I am saddened by the attitude Fox news and specifically Dr. W. David Montgomery, take regarding the Pope's call to all inhabitants of this earth to address climate change. In his Encyclical Letter "LAUDATO SI’" sub-titled "On care for our Common Home" Pope Francis talks about numerous things that we should be addressing. He quotes previous Pope's, for example Pope Paul "he warned that human beings frequently seem to see no other meaning in their natural environment than what serves for immediate use and consumption.” Dr. Montgomery steps in and states "some leaders, including President Obama, who exaggerate the current impacts of climate change on the United States to promote the idea that self-interest demands action." He also stated "The poor in wealthy countries, however, will suffer additionally from the efforts Pope Francis proposes to limit emissions, as the price of energy rises against their small and sometimes shrinking incomes." Finally - "Laudato Si also blames wealthy countries for causing global poverty by exhausting the world's resources. This is simply false."
A documentary released this year "Merchants of Doubt" presents a fact filled assessment of the "experts" that corporations hire to combat the issues raised surrounding GMO's, climate change, water quality. The overarching theme - these "experts" are excellent public speakers and have minimal to no scientific training. Their entire goal is find the tiniest thread of uncertainty and build it to a level of doubt that is hard to overcome in the untrained public. In my search on Dr. Montgomery's background, I could not find one piece of evidence that he has had any scientific training on the causes of climate change.
From the movie, "Merchants of Doubt" a scene that I think sums it up. Talk show host, Morton Downey Jr. challenged a scientist that was raising the alarm regarding the dangers of cigarettes (in the midst of spin doctors presenting evidence that those claims were false and could not be proved). Downey yelled at the scientist and said he, Downey, looked a lot younger than the scientist. Sadly on two fronts - the scientist seemed to lose the discussion, but Downey paid the ultimate price - he died from lung cancer at 67.
May we all have a more open mind to scientific alerts than Morton Downey and thousands of others.
Roger, I'm hoping that I read the part of your blog post about wealthy countries NOT being responsible for global warming wrong! I couldn't imagine third world countries contributing even a fraction of what we do in industrialized cities. We have roads where they have pastures, we have factories where they have huts. I really do appreciate the Pope shining light on the issue of global warming real or not, to this generation of people that have the mindset of, "well it won't/doesn't affect me." I also really enjoy that you tied your statements on the Pope's speech to a movie to make it analogous!
ReplyDeleteAnna - thank you, I needed better sentence structure. I was trying to illustrate what the "spin-meister" Dr. Montgomery was stating to cast doubt. I do not agree with him/FOX. Every industrialized country has polluted their way to economic success and third-world countries will continue to do the same as they try to improve their standard of living. The entire world must get behind addressing the issue immediately.
DeleteDid you think it was interesting that he addressed global warming at all? So often this is a topic that is ignored by religious leaders. It seems that he is one of the first world religious leaders to help bridge the gap between science and the church in this way.
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