Even the pope is concerned about global warming

Pope Francis recently warned of the consequences of ignoring the scientific evidence related to global warming. In a speech in Kenya he said, "It would be sad, and dare I say even catastrophic, were special interests to prevail over the common good ..."

Another headline said, "The Antarctic ice shelf will be gone by 2020." In the text of the article it tells us an ice shelf roughly 15 times the size of Manhattan that has existed for 10,000 years is quickly disappearing. The study came from the journal "Earth and Planetary Science Letters" and was written by researchers from NASA and the University of California.

Some say that the earth has its "cycles" and it is going to do what it is going to do. While we can agree with that statement up to a point, our task, which we have so far decided to ignore, is not to make earth's cycles worse than they would otherwise be.

Today, the number of icebergs floating in the North and South seas is at an all-time high, telling us that more ice is breaking from the ice packs than in previous decades. Glaciers in the Himalayas have receded significantly. The runoff from those glaciers has supplied the Ganges River for centuries and is the source of water for 500 million Indians. India's leadership is afraid the Ganges may be only a dry river bed two decades from now.

Closer to home, the storms in the U.S. Midwest are getting more severe. The drought in California and the Southwest is looking more and more like a permanent happening. A friend there tells me a decade from now, California may look like Arizona.

Countries such as The Maldives in the Indian Ocean are slowly sinking into the rising oceans. When I visited there a decade ago, I found it to be an amazing organization of more than 2,000 islands, each more exotic than the last, but very few more than 2 feet above sea level at their highest point. Their capital city of Mali had sea walls built to protect the city and government buildings. I asked a friend there, who happened to have nine children, what would happen if the ocean rose just a foot. He smiled and asked, "How many bedrooms do you have in your house?"

More and more I like what the pope says. He has taken to heart the responsibility to minister to his flock, some of whom live on every continent. He isn't a scientist, but, unfortunately, many are not listening to our scientists. Perhaps they will listen to one of our more visionary religious leaders. I am heartened that the world's leadership met in Paris talking about this overriding issue for us all.