Last week, in an interview with CBS News, Pope Francis called skeptics of massive power and wealth grabs by Malthusian Western elites “climate deniers.” That echoes the manipulative rhetoric of the American left, which smears those who point to election fraud as “election deniers.” The intent there is clear — to associate political enemies with disgraceful Holocaust deniers, who in Europe can end up in prison.

Don’t put it past the left to persecute opponents of electric cars and land-grabs from farmers the way it sought to quarantine COVID vaccine skeptics and (in places like Canada and Finland) imprison opponents of the LGBT agenda.

Pope Francis fed into the agenda of those censors and tyrants, flippantly dismissing legitimate questions about vastly coercive laws based on speculative science:

“There are people who are foolish, and even foolish if they show you them research. They don’t believe it…. They don’t understand the situation or because of their interests, but climate change exists,’” the pope said.

For all his scandals and dubious decisions, Pope Francis still wields influence. His declarations on the “climate crisis” get quoted and used as cudgels. They’re blunt instruments, dulled by his incurious consumption of whatever gruel gets regurgitated and spat into his beak by our elites. Just check out his’ long list of ill-informed, presumptuous declarations on the topic of our ever-changing climate.

Another Galileo Scandal

Since the pope casually claims the mantle of “scientific” truth, let’s test him on the scientific merits. He repeats the talking points of the World Economic Forum and other billionaire talking clubs, whose central thrust is this: We face a “climate emergency” so threatening to human life itself that governments ought to declare a “state of emergency,” and cite it to override every other concern about individual freedom, healthy economies, or even the well-being of the poor.

For this to be true, you’d need to show that man-made alterations to our climate are now inflicting, or can be reliably predicted to soon inflict, substantial damage. You’d have to show critical harm to ecosystems, agricultural outputs, and other mainstays of human life.

And none of that is true. Whatever the media try to pump into your head, the sky isn’t really falling. The number of hydrological, meteorological, and climatological disasters has decreased since 2000. There has been a decline in tropical hurricane frequency since 1850, and not an increase. Deaths associated with these events have decreased since 2000. Even the financial costs of disasters have decreased since that date. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has drought data going back until 1895, and it shows no alarming increase in droughts.

What about the heat? Aren’t we drying up like dying camels in the desert? No. More people die from cold-related incidents than from the heat. Humans by God’s design thrive in optimally warm temperatures. The warmer temperatures of recent centuries aren’t a curse but a blessing. They marked the end of the brutal “Little Ice Age” that caused massive famines in seventeenth-century Europe.

Nor are temperatures rising as quickly as the Climate Cult members claim. Their land-based measurements are dodgy, because they’re often too close to cities which generate heat and skew the results.

We Are Carbon-Based Life Forms. Pass It On!

But what about carbon? Isn’t that a pollutant, and should I get myself sterilized to avoid making more little carbon footprints in the future?

No, carbon is the backbone of life itself, and carbon dioxide is plant food. The recent increase in CO2 concentration and the relatively moderate increase in temperatures have caused a 55.15% growth in green vegetation globally since 2000. This sparked a rapid expansion of food crops, and bigger forests in Europe and in parts of Asia. (13.8 million hectares since 2010 in Asia). Plants like apples, oranges, strawberries, and dozens of other crops can potentially double their yield if carbon dioxide concentration reaches 800-1000 ppm, from its current level of 428 ppm.

But our elites don’t want you to confuse yourself with facts. This isn’t about science at all, but politics. The richest, whitest people on earth have bet their fortunes on “green” energy investments, which they plan to make massively profitable by wielding the heavy hand of the State. And just as he allied with Communist China against Donald Trump’s America, Pope Francis has sided with these elites against the people … especially the poorest people on earth.

The Poor Need More Fossil Fuels, Not Fewer

Across sub-Saharan Africa, millions live in darkness — literal darkness, every night — with 43% of the population denied access to electricity. Some 1 billion people in Africa struggle to afford a healthy diet, with 20% of the population undernourished. Poverty and hunger lead to more than two deaths each day for every 10,000 people in Africa. My group, the Vulnerable People Project, reaches out to some of the world’s most impoverished in these regions. Those people desperately hope for real economic growth, which cozy woke Westerners in the Climate Cult hope to deny them. Klaus Schwab and Bill Gates won’t miss any meals, even as they tell the rest of us to “eat ze bugs.”

Do you remember being told to finish your dinner because of the “starving children in China”? Well they’re not starving anymore, thanks to industrialization made possible by freer markets and cheap, reliable energy.

For those with limited means, the current energy options are often expensive and unreliable. Kerosene lamps, a common source of light, are hazardous and costly. Charcoal contributes to deforestation and indoor air pollution, posing serious health risks. Even in a developed country like Britain, thousands die every year because they can’t afford reliable fuel.

The Climate Cult intends to keep the poorest among us cold, hungry, and in the dark. Making energy more expensive and unreliable means hospitals without refrigerators, factories sitting idle, and poor people cooking their food over foraged charcoal.

Africa sits on a treasure trove of natural resources, including vast oil and gas reserves. Cozy middle-class Westerners want to force these billions of poor people to leave all that in the ground.

Maybe instead of relying on press releases from Davos and Brussels, Pope Francis should reconsider the message of more than 200 professionals specializing in climatology, economic sciences, and moral philosophy — who begged him to stop using his office to promote pseudo-science that served elites.