Jerry Brown, the majestic governor of California, a state with a list of stultifying regulations longer than the available “genders” on Facebook, called me, a climate scientist, a “Troglodyte.”

Brown was at the Vatican at the invitation of Archbishop Marcel Sánchez Sorondo, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences. His Excellency had convened a conference, comprised mostly of mayors and other politicians, on how global warming causes slavery, prostitution and organ trafficking. This was like gathering an audience as they exited a taping of The Price is Right and asking them to solve the Riemann hypothesis.

Who said priests don’t have a sense of humor?

Governor Brown is no less a comedian. The reason he called me and other legitimate scientists troglodytes is that we don’t agree with his opinion about the physics of large-scale fluid flow and the thermodynamics of atmospheric trace gases. That Governor Brown’s opinion on this topic is as valuable as Hollywood tourists’ on nontrivial Riemann zeta function zeros didn’t phase the man.

And it didn’t bother the Archbishop, either. When asked how global warming could increase slavery, prostitution, and organ trafficking, the Archbishop repeated his claim that his enemies form a dark cabal funded by oil companies. His Excellency’s continuing stress on this theme reminds me of those furtive, wide-eyed men who prattle on in bars about how oil companies are holding back the secret of how cars can run on tap water.

Speaking of holding back, Archbishop Sánchez Sorondo once again barred anybody with real knowledge of the dismal state of climate theory from attending his conference. The good news that our planet is doing much better than predicted is not welcome. It might dampen the enthusiasm to do something.

Anyway, the mayors and other non-experts loosed upon the world a statement: “A Declaration on the Occasion of the Special Symposium of the Pontifical Academy of Science and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.”

In this document we hear of a “climate disruption,” a term which implies knowledge of the ideal climate. Nobody knows what this is. Not even New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who said our current economic policies will “hasten the destruction of the earth.”

Human beings are, of course, quite incapable of literally destroying the earth. We’ve more than mastered the art of ruining ourselves, however. If the Twentieth Century is any guide, the most effective technique is large, all-powerful government. Strange, then, that the solution to global warming is said to be “joint action at a global scale.” One of Pope Francis’s scientific advisers has openly called for a world government run, naturally, by experts such as himself.

Place that kind of power into the hands of population control enthusiasts gathering routinely at the Vatican and we’ll all soon be troglodytes. Cave men, that is.

What could be more “sustainable” than living in a cave? “Sustainability” is one of those terms that nobody could disagree with, yet just try and pin down what it means. The only definition I’ve been able to discover is one I made myself. It’s a vastly complex subject, but Father James Schall summed it up nicely: “We have in fact no idea how many ‘futures’ we will have. We certainly cannot base our morality in this world on what might happen in 4500 AD.”

The mayors and the Vatican want to submit to the United Nations’ “Sustainable development goals.” In the UN’s own words these are “based on Agenda 21.” What’s that, you may ask? It’s left-wing globalism on steroids. According to The Stream‘s Rachel Alexander, its goals are “changing consumption patterns, promoting health, and reducing private property ownership, single-family homes, private car ownership, and privately owned farms.”

In short, planetary redistribution. And that requires top-level experts to oversee and administer the plan — and to punish the unwilling. As the mayor’s statement says, one of their goals is “cutting corruption and impunity that undermine sustainable development.”

It’s all rather depressing and makes you miss the days when the chiefs at the Vatican cared more about the state of our souls than carbon dioxide levels and global government.