by Chris Becker
First the Pope:
Pope Francis, called upon world leaders on Wednesday to “listen to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor, who suffer most because of the unbalanced ecology.”
Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew I, the head of the Orthodox Christian Church, will issue a joint message to commemorate the annual “World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation” on Friday, the Associated Press reported.
In 2015, the Pope designated Sept. 1 as “a precious opportunity to renew our personal participation in this vocation as custodians of creation,” framing the preservation of the environment as a moral responsibility.
Similarly, Bartholomew—who backed Francis’ 2015 encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si—once said:
“There has never been so much turmoil on our planet, but there has never been greater opportunity for communication, cooperation and dialogue. Basic human rights such as access to water, clean air and sufficient food should be available to everyone without distinction or discrimination. We are convinced that we cannot separate our concern for human dignity, human rights or social justice from the concern for ecological preservation and sustainability.”
Versus the Dope:
“The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
“This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps,and our GW scientists are stuck in ice.”
“Ice storm rolls from Texas to Tennessee – I’m in Los Angeles and it’s freezing. Global warming is a total, and very expensive, hoax!”
“I believe in clean air. Immaculate air…. But I don’t believe in climate change.”
Not sure that “belief” is going to go down well with those in Texas. Its far too early to ascertain if “the largest dump of water on the United States than any other weather event in history” is directly attributed to climate change, but its a clear abrogation of sound risk management.
From Politico:
Scientists may disagree on the degree to which anthropogenic (or human-caused) climate change intensified Harvey, but almost all concurred that Houston’s lack of preparation for it magnified its ramifications.
Urbanization turned prairies and forests into concrete, reducing the land’s capacity to absorb rainfall, and lax zoning codes gave way to development more prone to cave to the flooding. Paired with an explosion in the city’s population, the damages snowballed.
“We’re doing a huge disservice if we put off the reality that we are changing the climate and the sea levels if we wait until we do fancy analyses (on storms like Harvey) years later. It’s time to face up to the fact that some of these are going to become the new norm,” said Harold Wanless, chair of the geological sciences department at the University of Miami.
Lack of regulation, burgeoning population growth and poor urbanization policies. Does this ring a bell? Government should be at the forefront of managing risk that markets and households cannot.
It’s time to dump the dopes and put some soap into the mouths of those who “believe” climate change isn’t real.