Pope Francis (source: Flickr/koreanet)
As the World awaits the release of Pope Francis's encyclical on climate change tomorrow, the letter to all the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church has the potential to inspire a mass movement to powerfully attack the sources of climate change and their supporters making 2015 the year that we finally begin to slow, and hopefully end, some of the worst impacts of future climate change.
There appears to be evidence that the pope may very well focus on glaciers as a symbol that highlights the fragility of the biosphere that humanity calls home. The question, as raised by Glacier Hub, is will the Pontiff use the encyclical to raise the issue of the terrifying rate of glacier melt in the world's air conditioners? For illustrative purposes, nothing can illustrate this haunting more than visual evidence of the doom of the world's ice. (See the below Chasing Ice video of Greenland's Ilulissat Glacier).
The Pontifical Academy of Sciences conducted a major workshop on glacier retreat in 2011. This well-respected institution, which dates back to 1603, is composed of leading scientists from around the world. It has no religious or ethnic criteria for membership. A number of major glaciologists and climatologists participated in this workshop, including Paul Crutzen, who first proposed the term Anthropocene, Lonnie Thompson, a leading researcher who studies past climates through the analysis of ice cores and Veerabhadran Ramanathan, an atmospheric scientist who has studied the contributions of greenhouse gasses and aerosols to global warming.
The
findings of that Vatican workshop note that the world's mountain glaciers are shrinking in every part of the planet due to carbon emissions and aerosols such as
black carbon. We also know that Greenland and Antarctica's ice sheets are in irretrievable melt. This is due to warming ocean water melting ice sheets below the surface and the top of the surface melting from the positive feedbacks, caused by Albedo. This feedback loop causes these massive sheets of ice to become ungrounded due to enormous volumes of melt water draining to the bedrock via
moulin's causing a lubrication effect on the bedrock. This process slides and rapidly advances the the glacier into the oceans. I am hopeful that the church including it's faithful will hammer home the image of our world air conditioners, not only are they critical to our survival but their beauty is breath taking.
Unfortunately the climate change deniers, the Koch brothers and their ilk as well as the GOP in general including all of their 2016 presidential aspirants are gearing for battle. Yesterday in New Hampshire, Jeb Bush, had the audacity to attack the Catholic Church right out of the gate.
"I hope I’m not going to get castigated for saying this by my priest back home, but I don’t get economic policy from my bishops or my cardinals or my pope,” Bush said. “And I’d like to see what he says as it relates to climate change and how that connects to these broader, deeper issue before I pass judgment. But I think religion ought to be about making us better as people and less about things that end up getting in the political realm.”
Unfracking believable. Jeb apparently does not know that the Pope is a scientist and not just a moral leader. The only reason that climate change has become an issue in the political realm is because the GOP has for decades taken it there, by denying science and fostering doubt of the phenomenon by lies and as brother George would put it, "catapulting the propaganda" of the fossil fuel industry. It is not a surprise that the GOP has taken this war against science to a new level of sleaze. The party is owned lock stock and barrel by the Koch brothers.
Mother Jones reported on the GOP catholic presidential aspirants. They are not alone as there are certainly senators and congressmen that are catholic as well.
Rick Santorum: "The church has gotten it wrong a few times on science, and I think we probably are better off leaving science to the scientists and focusing on what we’re good at, which is theology and morality."
Chris Christie: The New Jersey governor's views might be the most in line with the pope's: "I think global warming is real. I don't think that's deniable. And I do think human activity contributes to it."
Bobby Jindal: While acknowledging that human activity has had an impact on the climate, Jindal has decried Obama's environmental regulations as "reckless and based on a radical leftist ideology that will kill American jobs and increase energy prices," according to the Associated Press.
Marco Rubio: "I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it. That's what I do not. And I do not believe that the laws that they propose we pass will do anything about it, except it will destroy our economy."
The encyclical will say that climate change is man-made and fighting it is a moral issue and this will be read by priests to every catholic congregation in the world. Catholic Republicans are now in a pickle. Do they side with Pope Francis, or reject church teachings and go with the slimy talking points of the GOP?
The real leaders of the GOP, Fox and their minions on talk radio can barely hide their contempt for the Pope.
Michael Savage on tomorrows encyclical as quoted by RW Watch:
"I think it is up to the Catholic people to turn their backs on this Pope before it is too late, before they wake up and find out that they are in chains, this man is a Marxist through-and-through,” Savage said, claiming that he was “picked by the New World Order the way Obama was.”
I am an Ex Catholic and even I find this reaction to the encyclical revolting. Good luck with that in 2016.