Environmentalists, including the advisors responsible for the content of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’, and even many of their critics, routinely refer to a “balance of nature,” a concept that elicits visions of fragile nature knocked off balance by crossing “tipping points” that lead to catastrophes–concepts fundamental to global warming alarmism. Veteran ecologist Daniel Botkin finds […]
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Steven W. Mosher expresses dismay at Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ not because it embraces fears of dangerous manmade global warming (though he points out those baseless fears in it, too) but because many of its ecological claims are just plain wrong. “Having read through Pope Francis’ new encyclical, I am dismayed at how many groundless assertions
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Paul Etienne, Catholic Bishop of Cheyenne, with jurisdiction over the Diocese of Wyoming, was cited recently in Inside Energy as calling Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ “a call to action” for Wyoming, the nation’s largest coal-producing state. But there might not be quite so much to what Bishop Etienne said as Inside Energy would wish. The sole quote
Bishop’s “Call to Action” on Climate and Fossil Fuels May Be Less than Meets the Eye Learn More »
Religion Dispatches posted Jacob J. Erickson’s interesting article “Falling in Love with the Earth: Francis’ Faithful Ecology,” about a week ago, and one follower, “Whiskyjack,” chastened Catholic Republican Presidential candidates for hypocrisy on the grounds that they accept his authority on abortion and homosexuality but not on climate change. I replied: Catholic dogma holds that
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Christian economist Doug Bandow, a long-time friend, has published three thoughtful responses to Laudato Si, Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment. One is “In Calling on Government, Laudato Si Underestimates Power of the the Market.” It is, as usual, clear and concise. This excerpt is particularly important: … the Pontiff’s own goals conflict. For instance, he speaks
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In expectation of the release of an encyclical on environmental stewardship, some people have claimed that Pope Francis has a degree, even a master’s degree, in chemistry, qualifying him to understand the scientific issues of climate change. Not so, according to the National Catholic Reporter. Actually, Francis graduated, at age 19, “with a título in
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The Associated Press reports that Vatican officials are very upset over the leak of a draft of the much-anticipated papal encyclical on the environment yesterday. I find the concluding paragraph of the AP report most interesting: In the aftermath of the “Vatileaks” scandal, the Vatican City State updated its criminal code to include severe penalties
Vatican’s secrecy over environmental encyclical may have diminished its value Learn More »
Economist Jeffrey Sachs directs the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He’s also led the way in the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals–a high-sounding program to end poverty that depends largely on redistributing wealth from the West to the Rest with an obligatory but ineffectual nod toward the need for governmental reform and economic development in impoverished
Hayward Slam Dunks Sachs Learn More »
Did Cornwall Alliance’s Open Letter to Pope Francis on Climate Change cause the Pope and his advisors to think twice? Maybe, maybe not. But “sources inside Santa Marta [where Pope Francis makes his home] are reporting that the Pope will not be publishing [the] already completed text [of the encyclical], and has—for the time being—tabled
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Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, thought by many to be Pope Francis’s closest advisor, went out of his way at a press conference in Rome before the start of an assembly of Caritas Internationalis, a federation of Catholic charities, to condemn efforts by the Cornwall Alliance, the Heartland Institute, and others who met in Rome in
Socialist Papal Advisor Caricatures Our Concerns about Forthcoming Encyclical Learn More »
