Pope Francis has, according to Reuters‘ interpretation, placed a shot across the bows of USS Trump when he “urged national leaders on Monday to implement global environmental agreements without delay.” The Pope did not mention the president-elect by name, but was speaking of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, which purports to be kind of a scientific treatise, but which is actually yet another in a long series of gestures from ambitious politicians to signal their eagerness to be put in charge of whichever organizations that are tasked to do the impossible, such stopping the earth’s climate from changing.

The Pope is concerned that the United States has not adopted the Paris Agreement. Marc Morano at Climate Depot is reporting that the Trump administration will not only ignore the Paris Agreement, but will rein in the worst excesses of the EPA.

President-elect Trump has long expressed his suspicion of the more dire claims of climate doomsayers. That Mr. Trump has hired Steve Bannon, ex-chief at Breitbart, is another indication the USA won’t bow to the United Nations’, and now the Pope’s, pressure on the subject. Bannon and Breitbart are well known for their realistic views towards climate claims.

After multiple decades of failed predictions, after repeatedly promising doom but failing to deliver, after years of mistaking theory for observation, should a scientific hypothesis, like runaway man-made global warming, that fails to make skillful forecasts, not be abandoned?

Yet the Holy Father will try and use his bully pulpit to influence the incoming administration. With the notable non-climate-scientist Stephen Hawking by his side, Francis said, “The ‘distraction’ or delay in implementing global agreements on the environment shows that politics has become submissive to a technology and economy which seek profit above all else.”

It is true that the USA eschewing the Paris Agreement will be terrific news for the world’s economy. Economist Bjorn Lomborg noted the Paris Agreement, if everywhere implemented, would “cost between $1 trillion and $2 trillion annually.” That’s trillion-with-a-T, friends. Most of that money would go into the hands of bureaucrats, politicians, and their cronies. So it’s perhaps not a surprise that most of the political class profess to be frightened beyond measure of a few tenths of a degree increase in temperature.

The Holy Father’s charge of putting profit first is therefore false. Mr. Trump knows that the money to fund the UN’s latest extravagance would be borne by ordinary citizens to the benefit of the elite political class.

It’s clear the Pope wants more government control of the world’s economy and, what follows, of your behavior. He infamously said, “The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.” As hyperbole, this is clever. Unfortunately, it’s poor science, because, with of course local exceptions, it isn’t true.

This brings up the question of scientific basis of the Pope’s statements on the environment.

At the risk of being accused of sewing “difficulty and division,” or causing “grave scandal,” or worse, allow me to add an entry to the dubia (questions) being asked of (and ignored by) Pope Francis.

After multiple decades of failed predictions, after repeatedly promising doom but failing to deliver, after years of mistaking theory for observation, should a scientific hypothesis, like runaway man-made global warming, that fails to make skillful forecasts, not be abandoned?

Now I know the answer, and you, dear reader, likely know the answer. Scientists also used to know the answer. Strike that. Scientists still know the answer, but they’re reluctant to admit it because the consequences of doing so can be consequential to their careers. The old adage “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you” is old and an adage for good reason.

Elite politicians know the answer, too. Which is why they are so good at suppressing the question. Last thing these politicians want is for people to consider ramifications of the answer. People might conclude they don’t need elite politicians.

The real question is whether Pope Francis, God bless him, knows the answer.

It’s charitable to suppose he does. But if he does, then we have to wonder why he’s thrown his lot in with disreputable politicians whose primary goal is to increase their powers. Does the Pope really think a strengthened world government will lead more folks to Heaven?

And yet, if the Pope does not know the answer, it’s easy enough to explain why he is over-concerned with the state of the earth’s atmosphere. But then we would have to conclude that it would be better for all if the Holy Father weren’t to say so much on this subject.

But who in his inner circle would tell him to stop?