Heh.

The document released Thursday was a stinging indictment of big business and climate doubters, and aimed to inspire courageous decisions at U.N. climate negotiations this year as well as in domestic politics and everyday life. Citing Scripture and his predecessors, the pope urged people of every faith and even no faith to undergo an awakening to save God’s creation.

“It is not enough to balance, in the medium term, the protection of nature with financial gain, or the preservation of the environment with progress,” the pope wrote. “Halfway measures simply delay the inevitable disaster. Put simply, it is a matter of redefining our notion of progress.”

Environmental scientists said the first-ever encyclical, or teaching document, on the environment could have a dramatic effect on the climate debate, lending the moral authority of the immensely popular Francis to an issue that has long been cast in purely political, economic or scientific terms.

Few thoughts…

The Pope is certainly an important global person as the leader of the Catholic faith, but for those of us who aren’t Catholic, he’s just another fellow Christian. He does not even speak for all of Christendom – much less all of humanity.

The Pope also has about as much credibility or authority to speak on the economic and scientific issues surrounding climate change as I do. Sure, his opinion is interesting, but that doesn’t make it right.

It is also clear that the Pope is a rather strident Marxist. His comments could have been printed in Pravda in 1978 and not been out of place.

It is extremely entertaining to watch the radical environmentalist Left, which has spent a lifetime undermining any proposed moral authority the Pope has on things like abortion, birth control, men-only management, homosexuality, etc., now fawning over him and claiming that he has given moral authority to their cause.