This today from the Daily Mail:

Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology.

Huh?

Read below that exaggerated lead [full story], and you’ll see that the Pontiff actually pontificates more circuitously:

“It is important for assessments in this regard to be carried out prudently, in dialogue with experts and people of wisdom, uninhibited by ideological pressure to draw hasty conclusions, and above all with the aim of reaching agreement on a model of sustainable development capable of ensuring the well-being of all while respecting environmental balance,” the Pope stated.

Whatever exactly the story, and the Pope, are trying to say is not entirely clear, but his call to keep ideology out of science is certainly as wise as it is ironic.

But what was lost, as is often the case with articles on this issue, is that scientists (labeled in this story “prophets of doom”) very much do rely on evidence rather than ideology to make assessments and forecasts of climate change. To suggest otherwise is simply to ignore the melting permafrost around the globe, the changing behaviors of animals and the altered bloom times for plants.

Those who believe climate change is not real—the Pope wisely does not seem to be among them (”Humanity today is rightly concerned about the ecological balance of tomorrow,” he says), nor is President George W. Bush any longer among them—have their ideological heads stuck in the giant crack at the North Pole.