“’We fundamentally have to transform our economy in ways that are unimaginable to people who are over 40,’ Tomlinson said. ‘We have to cooperate, innovate and compromise, and most of all, we have to set aside our pride.’”
“[Tomlinson] said there is an unwillingness of pastors of all faiths to address climate change, knowing that many of their parishioners are involved in or invested in oil and gas.”
The Houston Chronicle business editorialist, Chris Tomlinson, is angry, impatient, and closed-minded when it comes to all things climate. A bona fide climate alarmist, he bullies the oil and gas industry to stop what they are doing. He wants Texans to stop eating meat to help save the planet. And he personally tells me in emails that I am not considered for his columns because I am critical about him (so be it). [1]
Tomlinson sees little-to-no problem with wind and solar wounding the Texas grid, resulting in the Great Texas Blackout of February 2021. Far from being critical of dilute, intermittent, government-enabled wind and solar, he can hardly criticize what has personally made him, in wedlock, a millionaire.
Here is the latest on Tomlinson from an article by Annette Baird in the Texas Catholic Herald, “Now is the Time to Act to Protect the Planet, Advocates Say.” Reading the article below, consider what the Church of Climate is all about–Deep Ecology plus a ego-complex of controlling other people’s lives because they have the truth, the vision, of goodness.
Now is the time to act to protect the planet, advocates say BY ANNETTE BAIRD Herald Correspondent HOUSTON — Scientists and local leaders at recent Archdiocesan conference on environmental issues said the Church must do more to heed the call of Pope Francis’s environmental encyclical “Laudato Si’” to mitigate and prevent the dire consequences to human life stemming from climate change caused by human activity.
Quoting the encyclical, Daniel Cardinal DiNardo opened the event by emphasizing that the call to action and solidarity by all to be responsible for the care of “God’s handiwork is not an optional or secondary aspect of our Christian experience.”
More than 100 people attended the “Faith in Action for Our Common Home” conference held at St. Dominic Center on Oct. 1. The Archdiocese’s first-of-its-kind conference was prompted by growing concern about the state of the environment in light of the pope’s seminal encyclical in which he calls on Catholics and non-Catholics unite to protect “our common home.”
Dr. Philip Sakimoto, director of the Minor in Sustainability at the University of Notre Dame, a keynote speaker, said if we don’t act now, we can expect more death and destruction from extreme weather events and massive migration as people seek to escape increasingly hostile environments.
Taking a theological approach, Sister Linda Gibler, OP, also a keynote speaker, said Catholics have a duty to take care of one another and the environment that God has created. Sister Gibler referred to “integral ecology,” the Church’s approach to tackling today’s ecological crisis by everyone working together to protect the planet. “When we care for creation, we are caring for the poor,” Sister Gibler said, noting that all are dependent for life on God’s gift of the natural world.
Sakimoto, who has attended Vatican events on the environment, also painted a dire picture with glaciers and polar ice caps melting at an accelerated rate, rising ocean temperatures and extreme weather across the globe, including the droughts and wildfires in the southern and western U.S. and recent Hurricanes Ian and Fiona. “We can expect more and more of these extreme weather catastrophes every year,” Sakimoto said. He added the cost, in terms of deaths, clean up, food shortages and migration will only increase, saying there could be an estimated 200 million asylum seekers by 2050.
The goal of the conference, organizers said, was to spotlight the Church’s moral obligation to make caring for the environment a priority. Panelists of everyday activists in Galveston-Houston called on Church leaders to make climate change a top issue, whether it’s in the homilies or supporting parishioners who want to take action and galvanize others into action in their parishes and personal lives. Living simply, conscientiously, and with concern for the impacts of our consumption and behavior on our neighbors and the natural world are core to leading a Christian way of life, they said.
Roger Ingersoll, a Catholic climate educator, said the biggest obstacles to addressing climate change are apathy and a lack of urgency. He said climate change that impacts all life should be the top priority of the U.S. bishops’ conference. One speaker, Sister Ricca Dimalibot, CCVI, spoke of the health threats to fetal life by air pollution, which affects the developing brains and lungs of unborn babies. “Climate change is a critical life issue,” Ingersoll said. “The Church needs to … be consistent about life.”
Deanna Ennis, director of construction and preventative maintenance for the Archdiocese, said she would like to see more urgency for combatting climate change from more priests and Church leaders. “We don’t hear about these issues in the pews — that’s pretty stunning,” Ennis said. “We have to learn, to educate, to act. We have to be willing to change.”
Enter Tomlinson
Houston Chronicle business columnist Chris Tomlinson said many of the obstacles to combatting climate change, especially in Texas, boil down to economics. He said there is an unwillingness of pastors of all faiths to address climate change, knowing that many of their parishioners are involved in or invested in oil and gas.
“We fundamentally have to transform our economy in ways that are unimaginable to people who are over 40,” Tomlinson said. “We have to cooperate, innovate and compromise, and most of all, we have to set aside our pride.”
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While the situation is dire, Sister Gibler said they believe the window of opportunity is still open. “We have time to do something, but the time is now,” Sister Gibler said.
Sakimoto called on Catholic organizations across the globe to make a commitment to fight climate change by coming up with their own plan and putting it into action. He advocated for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, changing the means of energy production, switching to a plant-based diet, and buying less “stuff.”
Ennis said the Archdiocese is concentrating on energy efficiency in parishes and pointed out that all electric contracts now draw power from renewable sources. At the parish level, Ennis said staff and parishioners can reduce energy costs and create “care teams” to raise awareness.
Deacon Arturo Monterrubio and his wife Esperanza of St. Paul the Apostle in Nassau Bay were eager to take what they had learned and raise awareness in their Spanish-speaking church community about the desperate need to fight climate change and change habits. “This is an opportunity to make clear the message from the pope’s Laudato Si’ — read it, practice it, and respond to it,” Deacon Monterrubio said….
[1] First, to pretend that he would include my thoughts in his columns if not for my criticism is disingenuous. He had plenty to time to invite me in the old days. And he should now if he really cared for an expert opinion different from his. (He is in the business of being accurate and fair, correct?)
In fact, the Houston Chronicle editorial board refused to schedule a meeting with me (and others I would bring) to present another side of the story. After Trump’s election, I explained that my nonprofit IER (long a Houston-based entity then headquartered in Washington) was leading the Trump transition team with the U.S. Department of Energy. Surely this would be of interest!
First, no response. I resent it. Then this response was, paraphrasing: ‘we cannot take all comers….’ And that retiring editor was replaced by a far more biased one against consumer-chosen, taxpayer neutral, affordable, reliables energies (oil, gas, and coal in particular).
Question for the Chronicle and its parent Hearst: how much money has been granted for ‘environmental reporting’ to have a Chris Tomlinson or regular energy beat reporters that trumpet every little development with wind, solar, batteries but all but ignore their negative effects?
I will wager that they have received monies–a lot of monies–from alarmist foundations to propagandize in the oil and gas capital of the U.S. and world. And yes, it helped poison the air for the reliables and pave the way for ‘ESG’ investing, a story for another time.
P.S. And the Chronicle will not even publish my letters-to-the-editor.
Jesus, these people are flat-out nutjobs.