(Thomas Mitchell) – It seems entirely appropriate that a man whose life’s preoccupation is a matter of faith would go before Congress and preach about the need to combat climate change.
“I call for a courageous and responsible effort to ‘redirect our steps,’ and to avert the most serious effects of the environmental deterioration caused by human activity. I am convinced that we can make a difference and I have no doubt that the United States — and this Congress — have an important role to play,” Pope Francis said in his prepared speech.
“Now is the time for courageous actions and strategies, aimed at implementing a culture of care and an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature,” the Pope said.
Pay no attention to the fact that all the global warming models have been wrong for 20 years, have faith and believe. Oh yes, and tithe. Above all tithe — with higher power bills, a weaker economy and fewer jobs. This will affect especially the poor, who Obama and the Pope claim to care about.
“The tremendous reduction in absolute poverty since 1990 — from about 50% to under 20% of the human race — has been driven in large part by increasing access to abundant, affordable, reliable energy derived mostly from fossil fuels,” said Cornwall Alliance Founder and National Spokesman, Dr. E. Calvin Beisner. “It would be a great tragedy to slow, stop, or reverse that trend in the name of fighting global warming, a phenomenon that is turning out to be much smaller than earlier thought.”
Though the climate models predicted a warming of 0.3 degrees Celsius over the past 17 years, there has been none, even though the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere rose 8 percent during that time — which represents 34 percent of all extra CO2 added to the atmosphere since the start of the industrial revolution.
But I’m sure Harry Reid, John Kerry and Al Gore were in amen corner applauding the Pope’s every word. Never let the facts get in the way of the other guy’s need to sacrifice for your cause.
But the Pope also warned:
“We know that no religion is immune from forms of individual delusion or ideological extremism. This means that we must be especially attentive to every type of fundamentalism, whether religious or of any other kind.”
To which we say, amen.
Mr. Mitchell publishes the 4TH ST8 Blog at www.4thst8.wordpress.com.
The column was originally published in Mr. Mitchell’s blog.
