Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Pope downplays climate change

I think I've restrained myself regarding Pope Benedict XVI long enough. The pontiff has been advancing backwards the whole time I've heard of him.

Since he became Pope in 2005, the church bureaucracy seems to have done very little for social justice or the downtrodden, preferring instead to regress to conservative stances that should have vanished centuries ago and seem to benefit only the powerful. One must question the increasingly out-of-step diktats that emanate from the Pope's ornate palace. (I've had some involvement with the Catholic Church during my lifetime, so I can and will comment about Pope-related news items.)

Today it was revealed that the leader of the Roman Catholic Church's view on climate change is pretty close to that of the regulars of Freak Rethuglic or that one wingnut in the Bush regime who argued with NASA about it. The Pope said that fears about industrial and other human-made pollution causing climate change and melting the polar ice caps is nothing but scaremongering by the big, mean libs (as Free Republic itself might say).

The Pope fired a broadside against the environmental movement and its alleged "ideological pressure" to make an issue of global warming. Gee, where have I heard that before? Oh, Free Republic and talk-shit radio, that's where. Granted, the Pope's statement is more nuanced than the wingnutosphere's vitriol. He didn't completely deny climate change and overdevelopment, but he downplayed it so much that he may as well have. In doing so, he denied years of scientific knowledge.

About the only place where people are praising the Pope for his skepticism of global warming is...gee, I'll let you guess. Here's a hint: It's Free Republic, where they're gushing adulation on the pontiff for his remarks. Oh well. Keep making me laugh, Freepers. That shitty little website is about the only venue where folks still support the church bureaucracy, which has become irrelevant just about everywhere else.

(Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=501316&in_page_id=1811&ito=1490)

2 comments:

  1. How dare anyone question the great religion that is Global Warming.

    In fact, you've completely distorted what the pope hasn't even actually said yet. The statements, released by the Vatican, which the pope will make next month for World Peace Day, actually call for global cooperation on ecological balance and climate change.

    You wrote, "... In doing so, he denied years of scientific knowledge."

    But the Daily Mail article you cited says, "[the Pontiff said] it was vital that the international community based its policies on science rather than the dogma of the environmentalist movement."

    In other words, follow the science not the propaganda.

    Quoting from the Benedict's statements:

    "Humanity today is rightly concerned about the ecological balance of tomorrow. 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."

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  2. The Popester wants us to follow science?

    You mean like bleeding statues and Medjugorje, right?

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