Reuters: The climate threats on Pope Francis' Asia-Pacific itinerary

[OKIsItJustMe]

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/climate-threats-pope-francis-asia-pacific-itinerary-2024-09-02/

The climate threats on Pope Francis' Asia-Pacific itinerary
By Reuters
September 2, 2024 3:46 AM EDT

Sept 2 (Reuters) - Climate change will be high on the agenda as Pope Francis embarks on his longest ever foreign trip on Monday, visiting Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore over 12 days.

Following are some of the climate challenges facing the countries on his itinerary.

RISING SEA LEVELS
Pope Francis has warned rising sea levels will mean many populations will probably have to move their homes in a few years.

This is already happening in Indonesia, with its densely populated and low-lying coastal regions at risk from subsidence and flooding. It is already relocating its national capital from Jakarta to a new and less vulnerable city on Borneo.

…

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. As a retired Catholic, since about 73. I wish the Pope would get a real connection to God.

Tell Him, "Ease off with the Climate Change, you're killing the planet!!!!"

If I were God, I'd say, "Fuck off, you did it to yourselves."

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. I believe the pope would agree with you

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/three-ways-pope-francis-backs-science-one-major-way-doesnt

As a scientist, is the pope dodging the biggest contributor to climate change?
Science Sep 23, 2015 4:01 PM EDT

Once you’re a scientist, you’re always a scientist, and Pope Francis was once a scientist. In recent years, the pope’s outspoken views on issues like the environment seem to reveal his familiarity with life in a lab. Some scientists applaud his efforts to filter empirical knowledge into theology. But for others, Pope Francis embodies the Catholic Church’s long history of stopping short of being totally pro-science.

Before attending seminary and eventually becoming the Bishop of Rome, Jorge Mario Bergoglio spent his early adulthood as a food chemist. His education in chemistry would be on par with obtaining a technician certificate or degree from a junior college, said Father Thomas Reese, who believes that training has a profound influence on the pontiff’s approach to climate change.

Entitled “Laudato Si: Our Care for our Common Home,” the document tackles the ongoing perils of global warming, ocean acidification and biodiversity loss. The letter pulls from environmental rationales backed by decades of research. It calls out climate change deniers and confronts the nuanced economic drivers for man-made climate change. “We know that technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels – especially coal, but also oil and, to a lesser degree, gas – needs to be progressively replaced without delay,” Pope Francis writes.

… “this was clearly a document written by someone who understands physical science…somebody who knows what an infrared absorption spectrum is and understands the difference between carbon dioxide and methane.”

…

[OAITW r.2.0]

3. Does science trump the Word of God?

Tough one for the Pope to figure out.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Who says that either needs to trump the other?

Galileo wasn’t punished for his scientific views. He was punished for publishing them.

The pope had already gladly accepted Copernicus’ findings (which is what Galileo got in trouble over.)

[OAITW r.2.0]

5. You are looking backwards, I'm talking about this Pope looking forward,

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. Vatican News Service: Pope to scientists: Harmonise faith and science in the pursuit for truth

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2024-06/pope-francis-address-scientists-black-holes-specula.html

Pope to scientists: Harmonise faith and science in the pursuit for truth
Pope Francis urges scientists to harmonise faith and science in their pursuit of truth, emphasising that both stem from God's absolute truth and should serve humanity.

By Francesca Merlo

Pope Francis on Thursday addressed Participants at the second conference of the Vatican Specola, which focused on the theme of “Black Holes, Gravitational Waves and Space-Time Singularities”.

…

As the scientists gathered to debate “the latest questions posed by scientific research in cosmology”, Pope Francis assured them that “the Church is attentive to such research and promotes it, because it shakes the sensitivity and intelligence of the men and women of our time”.

He went on to highlight that the beginning of the universe, its ultimate evolution, and the profound structure of space and time “confront human beings with a frantic search for meaning, in a vast scenario where they risk losing themselves”. He noted that through psalms, amongst other things, it becomes clear that these themes have a particular relevance for theology, philosophy, science and also for the spiritual life.

An example of this was, in fact, George Lemaître, whom the Holy Father described as “an exemplary priest and scientist” whose “human and spiritual journey represents a model of life from which we can all learn” as he understood that “science and faith follow two different and parallel paths, between which there is no conflict”.

…

I presume he is a “Bridge” player, he seems to be bidding “No Trump.”

[OAITW r.2.0]

7. Scientists to the Pope - You harmonize it. We will continue to tell you the scientific truth.

[OKIsItJustMe]

8. You seem to insist that he rejects science

I see no evidence of that. I only see evidence that he supports science.

Naturally, if the scientific view requires atheism, then, to that extent he is not a scientist. However, I would argue that atheism is a matter of faith, an atheist cannot prove there is no god, any more than the pope can prove that there is.

[OAITW r.2.0]

9. Yes, so he should not call on scientists to frame it in a godly way.

That's his job.

[OKIsItJustMe]

10. You asked, "Does science trump the Word of God?"

It seems clear that he does not feel that either trumps the other:

… “science and faith follow two different and parallel paths, between which there is no conflict”.

[OAITW r.2.0]

11. Honestly, if the Pope can't figure out who is bullshitting us,

we are in trouble. Maybe Pius XII can explain it to us,

[OKIsItJustMe]

12. It's not necessarily an either/or proposition

(Perhaps no one is “bullshitting us.”)

I was intrigued reading Novacene by james Lovelock to find that having read a book on “Anthropic Cosmology” he had come to believe that the universe was tailor made for our existence. He was not “religious” per se, in that he did not follow the rituals, or accept the stories generally associated with religions.

Part of the reason I was intrigued was because I believe I had read the same book at about the same time he had, and found it similarly persuasive.

I have known scientists who were atheists and scientists who were deeply religious as well as many who were somewhere in between. A Hindu scientist once said to me, out-of-the-blue, “People ask me, ‘Why do you believe in a god?’ I ask them, ‘Do you believe in electrons? Why? Have you ever seen an electron?’”