These are all good points, but these caveats must also be strictly applied to those scientists who deny the climate change research. Especially to those who are being paid by special interests to cast doubt among the public in order to undermine populist government environmental policies and regulations.
The carbon-based energy industry is massive - far bigger than “big tobacco”. Have people forgotten how tobacco industry “scientists” claimed for years that nicotine was not addictive and cigarette smoking was not “proven” to cause cancer? Given our experience with the tobacco industry, it is reasonable to assume that the “big oil” or “big gas” or “big coal” industries are employing “scientists” for the same purpose: to continue to make profits and avoid liability for their product. The motivations are exactly the same. Only a fool would fail to learn from the past and blindly accept the “facts” and “research” that are bankrolled by the energy industry.
You can tell that conservatives are loosing the scientific debate when they begin to use the tactic of denying that climate change is a problem by attacking “liberal” solutions to it.
This is equivalent to denying that teen pregnancy is a problem by attacking the efforts of Planned Parenthood to promote the use of contraception. Catholics may disagree with PP’s solution, point out how it would make the problem worse, and offer our own solutions,
but to deny that the problem exists based on our disagreement with PP’s response to it would be the height of irresponsibility. The same is true of the climate change problem.
Finally, Catholics must understand that Pope Benedict XVI and scientists from the
Pontifical Academy of Sciences both state unequivocally that Global Warming/Climate Change is a real problem facing the world and are actively crafting the appropriate Catholic response to the crisis.
Catholics who oppose the Church in this regard and question the Pope’s judgement must explain why they are taking such a radical stance. They must demonstrate that they are better equipped than our Church leaders to critically evaluate the evidence, understand its implications for future generations, and craft a response in accord with Catholic Social Doctrine.
So far, nothing on this forum has convinced me that those who deny the reality of global climate change are doing anything more than repeating right-wing propaganda. Since that is the case, I will stick with the Pope.