Thanks for posting this. I for one have considered CC one of the more serious pro-life issues for nearly 30 years. I know some here only consider abortion a pro-life issue, but there are many ways in which we contribute to people’s death, and CC is one of them, and if we follow a business-as-usual path and fail to mitigate CC, then it is possible that we will be wiping out a huge chunk of humanity over the next 100s & 1000s of years (from our current and near future contributions).
I am also against abortion, but consider wiping out a large portion of humanity a really bad way to reduce abortion.
It reached 95% scientific certainty in 1995, but scientists have been theorizing about anthropogenic climate change (ACC) for nearly 200 years, once they discovered the natural greenhouse effect and how it has allowed a warm enough climate on earth for life to exist. Aware of industrial emissions of CO2 and other GHGs they have been postulating ACC for nearly 200 years, but actual observational evidence of ACC, teasing out signal from noise (since there are other factors that impact climate), only happened in 1995.
As laypersons, we should not require 95% certainty re a serious threat to humanity. That’s why churches, including the Catholic Church and statements by JPII, have been telling people to mitigate it at least since 1990.
That’s when I started mitigating and we were surprised to find was could do so now down to less than 60% of our 1990 emissions cost-effectively, without lowering our living standards and saving us $1000s to boot. So there is absolutely NO REASON for people not to take this issue seriously and mitigate it in whatever ways they can.
Even if CC were not an issue I wouldn’t trust Trump at all. I’ve never had any respect for him – for his personal life or professional life. He comes across to me now even more as a liar and cheat, and very mean and uncouth, loutish.
I was hoping nevertheless that he would do what he could to mitigate CC, despite perhaps being invested in oil interests or having friends in the oil & coal industries. After all, Obama did something about it, even tho I think he was supported by the coal industry as a senator – he did more than I expected, considering that.
I’d like to see all fossil fuel money out of politics. And it would be great if subsidies and tax-breaks to the fossil fuel industries could be eliminated or reduced.
However, there are many ways we can “fight” it that would help the poor and save money for us all – we should do those things first…which could get us down to at least a 50% to 70% below our 1990 emissions AND strengthen our economy.
We can all do much as the personal, household, and business levels.
As for policies, one proposal that sounds good is “Fee and Dividend,” where by a fee is put on each barrel of oil and ton of coal than comes out of the ground or into our ports – and 100% of that money is divvied up equally and given to all SS card holders in monthly installments. They can then use that money to pay the resulting extra costs for fossil fuel energy or become energy/resource efficient/conservative, go on alt energy when feasible, and really be on the road to prosperity and saving lives that would have been harmed by fossil fuel extraction, processing, burning (local to global pollution), and waste disposal.
CC is a pro-life issue, but if you mean abortion, then at the personal level I would consider abortion a graver sin, since it seems to be more intentional. CC harms and killing are not intentional but more a byproduct of our living. To the extent we can feasibly reduce our contributions to ACC without harm to ourselves and families but refuse to do so, that would be somewhat more serious a sin. If we work hard to convince others that ACC is not real, that would be somewhat a more sin.
The point is if we really care about life on earth, we will abstain from having abortions AND fight ACC – one doesn’t preclude the other. And we will work to get others to abstain from abortions and emitting GHGs profligately, non-efficiently, and non-conservatively – in whatever ways we can, thru gov policies and other avenues.
As I tell my environmentalist friends (who may not be Catholic or into the abortion issue), it doesn’t make sense to save the earth for the children by killing children. They at least listen to me, while the CC denialist group does not.
I see you are new to CAF. Don’t be demoralized or disheartened by people here who are CC denialists. I tend to be demoralized by them, but I also see it as my obligation to speak out on this issue. Not to do so would be a sin.
