https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/three-ways-pope-francis-backs-science-one-major-way-doesntAs a scientist, is the pope dodging the biggest contributor to climate change?
Science Sep 23, 2015 4:01 PM EDT
Once you’re a scientist, you’re always a scientist, and Pope Francis was once a scientist. In recent years, the pope’s outspoken views on issues like the environment seem to reveal his familiarity with life in a lab. Some scientists applaud his efforts to filter empirical knowledge into theology. But for others, Pope Francis embodies the Catholic Church’s long history of stopping short of being totally pro-science.
Before attending seminary and eventually becoming the Bishop of Rome, Jorge Mario Bergoglio spent his early adulthood as a food chemist. His education in chemistry would be on par with
obtaining a technician certificate or degree from a junior college, said
Father Thomas Reese, who believes that training has a profound influence on the pontiff’s
approach to climate change.
Entitled “
Laudato Si: Our Care for our Common Home,” the document tackles the ongoing perils of global warming, ocean acidification and biodiversity loss. The letter pulls from environmental rationales backed by decades of research. It calls out climate change deniers and confronts the nuanced economic drivers for man-made climate change. “We know that technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels – especially coal, but also oil and, to a lesser degree, gas – needs to be progressively replaced without delay,” Pope Francis writes.
… “this was clearly a document written by someone who understands physical science…somebody who knows what an infrared absorption spectrum is and understands the difference between carbon dioxide and methane.”
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