Pope Francis: ‘Deniers of climate change’ are ‘foolish’

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Pope Francis: ‘Deniers of climate change’ are ‘foolish’
Pope Francis, in a recent CBS interview, labeled skeptics of the climate change narrative as ‘foolish’ for not believing ‘research.’



Pope Francis interviewed by CBS' Anchor Norah O'Donnell, April 2024
Video screenshot/CBS

Apr 25, 2024
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews [slightly adapted]) — Pope Francis has stated that “deniers of climate change” are “foolish” as they don’t believe “research,” and insisting that “climate change exists.”

In comments made to CBS Evening News and aired April 24, the 87-year-old Pontiff decried those whom CBS’s Norah O’Donnell described as “deniers of climate change.” 

“There are people who are foolish, and foolish even if you show them research, they don’t believe it,” responded Francis. “Why? Because they don’t understand the situation or because of their interest, but climate change exists.”

In contrast, Dr. John Clauser – Nobel Prize winner in Physics in 2022 alongside two other scientists, for his work in the field of quantum mechanics – has argued that “misguided climate science has metastasized into massive shock-journalistic pseudoscience.”

“In turn,” he added, “the pseudoscience has become a scapegoat for a wide variety of other unrelated ills. It has been promoted and extended by similarly misguided business marketing agents, politicians, journalists, government agencies, and environmentalists. In my opinion, there is no real climate crisis.”

READ: Arctic sea ice just reached its highest level in 21 years, and it’s going largely unnoticed

CBS noted that Francis’ very brief comments will be expanded upon in a longer “60 Minutes” episode on May 19, followed by an hour-long program on May 20.

Pope Francis has indeed made the talking point of “climate change” a central one in his 11-year pontificate along with the promotion of an “ecological spirituality.”

His 2015 encyclical letter Laudato Si’ has become the reference text for numerous Vatican and papal initiatives focused on the so-called “green” agenda. In it, Francis speaks about a “true ecological approach” which listens to “both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.”

The document has given rise to the Laudato Si’ Movement, which aims to “turn Pope Francis’ encyclical letter Laudato Si’ into action for climate and ecological justice,” as the mass divestment from “fossil fuels” is inspired by the Pontiff’s environmental writings.

Last October 4, Francis published a second part to Laudato Si’ in the form of Apostolic Exhortation Laudate Deum, in which he issued stark calls for “obligatory” measures across the globe to address the issue of “climate change.”

READ: Pope Francis calls for obligatory global ‘climate change’ policies in new document ‘Laudate Deum’

“It is no longer possible to doubt the human – ‘anthropic’ – origin of climate change,” wrote the Pontiff, before later calling for mandatory alignment with “green” policies:

If there is sincere interest in making COP28 a historic event that honors and ennobles us as human beings, then one can only hope for binding forms of energy transition that meet three conditions: that they be efficient, obligatory and readily monitored.

READ: Pope Francis advocates for powerful global government not subject to ‘changing political conditions’

Such papal promotion of the “climate change” cause has not gone without high profile criticism, including lately from Canadian philosopher Jordan Peterson. Peterson slated Francis for his focus on “climate change,” saying the Pope “seems to be on about [the topic] constantly when you should be saving souls.”

“That’s how you save the planet, not by worshiping Gaia,” Peterson stated, referring to the pagan name for “Mother Earth.” “I don’t see for the life of me what the Catholic Church has to do with the ‘climate crisis,’” he continued. “Just the formulation is wrong; the priority is wrong; you save the world one person at a time.”

READ: Jordan Peterson slams Pope Francis’ fixation on ‘climate change’: ‘He should be saving souls’

In what was set to be the culmination of all of his “climate change” activism, Francis was due to attend the COP28 climate conference in Dubai last November. However, due to ill health, he had to cancel the trip less than two days before he had intended to leave.

The Pope has also made numerous calls to action for global leaders to implement the pro-abortion Paris Climate Agreement, citing the “negative effects of climate change” and an “ecological debt” which required “climate finance, decarbonization in the economic system and in people’s lives.”

READ: Climate expert warns against extreme ‘weather porn’ from alarmists pushing ‘draconian’ policies

After many years of climate alarmism rhetoric from the Pontiff, in 2022 the Vatican officially joined the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Climate Agreement. The Pope defended the controversial move, saying that “she [‘Mother Earth’] weeps and implores us to put an end to our abuses and to her destruction.”

His continued promotion of the Paris Agreement, which underpins the majority of the current “climate change” agenda, comes despite the agreement’s fundamentally pro-abortion principles which connect to the stated U.N. goal of creating a universal “right” to abortion in line with Goal No. 5.6 of the organization’s Sustainable Development Goals.

His actions have disregarded long-standing and repeated concerns from pro-life and family advocates, who continually warned about the climate activism movement’s alignment with pro-abortion and population control advocates and lobby groups.

Consequently, the Pope’s “climate change” rhetoric has earned criticism also from prelates within the Church. Bishop Athanasius Schneider joined the late Cardinal George Pell in condemning Francis’ concept of “ecological conversion,” with Schneider arguing it was “an expression of pure naturalism… there is no supernatural vision, or a very vacant supernatural vision.” “Ecological conversion is an abuse of this concept of conversion itself,” he stated.