Catholic Insight

Inspired by Truth, Enlightening Minds for the Church in Canada and Throughout the World

Catholic Insight

Inspired by Truth, Enlightening Minds for the Church in Canada and Throughout the World

Laying Heavy Burdens of Carbon

John Robson is right, when he decries the hypocrisy of Prime Minister Trudeau and his entourage of 225 ‘delegates’ to the ‘climate change’ conference in sunny and warm Morocco.  Yes, you read rightly, that’s 200 plus 25, along with Trudeau, his whole family, and one may presume an in-law  and nanny or two, trailing one giant plume of exhaust, leaving a ‘carbon footprint’ worthy of a entire medium-sized African country.  Do not think these ‘elites’ will be dwelling in tents and munching on nan bread; say not, for, as the best and brightest in whatever passes for climate-change-ology, they will, one may presume, be flown in first-class, lodged in at least four star hotels, with buffet meals, with all the waste that entails; valets and chauffeurs will abound, drinks charged to the taxpayer in the evening, and scrumptious breakfasts in the morning, soirees, and perhaps even a spa and massage or two.

From their royal perch, King Trudeau and his courtiers will be preaching the doctrine of abstinence from consumption for all and sundry; like the prophets of old, they will condemn all our, the hoi pollloi, ‘waste’ and ‘extravagance’, how we must reduce our own ‘carbon footprint’ asymptotically to zero, imposing heavy burdens on men’s backs, while scarcely lifting a finger to move them themselves.

Here is Trudeau, a millionaire and the scion of a millionaire, a dedicated ‘environmentalist’, who has perhaps never lifted a finger to do his own laundry, who jets everywhere at great expense on private planes with his army of sycophants in tow, planning to impose a ‘carbon tax’ on the entire nation, irrespective of the legitimate autonomy and will of each province and their Premiers.  Since we all produce carbon as a consequence just of staying alive, such a  tax amounts to a tax upon life itself, which is about as unjust, intrusive and burdensome tax as one could imagine.

One is not even permitted to debate, to say nothing of dispute, the ‘science’ of ‘climate change’.  Not only is carbon dioxide not a pollutant, it is the very ‘air’ upon which plants breathe, and we need plants, and lots of them, to live.  So do animals, which we also need.  Does carbon contribute to global warming?  Well, if the planet is reallly warming up (and  two or three years do not a trend make in the age of an entity like a ‘planet’), there may possibly, just  perhaps, be a correlation, but so many other factors go into the temperature of a planet (itself notoriously difficult to measure) that peeling out one factor is well-nigh impossible.

I cannot help but think that there is something far more sinister going on behind the scenes here, of which perhaps the likes of Trudeau and his fellow traveler David Suzuki (beware an octogenarian who wants to ‘leave a legacy’!) are not even themselves aware.  But someone, perchance, is.

Donald Trump is no saviour, but his denial of the pastiche-science of climate change is a healthy sign, and a recent article suggests that Trudeau may have to rethink his carbon tax scheme if America does not go along.  To cripple the Canadian economy on the basis of flimsy science is not a prudent move.  But Trudeau seems to have a bit of a saviour complex himself, and his evangelical zeal for all things ecological borders on the unhinged.

But then truth is the adequatio rei et intellectus, the conformity of the mind to reality, and Trudeau, and the oligarchic political class, do not inhabit reality, or at least the same reality as most readers of this column.

The one saving grace is that reality, and truth, always win in the end.

So have hope. Christ has already overcome the world, and all the illusions thereof.

Carney’s Amoral Majority

After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading

Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress

This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading

Remembering Father Alphonse de Valk

(Today marks the sixth anniversary of the death of Father Alphonse de Valk, C.S.B., a faithful, courageous and indefatigable Basilian priest, pro-life-and-family apostle, and the founder of Catholic Insight magazine. Here is what we wrote those on his entering into eternity five years ago, as we continue to remember him in our prayers and thoughts)[…]Continue reading

A Tale of Two Benedicts

A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading

My Name is Bernadette

April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading

Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully

Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading

The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus

As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading

Canonizing Sister Faustina and Divine Mercy

HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER  MASS IN ST PETER’S SQUARE FOR THE CANONIZATION OF SR MARY FAUSTINA KOWALSKA Sunday, 30 April 2000   1. “Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus, quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius”; “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his steadfast love endures for ever” (Ps 118: 1). So the Church sings on the Octave of[…]Continue reading

Divine Mercy Sunday – An Echo of Every Mass

Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe’…  ‘My Lord and my God!’ (Jn. 20:18)). Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, and as we celebrate the end of the Easter Octave, we contemplate the wounded side of our Saviour, the Church’s source of life. On Good Friday in the[…]Continue reading

Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów

We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading

Scroll to top