The trouble with enlisting the support of celebrity prostitutes for a political cause is that their words ring hollow unless they lead by example which they rarely do. Blue collar to Pope: LBE or STFU. When the Pope lowers his ‘carbon footprint’ to my level then we’ll talk. Until then the Pope can blow smoke out his ears.
In his encyclical, the Pope decries compulsive consumerism in an attempt to stir up guilt in people. Why? People are easier to manipulate when they are made to feel ashamed of their wealth. No doubt they also put more in the collection plate too. His idea of compulsive consumerism is people who are enjoying their lives. People with a strong sense of self esteem who want to enjoy their time on Earth cannot be manipulated to serve his purpose. His playbook reads: induce guilt; undermine self esteem.
Fossil fuels have fueled a cultural revolution that allows the ‘poor’ of whom he claims to care about so much to rise from the filth of pre-industrial ‘horse manure on the streets’ society to enjoy the modern conveniences and relative cleanliness of a new and improved standard of living. No one in our day wants to permanently play ‘Survivor’ without Jeff Probst to bring reward. Who wants to be a sacrificial animal? As Myron Ebell has pointed out you can’t help the poor by discarding industrial society but you can, by such actions, make a lot more poor people to fawn over. Does the Pope not feel needed in a society where everyone is pursuing happiness and becoming healthy, wealthy and wise?
There are many poor people who cook indoors with wood or dung whose health suffers as a result. There are many poor people without air conditioning which would help them survive heat waves. Many people in India have died in their 2015 heat wave. Fossil fuels such as coal plants could help them survive the vagaries of the weather. The benefits of fossil fuels far outweigh the negatives.
The Pope is convinced that “...we need only take a frank look at the facts to see that our common home is falling into serious disrepair.” And yet by just about every metric you can think of our lives are improving. Christina Aguilera even sings about it.
CO2 is an invisible, trace gas essential to life on Earth. We need more of it not less. Plants grow stronger, bigger, faster with more CO2 in the air and that means more food for the world’s poor.
While the Pope may have convinced Al Gore to consider a conversion to Catholicism (he won’t) his flock are divided on the issue of climate change. Win some, lose some.
This is evil?
While the Pope, in his encyclical Laudato Si(Paragraph 61), recognizes “honest debate must be encouraged among experts, while respecting divergent views” he hypocritically banned a French skeptic from offering a contrary opinion. When people do not listen to contrary opinion they are on a mission which takes precedence in their minds over the truth and they are not afraid to say so.
Just as the Pope recognizes that people have a tendency to avoid dealing with problems and maintaining the status quo we must guard against those who see problems where there are none for the waste of resources that follows from chasing phantoms does irreparable harm to everyone.
