But senior cardinals close to the Vatican have since expressed doubts about a movement which has been likened by critics to be just as dogmatic in its assumptions as any religion.
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Posted on 12/12/2007 6:19:18 AM PST by Rudder
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.
The 80-year-old Pope said the world needed to care for the environment but not to the point where the welfare of animals and plants was given a greater priority than that of mankind.
"Humanity today is rightly concerned about the ecological balance of tomorrow," he said in the message entitled "The Human Family, A Community of Peace".
"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.
"If the protection of the environment involves costs, they should be justly distributed, taking due account of the different levels of development of various countries and the need for solidarity with future generations.
"Prudence does not mean failing to accept responsibilities and postponing decisions; it means being committed to making joint decisions after pondering responsibly the road to be taken."
Efforts to protect the environment should seek "agreement on a model of sustainable development capable of ensuring the well-being of all while respecting environmental balances", the Pope said.
He added that to further the cause of world peace it was sensible for nations to "choose the path of dialogue rather than the path of unilateral decisions" in how to cooperate responsibly on conserving the planet.
The Pope's message is traditionally sent to heads of government and international organisations.
His remarks reveal that while the Pope acknowledges that problems may be associated with unbridled development and climate change, he believes the case against global warming to be over-hyped.
A broad consensus is developing among the world's scientific community over the evils of climate change.
But there is also an intransigent body of scientific opinion which continues to insist that industrial emissions are not to blame for the phenomenon.
Such scientists point out that fluctuations in the earth's temperature are normal and can often be caused by waves of heat generated by the sun. Other critics of environmentalism have compared the movement to a burgeoning industry in its own right.
In the spring, the Vatican hosted a conference on climate change that was welcomed by environmentalists.
But senior cardinals close to the Vatican have since expressed doubts about a movement which has been likened by critics to be just as dogmatic in its assumptions as any religion.
In October, the Australian Cardinal George Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, caused an outcry when he noted that the atmospheric temperature of Mars had risen by 0.5 degrees celsius.
"The industrial-military complex up on Mars can't be blamed for that," he said in a criticism of Australian scientists who had claimed that carbon emissions would force temperatures on earth to rise by almost five degrees by 2070 unless drastic solutions were enforced.
I really like this Pope, and I’m not even Catholic.
Ping-a-ling.
algore ain’t gonna be happy about this.
Here’s the bottom line:
If you really think climate change is a problem, what is a more logical course of action:
- Running around, screaming, and trying to change human habits and behavior, or...
- Plan and adapt to the changes?
I think the pope should be concerned about the global warming wackos because they want to control population.
Try this link about “Australian Medical Expert Advocates Baby Tax to Offset “Greenhouse Gas” Emissions”
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/dec/07121103.html
Doesn’t look like this Pope will be winning any Nobel Peace (sic) Prizes.....
The Pope has more understanding of the science than the 10,000 people masquerading as scientist in Bali.
"The emerging counties are hungry for energy, but at times this hunger is met in a way harmful to poor countries which, due to their insufficient infrastructures, including their technological infrastructures, are forced to undersell the energy resources they do possess. At times, their very political freedom is compromised by forms of protectorate or, in any case, by forms of conditioning which appear clearly humiliating.
The Pope is right, of course. If something is to be done about Global Climate Change, as they are now calling it, it should be done on a rational basis and be founded on real science, not emotionalism masquerading as science.
I am not a big fan of how the Pope endorses the income-distribution model of letting the industrialized countries pay for any remediation, but I’m not Catholic, so I don’t have to like everything the man says...
Now if he can only get rid of the hippie guitars at mass ...
Yep. It's like cash right taken out of his pockets.
Adaption is where it's at.
WTG Papa!
A Nobel prize would diminish his credibility.
The Pope condemns the climate-change scaremongers
And the Vatican's not exactly condemning "climate change" itself...
Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican's representative at the United Nations...stated, "The scientific evidence for global warming and for humanity's role in the increase of greenhouse gasses becomes ever more unimpeachable . . . and such activity has a profound relevance, not just for the environment, but in ethical, economic, social and political terms as well."
I’m concerned, now that I hear there is an industrial-military complex on Mars! We’ll obviously have to expand Kyoto to the other planets.
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