Dear Editor: It was good to see the front-page coverage (May 9) given to Pope Francis’ eagerly awaited ecology encyclical and to the role Catholic groups are playing in the attempt to protect the environment from climate change and other kinds of degradation; I remember the excellent coverage given to the part religious groups played in the Climate March in New York City last September.
Considering the consensus on climate change from both religious and secular groups, it was distressing to read the letters from David Yang and John Prentis (Readers’ Forum, May 2) that resorted to terms such as “global warming fascists,” “demonic,” and “Chicken Little on steroids” to denigrate those convinced of the need to take immediate action to protect future generations.
Global warming is a complex subject, but fortunately today there is ample material available presenting the data clearly, even for those of us who are not scientists.
NASA (climate.nasa.gov/evidence) provides information about sea level rise, global temperature rise, warming oceans and extreme events such as intense rainfall events.
The Pentagon has expressed concern for the national security aspects of climate change considering it to be a “threat multiplier.” Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in an October, 2014 report, the “Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap,” that “Rising global temperatures, changing precipitation levels, climbing sea levels, and more extreme weather events will intensify the challenges of global instability, hunger, poverty, and conflict. They will likely lead to food and water shortages, pandemic disease, disputes over refugees and resources and destruction by natural disaster in regions across the globe.”
In addition, the Defense Department is concerned that military bases on both coasts, such as the Norfolk Naval Base, the world’s largest naval station, may be overcome by rising sea levels.
The Vatican has been a leader in the movement to respect the environment. The Vatican Pontifical Academy of Sciences has convened several meetings of climate change scientists; Pope Benedict XVI became known as “the green pope” when he installed photovoltaic cells on the roof of Pope Paul VI hall to propel Vatican City to become the first solar-powered nation; the Vatican is also the world’s first carbon-neutral nation.
“Human-caused changes in the composition of the air and air quality result in more than two million premature deaths worldwide every year,” according to a Vatican Report in 2011.
Mr. Yang and Mr. Prentis bring up abortion, but if we are truly pro-life, we who oppose abortion must accept our radical obligation to care for the environment, for the sake of those living now and for those yet to be born.
PATRICIA KENNEY
Whitestone