Scientists' Message to Pope: Be Skeptical of Climate Change Alarm

The New American
April 28, 2015

Photo of Pope Francis: AP Images

A team of independent climate scientists and public policy experts is traveling to Rome to enlighten Pope Francis about climate science in advance of the Vatican's April 28environmental conference. They plan to host two public workshops to explain that there is no global warming crisis and to discourage the pontiff from relying on faulty information from climate alarmists within the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

"Sadly, the pope is aligning himself with a U.N. agenda that will limit development for billions of the world's desperately poor residents," says Marc Morano, former communications director for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and founder of the watchdog website Climate Depot. Morano is one of the policy experts slated to speak at the workshops scheduled on Monday, April 27 and Tuesday, April 28 in Rome. He explains, "The pope has been misled on climate science, and his promotion of the U.N. agenda will only mean the poor will be the biggest victims of climate change policies."

Scientists with The Heartland Institute, a think tank promoting scientific skepticism about man-made global warming, will join Morano to promote the same message. "Humans are not causing a climate crisis on God's Green Earth — in fact, they are fulfilling their Biblical duty to protect and use it for the benefit of humanity," said Heartland Institute President Joseph Bast. "The world's poor will suffer horribly if reliable energy — the engine of prosperity and a better life — is made more expensive and less reliable by the decree of global planners."

Among other climate experts scheduled to address the skeptic conferences are:

• Dr. Thomas Sheahen, director of the Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology, which is headquartered at the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis and funded largely by the Catholic publishing company, Our Sunday Visitor;

• Dr. Richard Keen of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Colorado;

• Lord Christopher Monckton, chief policy advisor to the Science and Public Policy Institute and former special advisor to Margaret Thatcher when she served as U.K. prime minister from 1982 to 1986;

• Retired physicist/engineer and current NASA consultant Harold Doiron;

• Jim Lakely, director of communications at the Heartland Institute and former White House correspondent for The Washington Times; and

• Dr. E. Calvin Beisner, founder and national spokesman for the Cornwall Alliance, a Biblically-based public policy network of inter-faith religious leaders and scholars dedicated to free-market solutions to economic, social, and environmental challenges.

Beisner issued a press release about the upcoming events in Rome. "Adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere isn't going to cause dangerous global warming," he noted. "But it sure will enhance all life on earth — including human life, especially among the poor."

Both media and public are invited to attend the conferences. For those who cannot be there, the Heartland Institute provides an action plan here and encourages everyone to contact the pope by postal mail (His Holiness, Pope Francis PP., 00120 Via del Pellegrino, Citta del Vaticano) or email: cdf@cfaith.va. The Heartland website also includes links to valuable research and commentary about the pressing importance of the climate change debate.

"If Pope Francis embraces the Climate Change agenda, he will be aligning himself with the biggest enemies of the Church and of Catholic moral principles," warns Morano. "These activists are pro-population control and have bought into 'population bomb' hype."