing the brainpower and technological prowess to find solutions while squandering those grand opportunities bickering over black sludge and trying to save populations which should instead be left to die off.

    Average Joe will have accepted that fate and will die a lot more peacefully. It will be the sociopaths causing and exacerbating the problems, who have always got what they wanted, the cold realization that nothing will save them. They will perish isolated and in vanity prisons of their own making.