I just received a notice that made me laugh. The Heartland Institute, one of the groups responsible for misleading the public about climate change, sent out a notice about an upcoming Papal event. The event itself sounds great, it is a workshop on April 28th to address global warming. I have written about the bold action taken by Pope Francis; he is clearly a leader amongst the faith community on this topic which is already having large societal and human health impacts. At the upcoming events, world leaders in science, business, and religion will congregate to work toward solutions to help protect the most vulnerable.
Of course, this is all bad news for those who are trying to sweep the problem of climate change under the rug. That brings us to the Heartland Institute. They are asking their members and readers to tell the Pope that climate change is not a crisis. In an email I received, it is stated that Heartland will be bringing “real scientists to Rome” to dissuade the Pope from taking climate change seriously.
So, who are these “real” scientists that can show us climate change either isn’t happening or isn’t serious? Well, if you’ve followed climate change research over the past few years, you will have noticed that the number of scientists who share Heartland’s view is dwindling fast. The few remaining scientists either aren’t climate scientists at all or their work has been revealed as faulty.
Feel free to click on the Heartland list of “experts”. There you will find “experts” such as Steve Goreham, an electrical engineer who wrote a nonsense book on climate change that was filled with factual errors and misinterpretations, as I discussed here. Another so-called “expert” is S. Akasofu who has written an article on climate change that was soundly debunked here.
There are other so-called experts include people such as Paul Chesser who works at the National Legal and Policy Center, Sterling Brunett who is an advisor for the conservative organization ALEC, Marc Morano who spent years working for Rush Limbaugh and was an advisor and speech writer for Senator Inhofe, and James Taylor, who reportedly has degrees in government and law. Perhaps the best known scientist among their list is the famous Willie Soon, who has been in the news lately for working on climate change without properly disclosing funding.
So which of these “experts” will Heartland be sending to Rome to instruct the Pope? I daresay the Pontifical Academy of Sciences is quite capable of serving as a resource to the Pope. They are quite clear in their understanding of the threat ofclimate change. Their conclusions are backed by scientists and science organizations from around the world.
I teach at a Catholic University. As a professor at such an institution, I am proud that the Pope is living a Catholic mission of caring for those who are being impacted by climate change. It is clear that people of faith around the globe are taking more seriously the impact today’s actions have on future generations. It is hard to imagine a motivation more crucial than that of faith to help us move to rational and just solutions to this common problem.
For further perspective, my colleague Dr. Bernard Brady, Professor and Chair of the Theology Department at the University of St. Thomas said,
Posted by John Abraham on Tuesday, 28 April, 2015
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