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Pope Francis To Issue Encyclical On Global Warming

HughPickens.com writes The Guardian reports that following a visit in March to Tacloban, the Philippine city devastated in 2012 by typhoon Haiyan, Pope Francis plans to publish a rare encyclical on climate change and human ecology urging all Catholics to take action on moral and scientific grounds. "A papal encyclical is rare," says Bishop Marcelo Sorondo, chancellor of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences who revealed the pope's plans when he delivered Cafod's annual Pope Paul VI lecture. "It is among the highest levels of a pope's authority. It will be 50 to 60 pages long; it's a big deal." The encyclical will be sent to the world's 5,000 Catholic bishops and 400,000 priests, who will distribute it to parishioners. Within Catholicism in recent times, an encyclical is generally used for significant issues, and is second in importance only to the highest ranking document now issued by popes, an Apostolic Constitution. "Just as humanity confronted revolutionary change in the 19th century at the time of industrialization, today we have changed the natural environment so much," says Sorondo. "If current trends continue, the century will witness unprecedented climate change and destruction of the ecosystem with tragic consequences."

Francis's environmental radicalism is likely to attract resistance from Vatican conservatives and in rightwing church circles, particularly in the US – where Catholic climate sceptics also include John Boehner, Republican leader of the House of Representatives and Rick Santorum, the former Republican presidential candidate. "There will always be 5-10% of people who will take offence. They are very vocal and have political clout," says Dan Misleh, director of the Catholic climate covenant. "This encyclical will threaten some people and bring joy to others. The arguments are around economics and science rather than morality." Francis will also be opposed by the powerful US evangelical movement, says Calvin Beisner, spokesman for the conservative Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, which has declared the US environmental movement to be "un-biblical" and a false religion. "The pope should back off," says Beisner. "The Catholic church is correct on the ethical principles but has been misled on the science. It follows that the policies the Vatican is promoting are incorrect. Our position reflects the views of millions of evangelical Christians in the US."

341 comments

  1. Doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    He's not a climate scientist and his paper isn't peer reviewed.

    1. Re:Doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Plus, I heard his "organization" receives donations from big oil.

    2. Re:Doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      He's not a climate scientist and his paper isn't peer reviewed.

      Jesus reviewed it. That's not good enough for you?

    3. Re:Doesn't matter by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

      He's not a climate scientist and his paper isn't peer reviewed.

      What happens when he agrees with peer reviewed climate scientists?

      Does your head asplode?

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    4. Re:Doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope. If I've learned anything from the climate science debate, it's that non-peer-reviewed, big oil supported, non-climate-scientist authorship is worthless and should be disregarded.

    5. Re:Doesn't matter by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      lol.. You really think so?

    6. Re:Doesn't matter by GNious · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You do know that there's PLENTY of scientific evidence out there which ISN'T funded by big oil refuting the ridiculous notion that carbon-dioxide is pollution?

      What I particularly liked about your post is the large number of sources you included to support the above statement.

    7. Re:Doesn't matter by blue9steel · · Score: 2

      letting them have coal-fired power plants to lift them out of poverty

      There are plenty of reasons why coal sucks beside CO2 emissions. Even if CO2 is a total non-issue coal is poor choice of power source given today's options, which is why you don't see any new coal plants being built in the US and even China has decided to move away from them going forward.

    8. Re:Doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, that just makes me feel great about living in Australia where our government has hung our entire future on our ability to dig coal out of the ground and send it to China.

    9. Re:Doesn't matter by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You do know that there's PLENTY of scientific evidence out there which ISN'T funded by big oil refuting the ridiculous notion that carbon-dioxide is pollution?

      First of all, "scientific evidence" doesn't show whether or not something is or is not "pollution". "Pollution" is a term of judgement.

      The science shows that increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can change the climate. There are not "PLENTY" of scientists who disagree with that.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    10. Re:Doesn't matter by mfearby · · Score: 0, Troll

      The embedded emissions in wind and solar are so high as to render them a complete waste of time. You do realise that coking coal is used in smelters to make all the steel to build these worthless contraptions? And the cement foundations for the wind turbines; cement is made from heating limestone & shale, releasing vast amounts CO2. You then have all the steel needed to prop up the solar panels, also made by burning coal. It all adds up, you know.

      Just because you can see a shiny new wind turbine (that kills birds and bats in high numbers, by the way) doesn't mean all that CO2 released into the atmosphere during its production doesn't exist. Then you have the fact that wind turbines in cold areas draw electricity from coal-fired grids to keep them spinning during low wind conditions to prevent ice formation. Turbines also have to shut down in high wind conditions to stop them from breaking apart. A coal-fired plant is needed to back them up anyway, and you can't just flick the switch on a coal plant the moment the wind dies down, they take a day or more to get going. It would be funny if we all weren't paying for this huge waste of time.

    11. Re:Doesn't matter by PopeRatzo · · Score: 0

      And coal-fired powerplants do not lift anyone out of poverty. North Korea has PLENTY of coal-fired powerplants.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    12. Re:Doesn't matter by mfearby · · Score: 0

      You don't think that a totalitarian regime might have something to do with poverty in North Korea?

    13. Re:Doesn't matter by PopeRatzo · · Score: 0

      Yes. And totalitarian regimes love coal-fired power plants for some reason.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    14. Re:Doesn't matter by CaptainDork · · Score: 2

      ... non-climate-scientist authorship is worthless and should be disregarded.

      Kinda like AC is, right?

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    15. Re:Doesn't matter by beelsebob · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So what you're saying is "because lots of the power we have available now is produced by burning coal, we shouldn't try to produce power in the future by doing something else"?

      I mean, of course the wind turbines get produced by burning coal - that's so that future wind turbines will be produced by drawing electricity from a grid powered by wind turbines (and tidal power stations, and hydro plants, and solar plants, and nuclear, and ...)

    16. Re:Doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's a denier's way of saying "ha ha, you haven't solved this problem, so I can continue to pretend AGW doesn't exist and not change my lifestyle, because it's really about me".

    17. Re:Doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Building any power station - renewable or not - will require steel and produce CO2. The difference is that after it is finished, the solar and wind power sources stop polluting the atmosphere, while coal keeps on pumping it out. Just because renewable power stations are not 100% free of producing CO2 does not mean that they should not be built. All they need to do is produce less than the alternative options and they are still a good idea.

      As an aside, I love it when the kinds of people who denigrate environmentalists suddenly start caring about the birds and bats that are affected by wind turbines just when it becomes convenient for them. I don't know if that applies to you, but I have heard many right-wing pundits display such obvious hypocrisy.

    18. Re:Doesn't matter by AaronW · · Score: 1

      NREL disagrees with you on solar. The payback period is anywhere from 1-4 years with current technology.

      As for wind turbines, often the payback period is even shorter.

      Birds haven't been a huge problem except for Altamont Pass which is a major bird migratory area. The new larger turbines are also much less of a hazard for birds.

      --
      This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
    19. Re:Doesn't matter by stevelinton · · Score: 3, Informative

      A modern wind turbine in typical European conditions generates enough energy to "repay" the costs of building and installing it in about six months. http://www.theguardian.com/env...

      Backup can mostly be other renewable sources (solar, hydro, biomass) demand management and storage (pumped water at the moment). For the rare but real occasions when none of this covers the need, cheap gas turbines designed for a low duty cycles seem like the best option.

    20. Re:Doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Why did you feel the need to bring allude to Al Gore as the Pope when this whole story is about the ACTUAL POPE saying the climate change was real and needed to be addressed. I looked up the article and no mention was made of Al Gore. The only reason to bring him up is that it is just part of the usual bullsh*t that deniers spout because they can't back their arguments up with any evidence.

      Let's call scientists "rent-seeking alarmists" despite the fact that you can't produce a shred of evidence that anyone has falsified results to ensure that they get some juicy grant. It seems rather hypercritical to make claims for fraudulent scientist "whose jobs are dependent on a steady stream of government-funded group-think for their livelihoods" just after you said this:

      Just because something is funded by people with whom you have an ideological dispute it doesn't alter the quality (or lack thereof, as the case may be) of the writing on the page.

      So just because something was funded by the government, doesn't make the science wrong no matter how hard you wish that it did!

    21. Re:Doesn't matter by plopez · · Score: 1

      citations please.

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    22. Re:Doesn't matter by mfearby · · Score: 1, Interesting

      No wind turbine (or field of same) is going to generate enough electricity to smelt iron ore. If greenies weren't so prejudiced against nuclear power, we might take them seriously about climate change.

    23. Re:Doesn't matter by mfearby · · Score: 0

      That's just the kind of non-sequitur intelligent people have come to expect from single issue progressives. The human race will "dumb" itself out of existence before we get a chance to use the nukes

    24. Re:Doesn't matter by Immerman · · Score: 3, Informative

      Sure they can - generating heat is always roughly 100% efficient, so as long as the wind turbines are generating the same amount of energy as the coal that would otherwise be burned for heat, you're good to go.

      For the immediate future though, yes, any sort of metalwork is probably going to be fueled by fossil fuels, simply because they are cheap, and 2-3x as efficient when producing heat is the *goal* rather than an intermediate step. Using electricity to generate heat is phenomenally wasteful unless 100% of the total electricity is produced sustainably - in a rational world heating applications should be the *last* thing converted away from fossil fuels (nuclear could also be a viable option, but not until someone starts building nuclear reactors designed to operate at iron-smelting temperatures). Until we reach that point it makes far more sense to use the electricity for things that need non-thermal energy, and fossil fuels for things that need heat.

      That in no way detracts from the benefit of deploying renewable energy sources - without such deployment that same "dirty energy" would instead be invested in producing more "dirty energy" generating facilities - demand is constantly increasing, and old generating facilities are constantly being updated or replaced.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    25. Re:Doesn't matter by Immerman · · Score: 4, Informative

      >. Coal is one of the most dense and cheapest forms of energy on the planet, so it involves much less harm to the environment

      Well, except for the fact that it's the #1 source of radioactive pollution, hideously toxic and unregulated under grandfathered environmental exemptions, and the undisputed #1 source of CO2 per watt: which at current rates of usage increase will almost certainly rapidly alter planetary temperatures to something resembling the Cambrian Period in only a few centuries, devastating virtually all existing ecosystems in the process.

      I agree invoking "biomass" is not a magic bullet - but done intelligently you can efficiently convert farm waste, etc. to energy, and even optionally produce biochar (at a loss of energy) - an extremely old and ecologically beneficial form of carbon sequestration.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    26. Re:Doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      That in no way detracts from the benefit of deploying renewable energy sources - without such deployment that same "dirty energy" would instead be invested in producing more "dirty energy" generating facilities - demand is constantly increasing, and old generating facilities are constantly being updated or replaced.

      Nonsense. Everyone knows that coal used for industry is clean - the ads say so. It is pure carbon that condenses out of the atmosphere in the very furnace that will burn it. There is no mining, refining, sorting or transportation necessary.

      Meanwhile those so-called renewable products are made with nasty natural coal that has to be dug out of the ground, destroying water and earth alike before being trucked of shipped halfway across the country and world where it then emitting toxic gasses and heavy metals as part of it's ash leading to birth defects and cancer. And then, after that 200' windmill kills millions of severely endangered American eagles, in the course of providing power for one lousy day, they whole thing has to be thrown out and a new one built for... reasons. The very idea is unbelievable.

      Why can't stupid liberals understand that?

      -Professor of Science at Koch Bros University

    27. Re:Doesn't matter by bunratty · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's not even a matter of whether a particular substance is a "pollutant" or "toxic". Many necessary substances can be harmful if present in high concentrations. You can die just by drinking too much water. That doesn't mean that water's a pollutant, even though too much can kill you. The argument that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant because plants need it is similarly confused -- too much of a good thing can be harmful.

      To get to the heart of the matter, the EPA considers any harmful emission to be a pollutant, even if the substance emitted is necessary for life.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    28. Re:Doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You vile Australian arseholes deserve everything you get.

    29. Re:Doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That can't be true since the Obama administration is trying to destroy the coal power sector of the economy and replace it with ..... something or another that is truely progressively wonderful.

    30. Re:Doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If only there was some natural process that could take up the CO2 and break the chemical bond releasing oxygen and sequestering the carbon. Maybe I could get federal funding to look into the feasibility of this miracle process I shall call the "Carbon Cycle". I wonder which religion will ultimately destroy humanity: Islam, Christianity, Environmentalism, or a dark horse not yet dominating man's collective unreason.

    31. Re:Doesn't matter by Eunuchswear · · Score: 2

      The 3 worst things England gave to the world:

      Australia
      Canada
      The USA.

      New Zealand seems ok.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    32. Re:Doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We're the gift that keeps on giving, mate!

    33. Re:Doesn't matter by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Can you give an example for a wind turbine drawing current to prevent icing? (And why it can not use its self generated current)?
      And further more: how high is the percentage of hours in a year that a wind turbine is offline due to to high wind speeds?
      Ah ... I guessed so. In both cases you have no idea at all.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    34. Re:Doesn't matter by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Coal is used to refine raw iron ore into iron or steel because the ore consists to a huge percentage of OXYGEN!
      So you need coal to reduce the iron ore to iron, and for that you basically can only use coal: not gas nor oil.
      However the majority of steel production is recycling of existing steel ... which is mainly done with electricity.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    35. Re: Doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://joannenova.com.au/2014/09/climate-change-research-group-uses-taxes-to-lobby-and-party/

      There's one... Many others but research ing over spending by researchers is as fruitful as researching agw. It finds results that mean nothing to the overall but makes at least one pretentious asshole shout ohmergawrd this proves everything even if it doesn't.

    36. Re: Doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This sort of arguing won't solve things. OK, assume scientists can't be trusted. That's what we do with computer users and crypto based security authentication, but we still find ways to let users do things. We just need a protocol to validate and authenticate scientific work based more on principles of security authentication than "take the word of my peers wh reviewed this," since the system should regard them as untrusted as well. How do we lockbox the collection of raw data, the handling of it at each step, etc? How do we fundamentally change the production of scientific research so that we can trust the research without trusting the scientists?

    37. Re:Doesn't matter by Immerman · · Score: 2

      Is it? Doesn't matter what you burn, it's still going to suck oxygen out of everything around it to produce CO2. The big difference between coal and hydrocarbons is that hydrocarbons have lots of hydrogen in addition to the carbon bonds, but hydrogen likewise bonds with oxygen, so you actually consume a lot *more* oxygen per pound of oil than per pound of coal (or per Watt I believe). Of course for metallurgical work producing massive amounts of water vapor could be an issue... In fact I suppose you wouldn't get spontaneous rusting unless oxides were a more energetically favorable arrangement than water, so I suppose in a low-oxygen environment you'd end up with a lot of wasted heat and hot hydrogen gas - sounds like a bad day for anyone near the exhaust port.

      And in the long term, there's no particular reason the coke has to come from coal - you should be able to refine the process of producing biochar to produce sufficiently pure coke instead. After all it's only the release of fossil carbon that's a problem, so long as we're only harnessing a corner of the normal ecological carbon cycle there's no long-term atmospheric imbalance.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    38. Re:Doesn't matter by Immerman · · Score: 3, Informative

      Obviously there is, hence the name carbon cycle. Plants use solar energy and CO2 to produce biomass, and pretty much everything else then oxidizes that biomass for energy, releasing the original amount of CO2 in the process. A nice closed loop that keeps recycling the same carbon over and over again.

      The problem is that when we burn fossil fuels we're releasing *geologic* carbon from the rock - carbon that mostly hasn't been part of the ecological carbon cycle for hundreds of millions of years - and there's not really any natural process to return that carbon to the rock at anything remotely like the rate at which we're releasing it* - which means the total amount of carbon in the ecosystem is increasing. And since carbon isn't the limiting factor on the amount of biomass on the planet, that pretty much means that the atmosphere and oceans have to absorb all that extra CO2 - there's nowhere else for it to go.

      * You may ask, so then how did all that fossil fuel build up in the first place? The answer is varied, but for coal there was a period of ~60 million years (the Carboniferous Period, 359-299mya) during which plants had evolved cellulose to give them rigidity, but nothing had yet evolved a way to digest it. So you have 60 million years of the carbon rich cell-walls of plants building up and compacting instead of rotting away and being recycled - add another 300 million years of slow chemical and biological degradation underground and coal is what's left.

      As it happened that process dramatically reversed a slow but implacable greenhouse effect caused by the gradual decay of carbon-bearing rocks - the same basic process that made Venus what it is today. Without those 60 million years worth of rapid global carbon sequestration it is questionable whether complex life would still be able to survive on this planet. You'll excuse me for not wanting to find out what happens if we bring it all back.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    39. Re:Doesn't matter by cusco · · Score: 1

      Land clearing? Where? Every renewable energy installation that I have ever seen except hydro has been sited in already open land. Even in northern Michigan the wind farms are located on existing farmland, the farmers just plow around the foundation of the thing and continue on their merry way. The best sites are areas that are already bare because of local weather and other environmental conditions, and you will probably be shocked to find that those are the primary places that they are located.

      You really think that it's better for a Third World country to have to buy coal from the US or Australia until the end of time, rather than have a power source that will need no imports for the next two decades? You don't work for the World Bank or IMF by chance, do you?

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    40. Re:Doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Strawman. Ignoring the fact that solar and marine power sources can (or at least will be able to) produce the kinds of energy you're talking about, the difficulties in moving to unclear power do not in any way discredit the evidence for climate change.

      I'm pro-nuclear, personally, and the anti-nuclear culture frustrates the hell out of me, but I don't use one party's idiocy as justification for my own.

    41. Re:Doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's obvious to everyone but you that he doesn't think so. It's a joke.

    42. Re:Doesn't matter by Maritz · · Score: 1

      You do realise that coking coal is used in smelters to make all the steel to build these worthless contraptions? And the cement foundations for the wind turbines; cement is made from heating limestone & shale, releasing vast amounts CO2. You then have all the steel needed to prop up the solar panels, also made by burning coal. It all adds up, you know.

      Oh no. How often do they have to make each windmill?

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    43. Re:Doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have always cared about ACTUAL environmentalism, not this global warming alarmist claptrap by watermelon greenies. It's sad how real environmentalism has been thrown under the bus for the sake of a few iconic baubles to satisfy the new eco-puritans who don't even realise the damage they support.

      Thank you for this. Your opinion on this can be safely disregarded, as you are an obvious one-eyed ideologue whose position on this matter is completely independent of evidence. I prefer to read the opinions of people who are capable of nuanced thought.

    44. Re:Doesn't matter by blackanvil · · Score: 1

      Yep, you need some sort of carbon source to reduce iron ore down to iron, specifically something that will produce carbon monoxide, and it has to be at an elevated temperature or the iron won't reduce. There's no reason, however, why you have to use coal. Charcoal works, and I've done short-stack refining using just magnetite sand, charcoal, and a bit of glass as flux. Substantial amounts iron in India is reduced from ore via natural gas if Wikipedia is to be believed on this subject. On the more exotic and theoretical side, my research on possible refining methods that might work on Mars shows that even carbon dioxide can be cracked down to carbon monoxide using standard catalysts and sunlight, no burning of anything required, and just heat to reduce the iron in the presence of CO.

  2. Prayer, right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Either the answer is prayer, and so what are all those pages for?

    Or the answer is not prayer, and what is the Pope for?

  3. Obvious Denier Humor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh well if the Catholic Church says it's real then it *must* be real.

  4. can't wait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    to not give a fuck.

  5. Re:Good for him by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This Pope is the best one we've had in MANY years! He seems genuinely concerned for the average person, and seems to apply the standards Jesus used, which is precisely what a pope should do!

    May God bless him!

    And may people who stubbornly believe it's OK to screw up the environment be sent to a very warm place, where there won't be any climate change, ever.

  6. Re:Good for him by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As the Pope speaks for Roman Catholics I think you can go fuck yourself.

  7. Yeah, Cornwall can suck the corn out of my by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "which has declared the US environmental movement to be "un-biblical" and a false religion." - We can safely ignore crackpot non-science bullshit like that as consumers of good science, thanks.

  8. "environmental radicalism"?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Acknowledging the scientific consensus is "environmental radicalism" now? Let's face it, the deniers are the ones engaging in radicalism.

  9. Environmental radicalism? by Jeremi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apparently listening to the world's scientists and acknowledging reality is now a "radical position".

    Pretending that all is well with the climate, and that our only problem is that our entire scientific community is delusional, OTOH -- that's the reasonable and moderate position.

    --


    I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    1. Re:Environmental radicalism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apparently listening to the world's scientists and acknowledging reality is now a "radical position".

      Pretending that all is well with the climate, and that our only problem is that our entire scientific community is delusional, OTOH -- that's the reasonable and moderate position.

      What do you expect from the /. crowd ?
      Climate deniers + religion haters on the same site is a recipe for disaster. Just witness the comments. At least on Ars Technica they keep it on a civil level.
      Reading /. comments is slightly better than reading The Guardian's religious articles with all the hatred that seeps throught the comments.

    2. Re:Environmental radicalism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      to call something 'radical' you really kind of have to a have a fringe position.

      not just any position you disagree with

      agreeing with the broad consensus may turn out to be wrong, but hardly 'radical'

    3. Re:Environmental radicalism? by meglon · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm just going to come out and say it: you're a fucking idiot. That huge amount of scientists (i'd love a list of them, by the way) ends up being a handful of actual scientists in remotely connected fields who get a large portion of their income from oil companies; some scientists in completely non-related fields...also many of whom get money from oil companies; and then a bunch of idiots like you who have your head up your ass who are nothing more than whining, simpering idiots that are too damn stupid to even know what science is.

      The problem is too many stupid idiots who want to remain as stupid as fucking possible, but then think their ignorant, full of shit opinion means something. Go out and be as stupid as you want to be... but don't expect anyone to think anything more of you than that you're a fucking idiot.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    4. Re:Environmental radicalism? by doug141 · · Score: 4, Informative

      scientists ... who get a large portion of their income from oil companies

      Any doubters should google about Clair Patterson, and failed attempts to bribe him to keep the public in the dark about environmental lead. He saved IQ points for all of us.

    5. Re: Environmental radicalism? by luisdom · · Score: 1

      It's like the catholic church position on evolution. I was raised in a catholic and priests-run school, and I was taught evolution as a fact. 20+ years ago. It's only in the US (and maybe some radical muslim countries) that the schools teach some mumbo jumbo about the human race being created with a magic wand or something.
      Denying commonly accepted, scientifically proven positions makes you appear purposefully ignorant or just retarded.

    6. Re:Environmental radicalism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All?
      97% isn't -all-.

    7. Re:Environmental radicalism? by RyoShin · · Score: 1

      The recent run of Cosmos (with Neil deGrasse Tyson) has the episode The Clean Room which is mostly about figuring out the age of the Earth, but also spends some time discussing Clair Patterson (by way of his ultra cleanroom) and his battle against oil companies.

      Corporate coverups are not a new thing, and yet people continue to give companies and company-funded studies the benefit of the doubt despite what history teaches us.

    8. Re:Environmental radicalism? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >Except that huge numbers of scientists disagree and the existence of global warming (or is it cooling now, I forget) is far from settled.

      Who?

      Also, I agree that the naming needs some work. But environmental destruction, while most appropriate, was taken.

      When soot particles get into the air, they can block out sunlight so indeed it can get cooler for a while. The point is that nature is a dynamic system and if you mess with the equilibrium too much, you leave it. And we are (note: not just will be) leaving it.

    9. Re:Environmental radicalism? by Neil+Boekend · · Score: 1

      I don't care that is not radical. I care that he wrote it. I care that such an influential man takes the same stance as I do. I care that he influences hundreds of millions and that he pushes them in the right direction on this issue.
      I care that this might actually help.

      --
      Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
  10. Can't God just wave his magic wand ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Can't God just wave his magic wand and make global warming go away?

    1. Re:Can't God just wave his magic wand ? by sumdumass · · Score: 1

      Don't you read the bible? He just speaks things into existence and alters things with his will alone. No magic wand needed. Jesus sometimes had to touch people.

      On the other hand, have you ever thought that global warming is the will of God and the hypothetical wand waving has already happened?

    2. Re:Can't God just wave his magic wand ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For the same reason your mother stopped cleaning your room for you.

  11. Re:Agreed. by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Informative

    You liked the Popes that hushed up rampant pedophilia and hobnobbing with the powerful and rich?

    What ever floats your ark.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  12. Re:Agreed. by belthize · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ha, haha, hahahaha.

    Well this atheist wishes you both irrelevance, though if he's going to be relevant I'd prefer his brand.

    On a side note why is it whenever I read posts like the above, when I click on them, I can be absolutely certain the poster is none other than Mr AC.

  13. The times, they are a'changin' by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As an atheist, I have to say that I respect this Pope for trying to drag the church, with many kicking and screaming, into the 21st century.

    And not just the church - look what he did to help the US and Cuba. A year ago that wasn't even on the radar.

    I wonder what else he has up his sleeve.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    1. Re:The times, they are a'changin' by gargleblast · · Score: 2

      Dogs and cats, living together. Jedis and Sith. Scientologists and psychiatrists!

    2. Re:The times, they are a'changin' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As an atheist, no one who cares about the Pope's opinion gives a shit about yours.

    3. Re:The times, they are a'changin' by Baussian · · Score: 4, Insightful

      As an atheist, no one who cares about the Pope's opinion gives a shit about yours.

      Speak for yourself. As an atheist, I do care about any help we can get to combat the growing ignorance. I much rather have a religious community who's believes align with scientific findings than one which goes against it for whatever reason.

    4. Re:The times, they are a'changin' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "As an atheist"

      LMFTFY:

      As a fucking moron, ... TLDR

    5. Re:The times, they are a'changin' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So anyone who prefers evidence over hearsay when forming an opinion is a 'fucking moron', then? Got it.

    6. Re:The times, they are a'changin' by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      I wonder what else he has up his sleeve.

      Sadly, it doesn't include treating women like humans. He still believes they're inferior. I don't take him seriously on the subject of the poor, either; the vatican is still sitting on too much wealth. But seeing the pope agree with current science is a refreshing breath of fresh air. The vatican must surely have investments in companies whose management are not glad to hear this lot from the pope.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    7. Re:The times, they are a'changin' by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      He's pushing to clean up the financial dealing going on in the Vatican - the same sort of crap that got John Paul 1 killed (Banco Ambrosia, etc.) I'd give him time. If he had come out with everything he's already done before he was elected, he would never have been elected.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  14. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

    And here you have it folks, straight from the front lines of Slashdot. Millions of dollars and countless hours spent on the subject and the answer is only three lines long. mfearby, I salute you!

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  15. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Climate change is a non-issue" Yeah those sea levels are being driven upwards because of the BIBLE, you fucking actual idiot lol.

  16. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Pope has been relevant for centuries and continues to be relevant to a billion people. People that do not know any better, at least now know that Catholic Church agrees that continuing pollution in face of evidence is immoral.

    The only irrelevance here is your ego - you are on the wrong side of history and science.

  17. Re:Good news! We did it! by ledow · · Score: 4, Insightful

    -1 Downvote for quoting the Daily Mail on anything.

  18. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by Jawnn · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The leader of one very large religion joining forces with the very large religion of MMGW.

    All MMGW religion is "settled science" with no need for the denying heretics to be heard

    Facts be damned! - we "believe" in MMGW!

    Belief has nothing to do with it. Belief implies taking something on faith, even in the absence of facts. The facts supporting the theory of MMGW are quite clear. Reason, not faith, dictates that this theory be given greater weight that those being put forth by those who benefit from ignoring the problem. I suspect that the Pope's message will be that, as the Xtian god has charged humanity with being stewards of their world, a carefully reasoned course of action is called for.

  19. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by belthize · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I *believe* you have that backwards. The evidence supports MMGW, you *believe* that to be a myth. If you have any facts by all means share them. I suspect what you have are some number of people whose specialty is not climatology saying they don't believe in MMGW.

  20. Re:Agreed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    "his ridiculus support for evolution"

    Um, every pope for eighty years has supported evolution. The catholic church has been officially supportive of evolution since the 1950 encyclical.

  21. Re:Good for him by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    This Catholic will tell him to get bent. The contents of an encyclical are not considered infallable.

    So accept the science instead doofus. Why are you here, anyways?

  22. Cornwall Alliance? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 5, Informative

    I know of them! I've been annoyed reading of them before. It's a conservative organisation that is defined as the exact opposite of the environmental movement. It is their belief that natural resources were created by God, for Man - and thus it is not only mankind's right to exploit them, but a divine duty to do so. They also reject the possibility of climate change on the grounds that God wouldn't create a world so fragile that humans could break it*, and regard the free market as the solution to pretty much everything. Their approach is that no-one would willingly damage land they personally own, so if all land is in private hands then it will be safe from environmental destruction.

    Their main rhetorical device is to frame things as helping the poor. For example, on climate change, they'll point out that emisions reductions have a considerable economic cost, especially in developing countries - cheap energy is the great driver of economic growth and advancement. Therefore emissions reductions efforts frustrate the growth that would otherwise lift people and whole countries out of poverty. Throw in a picture of some starving children in Africa, and it turns into a story about how stupid liberals are killing children by denying them access to the wealth of oil and industrial agriculture. It's effective because it's arguably true to some extent - and it would be a perfectly valid argument, if they weren't ruling out any possibility of climate change causing far worse problems on grounds, not of scientific reasoning, but of theology: God wouldn't let that happen.

    *According to their own website: "As the product of infinitely wise design, omnipotent creation, and faithful sustaining (Genesis 1:1–31; 8:21–22), Earth is robust, resilient, self-regulating, and self-correcting. Although Earth and its subsystems, including the climate system, are susceptible to some damage by ignorant or malicious human action, God’s wise design and faithful sustaining make these natural systems more likely—as confirmed by widespread scientific observation—to respond in ways that suppress and correct that damage than magnify it catastrophically."

    1. Re:Cornwall Alliance? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not disagreeing. It seemed appropriate to check what my go-to version of the Bible had for those verses from Genesis.

      *snip creation story version 1*

      Genesis 1:26-28 (MSG)

      God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them
                      reflecting our nature
              So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
                      the birds in the air, the cattle,
              And, yes, Earth itself,
                      and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.
      "
              God created human beings;
                      he created them godlike,
              Reflecting God's nature.
                      He created them male and female.
              God blessed them:
                      "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
              Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
                      for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth."

      I've never understood how right-wing groups interpret this even in NIV or KJV to mean DRILL BABY DRILL!

      Genesis 8:20-22 (MSG) (8:20 and 8:21 are kind of combined in this version):

      Noah built an altar to God. He selected clean animals and birds from every species and offered them as burnt offerings on the altar. God smelled the sweet fragrance and thought to himself, "Iâ(TM)ll never again curse the ground because of people. I know they have this bent toward evil from an early age, but Iâ(TM)ll never again kill off everything living as Iâ(TM)ve just done.

      For as long as Earth lasts,
                      planting and harvest, cold and heat,
              Summer and winter, day and night
                      will never stop."

      Well, ok, so God's promised never to kill off everything living again. It doesn't say that man wouldn't.

      And, like everything else in a large collection of mythology, I wouldn't recommend going full pedant lawyer and attempting to reconcile that story with other stories that include visions of the end of the world.

    2. Re:Cornwall Alliance? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They also reject the possibility of climate change on the grounds that God wouldn't create a world so fragile that humans could break it*"

      The world is not at risk. It will continue as a lump of matter floating in space. The problem is that the ecosystem that we depend on for out survival is being trashed.

    3. Re:Cornwall Alliance? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Eh, we're all just ants in an ant farm and when we ruin this world and kill ourselves, he/she/it ... will just start again with a new experiment.

    4. Re:Cornwall Alliance? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe God is testing them to see if they'll do things that break his deliberately fragile environment. Any reasonably intelligent animal knows not to pee where they eat.

  23. Re:Agreed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    On a side note why is it whenever I read posts like the above, when I click on them, I can be absolutely certain the poster is none other than Mr AC.

    I think it's because it's harder to troll when people can just block your username.

  24. Re:Agreed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Idiot. Pope Frank doesn't represent you. He represent GOD. You think Catholicism is a democracy?

  25. As someone brought up in a Catholic family... by DiamondGeezer · · Score: 1, Insightful

    ...and is an atheist of long standing, what Pope Francis has tried to do has only revealed how morally bankrupt the RC church really is that it spends time and effort trying to embrace science, even when that science is disputed by scientists, because its a "moral imperative". We've already heard from some preposterous stuff from deep-green environmentalists (aka back to the wonderful Stone Age world of peace with Mother Earth) that AGW is a moral imperative, and sure enough, religious people are trying to join as well.

    I am old enough to mistrust any politician or religionist who talks about anything as a "moral imperative" because it usually implies mob justice and the crushing of civil liberties. Look at the history of the World. Look at ISIS right now whose highest priority is the moral imperative of submission to Islam. Tell me I'm wrong.

    Personally I think that the Pope should spend his time cleaning out the stables before inviting people to see his horses. He could start by rescinding the preposterous policies on contraception created by Pope Paul VI in the 1960s, toning down the opposition to abortion to a rational policy, and letting priests marry and letting divorced people remarry. Because the stench of hypocricy and unjust policies is much stronger than the Vatican's entire supply of incense to conceal.

    But what do I know? I'm just a poster on Slashdot.

    --
    Tubby or not tubby. Fat is the question
    1. Re:As someone brought up in a Catholic family... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only in that Islam is submission to God. Strangely enough, the same God that Jews and Christians also believe in, but only they do it the right way.

    2. Re:As someone brought up in a Catholic family... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      only they do it the right way.

      I'm sure Mormons beg to differ.

    3. Re:As someone brought up in a Catholic family... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Angry Old Men.

    4. Re:As someone brought up in a Catholic family... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Communism in some form is the future, denying it is to deny what you can see evolving before you. I'm not saying Marxism is what it will be, but capitalism is on the way out and it only takes a little research on the subject to see that. Really if you are a somewhat decent nerd you would know this too.

    5. Re:As someone brought up in a Catholic family... by DiamondGeezer · · Score: 1

      Ooh look! An AC!

      --
      Tubby or not tubby. Fat is the question
    6. Re:As someone brought up in a Catholic family... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > that it spends time and effort trying to embrace science, even when that science is disputed by scientists [...]

      Wow. Just -- wow.

    7. Re:As someone brought up in a Catholic family... by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      I've read the Humanae Vitae. Recinding it would be problematic, because it's main justification* is purely theological. The church cannot simply declare it made a mistake on theology - even though it isn't issued using the rarely-invoked papal infallability, it's still supposed to be guided by God and so really shouldn't be wrong on such a matter. The Pope could do it, of course - but it would cause some serious chaos in church politics, and may even lead to some of the more conservative individual churches rejecting central authority and breaking off.

      * There are some secular reasons further down towards the end, but they are only offered in support of the primary justification. Some are quite amusing. It argues that contraception destroys the rights of women, because it will cause men to see them as nothing but sex objects.

    8. Re:As someone brought up in a Catholic family... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      We've already heard from some preposterous stuff from deep-green environmentalists (aka back to the wonderful Stone Age world of peace with Mother Earth) that AGW is a moral imperative, and sure enough, religious people are trying to join as well.

      Straw man. The Pope and the mainstream environmental movements are not arguing for that, so using it to criticise him is not a valid argument.

      I am old enough to mistrust any politician or religionist who talks about anything as a "moral imperative" because it usually implies mob justice and the crushing of civil liberties. Look at the history of the World. Look at ISIS right now whose highest priority is the moral imperative of submission to Islam. Tell me I'm wrong.

      Wow, you really like these straw men, huh. When I think of moral imperatives, I think of things like equal rights for black people and the end of slavery, equality for homosexuals, not polluting the world or hunting species into extinction, that sort of thing. ISIS isn't really representative of the Pope's views or what he means by "moral imperative", so I'm happy to say you are wrong.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    9. Re:As someone brought up in a Catholic family... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because you no jack shit about catholicim. Preists won't marry, abortion and contraception are sin. This will never change.

    10. Re:As someone brought up in a Catholic family... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wrong? No-no, you're totally right. The pope is a stableboy who's trying to incite terrorism by spreading that dubious message, 'More carbon is getting burned, and the Earth is getting hotter'.

      It has everything to do with religious fanatics decapitating journalists.

      I wonder why anyone ever talked about these two things separately?

    11. Re:As someone brought up in a Catholic family... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are hilariously wrong.

      Probably one step away from "Obama is a reptilian!!1!" crazy.

    12. Re:As someone brought up in a Catholic family... by ultranova · · Score: 1

      Francis is a communist. Lashing his religion to the religion of AGW, complete with social justice wealth redistribution as the solution, comes as no surprise.

      Christianity was always about wealth distribution. Apart from the Bible outright commanding debts be forgiven and land ownership, along with all other forms of wealth accumulation, reset once half-century or so, Jesus' message was all about a Kingdom where the high are brought down from their thrones and the lowly risen. Which is why the powerful killed him.

      Try to remove the demand for social justice from Christianity and you only have a shell of a religion left. Not that that stops people from trying, of course.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    13. Re:As someone brought up in a Catholic family... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think you misspelled 'socialism', ie the welfare state.

    14. Re:As someone brought up in a Catholic family... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ooh look! An AC!

      I am sure your real name is DiamondGeezer.

  26. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The temperature has NOT risen since 1998. Fact.

    That "fact" hasn't been true for years. Cherry picking 1998 worked for a while, because it was an unusual year, but not keeping up and picking a new cherry makes you look stupid. 2005 and 2010 were both warmer than 1998 and if you bother to look a the data, you'll see the upward trend is clear.

    Climate change might be a non-issue, but ignoring the facts doesn't help make that decision. Is there a reason you want to stick to a false fact so hard? A lot of conservatives seem to think the only solution to climate change is communism, so they resist the facts at all costs. This is silly. The free market is the best way to solve this problem. We just need to figure out where there are externalized costs and fix that. We need conservatives to get on board and help make the right choices instead of covering their ears and saying "No, no, no, no, no no!"

  27. Call his boss by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why doesn't he just call his boss and have him fix it?

    1. Re:Call his boss by burni2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Adam & Eve - the executive version:

      His boss, kicked "us" out of the executive lounge - where we had free finger food and funny games* all day - and there was nothing else to do, than to praise him and follow his rules - not to eat the apple from the special tree (tree of awareness).

      We voilated his only rule and became aware due to eating the apple from the tree of awareness.

      God realized that now at least four entities (god, adam, eve, satan a.k.a Snake Plisken) with awareness existed.

      And so he said when people are aware of theirselves they don't need a caring god, they can live on their own with *any help* from daddy.

      This is why HE/God/His boss can't/won't fix it. Because our sin is awareness so mankind is fully responsible for it's own actions

      And as we are responsible for our actions, we should try to act accordingly.

      And not hope, that the CO2 content conserved over hundreds of millions of years excavated and reintroduced into the atmosphere over a term of ~150yrs. will have really no effect on the climate.

      *(adam & eve games)

      *(in the start at some point in time god went arsonist on some olive trees)

    2. Re:Call his boss by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because our sin is awareness so mankind is fully responsible for it's own actions

      Not that I care that much but I think that is actually ass-about wrong. Humans were supposed to be created with free will, otherwise we couldn't choose to sin in the first place. If I remember my Catholic catechism from 1st grade correctly. Genesis always had us as fully responsible for our actions. Eating of the Tree of Knowledge wasn't about becoming human, or so said the snake, it was about trying to become as *Gods*.

    3. Re:Call his boss by burni2 · · Score: 1

      But, ask yourself what does it mean in becoming like "gods", you don't follow rules, you make rules, and thus are fully responsible for your own actions.

    4. Re:Call his boss by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How can adam and eve be held accountable for eating the apple when they had no awareness and god could have stopped them?

  28. Beisners evangelical Christians views by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    must be the source of great amusement to the remaining 300+ million Americans. 21th century, and they are still taking the bible as a literally?

    As an atheist, I used to think I knew what the catholic church believed. Then I started chatting with a nun friend and heard Francis's proclamations, and I'm realizing that in all that ways that matter that my nun friend and Francis beliefs aren't that far from mine.

    There is a reason calling somebody a fundie is an insult.

  29. They aren't climate skeptics. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They don't offer facts or actual research to refute that all the polluting done by man has an impact, they simply close their eyes and plug their ears and yell "I'm not listening to you!" "Global Wobbling", "It's cold out!", "Scientists just want to keep their grants!" over and over again.

    That's not skepticism, that's what they're told to parrot when they get up off their knees praying in front of the energy lobbies. The fact that a fair amount of the country is dumb enough to buy it doesn't make them skeptics either.

  30. Awesome by Tetetrasaurus · · Score: 1

    All the "conservative" Catholic AGW deniers are apoplectic right now. Just watch, you'll hear something along the lines of "Francis is a radical commie sympathizer!" especially after their involvement in helping normalize relations with Cuba.

    1. Re:Awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Much of Christ's life was closer communism than to capitalism. Remember the loaves and fishes story? He didn't charge people for food. He didn't charge people to listen to him speak, he didn't charge people to cure them. Blessed are the poor of this world, for they shall inherit the kingdom of God...gee, Francis must be a communist!

      We are supposed to share with our fellow man, not have the rich trickle down money to them.

      We also aren't supposed to kill others, but turn the other cheek...but that doesn't have anything to do with capitalism or communism.

      All that said, I rarely go to church, so I'll probably go to hell anyway, but I do cheer on this pope!

    2. Re:Awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, he's a Communist because he was a member of the Communist Party. He is politically a socialist, and steps out of his religious shoes into political pontificating way too often for a modern Pope.

      I do not like it when the head of a major world religion starts taking sides in anything except religion. The days of requiring the Pope's approval for your leaders was not that long ago, and I think we all agree we don't want to return to them.

    3. Re:Awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really? You clearly don't have a fucking clue what communism is.

      Did Christ command a police unit to force people to give people their fish? Because that's what communism is.

      Privately giving food and distributing it to whomever you want is CAPITALISM. Sharing.. is not something you can be forced to do. Sharing is capitalism. Forcing someone to "share" is actually called... wait for it... theft.

  31. Who cares? by AndyKron · · Score: 1

    Who the fuck cares what the pope says?

    1. Re:Who cares? by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      Catholics usually care.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    2. Re:Who cares? by Neil+Boekend · · Score: 1

      Hundreds of million people care. This might push a lot of them in the right direction and that may be enough to prevent the worst of what's coming for us.
      It gives me hope.

      --
      Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
  32. Re:Agreed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    While I admire many of Francis actions, he was not the first Pope to respect evolution. That honor goes to Pius XII, which is surprising considering most Popes named Pius were complete bastards who should not have been allowed to live much less given any authority. The Vatican accepts both "God made Man with magic" and "God used evolution to create Man" as valid possibilities. They do not say it was evolution, just that God can use whatever tool he damn well pleases because he's God for fucks sake.

    Good job on being more conservative than the Vatican of half a century ago. It takes a lot of brain-damage to accomplish that feat.

  33. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Ah, that old it-hasn't-warmed-since-1998 argument. Here you go:
    https://www.skepticalscience.com/global-warming-stopped-in-1998.htm

    (I would have made the link actually link, but /. really ought to catch up and do that automatic as well as have a red envelope to see replies in the meantime. Hell, it doesn't even work on iOS devices when not logged in, can't changed what comment levels to see, it was better 15 years ago. What an antiquated site. My new year's resolution is to dump it for r/science and r/technology.)

  34. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by blue9steel · · Score: 2

    That depends on what data you're looking at and how you slice it. For the moment, let us suppose that your conclusion is correct and that global temperatures are indeed not rising. That leads to one of two conclusions: 1) The original theory was wrong, CO2 doesn't trap additional solar energy despite the fact that it does so in all laboratory testing or 2) The extra energy is going somewhere else since the climate is a complex system, for example it could be dumping all the heat into the ocean where we don't have a lot of monitoring equipment. Given the rising trend of extreme weather events, melting of the ice caps, extended droughts and other symptoms possibility two seems much more likely.

    The real question isn't whether CO2 emissions are trapping additional energy which can result in a variety of climate changes, it's how long will the changes take, and what's the cost/benefit tradeoff of either dealing with them or attempting to prevent them.

  35. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I assume your statement is intended as a troll. Nuff said.

  36. Extreme climate event: Hell freezes over by Snufu · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Never thought I would see the day when the head of the the Catholic church represents a beacon of scientific rationalism dragging the rest of the first world into the modern era.

    1. Re:Extreme climate event: Hell freezes over by goruka · · Score: 2

      Pope Francis used to work as a Chemical Technologist before becoming a priest. That must have something to do with it.

    2. Re:Extreme climate event: Hell freezes over by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      interesting. btw what's a Chemical Technologist?

      a cook? an analyst for dow chemical? a blogger on bathroom cleaning products? a specialist in crystal spectroscopy?

    3. Re:Extreme climate event: Hell freezes over by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Never thought I would see the day when the head of the the Catholic church represents a beacon of scientific rationalism dragging the rest of the first world into the modern era.

      Actually, Roman Catholics have a history to draw upon and they learn from it.

      1. remember the deal with round earth? yeah, the church was opposed to it despite scientific evidence
      2. remember the deal with earth-centered universe? yeah, the church was for it, despite scientific evidence (brought from within the church's scientific community!)

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...

      Long story short, the church learns that it is best not to try to find an excuse for a scientific explanation. It's best to work with it since it's reality. That's why the church embraces evolution (after all, it's the soul that is the creation of God), it embraces Big Bang theory (or if that changes, whatever else) and it acknowledges that humans are having planet wide impacts on the Earth, and Global Warming is just one of these impacts.

      So deniers, at least learn from the history of Catholic Church, or you'll end up looking as stupid as the Church when it apologized that yes, the Earth does go around the Sun and Galileo was not a heretic.

      An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded.
      --- Pope John Paul II

    4. Re:Extreme climate event: Hell freezes over by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 3, Informative

      Never thought I would see the day when the head of the the Catholic church represents a beacon of scientific rationalism dragging the rest of the first world into the modern era.

      Well, for most of the past 1000 years, the Catholic Church has been a leading force in scientific advancements of knowledge -- numerous scientific discoveries and theories came from priests, monks, and other church affiliates, and the church played a major role in the dissemination of knowledge. It's really only in the past 150 years or so that the church's role in science has significantly decreased. For every Galileo affair (which, though inexcusable, was more about politics and freedom of speech than scientific progress), there are dozens of other examples of significant scientists or ideas coming from Catholic sources.

      (Full disclosure: I'm not a Catholic, but I have done significant research on the history of science. Want more info? Start here.)

      Obviously there are issues where the Catholic Church seems "backward," but -- in contrast with many other conservative religious groups -- it has embraced things like evolution, the Big Bang theory was actually first proposed by a Belgian priest, etc. So while this may be a great announcement from the Pope, it isn't really a significant change from most Catholic roles in science. The idea that somehow the Catholic Church is opposed to science was created by radical revisionist historians in the 19th century. But it's not really accurate.

    5. Re:Extreme climate event: Hell freezes over by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      What you consider 'many' is for others just a drop in the ocean.
      During the times you mention the 'scientific' disciveries of the catholic church is dwarfed by islamic, indian and chineese research and discoveries ...

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    6. Re:Extreme climate event: Hell freezes over by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 2

      What you consider 'many' is for others just a drop in the ocean.

      Really? A list like this is just a "drop in the ocean"? And that's just Catholic clerics who made scientific contributions; it doesn't include other non-ordained folks supported by the church over the centuries. People who founded entire new major ideas in science (Copernicus, Mendel, Mersenne, Roger Bacon, etc., if you include non-clerics, people like Lavoisier, Descartes, Pasteur, etc.) are just a "drop in the ocean"?

      During the times you mention the 'scientific' disciveries of the catholic church is dwarfed by islamic, indian and chineese research and discoveries ...

      The "times [I] mention" were the past 1000 years. It's true that European scientific advances were slower for maybe the first 500 years of that or so, and activity outside Europe was often greater. But the Catholic Church was the "best game in town" for supporting science and production of new research into nature, mathematics, etc. during Europe of that time.

      But you'll also notice many, many scientists (mostly Jesuits) listed in the link above from the past couple centuries too. During the "Age of Discovery" in the 1500s, 1600s, and 1700s, Catholic missionaries were a huge network of people who shared and then distributed new knowledge and findings around the world. There's also a reason why dozens of craters on the moon are named after Jesuit scientists -- who were incredibly active in astronomy for centuries (despite the common myths in the Galileo story about Carholics who supposedly refused to look through telescopes and believe what they saw).

      Look -- even if you believe that all of this is just a "drop in the ocean" of scientific discovery, I wasn't trying to argue that the Catholic Church was solely responsible for scientific discovery -- only that it has not been vehemently anti-science throughout its history, as some people seem to imply.

      You want to know what is really a "drop in the ocean"? Give me a list of scientists who were supposedly actively persecuted by the Catholic Church during its history for their "scientific" findings. You have Galileo and maybe Bruno (if you even count him as a "scientist" -- his ideas were pretty wacky and his "methods" were more of speculative philosophy than anything like "science"). That's two people. Maybe a few other incidents in a thousand years, but somehow that's all most people seem to know about the Catholic Church and science. How does that square with the list of people in my links above? Church persecution and suppression of science is a "drop in the ocean" compared to its consistent support of science over the centuries.

    7. Re:Extreme climate event: Hell freezes over by aBaldrich · · Score: 1

      In Argentina a técnico is a person who went to a specialized highschool and was mostly taught technical with lots of hands-on practice. They study one extra year (total 13 years of schooling instead of 12) and can work in industry right away.

      16-year-olds learining calculus, not easy.

      --
      In soviet russia the government regulates the companies.
    8. Re:Extreme climate event: Hell freezes over by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > numerous scientific discoveries and theories came from priests, monks, and other church affiliates,

      That is correct that many individuals worked on scientific discoveries. In many cases the fact that they belonged to a particular church, or even were part of it, was not relevant.

      > and the church played a major role in the dissemination of knowledge.

      Many churches, especially the catholic, played a major role is the _suppression_ of knowledge.

    9. Re:Extreme climate event: Hell freezes over by orzetto · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Never thought I would see the day when the head of the the Catholic church represents a beacon of scientific rationalism dragging the USA into the modern era.

      Corrected that for you. Except for a few lunatics, no one seriously disputes AGW outside the US.

      --
      Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
    10. Re:Extreme climate event: Hell freezes over by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      dissemination of knowledge

      "containment of knowledge" would fit better

    11. Re:Extreme climate event: Hell freezes over by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Challenge! Just what discoveries did Islam give the world? Ok they acted as curators for a lot Knowledge from other societies but new stuff what exactly did Islam do for us.

      Zero does not count they didn't invent the concept.

    12. Re:Extreme climate event: Hell freezes over by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Yes, the list you linked is a drop in the ocean.
      You linked it before and I read it.

      The prosecution of scientists is irrelevant, no idea why you switch to that topic, I'm not really interested in that and never made an argument abut it.

      The "times [I] mention" were the past 1000 years. And the times [the others] talked about, where the 1000 years before that.

      And I would focus on the time from roughly 500 - 1600 where science by catholic priests is nearly non existing.

      If you look at the list you linked: most names are from 1700 - 1900 ... so before that where not many and meanwhile there are again not many catholic priest scientists.

      AGAIN: But the Catholic Church was the "best game in town" for supporting science and production of new research into nature, mathematics, etc. during Europe of that time. AFTER they had exiled the last jews and muslims from Spain perhaps :D and you still ignore the jewish communities in countries like Netherlands that where more tolerant to other religions.

      But now you added "Europe" ... perhaps you already mentioned that in your previous post and I missed it. My point simply was: foreign cultures have a huge scientific history as well.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    13. Re:Extreme climate event: Hell freezes over by dywolf · · Score: 1

      And really its not even just global warmings.
      Not many folks dispute much of science for religious reasons other than religious folks in the US; those who do are justly looked at as lunatics, rather the opposite of how they get treated in the US.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
  37. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by CWCheese · · Score: 2

    Citation on actual sea levels rising and inundating any place on the globe, please.

    --
    Have a Day!
  38. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by CWCheese · · Score: 1

    Takes a lot of faith to believe in those GCMs that continue to fail to predict warming

    --
    Have a Day!
  39. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Citation provided hereby. Any further requests?

    http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2013/09/06/environment/pacific-islands-fighting-for-survival-as-sea-levels-rise/

  40. Slashdot's refusal to accept climate change... by Skarjak · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...boggles the mind. I mean, this is a tech website, you'd expect people here to be on average more intelligent or at least to have a better scientific culture than the average. And yet, whenever there's an article about climate change, there's always a bunch of morons spouting completely ignorant statements defeated by 10 seconds of googling. Where do all these people come from?

    1. Re:Slashdot's refusal to accept climate change... by Rob+Bos · · Score: 1

      You see the same thing whenever feminism comes up. Another reliable way to bring out the morons is anything like "Hey, guys, rape is bad and people who do it are bad people."

    2. Re:Slashdot's refusal to accept climate change... by iluvcapra · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I mean, this is a tech website,

      Exactly, it's a tech site, not a science site. Techies are usually logically-minded and rationalist but they're also raging dilettantes who assume that they can run any dataset they want through a shell script and make better sense of it than the so-called "experts." They are quick to yell "conspiracy!" and suspicious of anyone with advanced qualifications.

      Techies of the Internet age are also steeped in libertarian ideological and moral values and disdain any sort of consensus or political process, let alone any conversation about morality or values.

      These are people that think they can download any movie or TV show and nobody deserves to be paid for it; these are people that trade PGP keys so they can email each other about their lunch order in perfect secrecy; these are people that assume they know more than their boss because they know how to unblock port 20 on his laptop. How do you think such people will react if you tell them that driving their car is slowly destroying the planet, and a massive regulatory and social revolution is necessary to stop it?

      --
      Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
    3. Re:Slashdot's refusal to accept climate change... by Pope+Hagbard · · Score: 1

      It's like how engineers, of all the STEM fields, are the most likely to be young-earth creationists.

    4. Re:Slashdot's refusal to accept climate change... by iluvcapra · · Score: 3, Insightful

      A lot of the "Dr." titles that appear on anti-evolution petitions are MDs, the general phenomenon is called the Salem Hypothesis.

      --
      Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
    5. Re:Slashdot's refusal to accept climate change... by iluvcapra · · Score: 2

      QED

      --
      Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
    6. Re:Slashdot's refusal to accept climate change... by pitchpipe · · Score: 1

      You see the same thing whenever feminism comes up. Another reliable way to bring out the morons is anything like "Hey, guys, rape is bad and people who do it are bad people."

      If you equate rape with the few marginal forms of gender discrimination that still exist, you are part of the problem.

      QED

      OMG! HAHA! That's some funny shit right there. That's why I keep coming here, exchanges like that.

      --
      Look where all this talking got us, baby.
    7. Re:Slashdot's refusal to accept climate change... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Most of the smarter posters left a long time ago, a result of increasing radicalization in the userbase here. It's a self-sustaining cycle, because the more they derp, the more the rational people leave, and only stronger derp remains.

      So we're left with the most spergy elements of nerddom, people who got lucky because they were raised in white middle class households who could afford to buy computers when the computer revolution was taking off. They make an extremely good living with relatively no training, and they mistake this good fortune for their own towering intelligence. They honestly think that they are the smartest people on the planet because they're good at computers, and have no clue that this doesn't translate into other fields as well. So when scientists discover that our lifestyle of living in excess and mass consumption is literally destroying the planet and that we may need to change, they freak out and convince themselves that they are smarter than all of the worlds top climate scientists combined. I mean after all, they learned Perl in a day, so how hard can climate science be?

      It's frankly amazing to see how delusional some otherwise smart people can be when they think that their expertise can carry over into another field with no training or education. Slashdot is a prime example.

    8. Re:Slashdot's refusal to accept climate change... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ITT Tech

    9. Re:Slashdot's refusal to accept climate change... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, I'm an atheist, so I am not interested in your religion.

    10. Re:Slashdot's refusal to accept climate change... by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      That's some funny shit right there.

      Funny indeed: you refused even to condemn rape and rapists. You insist on finding excuses to do otherwise.

      Let's try again: rape is bad, mmmmkay? And if you rape people you'll be bad, mmmmkay?

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    11. Re:Slashdot's refusal to accept climate change... by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      There is evidence that the more a normal person knows about the science the more they accept that AGW is real, but the more a RWA personality knows about the science the more they deny AGW.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    12. Re:Slashdot's refusal to accept climate change... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fascistic interloping posers hoping to gank an idea which grants them the glory and riches they're confident they deserve and merit?

    13. Re:Slashdot's refusal to accept climate change... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's like how engineers, of all the STEM fields, are the most likely to be young-earth creationists.

      I swapped from an engineering degree back to mathematical sciences. There was a definite difference between engineering students and maths/physics/comp sci students. While engineering students were often harder working and smarter on test scores (great work ethic, big workloads), they also (arguably) seemed more rigid and conservative. They drank more beer, liked more football and yet dated less girls. They were ambitious but less diverse. It doesn't surprise me that there would be more tight-ass creationists in engineering.

    14. Re:Slashdot's refusal to accept climate change... by sydbarrett74 · · Score: 1

      They're probably Koch Industries sock-puppets. :/

      --
      'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
    15. Re:Slashdot's refusal to accept climate change... by Skarjak · · Score: 1

      Damn. It would be great to find a website like old slashdot. :/ Haven't found any alternative myself. We need to establish a series of "cascading" nerdy news websites, where the moment one gets popular enough to feel the effects of the eternal september, it is shut down and a new one is started.

      As of the time of this post, my comment above is +5 insigthful. I'm almost further disappointed in slashdot. As I was posting it, I was thinking "it needs to be said..." but to be honest, this is as flamebaity as it gets.

      Your explanation is similar to that of another person above and makes a lot of sense to me. I'm coming from the science end of things myself, but have always been interested in tech. I was thinking the tech people would all have great scientific culture as well. I guess I was wrong.

    16. Re:Slashdot's refusal to accept climate change... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hacking code is not science.

    17. Re:Slashdot's refusal to accept climate change... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where do all these people come from?

      America.

  41. About time by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Someone has to look out for the Christians of the world.

    Hint: Jesus was against Pharisees and Money Lenders. If you think he said for you to get rich and destroy the world, you're reading the wrong bible.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re:About time by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Hint: Jesus was against Pharisees

      Do you know why he was against them? Hint: it wasn't because of money. He didn't hate rich people.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    2. Re:About time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, he hated what money did to the 99.9 percent of rich people. It's called corruption. Probably familiar to you if the only reaction you had is to say " He didn't hate rich people."

    3. Re:About time by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      No, he hated what money did to the 99.9 percent of rich people. It's called corruption.

      Corruption is the natural state of man. Christ came as much to save you as he did to save rich people.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    4. Re:About time by wisnoskij · · Score: 2

      Lends at interest, and takes profit; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself. - Ezekiel 18:13

      --
      Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    5. Re:About time by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      Is that what Jesus said?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    6. Re:About time by wisnoskij · · Score: 0

      Most of these passages do not really seem too clear on who is speaking. The Author of the book? Jesus? God? I am not sure who it is supposed to be.

      --
      Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    7. Re:About time by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      I am not sure who it is supposed to be.

      I can tell you don't know.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    8. Re:About time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      He did not, but worth noting:

      "Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
      Matthew 19:21 (NIV)

      "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."
      Matthew 19:24 (NIV). If you're adamantly against this translation version, for whatever reason, it translates similarly in all the other standard versions.

      I admit these quotes are possibly borderline non-sequitur, but the point I'm trying to make is there is that Jesus, according to the bible, at minimum indicates being rich making it more difficult to be following the correct spiritual path. This largely contradicts the ideals espoused by many highly vocal Christians, especially those involved in politics.

    9. Re:About time by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      If you're adamantly against this translation version, for whatever reason, it translates similarly in all the other standard versions.

      What?? I only accept the original Greek. Jerome's Latin Vulgate is an acceptable substitute in a pinch.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    10. Re:About time by dunkelfalke · · Score: 1

      Mostly because they were the precursors of modern rabbis. Compared to the very conservative and aristocratic sadducees, who tended to take torah literally, pharisees often originally were working class people who have become who they were due to their intelligence and determinations. They were much more flexible in torah interpretation and difficult to argue with.

      This is why the bible has such a bitter "take that" against them - it was far too difficult to argue with them in person so the authors had to resort to this kind of straw man arguments.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    11. Re:About time by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      What was that thing he said about camels and needles?

    12. Re:About time by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      I guess our parent never heard about the old and new testament ... and has no clue when both are 'written' or when supposedly Jesus has lived.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    13. Re:About time by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      He said: it is more likely that a _fully_ packed camel passes through a (actually _the_) needle ear than that a rich man accents into heaven.

      To understand that, you have to know that one of the city gates in Jerusalem was called 'the needle ear'. A fully packed camel could not pass it (and only one camel in one direction could go through it) so you had to unload a camel partially to get it through the gate.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    14. Re:About time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hint: Jesus was against Pharisees

      Do you know why he was against them? Hint: it wasn't because of money. He didn't hate rich people.

      The only people that ever got him furious with rage were HYPOCRITES. Money + religion often = hypocrisy. That was the whole point of the episode with the moneylenders in the temple. There was also the part about the rich man and the Eye of the Needle. He was saying that wealth would easily corrupt spirituality I think. He also told his followers to give everything they had to the poor (*everything*) and follow Him, and when a rich man couldn't he knew he was damned. He also said to stop worrying about security because God would look after you like "the birds of the air", who I notice still have to work to collect seeds and forage for worms etc.

      All these points place anti-materialism (but not sloth) and extreme generosity at the very center of his teachings and seem utterly lost on the vast majority of Christian religions, who prefer to ignore the inconvenient parts in favor of Crystal Cathedrals and enormous troves of art treasures! No wonder I am cynical.

    15. Re:About time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, he hated what money did to the 99.9 percent of rich people. It's called corruption.

      Corruption is the natural state of man. Christ came as much to save you as he did to save rich people.

      Therefore hording wealth is fine? He said to give it all away to the poor and come follow him.

    16. Re:About time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're adamantly against this translation version, for whatever reason, it translates similarly in all the other standard versions.

      What?? I only accept the original Greek. Jerome's Latin Vulgate is an acceptable substitute in a pinch.

      My Bible must be written in C only. C is God's Own Language. The Python Bible is heresy and the Perl version is unintelligible. The C++ Bible is an abomination before the Lord. Yea, verily, the C++ programmers shall be cast into the eternal pit of fire from whence their foul tongue did arise.

    17. Re:About time by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      I've read that the phrase is difficult to translate. Some have speculated that 'camel' might be 'rope' - similar words in aramaic, so the error could have been introduced when transcribing the sermon into greek. It makes a lot more sense if it was rope.

      If I ever get filthy stinking rich, I'm going to construct the world's largest needle just so I can drive a camel through it.

    18. Re:About time by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      The only people that ever got him furious with rage were HYPOCRITES

      You got it.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    19. Re:About time by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I was kind of disappointed, because I like having interesting conversations about religion.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    20. Re:About time by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Although he said that, he still didn't hate rich people, and it had nothing to do with why he was against the Pharisees. Also, I can't think of any place where he said he was against money lenders, but I could be wrong on that point.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    21. Re:About time by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      If I ever get filthy stinking rich, I'm going to construct the world's largest needle just so I can drive a camel through it.

      lol

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    22. Re:About time by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      That's an interpretation I've never heard anyone put forth. I'm not sure it's supported by the text. Jesus was against the pharisees who were hypocrites.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    23. Re:About time by dunkelfalke · · Score: 1

      That is the thing of it, the description of pharisees in the bible is contrary to all the historical evidence. In judaism, pharisees had the most progressive and honest school of thought and ultimately were responsible for survival of judaism after the Romans threw the Jews out of Israel. For early christianity, judaism was a competitor so of course the description of the last surviving kind of judaism in the bible is slanderous. In reality, the behaviour of Jesus, as described in the bible, would be not that much different from the contemporary pharisees. Like I already said, then-pharisees are now-rabbis.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    24. Re:About time by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      That is the thing of it, the description of pharisees in the bible is contrary to all the historical evidence.

      What historical evidence are you referring to (please tell me it's not Dan Brown)?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    25. Re:About time by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      Plan B involves a very large blender.

    26. Re:About time by dunkelfalke · · Score: 1

      if you are genuinely curious, try this book for starters. It is a bit superficial, but to understand how christianity was born you have to understand the then common sects of judaism and the political realities.

      Or this one for a much more in-depth research on pharisees.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    27. Re:About time by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Your first book there references Josephus, who isn't necessarily any more reliable than the gospels.

      Anyway, Jesus didn't condemn all the pharisees, just the hypocritical ones. And he wasn't any kinder to the Sadducees.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    28. Re:About time by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Well, the needle ear city gate actually does exist ... but the rope thing is interesting, too.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    29. Re:About time by dywolf · · Score: 1

      Obviously you havent met Capitalist Jesus.

      Google that, and you'll get hundreds of results all using one single line to say "Jesus was a capitalist and you should ignore all that other stuff he did".

      Its really quite funny the mental twists they do to justify it all.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
  42. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by belthize · · Score: 1

    There's a huge difference between rationally discussing the solution to a problem and ignoring the existence of a problem. Both result in a solution, one by abdicating the ability to affect the outcome.

    The sooner the world starts having serious political and social debates about what (if anything) should be done we'll be better off. Until then we're stuck with a lot of finger in ear lalalalalalalalalalalalalala'ing the issues.

  43. Allegiance to a foreign power? by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

    So if any US politicians change their tune about global warming because of what the Pope said, does this mean they are allied to a foreign power? Isn't it important to start booting people out of office that would do that?

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    1. Re:Allegiance to a foreign power? by plopez · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If a US politician advocates for Israel does this mean they are allied to a foreign power? If a US politician takes campaign contributions from a multi-national corporation does that mean they are violating the foreign immoluments clause of the US Constitution?

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    2. Re:Allegiance to a foreign power? by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      Only if Israel ordered them to take that position. It's not likely that American citizens have sworn allegiance to Israel.

      But if you've ever been married in a Catholic church, you do swear allegiance to the pope.

      If a US politician takes campaign contributions from a multi-national corporation does that mean they are violating the foreign immoluments clause of the US Constitution?

      Obviously yes.
      They will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    3. Re:Allegiance to a foreign power? by Livius · · Score: 1

      If a US politician advocates for Israel does this mean they are allied to a foreign power?

      Yes.

      If a US politician takes campaign contributions from a multi-national corporation does that mean they are violating the foreign immoluments clause of the US Constitution?

      Yes.

    4. Re:Allegiance to a foreign power? by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      It's not likely that American citizens have sworn allegiance to Israel.

      apart from those serving in the Israeli armed forces, or sitting in the Knesset of course.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    5. Re:Allegiance to a foreign power? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obviously yes.
      They will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

      AKA Never. Or, if the revolution does come, they'll be the ones able to get out to somewhere safe.

  44. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by anonymous_echidna · · Score: 5, Informative

    Kirribati Islands. The water supply is already compromised by sea water, they are in the process of moving the population to Fiji. http://www.nytimes.com/interac...

    --
    In most times, most places, by most people, liars are considered contemptible. - Ursula Le Guin
  45. not by the hair on my feathered dinosaurs chin. by sdinfoserv · · Score: 1

    How utterly and typically ‘republican’ – to only accept those ‘scientific’ facts that happen to help you at that particular moment If the pope were to honestly embrace science including skepticism and scientific method, he would question his place on the planet for the religion he serves as head of. From a US perspective this could be the final straw the causes US Catholicism to break away from the holy catholic church of Rome

  46. Re: The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by Namarrgon · · Score: 2

    The only "data" I see on that site is carefully cherry-picked to suit the domain name. There's no original data, no broad surveys, no methodology for his conclusions, certainly no peer review, and his claims are all easily falsified by looking for oneself at the rest of the data.

    The only reason anyone would trust a site like that to think for them is to carefully avoid contact with genuine studies, in case they contradicted your belief system.

    --
    Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
  47. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by radtea · · Score: 0

    Climate change is a non-issue. The temperature has NOT risen since 1998.

    You've gotta stop using 1998 as the benchmark year.

    We are indeed in a hiatus with respect to the thermodynamically meaningless quantity "global average temperature": http://www.tjradcliffe.com/?p=...

    Anyone who claims that the hiatus is a result of cherry picking is a liar or a fool, but like the trained monkeys they are if you use the year 1998 they will bark "cherry picking" just as surely as Pavlov's dog salivated at the bell.

    Far better to say, "The temperature has not risen in the past decade or so... the precise point you start with doesn't really matter in the 2002-2004 range." This will probably still get you a "Cherry picking!" response because Warmists are stupid, but they have a better chance of looking stupid when they do so.

    Now of course, you also have to admit that any given decade in the past century has reasonable odds of having a temperature profile as flat as the most recent one, so making any very strong inference from the perfectly real, non-cherry-picked hiatus is going to make you look stupid too, but that's what this debate is all about: which side can look the most stupid most of the time?

    --
    Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
  48. climate change = conspiracy theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i'm an atheist who was raised catholic, but this pope is the biggest ass clown ever

    1. Re:climate change = conspiracy theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i'm an atheist who was raised catholic, but this pope is the biggest ass clown ever

      I'm an agnostic who was raised Catholic, I think Francis may be the best Pope ever. Consider the ideals Christ is purported to have espoused through his words and actions. A good Pope must attempt to live up to those ideals and inspire others to do the same. John Paul II scored major points by forgiving the man who shot him, but that was a personal action. I'm hopeful that Francis' calls for Catholics to be more compassionate, generous, and better stewards of Earth will have more far-reaching effect.

  49. what's wrong with this picture by mtrachtenberg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I remain mystified by how such a sane and decent person has risen so high within a large institution.

    1. Re:what's wrong with this picture by burni2 · · Score: 1

      Dawn, don't get your hopes up, he is not a natural born citizen of the U.S. so he can't run for presidency.

      However, it's a nice phantasy, than really change would happen.

    2. Re:what's wrong with this picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dawn, don't get your hopes up, he is not a natural born citizen of the U.S. so he can't run for presidency.

      However, it's a nice phantasy, than really change would happen.

      Considering the last batch of presidents your country has had, Pope Francis not being a natural born citizen of the US is a GOOD THING.

  50. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by sumdumass · · Score: 0

    There's a huge difference between rationally discussing the solution to a problem and ignoring the existence of a problem. Both result in a solution, one by abdicating the ability to affect the outcome.

    Not really as one of the solutions to the problem is to let it ride and deal with the problems as they surface.

    Of course all the solutions so far have been about income redistribution, control and power. Otherwise, concerned countries would actually do research on both the most effective ways to mitigate it and ways to generate and consume energy without releasing carbon.

    The sooner the world starts having serious political and social debates about what (if anything) should be done we'll be better off. Until then we're stuck with a lot of finger in ear lalalalalalalalalalalalalala'ing the issues.

    Finger in the ear is probably the best place to be right now. This is because the political solutions, the alarm itself, is agenda oriented and the agenda is political not about climate change. Hell, even the Kyoto protocol was originally created with this in mind. We recently saw environmental groups declare capitalism has to be done away with and several of the latest climate rallies had an actual communist party sign up tables as well as all sorts of protesters and signs touting communism. But if you really watch the debates on the political cures for Climate Change, you will start seeing a trend where it devolves from the climate to the freedoms people and companies should or should not have.

    Like I said before, if they were concerned with it, we would have international teams working on viable alternatives and processes for energy creation and consumption with less and even no carbon emissions. But instead, it's all about what would make them powerful, rich and famous among other things non climate related.

  51. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by kenai_alpenglow · · Score: 2

    Believe there was a group of folks that occupied the area where the English channel is now. Sea levels rose, and inundated them. Can't find the evidence where they were driving SUVs though...

  52. Re:Agreed. by Livius · · Score: 3, Interesting

    He represent[s] GOD.

    I'm not so sure - he often sounds like a compassionate atheist.

  53. Re:Agreed. by loonycyborg · · Score: 1

    Just do another Great Schism then. The more warring religious factions are around the sooner all people will realize that religions are just childish wishful thinking and abandon them fully.

  54. Re:Agreed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Have you heard of this guy Paul who wrote most of the new testament? He said: "For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."" (Galatians 5:14)

    Some of your neighbors are gay. Paul ordered you to treat *all* your neighbors with love, and so did Jesus. Pope Francis is just following orders. If the Bible is your authority on truth, you should too.

    Conservative Christians/Catholics grossly misunderstand their Biblical history. Compared to the conservative Jewish tradition of his day, Jesus was a FLAMING liberal. Eating with sinners and tax collectors! Breaking the law when it doesn't make sense! Forgiving sinners that were caught red-handed! These are part of why everyone was so pissed off at him: he was too liberal.

    Conservative Christianity has been infected by hatred, judgmentalism, self-righteous pride, and disgusting selfishness. And you, Mr AC, are a fine example of exactly this.

    You seriously need to have a heart-to-heart with your God before it is too late.

  55. Vatican Pope = Jesuit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Vatican = Owned by the Jews

    Pope = Rothschild tool, and Rome has ruled the world for over 2000 years.

    Rothschild Bankers behind man made "climate change" movement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdqNds9pNuI

    Get ready to be taxes for your "carbon footprint" like good little dumb slaves.

    Jesus never existed either.

    Now go back to church like good little slaves and worship the pope who lives in his own golden castle country, and continue donating to the pedophiles collection defense fund every week too.

    1. Re:Vatican Pope = Jesuit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This goes beyond "troll" or "flamebait", goes right to "bigoted hate speech".

  56. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As someone else pointed out, this: http://www.gocomics.com/joelpett/2009/12/13/

  57. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by bunratty · · Score: 2
    --
    What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
  58. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by SillyHamster · · Score: 1
    Belief implies taking something on faith, even in the absence of facts.

    There is no way you can believe a claim to be factual without using belief and faith.

    There is always a chain of trust - a belief that your senses are accurately showing you reality; that scientific observations were documented properly; or that scientific models built off of those observations reflect reality; or even a belief that there is an objective reality at all!

  59. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by thephydes · · Score: 2

    perhaps you need an update of the real science - try this for a start. http://www.skepticalscience.co...

  60. My ancestors slaughtered Catholics... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...for exactly this kind of imperious bullshit.

  61. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by bzipitidoo · · Score: 1

    it seems the only cure offered is to either severely restrict our lifestyles or increase the costs of everything so that it has that same effect

    That is standard denialist fearmongering and propaganda, this thinking that the only cure is lots of sacrifice. It's not true. It's the opposite. It will employ an awful lot of people to do much of the work we can do to address Climate Change. That's a lot of jobs.

    Lots of those things will also make our personal lives better. In general, it's called efficiency. Now flat screens are in nearly every way better than CRTs. Refrigerators became much more efficient in 1996.

    People should get over their predujices about what makes cars pretty, and embrace better aerodynamics. One example is the Aerocivic. As noted on that site, there were bonuses with the improved aerodynamics: the car is quieter, stays cleaner, and is steadier, which makes it safer. Trucks can use vortex generators. One guy I know objected to vortex generators on the grounds that they were ugly. I asked him why was it important whether an already butt ugly truck trailer not have these? Surely not for the sake of beauty?

    Then there are roads. Who could possibly object to smarter traffic lights? Everyone who has ever driven much has had the experience of being stuck at a red light for nothing, because currently the devices are not capable of sensing traffic soon enough to be proactive. They are essentially mindless with no ability to learn traffic patterns and adjust their timing.

    --
    Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
  62. Two Fucking Paragraphs of Explanation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Absolutely. When you don't like the solution, it means the problem wasn't real anyway.

    The facts involved in global warming are actually easily verified. You can do so in your basement if you like. All you need to do is to prove that CO2 absorbs IR energy of a certain spectrum. Then you will be able to calculate the temperature change for a doubling of CO2, as a straightforward result of the Stefan-Boltzmann Law. You can even test that if you like, with the same equipment. Coming up with a good estimate of global atmospheric carbon levels might be a little tricky, but probably doable. Verifying that there is a vacuum outside of Earth's atmosphere is hopefully not a big point of contention, because that one would be really challenging. You would probably have a hard time measuring incoming solar irradiance very precisely, but you might be able to rule out large changes in it. You would be able to test fairly easily that Earth re-radiates absorbed solar radiation in the IR range.

    That CO2 absorbs IR energy is the crucial point, and the most easily verified. Knowing that the Earth is surrounded by vacuum lets you ignore non-radiative heat transfer to and from this place. With those two facts, if you raise the partial pressure of CO2, the temperature must rise, all other things being equal. Solar irradiance is the only factor to consider with regards to whether or not things are being held equal, and it varies less than .1% on all but the longest time scales. The atmosphere can be held constant because almost all of it is transparent in the IR (and visible, naturally) with the exception of H2O and CO2. Now, the H2O is a serious problem, but it's also not something we can do anything about. There are large deposits of the liquid form almost anywhere you'd care to look, and for most purposes we consider the atmosphere to be saturated with the stuff. That leaves our faithful friend carbon dioxide.

    This is undergraduate stuff. Hell, it's after-dinner conversation in my house. Calling it religion is labeling yourself as either a liar or someone dumber than his nick would suggest. AGW is comprehensible and provable by anyone with a first-world education.

    You haven't bothered to research any cost-neutral schemes, nor paid any attention to actual projections of carbon taxes. If you make up the numbers I am sure they are pretty shocking. There isn't a "scientific" cure, that doesn't mean you can ignore the problem. We're somewhat worried about sea level rises, but the temperatures are the bigger issue. The rate at which we're dumping carbon into the atmosphere is completely unprecedented in human history, and on track to equal the largest outgassings in the planet's history. That's what's so special about it, "dumass". Food production areas don't shift easily, Siberia is not going to be farmable even if it melts. You melt permafrost, you get a bog, and it will stay a bog for hundreds or thousands of years. Fertile topsoil is not just dirt and not something that just happens, it's a complex ecosystem of its own that takes geologic time to develop. Farming there is slightly more viable than trying to fertilize the desert, or using hydroponics exlusively, but not that much more viable, and whatever happens you will still have to deal with a short growing season; the length of the day won't change. It's not "shifting the food production areas", it's getting rid of the existing food production areas and hoping that the rest of the ecosystem changes will be in our favor. The odds are not good.

    How about instead of being part of the problem, we start working towards a European lifestyle. We could halve our emissions per capita without dipping below their living standards. This shit isn't that hard. Stop acting like you have a God-given right to pollute the planet. In point of fact, you have a God-given responsibility not to, as the Pope will no doubt point out. You know all that whining about entitlement that you've been doing? Look in a mirror.

  63. Re:Agreed. by Immerman · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Funny thing about atheism - it matters not one whit to compassion. That the Pope's position should should overlap says good things about Pope - too long has Catholicism pandered to kings while neglecting the common people it claims to shepherd.

    --
    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  64. Un-biblical Changes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What else would be un-biblical, or rather non-biblical event in nature? A super-volcano eruption or a kilometers wide asteroid impact? Anything that might kill over 1/3 of the world population is of course completely non-biblical. It is doubtful that the current climate change would kill over 1/3 of the whole population so it still belongs to the group of biblical changes. We are not about to kill over 95% of the ecosystem this time, right? Right?

  65. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by bunratty · · Score: 1, Informative

    The Florida Keys are experiencing the effects of sea level rise.

    --
    What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
  66. The Popecaster by FinsterBookinstock · · Score: 1

    Just where everyone should get their science information - a hardcore Lefty priest.

  67. Francis is likely to attract resistance? by wisnoskij · · Score: 0

    I don't think that is how Catholicism works. If you did not want to view everything the Pope says as the divine, incontestable, word of God, then I think you picked the wrong religion.

    --
    Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    1. Re:Francis is likely to attract resistance? by unimacs · · Score: 1

      Catholics don't consider everything the Pope says to be the incontestable word of God. That is a misconception. Only certain teachings or documents written by the Pope are considered "infallible". They have to meet very particular criteria and are rare. This is on purpose because they've learned the Church has to live with those proclamations forever.

  68. Re:Good for him by pitchpipe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You hypocrites are always making fun of religion, and calling catholics pedophiles and faggots.

    That's bullshit and you know it ...

    We would never call catholics 'faggots'.

    --
    Look where all this talking got us, baby.
  69. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The temperature has NOT risen since 1998.

    That's because you're ignoring the ocean, fool.

  70. Re:Agreed. by pitchpipe · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The pope is nothing compared to liberals. Liberals have ALL the answers to life's problems. They also have a cohesive set of beliefs and standards that will create a perfect society if only the unwashed would listen to them, and follow their tenants religiously. In this sense Liberals ARE GOD, and are much much more important that some faggy as pedo called the pope. Don't believe me, just ask a liberal. She or he will tell you that in fact she is Perfect, and then wage a sin tax on you for being white.

    All must bow to the magnificence of liberal thought.

    I christen thee Stupidest Post of 2014

    --
    Look where all this talking got us, baby.
  71. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No person *ever* has first-hand knowledge of *all* the facts. There are too many facts. Verifying all of them is impossible. So, even the most stringent of scientists must at some point take someone else's word for it. Without challenging the methodology of every study ever done, and reproducing the results of every other team of scientists, a scientist will simply BELIEVE his peers.

    I am not saying this makes the scientific method the same as religious faith. But I am saying belief *always* has something to do with it.

  72. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Because as everyone knows, heat sinks, cold rises. That's how the heat is hiding.

  73. Global Change? Bring it on! by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 1

    Evolution works - let's see what's next!

    --
    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
    1. Re:Global Change? Bring it on! by bunratty · · Score: 1

      I can assure you it was not pleasant to live through the extinction events that caused major evolutionary changes. When the dinosaurs died off, mammals also had it very rough. That's why we're trying to avoid a large, rapid rise in temperature -- it's going to be unpleasant to live through. It reminds me of the ancient Chinese curse May you live in interesting times.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
  74. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can't tell if clever satire or incredibly stupid.

  75. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by cbeaudry · · Score: 0

    The earth is not a closed system like in a lab and you know that.

    There are other options.

    - Climate sensitivity to CO2 is lesser than modeled
    - Other climate events affect overall global temperatures
    - There are other negative and positive forcings at work

    You are so blind to the black and white picture you do not see the grey in the middle.

  76. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by cbeaudry · · Score: 0

    I believe you have bought into the MMGW or CAGW talking points to uphold the faith.

    ALL CLIMATE SCIENTISTS are scientists of different fields.

    Your ignorance of that fact just shows how little you know about the field, or how hard you work at making the debate one sided.

    Climate scientists are made up of:

    - Physicists
    - Astrophysicists
    - Meteorologists
    - Geologists
    - Geophysicists
    - Hydrologists (engineering)
    - Environmental sciences
    - Mathematicians
    - Statisticians
    - Economists
    - Atmospheric scientists

    You will find plenty in each of those fields who have written papers on each side of the debate.

  77. Does not represent a change in views of the Church by unimacs · · Score: 3, Insightful

    For many years the Catholic Church has maintained that global warming is a real problem and that people should act accordingly, -as stewards of God's earth. Pope Francis has taken it a step farther but it's not a sudden change in position.

    I was raised Catholic but no longer consider myself one. I still have a fascination for the Church's history and how it functions. I also share some of its values. To those that consider it an ultra-conservative organization, that's only partially true. It often isn't, at least not in the US political sense of the word "conservative". It's also a very large organization that exists within many countries and cultures. Though there is only one set of beliefs and teachings, the emphasis placed on those different teachings varies from place to place. For example, many Catholics in the US practice birth control even though the official teaching of the Church is that it's a sin (aside from "Natural Family Planning"). Few US priests (at least in my part of the country) are going to attempt to lecture their congregations on it.

    So even though the Pope has put more teeth behind the Church's official stance on global warming, that doesn't mean that Catholic climate change skeptics are going to suddenly tow the party line. It will hopefully mean that the larger organization will make funds available to its churches to make them "greener" but I doubt it. Money tends to flow only in one direction within the Church.

  78. The Church was OK with science last century ... by perpenso · · Score: 3, Informative

    As an atheist, I have to say that I respect this Pope for trying to drag the church, with many kicking and screaming, into the 21st century.

    Actually you are off by a century (maybe more). In the 1920s a Catholic priest at a Catholic university proposed the currently accepted theory regarding the origin of the universe, the big bang. In the 1960s (or earlier ?) the Catholic church accepted the biological evolution of life including man. The church stated last century that the language of Genesis is figurative not literal. It also stated last century that scientific discovery is not in conflict with faith.

    If you want to look at earlier centuries much early research was done by members of the clergy, ex genetics. And various bishops were key in establishing the modern western tradition of the scientific method in Europe.

    1. Re:The Church was OK with science last century ... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1, Troll

      It's a shame his hands are tied on some of the most important issues though, e.g. contraception and family planning, or full acceptance of homosexuals. Those things cause a lot of unnecessary suffering.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:The Church was OK with science last century ... by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      So very true, but I believe he is trying to make headway, given the current makeup of the vatican leadership. It almost certainly won't happpen in his lifetime, but sometimes you have to plant a seed for a tree that you will never be able to sit under. Or I could be wrong. I just don't know.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  79. Re:Agreed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think they found a loophole: move to a different neighborhood.

  80. What kind of action and how much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The part of the problem not described is what kind of action is recommended.

    If the encyclycal writers are puzzling about this I have an answer for them: In 6 months every person in every region should reduce thheir daily CO2 emissions from every sector by 1/2.

  81. Radical? by jandersen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Francis's environmental radicalism is likely to attract resistance from Vatican conservatives and in rightwing church circles...

    Isn't it strange that accepting what for all practical purposes must be called the scientific consensus is described as 'radical'? And stop calling deniers 'conservative' - a conservative is somebody who, after giving the matter some thought, feels that the old ways are best - whereas the deniers are people that refuse to apply their intellect at all, if there is a risk they might have to change their minds. I have a lot of respect for conservatives; rather less for deniers.

  82. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by itzly · · Score: 2

    The temperature has not risen in the past decade or so

    Which means absolutely nothing for the trend. When the yearly statistical noise is about equal to a decade's worth of trend, you'll find that the decade long "pauses" are nothing special. This graph should enlighten you: http://www.woodfortrees.org/pl...

    Note that it has the raw data in red, and two trend lines. One calculated over 1970-2000 and the other from 1970 to current. As you can see, the two trend lines are in complete agreement.

  83. Predicting with a rearview mirror by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Conservative Christians have had a wary eye on this guy since he was first named (LONG before your posting); he is a Catholic from South America and most of them, like most from Central America, got their popularity by embracing "liberation theology", "social justice", and the marxists who were opposing the dictatorships in those regions. These Catholic leaders are far more interested in wealth redistribution than in theology, and the cardinals in Vatican City were useful idiots if they did not see any of this coming.

    Incidentally, some illiterate idiot with reading comprehension problems always enters conversations like this by announcing that Jesus was a socialist... usually aided by a Biblical verse or two about helping the poor, or charity, or the inability of a rich man to enter heaven (always with the simpleton interpretation of a highschooler who read the Cliff's Notes the night before an exam instead of the actual book). Allow me to point out that while the Good Book does say that it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to attain heaven, it also say that through God, all things are possible (therefore a Godly rich man could). Jesus did indeed extoll the virtues of charity and told his apostles to leave everything behind and follow him, BUT [1] he did NOT tell everybody else he met to do this, and [2] he NEVER defined "charity" as "happily let the government take your stuff and give it to your lazy neighbors" (Charity is an INDIVIDUAL CHOOSING to give of himself to a person in need) and [3] when Jesus said "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and to God that which is God's" he was NOT teaching "separation of church and state" or "pay your taxes"... he was challenging his critics to declare publicly themselves whether they thought it was possible for Caesar to have a superior claim on ANYTHING over God's claim of ownership.

    It always helps to read ALL books (including the Bible) in their ENTIRETY and get everything IN CONTEXT before pretending to know what's in them.

    1. Re:Predicting with a rearview mirror by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      it also say that through God, all things are possible (therefore a Godly rich man could).

      Yes, by giving his wealth to those who need it, thus becoming not-rich of money, but rich of spirit. But he still won't be rich when he dies — once his wallet shrinks, perhaps the camel will fit

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  84. Re:Agreed. by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    You liked the Popes that hushed up rampant pedophilia and hobnobbing with the powerful and rich?

    Sorry, but it sounds like Pope Francis has published a list of all the child molesters they know they've relocated. Can you drop a link, please?

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  85. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    But bums on pews doesn't affect the climate in any way

    Sure it does. If you stay home, you don't drive to church, or to the waffle house.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  86. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by serviscope_minor · · Score: 3, Informative

    Are you a practicing climate scientist who has personally checked all those facts? Not many people who would agree with you are. But they are looking at something written down that they- perhaps even you can never check or verify other then asking someone else if it is correct. But it's your version, it's real and factual, just like the faith Jews or Christians, or Muslims have.

    Bullshit. First, there are degrees of wrong. Plus, you know, science works.

    I am actually a published, practicing scientist. I can do the basic smell test on the papers, if not understand the tiny details.

    To come to the conclusion that "the concensus is probably right and that in any case, I have no compelling reson to doubt the conclusions" the only "faith" I need to have is to discount the preposterous notion that the world's climate scientists are engaged in a vast conspiracy to defraud us all.

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  87. Commenting here is a mug's game by business_kid · · Score: 0

    These comments read like a script from Family Guy. For every statement of what is opinion or could be sense, there seem to be two or more putdowns, 2 insults, and a number of mindlessly stupid irrelevancies.
    Yes, the Catholic Pope addressed Global Warming giving the Scientific Consensus. Yes, he is remarkably sane for a high ranking Catholic - electing him was an grave error, or else the cardinals felt quite desperate. Yes, he should be kicking out of the Vatican all criminal priests with diplomatic immunity, purging his organization of pedophiles, talking about God's Kingdom and using God's name, divesting the church of it's ill gotten gains and putting them to good use. But it is an obviously false religion. As it influences people less, it rides along with their opinions more.
    The truth is - I don't think Catholicism is an organization that can be reformed. Now that I have said that much, watch for the insults, put downs, and mindless irrelevancies.

  88. If he is serious, there is something he can do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Global warming is directly related to the amount of energy we consume. The amount of energy we consume is proportional to the number of people on the planet.

    A sensible thing to to would be to allow members of the Catholic faith to control the size of their families. This will help to reduce the growth of emissions. It may also give them a better quality of life.

    Unless keeping the number of Catholics higher than the number of Muslims is much more important.

  89. dont let us down boehner/fox news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    please, please let boehner/fox news/anyone take a public stand against the pope on this ... please let them see what happens when they alienate their bigger regular christian base by trying to appeal to a wacky fringe which is super religious AND is able to disagree with the pope themselves... itll be awesome

  90. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

    Regarding CO2 the earth is a closed system.
    Except for solar radiation the earth is a closed system!

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  91. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    The claim that the temperature has not risen in the last decade is wrong anyway.
    2014 had a a lot of heat records, not as many as perhaps 1998 ... but you can not expect that every olympics all gold medal winners make new olympic or world records.
    And finally: 2014 is the year with the highest average temperature on the planet since we measure.

    I have no idea where that bullshit idea comes from that the temperature has not increased the last decade.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  92. Re: The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I se by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Peer review isn't an effective mechanism for this type of work. What's needed is a new system based more on the principles of cryptography and security authentication, where the science and data can be validated even if one assumes that the scientists involved are fundamentally untrustworthy. Why should someone have to put more trust in climate scientists in making decisions to change lifestyles than they do in the participants needed to mine and validate a single Bitcoin? The raw data collection, analysis, etc. all need to be independently verifiable, with protocols that don't depend on review by peers who a crypto system should regard as equally untrustworthy.

  93. One time costs vs recurring costs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Give me the one time costs any day baby. BTW - although cement releases CO2 during manufacture, it absorbs it back during hardening. This is called the lime cycle and is carbon neutral. (CO2 released to provide the energy needed is not carbon neutral, but still is a one-time cost)

  94. Re:Good for him by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 0

    So does this mean the Pontiff is going to bless a nuclear plant?

  95. "Views of millions of evangelical Christians" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Our position reflects the views of millions of evangelical Christians in the US.

    Oh r-r-r-right. So then it must be correct, right? The views of millions of evangelical Christians are worth precisely dick. And if they're fundamentalist evangelicals, they're views are worth even less than zero.

  96. Re:Agreed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Conservative Christianity has been infected by hatred, judgmentalism, self-righteous pride, and disgusting selfishness.

    This is exactly what makes fundamentalism such fun. One can be downright evil while pretending to be oh so pious. I intend to start attending a born-again evangelical church just so I can find stupid white trash single women to sin with. Repenting is so sweet!

  97. And yet it cools by eis2718bob · · Score: 2

    Whispered under breath:

          Eppure si raffredda.

  98. Re:Agreed. by russotto · · Score: 1

    I'm not so sure - he often sounds like a compassionate atheist.

    Sure, God's an atheist too, from his own perspective.

    Anyway, I'm fine if the Catholics want to shiver in the dark. Cheaper energy for me.

  99. Re:Agreed. by cusco · · Score: 1

    In the case of the above poster, I don't think he's bright enough to figure out how to create a user account. Most of the time it seems to be people who are too cowardly to have their name associated with their beliefs. Several times Mr. AC has told me that I was stupid for posting something that can easily be tracked back to my actual name because future employers might take umbrage. (My reply has always been that I wouldn't have wanted to work for people like that anyway.) It's typical of the breakdown of the whole online forum format though, which is too bad because it's my favorite type of online discussion.

    --
    "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
  100. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by cbeaudry · · Score: 1

    The Earth also radiates heat out into space, and loses atmospheric gases due to thermal dissipation.

    There is allot more heat retained at the equator than at the poles. And luckily, ocean currents and other systems bring heat towards the poles, where it can then be lost to space more easily.

    Its more complicated than this, but not enough research is being done on this very subject because its inconvenient to the AGW theory though most of the systems in place that allow for this are very well known.

  101. Re:Good news! We did it! by vandamme · · Score: 1

    At least he didn't quote The Onion

  102. Re: The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I s by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The science is done so that another scientist will independently test the results and come up with same conclusion. Just because you don't do it doesn't mean it is not done already. In case you find something wrong with the way data is handled you are free to handle it differently and publish your results for peer review.

  103. Our position by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Our position reflects the views of millions of evangelical Christians in the US." We are fuckwits, irredeemably completely and utterly fuckwitted. If you believe a fairy tale being in the sky told you you go around being a fuckwit with the ecosystem of your home with out consequence then what else could you be except a fuckwit.

    On behalf of my fellow fuckwits everywhere I call upon you to burn climatologists every were as witches because those fuckwits would stop me making a profit,

  104. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by cusco · · Score: 1

    For all reasonable considerations our atmosphere is in fact a closed system, and what does escape can be quantified. Gravity and the magnetosphere keep escaping gasses to a minimum. Albedo varies over time but is measurable to within a remarkable number of decimal points by satellite. Anything that is not reflected is absorbed, either by the atmosphere itself or by the water and land below it. Re-radiation is also measured by those same satellites.

    Of course other climate events affect overall global temperatures, and of course there are other 'forcings' at work. My 4th grade niece would set her hands on her hips, look at you, and say, "Duh!" Are you of the rather absurd opinion that the models that people have labored over refining for decades don't attempt to include them? I would highly recommend that you look at a few of them, you will be surprised at the work that goes into the process of modeling (I know I was).

    --
    "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
  105. Re:Nothing new here, Popes can be idiots by cusco · · Score: 1

    The Doctrine of Papal Infallibility originated in the First Vatican Council in the late 19th century. Before that the pope was just a man. A very powerful man, but not the font of god's direct word.

    --
    "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
  106. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by cbeaudry · · Score: 0

    Nice talking point. Bringing it back to 4th grade science.
    When you know very well that it is nothing of the sort.

    They do include allot of different forcings. Though they overestimate many of them and still do not completely understand all of them, which is why models have been extremely poor a predicting anything at all. Just look at the last 25 years.

    And in the last 5 years, the 50 different reasons for the warming hiatus, slowdown, pause, however you want to call it since 1996.

    You would like to make it sound like everything is certain, when it is not. And since their models have not been able to track with actual measurements and they do NOT know why, why would we still rely on them?

    I say, lets keep observing, and refining the research, but stop with the alarmism, as nothing, to date, has presented a valid case for it.

  107. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by cusco · · Score: 1

    Oh, goodness, you pick the hottest year in history and when the next few years don't **quite** equal that extreme point confidently declare that the entire century and a half observed warming trend is invalid? Really? Look up 'statistical outliers' and try to comprehend the concept and then get back to us. By the way, 2014 is now the hottest year on record, you're going to have to reset your talking point.

    still do not completely understand all of them

    They've been studying and modeling the electron for over a century and still do not understand everything about it, either. That doesn't stop us from using them to operate these magical boxes that we communicate with.

    --
    "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
  108. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by sumdumass · · Score: 1

    That is standard denialist fearmongering and propaganda, this thinking that the only cure is lots of sacrifice. It's not true. It's the opposite. It will employ an awful lot of people to do much of the work we can do to address Climate Change. That's a lot of jobs.

    At a cost to who? This is where idiots parading the religion fail severely. So energy costs increase, jobs are created, and all is rosy. The reality that gets glossed over is simple economics. energy costs increasing means people who use energy pay more, products that require energy to make cost more, and the jobs created do not replace the jobs lost. Furthermore, the jobs created will be filled by the expanding labor pool as populations increase or a cost of retraining will be placed on the displaced workers. and this all gets ignored because you only want to think about your utopia you have created in your minds.

    Lots of those things will also make our personal lives better. In general, it's called efficiency. Now flat screens are in nearly every way better than CRTs. Refrigerators became much more efficient in 1996.

    You cannot just will something to be more efficient. Either advances in technology have to happen or tradeoffs that increase costs- otherwise the efficiencies would already be present because it allows for the most profits. Case in point, According to the federal government, the latest fuel economy mandate will increase the price of a car by almost $3,000 which the NADA claims (pfd warning) will price nearly 7 million drivers out of the market for a car. But that's ok, those 7 million people don't need to drive anyways because they are poor and imaginary or something.

    People should get over their predujices about what makes cars pretty, and embrace better aerodynamics.

    Yep, you just made an interesting point. People do not need to be free, they must think and support what you do. All this climate change cure talks inevitably leads to someone trying to tell others what they can and cannot do with their own lives or money and you think the warnings are just denialist fearmongering and propaganda even when you commit the very acts being decried yourself.

    One example is the Aerocivic. As noted on that site, there were bonuses with the improved aerodynamics: the car is quieter, stays cleaner, and is steadier, which makes it safer. Trucks can use vortex generators. One guy I know objected to vortex generators on the grounds that they were ugly. I asked him why was it important whether an already butt ugly truck trailer not have these? Surely not for the sake of beauty?

    And here we are again. You seem to be upset that people do not want to do something you want them to do. Why does their freedom upset you so much? I mean some trucks already have the VGs- they do not decrease wind resistance enough to justify their costs through fuel savings. Perhaps when they are installed at the factory. But that one guy you know is free to not want them no matter how much you think he should.

    Then there are roads. Who could possibly object to smarter traffic lights? Everyone who has ever driven much has had the experience of being stuck at a red light for nothing, because currently the devices are not capable of sensing traffic soon enough to be proactive. They are essentially mindless with no ability to learn traffic patterns and adjust their timing.

    Finally, something where there is a legitimate reason for government control. Now I could object to smarter traffic lights when the costs outweigh the benefits but where they typically are being installed there are problems being corrected. But spending millions of dollars for extra lanes or smart lights in towns with a population

  109. Re: The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Translation: "I only believe in appealing to authority to support my arguments and am incapable of thinking on my own."

  110. He'll be assassinated soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    This Pope is the best one we've had in MANY years! He seems genuinely concerned for the average person, and seems to apply the standards Jesus used, which is precisely what a pope should do!

    Which is why I expect him to be assassinated soon. Pope Francis' reign will be brief if he actually tries to reform the Church, just as John Paul I did (and was poisoned for his trouble).

  111. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hahah... man. Yeah, that perfectly straight trend line. BOOM. Totally demolishes any critique. Just show a stupid fucking graph.

    The climate has not been made warmer in 10 years.

    TEN years.

    Just fucking chew on that and let it stew for a bit.

    Pollution has never been more prevalent in the atmosphere than ever in recorded history and temperature has not increased with it. IN TEN FUCKING YEARS.

  112. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by sumdumass · · Score: 1

    It would be wise to argue against what was actually said and not what you wanted to be said. It doesn't have the appearance of you setting up straw-men to knock down.

    The smell tests on papers is equivalent to it sounds good. All you are going to go is reject obvious bullshit you do not agree with. If you are not actually reviewing and repeating the science, you are taking on faith that what they say it correct and not fiction created for whatever reason.

    And no, no mass conspiracy connection needs to be made at all. Garbage in and garbage out is a saying for a reason. If the inputs which are largely shared among all researchers are contaminated, even legit papers can be incorrect while technically being scientifically correct. As a published, practicing scientist, you should be well aware of that. Unless you have validated all the inputs, you need to have faith that others did and did it competently enough for their work to not be erroneous.

    But even if you did all that and were 100% sure, you are not the vast majority or people who cannot, does not have the time, or access to do it. My point still stands.

  113. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by tbannist · · Score: 3, Informative

    Skeptical Science is neither. It is a propaganda website, run by the innermost clique of fraudsters accused of manipulating data, "hiding the decline", and suppressing all dissenting evidence.

    Actually, that's just wrong. Skeptical science was started by a cartoonist, and the people involved there are mostly not climate scientists, so your first claim is obviously false.

    Of course they publish work that supports their own opinions.

    The link from above is merely an explanation of why the claim that warming stopped in 1998 is wrong with actual links to the peer reviewed science to back up the facts used in the explanation.

    Those idiots actually still support Mann's Hockey Stick - what may be one of the most thoroughly disproven claims in modern science.

    Actually, it may surprise you but is has not been disproven at all. In fact, "[m]ore than two dozen reconstructions, using various statistical methods and combinations of proxy records, have supported the broad consensus shown in the original 1998 hockey-stick graph".

    It's be more remarkable if Skeptical Science ever admitted to error, or allowed dissent.

    If have seen both, what they don't allow is people to post demonstrably false information, go off topic or dip into personal insults.

    The fact is that every single climate model predicted major increases in temperature that have not occurred. Yet somehow these models are still supposed to be correct?

    That's a claim, not a fact, and Skeptical Science has a debunking of that claim too.

    --
    Fanatically anti-fanatical
  114. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by tbannist · · Score: 1

    You will find plenty in each of those fields who have written papers on each side of the debate.

    Actually, you won't. 97% of the papers that took a position on global warming between 1991 and 2011 support it. Out the 11,944 papers published between 1991 and 2011 that mention climate change or global warming, only 83 rejected the central premises of AGW, while 3894 supported the premise (the remaining 7967 mentioned climate change or global warming but did not expressly support or deny it). So if you consider 0.7% to be "plenty", then I question your mathematical abilities.

    --
    Fanatically anti-fanatical
  115. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by cbeaudry · · Score: 1

    1. I never declared the entire warming of the last 50 years invalid, please point to where I said that;
    2. Nice talking point about the cherry picking of the hottest year. I started at 1996, not 1998. It is very well known, even by the ipcc that this is the point from where the hiatus, slowdown, pause is plotted from. But if you want to go back to your blogs for confirmation, they will only use the 1998 talking point.
    Hiatus
    3. Again, using blogosphere or media talking points, showing 2014 as the hottest year on record. Please point to me where on this graph 2014 is hotter than 1998 or 2010? ÀHottest year
    4. The observations, so far from studies on the electron have yielded positive results. When comparing models to observations, they are no where near. In any field of science those models would have been thrown out and redone from scratch or would have not been used as the main factor in determining policy.

  116. Re: Good for him by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So what you're saying is that if I don't believe in what you believe in, I should go to hell?

  117. Hang on a minute... by matbury · · Score: 1

    ...I thought the Catholic church were supposed to be waiting in eager anticipation of armageddon. Are they trying to delay it now? What's going on in theocracy land?

  118. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by cbeaudry · · Score: 0

    Oh boy. Refering to a Cook paper is a shure fire way to show you only believe the faith and havent really looked too deeply in the reliability of that paper.

    http://www.populartechnology.n...

    Every single one of the papers that pretend to demonstrate a "concensus" on settled science of climate change has been shown to be fraudulent.

  119. Re: The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I s by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, that's EXACTLY the point. "Publish results for peer review" is just going back to a trusted systems (or trusted parties) model. A valid authentication system would assume the peers aren't trusted, either. Peer review is identical to asking someone to trust that a file they're downloading is valid not because the MD5 signature validates, but because three other people posted a note claiming that they checked the MD5 signature, and say it's valid. If it isn't good enough of an authentication procedure that you'd use it for your online banking, why should it be good enough to authenticate scientific advice for major policy decisions?

    I once attended a great presentation by David Brin, making the point that modern society has evolved past the previous concept of a higher authority telling people to basically "be good," to instead use human adversarial tendencies productively in several distinct fora, like markets, politics, and courts. But the current system of peer review--especially in climate science--seems to have closed ranks to the point where it's almost returning to the priesthood model of "be good, take our word for it, or join our ranks and be indoctrinated." That's not to say they're wrong, not at all, but the model for how they provide proof is wrong. It isn't like physical sciences, where most of the major things, there's proof by public, self-evident demonstration, e.g.: "See that nuclear explosion? E really does equal mc^2." Climate science either needs something similar, or a fundamentally different approach toward the production of scientific research.

  120. His importance and influence is over rated. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wait outside your nearest Catholic church next Sunday and count the number of people that look like they are between the ages of 14 and 45.

    Very few? So why will anything that the pope proclaims have much impact on the future?

    This is more about the Vatican flipping the bird at other religions by suggesting that they are somehow morally superior now.

  121. So much ignorance here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Post after post echoing the same old false stereotypes of "religion is anti-science", "the religious are anti-science and/or ignorant", "church opposes science", "religion is no better than superstitions", and "about time they accept science as right"....

    When are new atheists going to accept reality that religion isn't nor ever has been out to get science and technology...

  122. Re:Agreed. by Fly+Ricky+-+The+Wine · · Score: 1

    Guess what dummy, he isn't one. The Pope is Catholic.

  123. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by Stephan+Schulz · · Score: 1

    I believe you have bought into the MMGW or CAGW talking points to uphold the faith.

    ALL CLIMATE SCIENTISTS are scientists of different fields.

    Your ignorance of that fact just shows how little you know about the field, or how hard you work at making the debate one sided.

    Climate scientists are made up of:

    - Physicists - Astrophysicists - Meteorologists - Geologists - Geophysicists - Hydrologists (engineering) - Environmental sciences - Mathematicians - Statisticians - Economists - Atmospheric scientists

    You will find plenty in each of those fields who have written papers on each side of the debate.

    A classical case of both abductive reasoning and confirmation bias. Some climate scientists are geologists, but not all geologists are climate scientists. Some climate scientists are mathematicians, but not all mathematicians are climate scientists. And so on. Yes, if you water down the definition to include more and more people, you will get a few more dissenting voices. But its still minuscule compared to your base. Nearly all professional scientific organisations accept man's influence on the climate. None is known to maintain the dissenting opinion. And while some of the dissenters have written "papers", most of these "papers" have not been published by the scientific press, but by so-called think-tanks or web blogs. Even so, finding "plenty" is a far stretch - it's a small group of deniers with maybe three or four people with some credibility left.

    --

    Stephan

  124. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by Maritz · · Score: 1

    You should really just admit that you made up your mind on this for emotional reasons and that no evidence will ever change your mind. That way, you'll still be a complete dick, but you'll be an honest one.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  125. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

    Like I said, there are degrees of wrong.

    That and you are dishonestly (or possibly through ignorance) conflating two vastly different meanings of the word "faith". And you didn't address my points.

    Science, it works, Bitches.

    Or less glibly, science has a well proven history at arriving at good answers. Do I know 100% that the current models for global warming are correct? No, of course not. However, based on the balance of probabilities from the underlying physics, the measurements and the general state of the scientific community and my knowledge and experience of how it works, there's a much better chance that the scientific community is correct compared to models/hypotheses arrived at by other people. So I'm going to go with the scientific consensus here. You could call that "faith" in the scientific community (presumably because I don't have proof). It's a very odd use of the word, and trying to conflate it with the sort of religious use of the word is patently dishonest. So no, your point does manifestly not stand.

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  126. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by cbeaudry · · Score: 0

    You know thats not what I meant. I was refuting the fact that one has to be a Dr. in Climataulogy to have a say. People have this belief that climate scientists must be climate scientists and geologists, engineers and others know nothing.

    Your right, not everyone in those fields have studied climate enough to know what they are talking about. But I bet any good statistician can look at a paper heavy with stats and come to conclusions, on wether it holds water or not.

    I know a mathematician can read a climate paper written by a mathematician read the formulas and understand whats its all about and also make up his mind on wether it makes any sense or is just garbage.
    ====================

    I admit, I let myself get dragged into the appeal to authority debate however. And though you might be a smart fellow, I think you just havent put time into this subject, thus have no idea what you are talking about.

    Science organisations can say whatever the f*ck they want. Without making a survey of their own members it means f*ck all. As long as researche grants are manage by a minority who force climate science on others, we will keep having scientists too scared to voice their concerns.

    And do the researche, there are LOTS of peer reviewed papers that do not share the alarmist view. Also, many of the papers who supposedly do, do not either.
    Fraudsters like Cook et al. lump in papers into their category without even properly reading them. The authors have often came out and said their views have been misrepresented.

    Lastly, keep using your bullshit name calling of deniers. Fucking not aggreeing with the science does not make someone a denier. The denier is YOU. Head burried in the sand, using talking points, not actually listening to what those dissenters are presenting and making up your own mind. Follow the AGW blogs, who are all stakeholders in this bullshit propaganda machine, much more so than the skeptics blogs.

  127. Pope on Climate Change by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He would do well to review the environmental problem posed by over population of the planet as global warming is only a side issue on the real problem
    Posted BY R Jenkins Australia
    and what an arsehole our primeminister (catholic) is.

  128. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by tbannist · · Score: 1

    Wow. A biased, conservative, science-denying site says the paper is unreliable, imagine that. The paper hasn't been demonstrated to be fraudulent, it's been claimed to be fraudulent by some guy writing for a web site. He's managed to find a whole 7 people who disagree with the classification of their papers. 7 out of 11,944, clearly an error rate of 0.05% is unacceptable.

    I should note that at least one of the disagreements was erroneous, the abstract from the author's paper directly contradicts the author's claim and supports the categorisation given to by the Cook study. And another claims that the referees made him take out the unjustified conclusions that he wanted to include that would have made the paper less supportive of AGW, if only his conclusions could have been justified with actual science. Of course, those errors mean that the author of the blog post denying the Cook paper has at least a 28% error rate, but clearly that's acceptable when it's supporting your particular views.

    --
    Fanatically anti-fanatical
  129. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by cbeaudry · · Score: 0

    WTF.

    And you think Cook is unbiased? Science Denying site?? They deny the propaganda, that is not the same and you know it.

    If you don't like his claims, look at peer reviewed rebuttals to ALL the 97% consensus claims. www.populartechnology.net/2014/12/all-97-consensus-studies-refuted-by.html

    I really have had enough with seemingly intelligent people apologizing and defending the indefensible.
    It boggles the mind how people will twist themselves crooked to find excuses to support clearly flawed claims just to support their confirmation bias.

  130. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The free market is the best way to solve this problem. We just need to figure out where there are externalized costs and fix that. We need conservatives to get on board and help make the right choices instead of covering their ears and saying "No, no, no, no, no no!"

    I'm pretty sure Al Gore thought, having failed to win the presidency, that he would move on from politics, and do something important and good for the world. I think it never occurred to him that people who opposed his politics would have such knee-jerk reaction and dogmatically oppose doing anything about climate change. Of course the alarmist tone of his movie didn't help. He also has no idea how to express that the problem transcends political divisions.

  131. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by Jawnn · · Score: 1

    >

    Are you a practicing climate scientist who has personally checked all those facts?

    Oh, how predictable; your attempt to equate blind faith and the reasoned acceptance of the findings of an overwhelming number of "practicing climate scientists". Science is knowable. Valid results can be verified. If I were of a mind to, I could acquire the expertise and do so. There is, to understate it just a bit, a big fucking difference between that and blind faith.

  132. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by Jawnn · · Score: 1

    There's a huge difference between rationally discussing the solution to a problem and ignoring the existence of a problem. Both result in a solution, one by abdicating the ability to affect the outcome.

    Not really as one of the solutions to the problem is to let it ride and deal with the problems as they surface.

    Uh, that would be a rational suggestion if not for the fact that there is no "dealing with the problems as they surface". By the time something "surfaces", it will be far, far too late to field any effective response. Or so the experts are telling us. I gather that you disagree with those experts. On what basis to you disagree?

  133. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by Jawnn · · Score: 1

    There is always a chain of trust - a belief that your senses are accurately showing you reality; that scientific observations were documented properly; or that scientific models built off of those observations reflect reality; or even a belief that there is an objective reality at all!

    By your logic, nobody should ever trust any scientific finding without have done the work for herself. By your reasoning, peer review counts for nothing. Those views are not rational. They are, however, extremely common amongst climate change deniers and others who would prefer to believe in a more attractive version of "the truth", despite there being overwhelming evidence of something less agreeable.

  134. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by tbannist · · Score: 1

    You're linking back to the same site, with the same problems.

    The first "peer reviewed rebuttal" listed there is a complaint that Science refused to publish a letter that claimed that one of the studies was wrong. That certainly convinced me. I mean, a letter that wasn't ever published? What could it be more devastating? If they're starting with the strongest evidence, I am seriously under whelmed.

    The second one is from Energy & Environment the editor of whom has admitted that she picks articles to further her political goals (which include opposing environment groups and activity).

    Several of the papers listed in the linked blog post are from the exact same people who complained about the Cook paper in the previous link you posted.

    The remaining are nit-picking papers complaining about how this or that metric used to measure expertise is not perfectly accurate.

    Over billed and underwhelming, as usual.

    --
    Fanatically anti-fanatical
  135. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by cbeaudry · · Score: 0

    Head in sand.

    I got it.

    Have a good day sir.

  136. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by tbannist · · Score: 1

    Funny, I was thinking the same thing about you.

    --
    Fanatically anti-fanatical
  137. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by SillyHamster · · Score: 1

    By your logic, nobody should ever trust any scientific finding without have done the work for herself. By your reasoning, peer review counts for nothing. Those views are not rational. They are, however, extremely common amongst climate change deniers and others who would prefer to believe in a more attractive version of "the truth", despite there being overwhelming evidence of something less agreeable.

    Don't be ridiculous. I'm saying that belief and faith is a normal thing, and is necessary for humans to practice science.

    So there's only a problem if you love science AND hate belief, because that requires suspending Reason. And how do you practice Science without Reason?

    It's really sad how many people who supposedly are for science do not get these important details right.

  138. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by sumdumass · · Score: 1

    Oh, how predictable; your attempt to equate blind faith and the reasoned acceptance of the findings of a biblical scholar as well as an overwhelming number of "preachers". Religion is knowable, just read the bible.

    See what I did there? To each is their own authoritative. But you say you can verify it- yet you have not to date which is obvious from your next sentence.

    If I were of a mind to, I could acquire the expertise and do so.

    Yes, and if I had a mind to, my faith alone would allow me to walk on water. I just have not done it and likely will never do it but mark my words, the fact that I say i could lends all the validity needed to what the preachers are saying.

    There is, to understate it just a bit, a big fucking difference between that and blind faith.

    Sure there is, but only to a select few who have already reviewed and authenticated the materials presented. Otherwise, they are in the same boat as anyone else taking someone else word for it. We have seen this backfire several dozen times recently too. From Open Source software which have critical security flaws in them for decades despite the ability for anyone to grab the source code and review it themselves. We have seen scientific papers accepted and determined to be valid only to later be found made up and fake. Hell, we even have cases of congressional aids inserting text into bills that none of the politicians seem to know about. But even then, we have the famous you have to pass the bill in order to know what is in the bill quote and an appropriate it would take 3 lawyers 3 days to figure out what is in the bill so we won't read it quotes.

  139. Bible Teaches Capitalism, Not Socialism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > Christianity was always about wealth distribution.

    Nonsense.

    The Bible teaches capitalism, not socialism. Read this commentary.

    1. Re:Bible Teaches Capitalism, Not Socialism by ultranova · · Score: 1

      The Bible teaches capitalism, not socialism. Read this commentary.

      "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal."

      ""No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

      "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

      "Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy."

      The Bible might be ambigious on some things, Anon, but this is not one of them. God's Kingdom is the ultimate welfare state. And how could it really be otherwise, when everything you could use to earn merit - including your very existence itself - is a gift? Sure, maybe you made your fortune digging gold from frozen tundra with a shovel and a pickaxe - but where did you get the constitution, the willpower, the iron atoms in your pickaxe, etc. which allowed you to do so? Not to mention the gold itself was a gift, no matter how inconveniently placed.

      So does that mean Capitalism is anti-Christian? Aspects of it are, the same as aspects of everything are, which is attributed to the current fallen state of the world in Christianity. It can be modified to make it more in line with Christianity, for example by using welfare programs to provide for people who can't earn a decent living within market economy, or free education to encourage social mobility, steeply progressive taxation to ensure those earthly fortunes produced for the winners of competition do some good for all, etc. etc. But people who claim their pet system is mandated by God/Bible/historical inevitability/whatever are usually far more interested in excusing their actions and positions than changing them, even if it takes 40 years and 31 volumes to throw up enough of a smokescreen.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  140. Re:The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    There is nothing inconvenient about this regarding AGW or GW or any other "theory" or "model" regarding climate.

    I don't get why people always come with such idiotic claims.

    If at all, then losing gas from the atmosphere would cool the planet.

    That the planet is radiating heat away is obvious.

    And if you had listened to the AGW "theories", you knew that CO2 (and MH4 and H2O vapour) is preventing "proper radiation"

    If you want certain research to be done then propose it, no idea what exactly you seek for.

    You want to know how much atmosphere we lose every year? I guess we gain more than we lose (due to solar wind, but who knows :D )

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  141. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by PopularTechnology · · Score: 0

    This is incorrect, our site is politically independent not conservative. We do not say the paper is unreliable the scientists who had their papers misclassified did. And it is not 7 out of 11,944 as Cook et al. was not counting authors but papers. Any error rate on such a study is completely unacceptable since it shows their methodology to be fatally flawed and their conclusions worthless. Correction, Cook et al. (2013) attempted to categorize 11,944 abstracts (not entire papers) to their level of endorsement of AGW and found 7930 papers (66%) held no position. While only 65 papers (0.5%) explicitly endorsed and quantified AGW as +50% (Humans are the primary cause). Their methodology was so fatally flawed that they falsely classified skeptic papers as endorsing AGW, apparently believing to know more about the papers than their authors. None of the disagreements were erroneous as all those authors except Dr. Tol are well known skeptics. Claiming that any of these skeptic papers are part of a "consensus" on AGW is not only misleading by intellectually dishonest. Is your intent to mislead people?

  142. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by PopularTechnology · · Score: 0

    The refutations are listed chronologically. "Letters" is a term used to describe a type of peer-reviewed scientific document format in certain scholarly journals such as Nature. These original research articles should not be confused with "Letters to the Editor". Energy & Environment is indexed in the ISI and cited 28 times in the IPCC reports. While the editor admitted no such thing as you are distorting the context of what she said, "My political agenda for E&E is not party political but relates to academic and intellectual freedom." - Dr. Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen (Editor, Energy & Environment). Only 2 of those 13 authors are the same and it is completely valid for someone who states an objection on a paper to submit a comment for peer-review as that is how scholarly papers are challenged. Attempting to misrepresent and hand-wave away these published criticisms is again misleading and intellectually dishonest. They are not simply "nit-picking" but criticizing the papers for completely misrepresenting the actual positions of scientists on this issue.

  143. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by tbannist · · Score: 1

    Well known skeptic or not, the author in question directly contradicted the abstract of the results for his own study. It's right there for us to read and we can easily verifiy that his statement to your site was false according to the abstract of his study. So either the abstract is wrong and the author made a msitake in his paper or the author is wrong about his own paper, neither situation bodes well for the criticism. It's been known to happen, particular among so-called "skeptic" scientists where their public posturing is frequently different from their scientific results, possibly because their co-authors are less biased or they know their actual results will be rigorously reviewed unlike comments delivered to a blog of no particular noteworthiness.

    A quick review of your site show it to be "politically independent" much like Fox News is "Fair and Balanced".

    --
    Fanatically anti-fanatical
  144. Re:How perfectly appropriate - by tbannist · · Score: 1

    The refutations are listed chronologically. "Letters" is a term used to describe a type of peer-reviewed scientific document format in certain scholarly journals such as Nature. These original research articles should not be confused with "Letters to the Editor".

    Not particularly important since it was never printed.

    They are not simply "nit-picking" but criticizing the papers for completely misrepresenting the actual positions of scientists on this issue.

    Actually, most of the listed papers are nit-picking. For instance, one of them complained that one of the papers misreprented expertise on the topic of climate change because they used a metric based on number of papers published in the field of climate science to measure expertise. The complaint was that since the vast majority of scientists working in the field believed that climate change was a real phenomonom that the paper looking at what the vast majority believed was biased towards what the vast majority believed. Shocking.

    None of the criticism presented look particuarly compelling or notable, which seems to be why no one else is paying much attention to them. They are underwhelming and overhyped by your site.

    --
    Fanatically anti-fanatical
  145. Re: The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I see by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

    If you could think on your own, you'd notice the difference between "authority" and "peer-reviewed evidence".

    --
    Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
  146. Re: The Pope's doubling-down on irrelevance, I se by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

    Authentication of raw data might be useful, but hard to enforce when it requires a human agency to collect - and data fudging cases are pretty rare anyway. I don't see this as a significant problem.

    Sounds more like your issue is with the trustworthiness of conclusions derived from those results, and I don't see how authentication could help there at all. The nearest electronic equivalent we have to that is a reputation score, and reputation has long been an important factor in scientific publishing. This is backed by anonymous review by a number of other reputable peers, and has been working pretty well for the last few centuries.

    climate scientists in making decisions to change lifestyles

    There's a lot of enormous leaps in that phrase. The vast majority of climate scientists simply present their conclusions about what has happened and is likely to happen, and peer-reviewed studies rarely even touch on solutions to the problems discovered (a few climatologists have been separately advocating for change, but not as part of the scientific body of work). No climatologist that I'm aware of actually has the political power to decide the lifestyle of anyone beyond their own family. And then there's the whole question of whether climate solutions require significant lifestyle changes in the first place, beyond simply phasing in a carbon-neutral energy infrastructure.

    --
    Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?