Australian Cardinal George Pell's assertion that Australia must populate or perish is at odds with Pope Benedict's statement to Australia that Catholics must find a style of life that eases the problems caused to the environment.

Speaking en route to Australia, Benedict said:

We need to rediscover our earth in the face of our God and creator and to re-find our responsibilities in front of our Maker and the creatures of the earth He has placed in our hands in trust.

We need to reawaken our conscience. I want to give impulse to rediscovering our responsibilities and to finding an ethical way to change our way of life and ways to respond to these great challenges.

This sentiment is to be applauded and highlights the differences between the Pope's view of (hu)mankind's responsibility to our environment and the views of some radical elements of the Christian faith, well captured by Christian US columnist Ann Coulter.

Ann Coulter: I take the biblical idea. God gave us the earth.
Democratic Strategist Peter Fenn: Oh, OK.
Coulter: We have dominion over the plants, the animals, the trees.
Fenn: This is a great idea.
Coulter: God says, "Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It's yours."
Fenn: Terrific. We're Americans, so we should consume as much of the earth's resources...
Coulter: Yes! Yes.
Fenn: ... as fast as we possibly can.
Coulter: As opposed to living like the Indians.

Hannity and Colmes, June 22, 2001

Islam isn't the only faith with an unhelpful allocation of exremists.

George Pell appears to have a middle of the road view on these issues.  A self confessed climate change sceptic, Pell's view is that western countries need to grow faster to remain stable.

Speaking at a World Youth Day media conference, Pell said:

There is a crisis in the Western world. No Western country is producing enough babies to keep the population stable, no Western country,

At the commencement of the industrial revolution in the mid 1700's, the world's population has been estimated at about 700 million people.  At this time, carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere was about 278 parts per million (ppm), according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and had occurred within a range over the previous 650,000 years of between 180 and 300 ppm.  Carbon dioxide is the principle cause of climate change.

By 2005, the world's population had increased to 6.5 billion and carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere to 379 parts per million.

Using current birth rates, the world's population is projected to exceed 9 billion people by 2050.

And Pell thinks the best way for Catholics to heed their Pontiff's call to find find a style of life that eases the problems caused to the environment is to have more babies?

Ludicrous, you would think.  But, the truth is, true to form, Pell wasn't talking about the environment at all.

Pell stated that no Western country is producing enough babies to keep the population "stable".

Technically, he is correct.  Looking at Australia, our fertility rate has been recorded at 1.8 births per woman for more than a decade now.  This is hardly enough to replace both biological Mum and Dad and provide for population growth.
 
However, despite this, our population grew from about 18 million to just over 21 million between 1995 and 2008, an increase of about 16 per cent.

If you extrapolate from Pell, this growth isn't the type of growth that "keeps the population stable."

Why not, you might ask?

I wonder if it is because a significant proportion of this growth is a result of immigration and the arrival of people of a multitude of different races and religions (read Islam).

Is this upsetting the "stability" of Australia as a christian nation?

Is the real message from Pell that Catholics should breed fast to ensure we (yes, I am a Catholic) are not outnumbered?

The truth is the world's population is at a critical level, with the consumption patterns of the western minority creating poverty in the developing world and a climate crisis for all of us.

The solution, as the Pope says, is for all of us to find a style of life that eases the problems caused to the environment.

I would imagine the Pope isn't referring to the homosexual lifestyle, even if this would help with population control.

Condoms anyone?

Comments (1)

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written by urban (r)Evolutionary, July 16, 2008 - 3:18:42 pm CDT

"Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it."

RAPE IT?


Extremist Christians are a funny old lot. Extremist anyone, I suppose.

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