{"id":9560,"date":"2015-02-01T18:45:53","date_gmt":"2015-02-01T18:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=9560"},"modified":"2015-02-01T18:45:53","modified_gmt":"2015-02-01T18:45:53","slug":"jumping-on-the-popemobile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/jumping-on-the-popemobile\/","title":{"rendered":"Jumping on the Popemobile"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pope-obama\"<\/a>Cross-posted on the Corne<\/a>r<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only fair to wait and see what Pope Francis has to say about the environment and climate change in his forthcoming encyclical, although, on the basis of a number of his comments on the topic so far, I don\u2019t see any particular grounds for optimism.<\/p>\n

The Obama administration, however, clearly sees an opportunity.<\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/em> reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n

America\u2019s top environmental official has assured the Vatican that the pope and Barack Obama are singing from the same hymnal when it comes to fighting climate change.<\/p>\n

In a visit to the Vatican, Gina McCarthy, the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), conveyed a message to the pope that Obama shared his view that fighting climate change was a moral obligation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want him to know that the president is aligned with him on these issues and that we are taking action in the United States,\u201d McCarthy told the National Catholic Reporter ahead of the meeting.<\/p>\n

She went so far as to suggest that Obama was \u201cworking with the pope\u201d when it came to climate change.<\/p>\n

That alliance, between Obama and the pope, followed from the view that leaders have a moral duty to preserve the earth and protect those most at risk from the consequences of climate change, McCarthy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the most important thing that we can do, working with the pope, is to try to remind ourselves that this is really about protecting natural resources that human beings rely on, and that those folks that are most vulnerable \u2013 that the church has always been focused on, those in poverty and low income \u2013 are the first that are going to be hit and impacted by a changing climate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

EPA officials said McCarthy used the meeting to applaud the pope\u2019s efforts to fight climate change, and to brief the Vatican on Obama\u2019s plan for cutting greenhouse gas emissions that are driving global warming.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that it is the administration that is saying that it is working with the pope, rather than the other way around (it doesn\u2019t appear to be a Cuba re-run). Nevertheless the administration is clearly making an effort to capitalize on Francis\u2019s popularity. That\u2019s good politics.<\/p>\n

Whether the result will be good policy is an entirely different question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted on the Corner It\u2019s only fair to wait and see what Pope Francis has to say about the environment and climate change in his forthcoming encyclical, although, on the basis of a number of his comments on the topic … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[15,711],"tags":[93,397,210,998,403],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9560"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9561,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9560\/revisions\/9561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}