(LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Christoph Schönborn has promoted climate change alarmism, linking wildfires to global warming in a social media post.
Today Schönborn wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “Blooming vacation paradises are turning into burning hells.” The cardinal was clearly referring to recent wildfires in Greece, Turkey, Hawaii, and Canada, among others.
“Hundreds of thousands of people, tourists and locals, had to flee from the flames. Many of them have lost everything, their homes, their possessions,” the cardinal’s statement continues.
“Numerous people have already died in the flames. Among them, 18 unnamed refugees on the border between Greece and Turkey. Huge areas of land have been destroyed, the basis of life for people, animals and plants have been destroyed.”
“The firefighters, who are on duty around the clock and fight the flames to exhaustion, perform superhuman feats! They risk their lives to save people and nature.“
Schönborn then appears to link the fires to global warming and issues a vague call to action, asking people to change their lives.
“Heat waves and forest fires are a clear sign: The earth is heating up! We cannot go on as before. It affects us all,” the Austrian prelate stated.
Schönborn’s statement was reposted by the President of Austria, Alexander van der Bellen, former head of the far-left Green Party.
Arsonists, not climate change, caused forest fires
Contrary to Schönborn’s statement and the claims of many climate alarmists, high temperatures alone do not cause forest fires. Many arsonists have been arrested recently, e.g., in Greece and Canada, and were likely responsible for starting their local fires.
READ: Media blames ‘climate change’ for Canadian wildfires despite arrest of multiple arsonists
Professor Michael Müller, an expert on forest fires from the Dresden University of Technology, has repeatedly confirmed that “almost all forest fires are caused by humans” and has said that “just because of higher temperatures or higher dryness, no fire is started.”
Müller also said that the number of forest fires in Germany and the area they burned has decreased steadily since the mid-1970s.
Author Bjorn Lomborg pointed out in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the area burned by fires in Europe by August 5, 2023, was much lower than the average over the past ten years during the same time frame, citing data from the Global Wildfire Information System.
Data: Fire has burned 𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙨𝙩 area in Europe in a decade
Media: constantly shows pics of fire from Greece (much more burn), but ignores Bulgaria, Ukraine, Portugal and all other places with much less burn
We need better information
Thread: https://t.co/Il6CX2fHlK pic.twitter.com/Icc4G8iSh7
— Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) August 19, 2023
Cdl. Schönborn pushing the alarmist climate change agenda
In 2020, Schönborn used the COVID crisis to push “ecological” issues, insinuating in an interview that God “perhaps want[s] to remind us that He has entrusted creation to us, and not given it to us to devastate it?”
“Is it really necessary to fly to London for the weekend to go shopping? Is it really necessary to spend the Christmas holidays in the Maldives? Is it really necessary that we have huge cruise ships with 4,000 people on board that pollute the seas in a dramatic way? Do we really need to have 200,000 airplanes in the air every day?” the Archbishop of Vienna asked.
In another interview in April 2023, Schönborn defended the Austrian bishops’ decision to go along with the government’s restrictive COVID rules and pushed the alarmist climate change narrative once again, saying, “We have only this one globe.” He furthermore expressed sympathy for radical climate activists who glue themselves to the streets to disrupt traffic, even though he finds their methods debatable.
READ: Cdl Schönborn defends going along with government during draconian COVID era