The encyclical is a thoroughly reactionary document. A mixture of junk science, junk economics and junk ethics, what Pope Francis advocates would prevent the world’s poor from escaping from poverty – just as it would have prevented the industrial revolution, which enabled the western world to escape from poverty and squalor. I’m sure the Pope means well, but it is well known that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. –Lord Lawson,
Ideacity Conference, 19 June 2015
“The present world system is certainly unsustainable,” Pope Francis says. Surely we cannot know this. If that word “certainly” is wrong, we should apply the “precautionary principle” so beloved of the catastrophists. The burden of proof is on them before we let them stifle economic growth. Papal advisers may feel that, by associating himself with environmentalism, the Pope is reading the signs of the times. The opposite could be true. He could be painting himself into a corner, as some in the Church did in the past when they denounced the theory of evolution. --Charles Moore,
The Daily Telegraph, 20 June 2015
The Papal encyclical on the environment is especially welcome at the Club of Rome which introduced the idea of “Limits to Growth” in the 1970s. “The Pope makes points that are indistinguishable from those that the Club of Rome has been making for years”, says Roberto Peccei, Vice President. Like the Vatican, the Club of Rome says that to solve our climate problems and build a fairer society, nature and society must be placed before economics and short term profit. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, a member of the Club of Rome, presented Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment together with Cardinal Turkson on 18 June in Rome. --
Club of Rome, 19 June 2015
When it comes to environmental and climate policy, Germany’s Scientific Advisory Council on Global Environmental Change (WBGU) is an influential advisory committee for the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The chairman of the council is Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. In April 2011, the WBGU presented a report entitled “World in Transition – Social Contract for a Great Transformation”. The main theses: The current economic model (“fossil industrial metabolism”) is untenable. The WBGU admits frankly, that the decarbonization of society can only be achieved by the limitation of democracy. To carry out this utopian new vision, democratic institutions, the freedom of lifestyles and the right to material well-being is to be sacrificed. --Fritz Vahrenholt,
Die Welt, 27 Mai 2011
