How climate-change doubters lost a papal fight

Washington Post ^ | June 20, 2015 | By Anthony Faiola and Chris Mooney

[Brad from Tennessee]

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis was about to take a major step backing the science behind ­human-driven global warming, and Philippe de Larminat was determined to change his mind.

A French doubter who authored a book arguing that solar activity — not greenhouse gases — was driving global warming, de Larminat sought a spot at a climate summit in April sponsored by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Nobel laureates would be there. So would U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, U.S. economist Jeffrey Sachs and others calling for dramatic steps to curb carbon emissions.

fter securing a high-level meeting at the Vatican, he was told that, space permitting, he could join. He bought a plane ticket from Paris to Rome. But five days before the April 28 summit, de Larminat said, he received an e-mail saying there was no space left. It came after other scientists — as well as the powerful Vatican bureaucrat in charge of the academy — insisted he had no business being there.

“They did not want to hear an off note,” de Larminat said.

It marked the latest blow for those seeking to stop the reform-minded train that has become Francis’s papacy. It is one that has reinvigorated liberal Catholics even as it has sowed the seeds of resentment and dissent inside and outside the Vatican’s ancient walls. . .

[ClearCase_guy]

I am definitely a doubter.

The Pope, on the other hand, seems to have placed his faith in the wrong things.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Is Benedict ready to step back up yet?

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Thanks for posting this.

Saved me a lot of work.

[Caipirabob]

False popes are central to several dismal prophecies.

[keving]

Religion is about faith, climate change should be about facts.

[BenLurkin]

Is it true that anyone who wasn’t already on board with the global warming party line was intentionally barred from participating?

[House Atreides]

The Pope has swallowed the worldly progressives’ kool-aid. And THAT is not a good thing for the head of the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict, how I miss you!

[Texas Eagle]

Awwwwww. Isn’t it sweet how the God-denier Left is embracing God’s representative on earf?

[Brad from Tennessee]

Found in “COMMENTS” at end of article:

wootendw 8:15 p.m.

...who has been tracking ­climate-change deniers for years...”

This article started out nicely - calling the skeptics ‘doubters’ instead of ‘deniers’ - but regressed back to the accusatory/derogatory term ‘denier’, the use of which is anti-science.

A Google search on “climate change deniers” or “climate change denial” will get you over 100k hits. Many of the hits are to websites set up to ‘out’ those who do not accept the dogma of man-made climate change, that is, intimidate them into shutting up via ridicule, threat of ostracization, loss of job and, in some cases, criminal punishment. Small wonder that few scientists dare to say in public what they say or think in private.

This intimidation of scientists hearkens back to medieval times. For example, Copernicus, didn’t dare publish his heliocentric theory of the solar system/universe before his death. Galileo tried it and faced an inquisition. Darwin delayed publishing his ideas of evolution and natural selection for fear of criticism - until Alfred Russell Lawrence came up with same ideas.

Scientific theories, unlike mathematical theorems, are never actually proven. They become generally accepted but are always subject to question. The Davson-Danielli model of cell membranes was accepted for decades before discovered flaws in it led to the now-accepted Fluid-Mosaic model. AGW theory should be treated no differently.

The common referral to scientists, or anyone, who questions AGW as ‘deniers’ - a term applied to atheists and holocaust ‘deniers’ - represents a blatant attempt to replace science with medieval scholasticism - aka DOGMA. So just cut it out.

[FR_addict]

Francis isn’t interested in any facts that don’t support his socialist agenda.

[Huskrrrr]

Hey Anthony and Chris, how about Papal policy on abortion and Gay marriage? Crickets

[Morpheus2009]

WTH does climate change have to do with saving your eternal soul, and giving up your sins to follow Christ? Anyone want to answer me on that one? Let the experts talk all they want about Global Warming, but stay focused on talking about how we should do what we can to avoid being trigger happy with divorce, or stop cheating on our spouses, or start really thinking about taking proper care of our own children as parents. All of those three are more important than climate change, and our world is more in the dump now from people going the wrong way on those three questions than it ever was from “climate change”. If we had enough decency and determination, we could adapt and overcome it rather than sit around proclaiming it as our own doom.

[Ouderkirk]

This pope is a Marxist to the core and will destroy the catholic church

[CdMGuy]

Pope Francis is the Catholic version of Barack Obama. End of story.

[Kozy]

The pope only speaks of matters of god. He should leave the weather forecasting to the professionals. STFU popie

[ETL]

"Pope Francis called Thursday for a bold cultural revolution to correct what he calls the "structurally perverse" economic system of the rich exploiting the poor that is turning Earth into an "immense pile of filth."..."--from a recently posted article/thread

This pope or should I ay, dope, sounds an awful lot like Hugo Chavez... Both even used the word "perverse" to describe the Capitalism.

“The environment is suffering damage that could be irreversible — global warming, the greenhouse effect, the melting of the polar ice caps, the rising sea level, hurricanes — with terrible social occurrences that will shake life on this planet.”

“I believe this idea has a strong connection with reality. I don’t think we have much time. Fidel Castro said in one of his speeches I read not so long ago, ‘tomorrow could be too late, let’s do now what we need to do’.”

“I believe it is time that we take up with courage and clarity a political, social, collective and ideological offensive across the world — a real offensive that permits us to move progressively, over the next years, the next decades, leaving behind the perverse, destructive, destroyer, capitalist model and go forward in constructing the socialist model to avoid barbarism and beyond that the annihilation of life on this planet.”

—Hugo Chavez, at the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students, held in Caracas on August 8-15, 2005

[Ingtar]

I guess if they think we are the doubters, or apostates, they are cultists. Their name sounds about right.

[RedHeeler]

Read the “Windswept House.” Apparently, he is the last Pope, for great reason.

[ansel12]

The Pope holds the typical Catholic politics, and he has the high approval to prove it.

Only 4% of American Catholics disapprove of him.