Serving Whitman County since 1877

The Pope and climate change

It is not exactly pope-speak but Pope Francis called people who deny climate change “stupid,” using a quote from the Bible. It is a “moral responsibility,” he said, to do everything possible to alleviate the changes.

He is right. The climate is changing. It has been changing for years.

Those who deny the fact seem most intent on denying the causes and the effects. As one said, the climate has been changing since the end of the last Ice Age, there is nothing to do about it.

And, so it has, but there are many things humans can do to lessen the speed and consequences of the changes.

Too often the phenomenon is wrapped in politics. Regardless of the root cause, we know some of the contributing factors. These we can do something about.

One well established result of the warming of the planet is the occurrence of extreme weather. From extreme drought to extreme storms to extreme cold and snow and extreme rain, a warming climate causes unusual weather patterns relative to what we have experienced in the past.

Two category four hurricanes hitting the United States in 16 days is record shattering.

These storms, however, are not proof of global warming. Neither are all the unusual weather occurrences around the world.

The real evidence comes from weather and temperature trends that are continuing and even accelerating. Over recent years, the loss of the polar ice cap, the rise in oceans, less predictable weather events and so much more indicate the change over time.

These are hard to ignore. The effects of global warming are not single events but a string of them.

Pope Francis may not be a meteorologist, but he does know how to express himself. His message is clear and simple. If he were not pope, he might have been even more expressive.

Somebody needs to be.

Gordon Forgey

Publisher

 

Reader Comments(0)