Conservative thinktank trying to persuade Francis global warming doesn't exist.
Sigh.
A US activist group that has received funding from energy companies and the foundation controlled by conservative activist Charles Koch is trying to persuade the Vatican that there is no global warming crisis ahead of an environmental statement by Pope Francis this summer that is expected to call for strong action to combat climate change.
The Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based conservative thinktank that seeks to discredit established science on climate change, said it was sending a team of climate scientists to Rome to inform Pope Francis of the truth about climate science.
Though Pope Franciss heart is surely in the right place, he would do his flock and the world a disservice by putting his moral authority behind the United Nations unscientific agenda on the climate, Joseph Bast, Heartlands president, said in a statement.
Jim Lakely, a Heartland spokesman, said the thinktank was working on securing a meeting with the Vatican. I think Catholics should examine the evidence for themselves, and understand that the Holy Father is an authority on spiritual matters, not scientific ones, he said.
I hope the Holy Father tells them what to go do with themselves.