by Guest

contribution by Eamonn Dwyer

A secret diplomatic cable from Miguel Díaz, the US Ambassador to the Vatican, has revealed the US sees population growth as a major cause of climate change.

The dispatch, released by the whistleblower website Wikileaks, criticises the Vatican for arguing “unsustainable lifestyles in developed countries–and not population growth worldwide–is to blame for global warming.”

Diaz goes on to lament that ‘the Vatican will continue to oppose aggressive population control measures to fight hunger or global warming.’

The cable does not elaborate on what these ‘aggressive’ measures would be.

In a wide-ranging cable on the Pope’s views on the environment, Diaz offers a withering summary of the Vatican’s solution to climate change.

“The Pope’s proposal to curb environmental degradation is for people everywhere to reject excessive materialism and consumerism.”

Diaz notes that the Vatican is finding it increasingly difficult to avoid the population growth question.

“Until recently, Vatican officials often noted that the countries that released most of the greenhouse gases were not the world’s most populous. As China and India industrialize and release more greenhouse gases, however, the Vatican may find it more difficult to blame climate change on lifestyles only.”

The cable appears to be at odds with official US Government policy, which seeks to combat climate change through green energy, technology and carbon trading schemes. The reference to ‘aggressive population control measures’ is potentially embarrassing for the Obama administration, as 51% of Americans identify themselves as ‘pro-life‘.

The cable also reveals the US has been lobbying the Vatican to promote Genetically Modified Crops (GMOs).

While it believes the Vatican is ‘quietly supportive’ of GMOs, it attacks local church leaders for speaking out against them for ‘ideological reasons or ignorance’.

Revealing concerns about ‘global food security’, Diaz says the US ‘will continue to lobby the Vatican to speak up in favor of GMOs, in the hope that a louder voice in Rome will encourage individual Church leaders elsewhere to reconsider their critical views.’