Food or fuel?

Uncategorized

G8 muckety-mucks meeting in Japan to discuss global warming were roundly scolded by Catholic leaders from around the globe this week, including himself Pope Benedict. Bene's dictums were related to the good old preferential option for the poor as G8 talks, apparently for the most part ineffectual, continued around the problem of climate change and whether or not the good folk in the overly developed world planned on doing anything to address the escalating catastrophe. Fighting climate change quite literally by taking food out of the mouths of the poor and converting it into the allegedly more climate friendly ethanol was part of the reason for this green Pope's concern with the high powered discussions.

But pity the poor Western policymakers, who can't win for losing on these complex, concurrent dilemmas. Even as the Pope was chiding them for not doing enough to protect the world's suddenly detonating number of hungry, the good researchers of the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development were handslapping them for once again not doing enough to combat global warming.

About the author

Kevin Clarke

Kevin Clarke is the chief correspondent for America magazine and author of Oscar Romero: Love Must Win Out (Liturgical Press).