Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is praising both Pope Francis and President Obama for bringing “moral leadership” on the issue of climate change.
Writing at the often dissident National Catholic Reporter, Clinton is taking advantage of the national attention directed at Pope Francis, who calls climate change a pressing international issue.
Clinton stressed the Pope’s words that the earth is “our common home,” and noted that pro-abortion social activist nun Sr. Simone Campbell – one of the Nuns on the Bus – also said earlier this year that “our common home requires our striving for the common good.”
Adopting the role of “a person of faith, a mother, and a grandmother,” Clinton writes that she is “deeply moved by Pope Francis’ recent teachings on climate change.”
Clinton goes on to cite high temperatures in California which have “worsened a brutal drought,” and flooding in New York from Hurricane Sandy “made worse by the fact that New York Harbor is nearly a foot higher now than it was 100 years ago” as evidence of climate change that has been influenced by human activity.
She continues:
Pope Francis is right. All countries and all people are responsible for preventing the worst impacts of climate change. But countries like the United States have a particular role. We are rich, powerful, and blessed with many advantages. We must lead the charge…
For the first time in history, we are within reach of eradicating hunger and extreme poverty. But climate change threatens that progress.
Thanks to President Obama’s leadership, the United States is rallying the world to act. Now Pope Francis is bringing his extraordinary moral leadership to the fight.
Clinton warns against “some who deny the facts” and who are “intent on obstructing progress.”
“We can’t let them win this fight,” she asserts. “We have no choice. There is no Planet B.”
“I want my granddaughter Charlotte to know that her grandmother did everything possible to protect and preserve God’s gift to us, this beautiful planet, our common home,” she states. “That’s why I’m in this fight. And I want all children everywhere, in countries large and small, to know the same thing about their leaders.”