‘A Papal Message That Spares No One’

Elizabeth Kolbert, writing for The New Yorker on Pope Francis’s new encyclical on climate change and the environment:

Whether the Pope’s message will have any influence — on the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, on the delegations currently trying to devise an international climate agreement, or on anyone else — remains to be seen. Up to now, the sowers of discord have done a good job blocking action on climate change, and, if the leak of the encyclical is any guide, they are still hard at work. Meanwhile, as @Pontifex tweeted to his 6.3 million followers Thursday, “The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.”

I enjoyed Kontra’s observation:

We’re living in a country where the Pope likely couldn’t be head of several Congressional committees because he’s not unscientific enough.

★ Friday, 19 June 2015