Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology.
The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering.
The German-born Pontiff said that while some concerns may be valid it was vital that the international community based its policies on science rather than the dogma of the environmentalist movement.
His remarks will be made in his annual message for World Peace Day on January 1, but they were released as delegates from all over the world convened on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali for UN climate change talks.
This is from an article from The Daily Mail titled "The Pope condemns the climate change prophets of doom." More proof that you should never just rely on the media whether it is on the left or the right. The author of the article came up with his interpretation based on this piece from the Pope’s message.
It is important for assessments in this regard to be carried out prudently, in dialogue with experts and people of wisdom, uninhibited by ideological pressure to draw hasty conclusions, and above all with the aim of reaching agreement on a model of sustainable development capable of ensuring the well-being of all while respecting environmental balances.
The author Simon Caldwell makes the Pope say much more then he actually said. Saying that the Pope was calling this scare-mongering is a reach , though it is obvious that the Pope sees the current discussion on the environment to be partially driven by ideological pressure and perhaps jumping the gun on the science. While I agree with Simon Caldwell about their being prophets of doom in the debate on “climate change”, I think it is dishonest to put those words in the Pope’s mouth.
The Holy Fathers message for the World Day of Peace called The Human Family, a Community of Peace is a good read just as everything he writes is. His message starts off and is rooted in the family.
The natural family, as an intimate communion of life and love, based on marriage between a man and a woman, constitutes “the primary place of ‘humanization’ for the person and society”, and a “cradle of life and love”. The family is therefore rightly defined as the first natural society, “a divine institution that stands at the foundation of life of the human person as the prototype of every social order”
The message proceeds from the family to the human community where he addresses the environment. He then goes on to talk about economy in the context of human community and moral values and ends with overcoming conflict in the world and moving towards disarmament.
9 comments
“ensuring the well-being of all” .. How is this not sensible? I will never get the environmentalists to get all bent out of shape by being asked to simply be prudent.
Of course the Popes comments could easily be aimed at things like the rash suggestion of a “baby tax” that was floating around in the Aussie press this morning.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22896334-2,00.html
Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom…
What shoddy journalism! They didn’t even say if he sent the brigades of murderous albino monks to carry out the surprise attack or the legions of ruler-wielding nuns that he surely has garrisoned in Vatican City for just such an occasion.
It must be by grace that Pope Benedict doesn’t retire his pen. I am so tired of the media twisting everything he says in order to make him appear as an enemy of humanity. This latest is the same, since global warming is the hot topic and the environmentalist cause is prominent today.
Soon the grocery stores will be filled with people talking about how the pope is accusing them of lying, AND how he’s covering up the environmental dangers
Gee, for people who “don’t care” what the Pope thinks, they sure do react to every word the media puts in his mouth! Lord, give Benedict the strength to persevere for DECADES!
Are you sure the Daily Mail isn’t on the level? I mean, they did use a two-syllable verb instead of “slams” in the headline…that must be serious!
Beyond the “baby tax” ($5,000 per child for any children beyond a limit of 2 per family), the summit in Bali proposed a tax of $780/person for ALL persons living in developed nations (read: the U.S.) to help under developed nations get up to speed.
So, to do the math for you – I want to have four children. In the year where #4 is born, my bill will be roughly $10,180…for the $5k baby tax and the additional $780/person for six people. Broken down, this comes to $848/month – which would cripple us financially since $10k is about 1/3 of our current income. Even if we cut out all the non-essentials (television, clothing, entertaiment expenses, etc.) we wouldn’t have enough for housing, food, transportation and utilities.
And, of course, such taxes (and the inability to pay them) could easily lead to state-mandated abortion, contraception, sterilization, or infanticide.
The “science” of global warming is such that there are dissenters, nothing is written in stone, and a mere 30 years ago we faced a second Ice Age.
So color me skeptical if I happen to think global warming proponents are more concerned with being able to levy control over others than they are about saving the planet.
It’s the Daily Mail; sensationalist journalism is their stock-in-trade. This sort of stuff is not surprising, coming from them.
I too have a healthy skepticism of the global warming “doom and gloom” types, and I think His Holiness is taking a very sensible position. If only more people thought like he did (and not just on global warming).
It’s sad that this story is going to overshadow all the wonderful points Pope Benedict brings up about the importance of the family and how a healthy family is where a healthy culture and healthy relationships between persons and nations grow. God has surely blessed us with a wonderful writer and thinker in Pope Benedict XVI.
I don’t know what you all are so gloomy about! I think this is great! It is saying that the Pope is not one of those greeny tree-hugger people who are ruining the world! I personally think this is great! I mean so what if the greeny people think he is horrible they are weird anyways and they need some opposition! Most sensible people don’t follow this greeny stuff so they will agree with the pope and so then the sensible people will be on the side of the pope and that is good so “Don’t worry, be happy!”
Maybe most people don’t follow the “greenie” stuff,
actively (that would mean work and sacrifice) but they follow intellectually and emotionally and they make choices based on whether they think others agree with them. So, to paint Pope Benedict as opposing the “greenies” turns people away from the Church and into the outstretched palms of “sympathetic” problem solvers. And those are the “educated” people.
“experts and people of wisdom”. He seems to put “experts” and “people of wisdom” into different categories. 🙂