Pope Francis Blames Mongolian Cold Spell on Global Warming

Pope Francis hoists the Gospel book during a Chrism Mass inside St. Peter's Basilica, at t
AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia
Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.

ROME — Pope Francis has blamed Mongolia’s current cold spell on global warming, insisting the overheating environment is a “global social problem.”

Following his weekly Angelus address Sunday, the pontiff said he is close to the population of Mongolia, “affected by a wave of intense cold, which is causing serious humanitarian consequences.”

This extreme phenomenon, which has occasioned the death of over 600,000 livestock, is “a sign of climate change and its effects,” the pope told the estimated 20,000 gathered in Saint Peter’s Square.

“The climate crisis is a global social problem that deeply affects the lives of many brothers and sisters, especially the life of the most vulnerable,” Francis added, while calling for prayers “to be able to make wise and courageous choices to contribute to the care of creation.”

It is clear that the climate change presently taking place “stems from the overheating of the planet,” the pope has declared, “caused chiefly by the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to human activity, which in recent decades has proved unsustainable for the ecosystem.”

Pope Francis, one of the leading voices condemning manmade climate change, has singled out the United States as especially to blame for the so-called climate emergency due to the “irresponsible lifestyle” of its citizens.

“If we consider that emissions per individual in the United States are about two times greater than those of individuals living in China, and about seven times greater than the average of the poorest countries, we can state that a broad change in the irresponsible lifestyle connected with the Western model would have a significant long-term impact,” he said last October.

What we are presently experiencing “is an unusual acceleration of warming, at such a speed that it will take only one generation – not centuries or millennia – in order to verify it,” he declared.

The global climate crisis is really “a religious problem” whose roots lie in humanity ’s “presumption of self-sufficiency,” the pope has insisted.

“We need, urgently, to act for the sake of the environment,” he said. “It is not enough merely to increase spending: we need to change our way of life and thus educate everyone to sober and fraternal lifestyles.”

This is “an essential obligation for religions, which are called to teach contemplation, since creation is not only an ecosystem to preserve, but also a gift to embrace,” he said.

Despite the pope’s assertion that skepticism regarding the climate crisis is “perverse,” a group of over 1,600 prominent scientists (including two Nobel Prize winners) have dared to disagree with him, in a joint statement declaring that there is no “climate emergency.”

In the “World Climate Declaration,” the scientists asserted that climate models have proven inadequate for predicting global warming, that carbon dioxide (CO2) is not a pollutant, and that climate change has not increased natural disasters.

The text noted that the world has warmed “significantly less than predicted by IPCC on the basis of modeled anthropogenic forcing” and the gap between the real world and the modeled world “tells us that we are far from understanding climate change.”

“There is no statistical evidence that global warming is intensifying hurricanes, floods, droughts and suchlike natural disasters, or making them more frequent,” the document declares. “However, there is ample evidence that CO2-mitigation measures are as damaging as they are costly.”

“There is no climate emergency,” the text declared. “Therefore, there is no cause for panic and alarm.”

“We strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy proposed for 2050. Go for adaptation instead of mitigation; adaptation works whatever the causes are,” it added.

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