Comments on: Pope Buys a Papal Indulgence http://climateprogress.org/2007/07/19/pope-buys-a-papal-indulgence/ The Latest on Climate Science, Solutions, and Politics Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:11:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1 By: Green Catholic http://climateprogress.org/2007/07/19/pope-buys-a-papal-indulgence/#comment-4760 Green Catholic Fri, 20 Jul 2007 12:39:29 +0000 http://climateprogress.org/2007/07/19/pope-buys-a-papal-indulgence/#comment-4760 Pardon the pun here, but I think your post misses the forest for the trees. Whatever your feelings about religion, Catholicism, and old men with large hats (aka. The Pope), as someone concerned with the environment you have to be encouraged by the Vatican's aggressive move toward environmental sustainability. There are 1.1 billion Catholics in the world (one-sixth of the World's population for those keeping score at home) that the Vatican has some degree of influence over. The Pope's ability to create greater environmental awareness and action--he does have a direct line from God after all--is immense, likely more so than say Al Gore's or Shakira's. You're post <em>should</em> be talking about that phenomenon (and the growing link between religious movements and the environment in general) rather than taking cynical potshots at one piece of the Vatican's overall environmental strategy. Yes, offsets are <em>not</em> a panacea for climate change--we <em>get it</em>. But let's not criticize and discourage a larger movement over one bit of feel good (albeit flawed) strategy. After all, last time I checked trees were still good for the environment. Or has that changed? Pardon the pun here, but I think your post misses the forest for the trees. Whatever your feelings about religion, Catholicism, and old men with large hats (aka. The Pope), as someone concerned with the environment you have to be encouraged by the Vatican’s aggressive move toward environmental sustainability. There are 1.1 billion Catholics in the world (one-sixth of the World’s population for those keeping score at home) that the Vatican has some degree of influence over. The Pope’s ability to create greater environmental awareness and action–he does have a direct line from God after all–is immense, likely more so than say Al Gore’s or Shakira’s.

You’re post should be talking about that phenomenon (and the growing link between religious movements and the environment in general) rather than taking cynical potshots at one piece of the Vatican’s overall environmental strategy.

Yes, offsets are not a panacea for climate change–we get it. But let’s not criticize and discourage a larger movement over one bit of feel good (albeit flawed) strategy. After all, last time I checked trees were still good for the environment. Or has that changed?

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