Cardinal Pell on Global Warming Alarmists: "Scaremongers" and "Zealots"

From the Archdiocese of Sidney:

Global warming doomsdayers were out and about in a big way recently, but the rain came in Central Queensland and then here in Sydney. January also was unusually cool.

We have been subjected to a lot of nonsense about climate disasters as some zealots have been painting extreme scenarios to frighten us. They claim ocean levels are about to rise spectacularly, that there could be the occasional tsunami as high as an eight story building, the Amazon basin could be destroyed as the ice cap in the Arctic and in Greenland melts.

An overseas magazine called for Nuremberg-style trials for global warming skeptics while a U.S.A. television correspondent compared skeptics to “holocaust deniers”.

A local newspaper editorial’s complaint about the doomsdayers’ religious enthusiasm is unfair to mainstream Christianity. Christians don’t go against reason although we sometimes go beyond it in faith to embrace probabilities. What we were seeing from the doomsdayers was an induced dose of mild hysteria, semi-religious if you like, but dangerously close to superstition.

I am deeply skeptical about man-made catastrophic global warming, but still open to further evidence. I would be surprised if industrial pollution, and carbon emissions, had no ill effect at all. But enough is enough.

A few fixed points might provide some light. We know that enormous climate changes have occurred in world history, e.g. the Ice Ages and Noah’s flood, where human causation could only be negligible. Neither should it be too surprising to learn that the media during the last 100 years has alternated between promoting fears of a coming Ice Age and fear of global warming!

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This isn't the first time Cardinal Pell has spoken on this subject:

"Some of the hysteric and extreme claims about global warming are also a symptom of pagan emptiness, of Western fear when confronted by the immense and basically uncontrollable forces of nature. Belief in a benign God who is master of the universe has a steadying psychological effect, although it is no guarantee of Utopia, no guarantee that the continuing climate and geographic changes will be benign. In the past pagans sacrificed animals and even humans in vain attempts to placate capricious and cruel gods. Today they demand a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions."

UPDATE
What the climate nazis are REALLY all about:

Population control is critical in warming fight

... As population increases, the challenge of slowing climate change becomes ever more difficult.

After all, it is people, not birds or bears, who drive Hummers and hybrids and who heat and cool homes and offices. Although the vast majority of population growth occurs in the least-developed nations, the people there, too, are using more fossil fuels every day as they seek better lives.

What can we do? We know that family planning works everywhere. When women and couples are free to make their own informed choices, they choose to have smaller families.

Thirty years ago, for example, Mexican women had almost seven children each. Today, thanks to education and the availability of family planning, they have an average of 2.4 children.

Globally, at least 350 million couples lack family planning services. Here in the United States, one-third of all births are unplanned. And the Bush Administration's family planning failures, from its Global Gag Rule to ideologically driven abstinence-only programs, contribute directly to millions of unwanted and unplanned births.

If we could cut in half the number of unwanted births in the United States alone, we'd have about 5 million fewer births over 20 years. Family planning makes sense for people – and for our fragile planet.

It's vital to focus on thorny technical issues such as tax credits, energy alternatives and emissions trading programs. These efforts are especially important here in the United States, where less than five percent of the world's population produces about one quarter of the world's carbon dioxide emissions.

But cutting energy consumption must be coupled with stabilizing population.

More people use more energy. If we had zero population growth, part of the global warming problem would, well, melt away...

No wonder commenters like Eamon try to pretend that global warming is a more pressing "moral" issue than is abortion. More abortion (ahem, "family planning") is what they're after.

Malthusian idiocy.


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Forecast: More "Global Warming" Today for the Midwest and Northeast

Rich Leonardi on "Acting With Urgency"