This past week the U.S. Senate went on record saying that climate change was real and not a hoax. Fifteen Republican Senators even voted “yes” on an amendment that said that human activity contributed to climate change. The latter measure fell one vote shy of breaking a filibuster and passing. We’re making progress.
But while 39 Republican Senators couldn’t bring themselves to admit that we humans are contributing to climate change, Pope Francis thinks so.
When the Pope issues his encyclical this summer and then visits the United States this fall, one of his anticipated messages will be that climate change is real and it is mostly caused my man. He will urge all Catholics and the industrialized nations to fight climate change, which the Pope sees as having a disproportionate negative impact on poorer nations.
2015 is going to be interesting and hopefully a turning point for this country in starting to really dealing with cutting carbon pollution and making our coastal communities more resilient to sea level rise.