I find the Pope’s opinions on two topics in particular, as reported, highly confusing and somewhat illogical.

The Pope leads 1.2 billion Catholics around the world. I was very encouraged to read an encyclical will be issued on climate change.

So too the promised encyclical on the environment will provide both encouragement for, and a call to Catholics to engage with, the environmental movement. It will throw the moral authority of the Catholic Church behind the movement and commit the church to ongoing contributions to the environmental debate.

The focus on climate change may perhaps come as a surprise to Australian Catholics who have been accustomed to the denialism of Cardinal George Pell. While Cardinal Pell’s position was not in the Catholic mainstream on this issue, his outspoken stance led many to think that the Church as a whole was in denial on global warming. This encyclical will dispel that misconception.

Source: SMH

Then, butter me both sides, he denounces artificial contraception again!

In advance of a vast rally on Sunday that could draw as many as 6 million people, the pope called on families to be “sanctuaries for respect for life”, and praised the church for maintaining its opposition to modern birth control, even if all Catholics could not live by such rules.

Source: The Guardian

We are already overgrazing the planet. We need to stop breeding like rabbits. At least the Pope did reach out to the priesthood and ask them to be understanding of those Catholics who strayed from the birth control edicts. Look at how we have just exploded. We aren’t a population, we are a plague.

Source: The Sustainable Scale Project

I fail to comprehend how any person can support the science of climate change and ignore the implications of population growth.

“We have created a bubble of human population and economy … that is totally unsustainable and is either going to have to deflate gradually or is going to burst,” said co-author James Brown, a distinguished professor of biology at the University of New Mexico. “If it’s going to burst, the consequences are really going to be grim for people as well as biodiversity and the rest of the planet.”

Forty years ago, the Club of Rome think tank caused a stir when it argued that there were limits to world growth. In 1968, Paul Ehrlich, now a professor of population studies at Stanford University, warned of the dangers of overpopulation in his book “The Population Bomb.”

Source: LA Times

Is the Pope having an each-way bet here?

I do understand the cultural aspects of encouraging people to have lots of children – HISTORICALLY. Sons were needed to hunt and later cultivate as civilisation evolved. Children were needed to look after their parents in old age. The death rates for children were high – still are in many developing nations.

I used the graph below earlier this month in “Today’s Neros fiddle while our planet burns“.

Most of the population growth is coming from the developing world – the cultures where having many children is still considered a positive thing. The adherence to religions is also high in the developing countries. Whether that be Catholicism or Islam doesn’t really matter. Islam also encourages large families, although there is acceptance of birth control.

I’m calling on these religions to reassess what is appropriate. Times have changes. Even if all of us only replace ourselves, the population will continue to grow with our increased longevity. That is still better than the exponential growth we have currently.

While “Elysium” was made to send a message about the health system of the USA, if you have seen it you will recognise a plausible future for us all if we don’t curb our procreation.

Religions must start encouraging their followers to have small families, one or two children at the most. China introduced restrictions years ago and while I’m not convinced their policies were implemented fairly, at least China tried.

So should the rest of us. Now.