So it appears the Pope is dusting off his Ph.D in Climatology and offering up his opinion on the global warming debate.

The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering.

The German-born Pontiff said that while some concerns may be valid it was vital that the international community based its policies on science rather than the dogma of the environmentalist movement.

(He even went on to call those warning about the effects of global warming, “prophets of doom.” Personally, I would prefer Legion of Doom, but I guess I’ll take what I can get.)

I have so many problems with this I don’t know where to start. So our policies shouldn’t be based on the “dogma of the environmentalist movement?” Well alright, perhaps they should be based on the dogma of the Catholic religion? At least our “dogma” has the backing of a supermajority of the world’s scientists. That’s where all this “scare mongering” comes from – you know, science and fact-based predictions and stuff. It’s amazing how scary some facts really are.

But the Pope… he doesn’t care. He prefers to foist himself into the spotlight (especially with the enormously important Bali conference going on) and take an inane and soon-to-be arcane viewpoint, something that falls in line with lots of other Catholic views. He has no expertise and no reason to use his power in such a weighty debate.

Also, why would he use such harsh language when environmental stewardship is a deeply important virtue to Christians?

Wonkette said it best.