Posted on 06/20/2015 8:05:54 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Politicians touting cap-and-trade and carbon taxes as the solution to climate change should read what the pontiff said
TORONTO - Many politicians lining up to praise Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment and climate change released last week clearly have either not read it or don’t understand what it says.
The most significant thing in the Pope’s encyclical is that it alternately attacks and ignores the two most popular methods governments around the world are telling their citizens will be effective in reducing industrial greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change.
The first is carbon taxes, the second, cap-and-trade.
The Pope never mentions carbon taxes (such as the one in British Columbia) once, in a 184-page document that is otherwise so detailed in its response to climate change it even attacks the excessive use of, and I quote, “air-conditioning”.
As for the creation of a global stock market trading in carbon credits, known as cap-and-trade, Pope Francis denounces it.
In Canada, cap-and-trade, is advocated by NDP leader Tom Mulcair, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Quebec Premier Phillippe Couillard.
Even Prime Minister Stephen Harper — when it looked like the Americans were going to bring in a cap-and-trade system under Barack Obama — supported it.
By contrast the Pope dismisses cap-and-trade and “the buying and selling of carbon credits” as a “new form of speculation” which will “not help reduce the emission of polluting gases world-wide.”
It is deceptively promoted by its supporters, the Pope says, as a “quick and easy solution under the guise of a certain commitment to the environment” that may well be “a ploy which permits maintaining the excessive consumption of some countries and some sectors.”
The Pope accepts mainstream climate science that abnormal climate change is occurring and that humanity is responsible for it through the burning of fossil fuels.
He argues the developed world is disproportionately at fault and that it is morally and financially obligated to alleviate the suffering of the developing world, where the poor suffer the most due to the impact of climate change.
He attacks capitalism insofar as it appeals to human greed and excessive consumption and calls for the phase-out of fossil fuels.
These are the things politicians and climate activists have seized upon in the encyclical to build their case for a global system of carbon pricing, either through carbon taxes or cap-and-trade.
But that’s not what Pope Francis is advocating.
He’s calling for a global cultural revolution which focuses less on wealth creation and economic growth, and more on sharing the world’s resources and alleviating the suffering of the poor.
Neither of these views are surprising coming from the first Pope from the developing world (Argentina), whose papacy has been devoted to relieving the suffering of the downtrodden.
The Pope’s most powerful message in the encyclical is his linking of climate change to the personal choices that each of us (especially in the developed world) can make in our lives, to help address the problem of climate change.
His argument is that the enormity of the task should not make us apathetic in the belief that nothing can be done, but stir us to individual and collective action against a global emergency.
In this context, it’s easy to understand why Pope Francis is no fan of carbon taxes or cap-and-trade.
That’s because both systems of carbon pricing, by raising the cost of living, disproportionately attack the world’s poor, who spend a far higher percentage of their income supplying their basic energy needs than the wealthy.
Nor is this phenomenon confined to the developing world.
For example in Ontario, hundreds of thousands of people, disproportionately seniors on fixed incomes, have been driven into fuel poverty — required to spend more than 10% of their incomes simply to power their homes — in part because of rising electricity prices caused by the Liberal government’s reckless introduction of so-called green energy.
Globally, preventing developing nations from using fossil fuels to power themselves out of the third world and into the first, as we did 150 years ago, will inevitably lead to more premature deaths and suffering among the very people Pope Francis wants to help.
Still, the Pope deserves credit for his understanding of the complexity of the global challenges we face in reducing industrial greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change, and that the quick fixes being offered by our politicians, such as carbon taxes and cap-and-trade, are an illusion.
As a recovering Catholic I have to say I really don’t care what this Pope has to say anymore. He has proven he is so far to the left without a ‘smidgen’ of normal thinking so why should I listen to him?
If God wills it; he will turn this Pope into someone worth listening to. The last few have been great. This one; not so much.
I’m not a man of faith, but I have read my fair share of history so I’m just wondering. How many carbon credits per indulgence?
“..As for the creation of a global stock market trading in carbon credits, known as cap-and-trade, Pope Francis denounces it. ..”
Glad to read this.
Al Gore will be angry though. :)
The Pope doesn’t understand anything. He doesn’t know what economics is ABOUT, let alone understand any of it.
The Pope endorses the exploded lie that the Earth is warming. Thus, this encyclical is one giant hoax. It has nothing in it that Catholics are obliged to believe or to do.
Another remnant of Communist infiltration of the educational establishment. In this case, the seminaries...
This Pope does understand, however, liberation theology and, unfortunately, he is a product of it.
Generally, leftists support "cap and tax", while the right supports "cap and trade".
In the US, cap and trade won out over cap and tax, but Congress failed to implement in 2009-10.
After Congress failed, Obama(who supported cap and trade), moved forward in regulating carbon with the Clean Air Act.
What the hell is this “man of God” doing messing with this stuff? Has Catholicism turned lib like the rest of the world? I always thought the end times stuff was sort of mythological ... Rethinking it.
Argentina was a first world country that was destroyed by socialism. The Pope got a lot of things backwards, for example, his claim that (alleged) environmental degradation from global warming causes poverty. It is poverty caused by authoritarian socialism or kelptocracy that causes poverty.
Yep, he wants socialism, nothing more, nothing less and (alleged) global warming is just an excuse to do it.
Socialist/Communist countries such as China are destroying the environment. When nobody owns anything nobody cares.
(the Pope dismisses cap-and-trade and “the buying and selling of carbon credits” as a “new form of speculation”)
The Pope’s biggest problem with it, in other words, is that someone could make a profit! Yuck! Profits! They make a socialist want to throw up!
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