Heatwave convinces Pat Robertson
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Heatwave convinces Pat Robertson a global warming doubter*
August 04, 2006 11:39am
Article from: Agence France-Presse
CONSERVATIVE Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson has said the wave of
scorching temperatures across the United States has converted him into a
believer in global warming.
The view puts him at odds with fellow Republican President George W
Bush, who has benefited politically from Robertson's backing and who has
refused to embrace the concept of human-caused global warming.
"We really need to address the burning of fossil fuels," Mr Robertson
said on his 700 Club broadcast today.
"It is getting hotter, and the ice caps are melting and there is a
build-up of carbon dioxide in the air."
It was an abrupt about-face for Mr Robertson who reaches about one
million US viewers daily and is credited for helping shape political
views of evangelical Christians, a vibrant force behind the Republican
Party.
Last October, Mr Robertson said the National Association of Evangelicals
was teaming up with "far left environmentalists" for saying global
warming was caused by humans and needed to be mitigated.
Also last year, Mr Robertson, 76, said natural disasters affecting the
globe, including hurricanes Katrina and Rita that wrecked the US Gulf
Coast, might be signs that the biblical apocalypse was nearing.
Temperatures have soared to near record levels in some eastern regions
of the United States and Mr Robertson said that was "the most convincing
evidence I've seen on global warming in a long time".
Most scientists link greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide emitted
from the burning of fossil fuels to global warming that could lead to
heat waves, stronger storms and flooding from rising sea levels.
Mr Bush, himself an evangelical Christian, pulled out of the
international Kyoto Protocol setting limits on emissions causing global
warming soon after taking office in 2001 saying it would hurt the
economy and unfairly favoured developing countries.