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."
(Score: 2) by M. Baranczak on Thursday April 30 2015, @08:46PM
As far as I'm concerned, the Pope isn't an authority on either science or morality. I won't change my mind just because he happens to agree with me in this case.
This is a non-story. The Pope doesn't know any more about climate science that the average guy (maybe more than the average US congressman). And he's not in a position to actually do anything about climate change, beyond installing solar panels on the Vatican, so who gives a fuck what he thinks about it?
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Thursday April 30 2015, @09:02PM
I made this argument before. And someone was pretty quick to answer that rhetorical question.
Catholics. Catholics give a fuck what the thinks.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by M. Baranczak on Thursday April 30 2015, @09:43PM
That seems like the obvious answer - but I really don't think that they do. Catholics are happy to invoke the Pope's authority when his opinions match theirs - otherwise, they ignore him. Can you think of any time in recent history when the Pope actually changed something important?