Pope Francis urges Trump to reconsider ‘global warming’ position
By Philip Pullella
ROME (Reuters) – The Vatican urged U.S. President Donald Trump to listen to “dissenting voices” and reconsider his position on climate change on Thursday, saying the United States risked being supplanted by China as leader in environmental protection.
Pope Francis has made defense of the environment a key plank of his papacy, strongly backing scientific opinion that global warming is caused mostly by human activity.
“This is a challenge for us,” said Cardinal Peter Turkson, the pope’s point man for the environmental, immigration and development, when asked about Trump’s executive order dismantling Obama-era climate change regulations and his immigration policies.
“Fortunately, in the United States, there are dissenting voices, people who are against Trump’s positions,” said Turkson, who is from Ghana and was one of the driving forces behind the pope’s 2015 encyclical letter on environmental protection.
“This, for us, is a sign that little by little, other positions and political voices will emerge and so we hope that Trump himself will reconsider some of his decisions,” Turkson told reporters at a breakfast meeting.
The pope and the Vatican, which has diplomatic relations with more than 180 countries and a permanent observer status at the United Nations, have strongly backed the international Paris Agreement in 2015 to curb world temperatures.
“We as a Church, are full of hope that (Trump’s positions) will change,” Turkson said.…
Russia President Putin: Climate skeptics may not be so ‘silly’
Russia President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that climate change doubters “may not be at all silly.”
In an interview by CNBC at the International Arctic Forum in Arkhangelsk, Russia, Putin was asked about the rollback of environmental regulations from U.S. President Donald Trump‘s administration.
“Those people who are not in agreement with opponents (of climate change) may not be at all silly,” Putin replied via an interpreter.
Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday to reverse regulations imposed by the Obama administration that had been designed to curb the devastating impact of climate change.
Trump’s Energy Independence Executive Order effectively suspends over six measures ratified by his predecessor, and though businesses have welcomed the move, environmental campaigners and many world leaders have condemned the action.
While Putin reaffirmed Russia’s commitment to the Paris climate agreement, he also agreed with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö’s comments regarding the inevitability of global warming. It would “continue anyway and anyhow,” Putin said of climate change.
As a compromise to Washington’s environmental position, Moscow would attempt to meet the U.S. halfway to find a solution.
PANIC: NYT Melts Down Over Trump ‘Denialists’ ‘Risking the Planet’
By Scott Whitlock | March 29, 2017 | 1:50 PM EDT
The New York Times on Wednesday offered a collective freak out, devoting no less than four articles to how the “denialists” in the Trump administration are “risking the planet” by rolling back Barack Obama’s climate regulation. That amounted to almost 4000 words. Jettisoning any pretense of objectivity, the liberal paper included this biased headline: “Climate Change Denialists in Charge.” Writer Coral Davenport warned, “Climate denial starts at the top.”
Calling skeptics “deniers” is the type of loaded term that the New York Times would never throw around when it comes to liberal causes. Are pro-abortion liberals life- deniers? In an op-ed, the paper warned of coming doom: “Only 10 weeks into his presidency, and at great risk to future generations, Donald Trump has ordered the demolition of most of President Barack Obama’s policies to combat climate change by reducing emissions from fossil fuels.”
The paper described it as an “assault” and then shifted to Trump’s “ignorance”:
Perhaps most important, Mr. Trump’s ignorance has stripped America of its hard-won role as a global leader on climate issues.
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The unsigned editorial moved to “madness”:
Are there ways to avert this madness? Yes. Mr. Trump’s orders will not take effect right away. The E.P.A. will need a year or longer to develop a replacement for the Clean Power Plan.
“Demolition, “assault,” “ignorance,” “madness.” The Times on Wednesday reads like an angry e-mail that someone accidentally sent to the whole office.
But that wasn’t enough, the front page article by Mrs. Davenport and writer Alissa J. Rubin sounded apocalyptic:
President Trump, flanked by company executives and miners, signed a long-promised executive order on Tuesday to nullify President Barack Obama’s climate change efforts and revive the coal industry, effectively ceding American leadership in the international campaign to curb the dangerous heating of the planet.
Tom Friedman was no less worried. The headline for his op-ed sneered, “Trump Is a Chinese agent.” The liberal columnist raged:
…Trump took his Make China Great campaign to a new level on Tuesday by rejecting the science on climate change and tossing out all Obama-era plans to shrink our dependence on coal-fired power. Trump also wants to weaken existing mileage requirements for U.S.-made vehicles. Stupid.