It's amazing what a hard on NPR has for higher taxes and destroying economic activity. Imagine if they actually directed this propaganda to our enemies instead of us.
Pope Francis and Other Christian Leaders Are Calling for Bold Climate Action
71–80 of 108 posts
Re: Pope Francis and Other Christian Leaders Are Calling for Bold Climate Action
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Policies touted by a lot of left leaning politicians aren’t practical and many of them know it but they say it anyway. Your point stands, Democrat solutions addressing climate change are definitely pretty bad. That being said, at least they have some climate change policies they're pushing for right now instead of kicking the can down the road. Can you honestly say the same about Republicans?
Considering that the US share of greenhouse gases is fairly small (15% of world total), has decreased quite a lot over time, and becomes harder on the margin, I'd say it's mostly just slinging words for political power at this point. My own take is that you can avoid ecological devastation only through population reduction and in the short term by not up-leveling the Third World via mass immigration and industrializa…
> only through population reduction…
Since this would necessitate birth control, it would be in direct conflict with the beliefs of the Catholic Church and couldn’t be supported by the Pope.
Re: Pope Francis and Other Christian Leaders Are Calling for Bold Climate Action
#73Great. Now tell the American bishops to call off the culture war. Catholics have instructions on how to resolve the dilemma where one candidate supports doctrine A, and the other candidate supports doctrine B. In plain terms, it's basically "choose your battles." This came to light when the dilemma of the day was abortion versus capital punishment and the poor. Owing largely to the culture war, American Catholics hav…
> Owing largely to the culture war, American Catholics have provided decisive support to the party that calls global warming a hoax.
You’ve maybe been looking at polling data that breaks out White Catholics (but not Catholics as a whole) as a subgroup and not realizing how much work the “White” part is doing. (Though, even there, its only a slight majority of White Catholics that support the Republican Party; while Catholics as a whole have a slight majority supporting the Democratic Party.)
Re: Pope Francis and Other Christian Leaders Are Calling for Bold Climate Action
#74Hot take: it doesn't matter who comes out in favour of stronger action on climate change. The only way we'll get significant change is when it becomes economic to do so. The world population or even a significant percentage of it won't change their behaviour altruistically even for a minor inconvenience and risk. New coal plants aren't built (mostly) and old ones are closing not because of altruism or a genuine conce…
Or electricity price raises so much people will stop using it. There is already CO2 tax, polution tax. My country even collects TV license fee from electricity. Rebuilding grid for solar and EVs requires major overhaul. That is not happening. In EU prices are already up by 50% and grid is becoming more unstable. When Germany switches off its remaining nuclear and coal power plants, it will sky rockets. People will bu…
> People will build off-grid solars to avoid fees, and government will make off-grid illegal or tax it severely.
That sounds like a waking nightmare
Re: Pope Francis and Other Christian Leaders Are Calling for Bold Climate Action
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Sex without being open to life is porn: without the act of self giving and preparedness to receive children, you are left with a corrupted, self-directed form of pleasure. Nope. I've had 3 kids. I have emotionally and rationally concluded that having another child is inappropriate; it is a form of excess and inbalance. So, I want to have sex for love now. Really, you are going to tell me that, by stopping at 3, I a…
Religion has always been and will always be a very effective way to control the masses. It is much cheaper and easier than armies and bombs. Can you get large groups of people to do stupid stuff like don't have sex before marriage , don't swear etc, by any method? The only way, is religion. We can read religious texts and take some good things from them, but following everything a religion (any religion) says blindly…
We have evolved to remove God from religion but we still blindly follow pop-cultural leaders, politicians, appointed experts. Controlling people with mass media is easier than organized religion.
Re: Pope Francis and Other Christian Leaders Are Calling for Bold Climate Action
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
True, but if they all went Democratic, it would tip the scales considerably. The margins in many regions are a tiny number of percentage points, and the Senate is 50-50 right now. A small percentage, not even a nationwide majority, have given us a heavily biased supreme court. That's what I mean by decisive support. The Bishops could tip the scales if they were told to. This is about how the Pope could influence the…
>True, but if they all went Democratic, it would tip the scales considerably. It would be a tricky thing. You'd have to convince Catholics that Oregon-style abortion law (legal right up until birth) was reasonable and that the normalization of mental illness was desirable (the current rage for transsexuals). OTOH, as a trans-national organization, I could see shifting the Catholic hierarchy into thinking that unlimit…
> OTOH, as a trans-national organization, I could see shifting the Catholic hierarchy into thinking that unlimited mass immigration to Western countries was desirable. More membership, more souls to save and all that.
I don't think that's how it works. Churches are usually very "local", and "local" stuff is usually the ones that resists the most immigration.
Re: Pope Francis and Other Christian Leaders Are Calling for Bold Climate Action
#77Hot take: it doesn't matter who comes out in favour of stronger action on climate change. The only way we'll get significant change is when it becomes economic to do so. The world population or even a significant percentage of it won't change their behaviour altruistically even for a minor inconvenience and risk. New coal plants aren't built (mostly) and old ones are closing not because of altruism or a genuine conce…
[deleted]
Re: Pope Francis and Other Christian Leaders Are Calling for Bold Climate Action
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Considering that the US share of greenhouse gases is fairly small (15% of world total), has decreased quite a lot over time, and becomes harder on the margin, I'd say it's mostly just slinging words for political power at this point. My own take is that you can avoid ecological devastation only through population reduction and in the short term by not up-leveling the Third World via mass immigration and industrializa…
> only through population reduction… Since this would necessitate birth control, it would be in direct conflict with the beliefs of the Catholic Church and couldn’t be supported by the Pope.
To be fair, US Catholics appear to have roughly the same birthrate as US Evangelical Protestants, although that might change as Catholic demographics shift to Latino.
What we (the world) will be awash in is Moslems and sub Saharan Africans unless those curves get bent via behavior changes, resource depletion, or war. I can't say that the Pope is much involved in that situation.
Re: Pope Francis and Other Christian Leaders Are Calling for Bold Climate Action
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Sex without being open to life is porn: without the act of self giving and preparedness to receive children, you are left with a corrupted, self-directed form of pleasure. Nope. I've had 3 kids. I have emotionally and rationally concluded that having another child is inappropriate; it is a form of excess and inbalance. So, I want to have sex for love now. Really, you are going to tell me that, by stopping at 3, I a…
> But damn. Belief in a petty, spiteful God-man? How can people perpetuate such an idea? Just to scare children? this is something i've always found hilarious. he's all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing. he created us, and now demands our love, adoration, and is jealous. is he lonely? is there nothing else to do in this universe except be concerned with how we live our lives? punish us with plagues? he gave us free w…
It's capriciousness. The god of the bible has all the psychological characteristics of man. The slogan is "God made man in His image." But the foundational documents show it is, yet again, another man-made deity. One of thousands man has created and disposed of.
Job is the best book though. God and Satan make a bet...
Re: Pope Francis and Other Christian Leaders Are Calling for Bold Climate Action
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
The US GHG per capita remains one of the highest in the world, so things can be improved.
That's an argument that stems more from a concept of 'fairness' than one that might save the world.
Not a world saving solution, just adding necessary context around the “fairly small” comment.