So quotes Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia citing the caption of a recent cartoon depicting a freezing Canadian suffering through one of that country’s coldest and snowiest winters on record.

His editorial in the Sunday Telegraph also cites the conclusions of two separate meetings of prominent international scientists in which they warned that attempting to control the earth’s climate is “ultimately futile.”

Pell writes of their conclusions:

“Fighting climate change [is] distracting governments from helping the most vulnerable citizens adapt to the threat of inevitable natural climate changes, whatever they might prove to be. Futile attempts to prevent global climate change would be a tragic misallocation of resources…”

“Inevitable natural climate change” is an interesting context for thinking about the proper response of governments and international bodies to the global warming issue. Should the U.S. and other industrial nations spend billions of dollars and impose restrictions on global economic activity that most agree would have devastating effects on developing economies and the poor? Or, as Pell seems to suggest, should we accept that climate change is inevitable, perhaps even a natural cycle of the earth, and instead focus the worlds resources on adapting to these changes? Particularly when, as Pell writes, more and more evidence suggests that there “might be exceptions to the new rule of man-made global warming.”

Fidelis has yet to take an official position on global warming. We continue to examine the evidence, convinced for the most part that the verdict is still out on whether the earth’s changing climatic cycles are induced by human activity. As Catholics, we believe that everyone should act as responsible stewards of creation. As freedom loving Americans, we are also skeptical of any proposals that require the consolidation of political power at the behest of a minority of “experts” for the purpose of “saving humanity.”