Dear Editor, Interesting that there exists in many countries branches of an organisation known as: The Flat Earth Society. They believe that it is possible to fall off the edge of the world and vanish into emptiness. They base their belief it seems, at least in part, on the Gospel instruction where the Lord commanded His followers to preach the Good News to the ends of the Earth.
I have no idea whether or not the members of that society ever travel by plane to distant lands or if they have read of intrepid explores who fly solo around the world in balloons. All I do know is that they persist in their folly and gain media prominence for themselves in the process.
Interesting too that for quite some time there has been a giant hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica. Its existence has not resulted from any direct intervention by God but from the release of highly toxic emissions into the atmosphere by us humans. This is having a disastrous effect on the oceans of the world as the great ice masses melt and oceans are gradually rising.
Pope Francis, God’s primus inter pares (first among equals) of Roman Catholics, states in his great encyclical Laudato Si’ “Our sister Earth cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of goods”.
We all share in that guilt. As individuals and as community we must strive to lessen the terrible devastation.
For anyone to deny that environmental degradation is daily occurring is to disregard the most basic theory of cause and effect. For anyone in high office to pretend that carbon emissions are not a factor in global damage is to speak contrary to the most prudent scientific evidence. To adopt such a stance is to ignore the evidence that is a daily reality.
To preach such a ‘gospel’ is to be counter truth and to be a parallel traveller with members of the Flat Earth Society.
Yours, etc.,
Michael Gleeson,
Killarney, Co. Kerry.