Posted on 01/15/2015 7:34:11 PM PST by ebb tide
As the United States Senate prepares to vote on a non-binding resolution on whether or not manmade global warming exists, Pope Francis weighed in on the issue with his most extensive and forceful comments on the subject to date.
Let's just say that the pope is not aligned with many Senate Republicans, who doubt the reality and threat of manmade global warming, on this issue.
Speaking to reporters aboard his plane while flying to Manila from Sri Lanka, Pope Francis said the "majority" of global warming is manmade, which is a view that is consistent with mainstream climate-science findings.
“I don’t know if it is all [man’s fault] but the majority is, for the most part, it is man who continuously slaps down nature,” he said, according to The Guardian.
His outspoken stance on climate change has encouraged debate within the Catholic community worldwide, as many people view the Earth as God's creation, and think it is arrogant to believe that humans could ever play such a dominant role over nature. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), an evangelical Christian, is one of the most prominent holders of this view.
“We have, in a sense, lorded it over nature, over Sister Earth, over Mother Earth,” the pope said, according to The Guardian.
“I think man has gone too far,” he added. “Thank God that today there are voices that are speaking out about this.”
The pope plans to issue an encyclical in June that will lay out his views on climate change and other environmental issues in greater detail, ahead of a crucial global warming summit in Paris scheduled for this December. An encyclical is an official Papal document that is sent to all Catholic bishops around the world.
The Paris talks are supposed to result in a new global climate agreement for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that would enter into force in 2020.
The pope said he was "disappointed" by the most recent United Nations climate talks, which were held in Lima, Peru, last December. The talks proved particularly arduous, and had to be extended by two days, before diplomats agreed to a draft text to be negotiated in Paris.
“The Peru meeting was nothing much; it disappointed me. I think there was a lack of courage. They stopped at a certain point. Let’s hope the delegates in Paris will be more courageous and move forward with this,” he told reporters.
Meanwhile, senators will have to go on record with their own views on climate science when they vote as early as Friday on a planned amendment that would force them to endorse or reject the existence of manmade global warming on climate change. At least two senators — one Democrat and one Independent who caucuses with the Democrats — plan to offer versions of amendments to that effect during debate on the Keystone XL Pipeline.
A similar vote took place in 2005, when a "Sense of the Senate" resolution was adopted. At that time, 12 Republicans joined Democrats to support the amendment, but there will likely be less Republican support this time, given the widespread rejection of global warming research findings among today's Republican leadership.
have not read AA 1025 in many years ... Time to blow the dust off and open it up once more.
I for one have grown tired of the leaders of the Catholic church. If I were a member I would become a baptist.
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