Scientists say Pope Francis is misguided on ‘climate change’ as environmental ‘sin’

A Q&A with scientists Tomas Sheahen and Hal Doiron shed light on the controversy surrounding environmentalism and Pope Francis’ comments.  By Jan Bentz

Here is a link to the article:

Excerpts of a Q&A with LifeSite News

Tomas Sheahen and Hal Doiron, independent scientists involved in climate change research… were invited to give their input in a workshop on global warming held by the Heartland Institute on April 28, 2015, in the Vatican, where it was demonstrated that global warming is not a crisis.

“One of the central arguments Pope Francis takes up within the debate over the protection of the environment is the idea of “climate change,” in the past simply called “global warming” — a topic pushed by the UN in order to change legislation on an international scale. Pope Francis might not be receiving accurate information — from a purely scientific perspective — and there are questions that his advisers could only be interested in “saving” the planet…. global warming alarmists invariably support population control to reduce human consumption of energy and natural resources. They want to make energy more expensive to discourage its use, even though this punishes the poor, women, and children who benefit most from affordable energy.”

“Nobody denies that the climate changes; it does so all the time, for totally natural reasons. Moreover, it does so on multiple different time scales …. There is nothing any of us can do about that except adapt to the ever-changing climate…. It is a major mistake to conflate climate change with pollution. They’re two entirely different matters.”

“Most people are “numerically illiterate,” a condition also known as “innumeracy.”So many statements begin with “I’m not a scientist, but… ” and then go on to recite some fashionable rumor… Most people are incapable of grasping the meaning of the ratios of very large and very small numbers….All our industry put together across the globe doesn’t add up to one “El Niño” weather pattern.”

“The empirical evidence today (worldwide satellite measurements) clearly shows that despite increasing CO₂, earth’s average temperature is not increasing rapidly….  A computer model that is unable to “predict” the past is surely not to be trusted to predict the future. Would he argue that having a family with 10 children would raise atmospheric CO₂ levels enough to constitute a sin?”

“My perception is that the Pope is getting terrible advice from some exalted churchmen who are seriously deficient in scientific knowledge. Foremost among them is Marcelo Sanchez-Sorondo, whom Pope Francis brought  to Rome from Argentina….  Sorondo simply believed whatever the UN elites told him and inserted it nearly verbatim into Laudato Si in sections 23-26. That is extremely poor performance by a subordinate.  Under Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Martino was head of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and he made sure that both sides of the climate story were heard.”

“My recommendation to Pope Francis is that he pray for wisdom and discernment on this issue before deciding what is a sin and what is not….  far too much influence from the basically political agenda of the UN, focused on creation of UN-led global government control, redistribution of global wealth, and global population control as part of the true meaning of “sustainable development.”  I would recommend that Pope Francis focus more on the full range of moral issues associated with what the UN wants to accomplish with its anti-CO₂ and ‘sustainable development’ agenda.”

“The available data show that we do not have a rapidly developing climate problem requiring swift, corrective action…. rational-thinking, root-cause analysis and decision-making approach I learned in my manned space career has not been applied to the global warming concern.  Our climate has not deviated from normal and natural variation limits of the last 10,000 years of a very stable climate. We have plenty of time to remove the excessive uncertainty from present un-validated model projections of climate change and understand this potential problem much better before we decide on the best way to mitigate any real risks we may define…. We should take at least five more years to remove the present large uncertainties in human-caused climate change projections, with better research leadership and focus on key research priorities and proven analysis methods consistent with the Scientific Method before we try to decide what, if anything, we need to do about this concern.”

Author Notes:  Educational Abuse?

by Diane C. Harris

Tonight there is quite a startling LifeSiteNews article in which Bishop Athanasius Schneider expresses his concern about a Vatican Conference which seeks to make children ‘agents of change’ in the climate change war.  Here is a link to the article .

This might seem like a brand new issue, but I wrote about the concern of just such a misuse of education in an almost cultic sense.

Check out your copy of Half a Dialogue on pages 177-179:  “Some of the following quotes [from Laudato Si’] seem to show echoes of cultic or mind-forming activity in the education process….”

“Environmental education has broadened its goals … it tends now to include a critique of the ‘myths’ of a modernity grounded in a utilitarian mindset (individualism, unlimited progress, competition, consumerism, the unregulated market).” (#210)

“Environmental education should facilitate … through effective pedagogy, to grow in solidarity, responsibility and compassionate care.” (#210)

“Yet this education [is] aimed at creating an ‘ecological citizenship,’ ….” (#211)

“The work of dominating the world calls for a union of skills and a unity of achievement that can only grow from quite a different attitude.” (#219)

 “…we need institutions empowered to impose penalties for damage inflicted on the environment ….” (#214)

 “Our efforts at education will be inadequate and ineffectual unless we strive to promote a new way of thinking about human beings, life, society and our relationship with nature. (#215)

“…community actions, when they express self-giving love, can also become intense spiritual experiences.” (#232)

“The majority of the members of society must be adequately motivated … personally transformed to respond.” (#211)

		“Half a Dialogue” was written in reply to the Encyclical Laudato Si’, released by Pope Francis on June 18, 2015. He issued an explicit invitation, asking 25 times for “dialogue,” 12 times for “debate,” and 6 times for “discussion” on the Encyclical. The author of “Half a Dialogue”, Diane C. Harris, has responded to Pope Francis’ request, with particular concern about assumptions of global warming and climate change, and the risk of the environmental path to “One World Religion”
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