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Speaking Of Asia

The case for bringing faith into the climate issue

Religious figures can be powerful voices for action on climate change. As for politicians, even recalcitrants like Donald Trump will come on board when their voters see the light.

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Pope Francis with Professor Veerabhadran Ramanathan. The scientist is the Pope’s climate change adviser.

PHOTO: L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO

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When the World Economic Forum lists the climate crisis ahead of growing social divides, heightened cyber risks and an uneven economic recovery as the top global risk for 2022 amid a lingering pandemic, you know it is time to seek divine intervention - or at the very least, call the Pope's climate change adviser.
There was a time early in his career when Professor Veerabhadran Ramanathan's lectures to the American Meteorological Society were so thinly attended that the then Nasa scientist would ask his wife to join the audience to make the hall seem a little fuller. These days, as one of the world's top oracles on climate science, his audiences tend to overflow.
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