There he goes again.

According to NBC News:

Pope Francis made his strongest statements yet about climate change Wednesday, rebuking fossil fuel companies and urging countries to make an immediate transition to renewable energy.

In a new document titled “Laudate Deum,” or “Praise God,” the pope criticizes oil and gas companies for greenwashing new fossil fuel projects and calls for more ambitious efforts in the West to tackle the climate crisis. In the landmark apostolic exhortation, a form of papal writing, Francis says that “avoiding an increase of a tenth of a degree in the global temperature would already suffice to alleviate some suffering for many people.”

In “Laudate Deum,” Francis says that “the necessary transition towards clean energy sources such as wind and solar energy, and the abandonment of fossil fuels, is not progressing at the necessary speed.”

The pope does not shy away from the responsibility of oil and gas companies, saying new fossil fuel exploration only further contributes to the climate crisis. “[W]hatever is being done risks being seen only as a ploy to distract attention,” he writes.

Which, as one wag noted on Twitter, looks like the kind of statement an NGO might make, not the leader of a huge Church focused on eternal truths. Cut off the reference to Christ at the top and the minor statement refering to Christ at the bottom and all that's there is NGO-talk about the evils of Big Oil and the importance of killing off this vital industry in order to "go green." It's the kind of tired and dreary statement a Soros-backed organization might make and always makes.

That's well out of the pope's wheel well, given that most people don't go looking to him for advice on fossil fuel consumption, which is a topic he knows nothing about. Even King Charles of the U.K., whom we also know is a greenie from his days as a prince, knows enough to stay out of this kind of territory now that he's king. He gets it. Too bad this pope does not.

It's also infuriating. Global warming is a fraud. There's nothing true about its phony claims, which are constantly being exposed as junk science. What's more, his advocacy of wind and solar is ... a little specific, and worse still, ignores that these are highly inefficient sources of energy which rely on fossil fuels as well as government subsidies to stay afloat because they aren't sustainable on their own. Worse still, these particular methods of energy are magnets for fraud, waste, and corruption, constant fodder for scandals in the news, all because they don't do what they say they can do.

Why is the pope promoting this scandal-plagued grift? And why is he demonizing fossil fuels which are the root source of modern societies. Given that he is constantly asserting the right of illegals from primitive societies to migrate in the West whether the West can absorb them or not, what does he think illegals are coming to the states for? Green energy? They have lots of green energy in their home countries -- with the usual results. What they'd really like is to be able to flip on a light switch and have a light come on, which is only attainable through a reliable supply of fossil fuels with minimal government involvement.

It's amazing what he takes for granted as he singles out the West for criticism and tells it to lower its standards of living. One group he doesn't criticize is China, which contributes more pollution from fossil fuels and coal than anyone. That he says nothing is yet another problem with his statement.

The pope released his statement on the Feast Day of St. Francis, patron saint of the environment and all its earthly creatures. He could have put out something very nice, very readable, and capable of passing the test of time, by focusing on caring for the environment and not wasting its resources. Nobody is going to disagree with that, and many would be interested in whatever challenge he might put forth with focus on that.

Instead he micromanages which kinds of fuel is to be prescribed, scolds the West, and commands inventors to invent impossible economies with fuel, which is basically asking for magic instead of following science.

He's deep into Galileo territory on this one, and all he will end up doing is create a document that people will laugh about in a hundred years' time. He shouldn't be pronouncing at all on global warming, which no one knows for sure about, and intelligent people know is fake, Eventually, this errant idea will be accepted as fake, so he's going to look silly. What's more, there is no heavenly mandate about what kind of energy people can or will or should use. It's as if pope were to command the faithful to use buggy whips instead of cudgels on their horse transportation, when in reality, technology surpassed the whole horse scheme and horses are no longer used for transportation at all. That's how progress goes. No pope was ever dumb enough to go there from the last century, wading into temporal modes of living and stirring controversies about them instead of focusing on the eternal.

This is sad stuff, the pope and his embarrassing hobbyhorse which has nothing to do with faith or morals. He's just Greta Thunberg in a dress on this, a man with an ill-informed opinion who lives in a bubble and has no business commenting from the seat of St. Peter on things he knows nothing about.

Image: Screen shot from RomeReports.com video, via YouTube