A DIRE warning about the need to mitigate man-made global warning
from a Vatican-appointed panel of scientists has not yet convinced
Australia's highest-ranking Catholic, who said the causes of climate
change were ''unclear''.
A report released this month by the Pontifical Academy of
Sciences called on ''all people and nations to recognise the serious
and potentially irreversible impacts of global warming'' caused by
man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
''By acting now, in the spirit of common but
differentiated responsibility, we accept our duty to one another and to
the stewardship of a planet blessed with the gift of life,'' it read.
The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, said he
would study the document carefully but questioned the effectiveness of
any action.
''Climate change is real. The causes are unclear, and our ability to influence climate change [is] even less certain,'' he said.
Earlier this year Cardinal Pell had dismissed the head
of the Bureau of Meteorology, Greg Ayers, as a ''hot air specialist''
for suggesting that he had been ''misled'' by the geologist Ian Plimer,
whose book on climate change had been criticised by scientists.
Cardinal Pell had relied heavily on Professor Plimer's
work when he argued against human-induced global warming in a written
submission to a Senate estimates hearing, claiming increases in carbon
dioxide tended to follow rises in temperature, not cause them.
''My attitude to any group of scientists depends on the quality of their arguments,'' he told the Herald when asked about the academy's report.
The document, Fate of Mountain Glaciers in the Anthropocene,
was compiled by a working group that included glaciologists, climate
scientists, meteorologists, hydrologists, physicists, mountaineers and
lawyers.
It argued that carbon dioxide was ''the largest single
contributor to greenhouse warming''.