Letter to Pope Francis from Pat Boone and Tom Tamarkin

Pat Boone
9220 Sunset Blvd Suite 310
Los Angeles, California 90069
+1-310-858-0044

Tom D. Tamarkin
5545 El Camino Avenue
Carmichael, California
+1-916-482-2020

24 September 2015

His Holiness, Pope Francis
Apostolic Palace
00120 Vatican City State

Your Holiness:

As the leader of 1.5 billion Catholics…almost one quarter of the entire world population…your initiatives on calling for the increased prosperity of the world’s poor as well as the protection of the Earth’s environment are remarkable.

However, many eminent scientists say “climate change as caused by man” is not an entirely settled matter. Carbon dioxide emissions alone may not have significant impact on temperatures and climate change. Anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is, of course, the opinion of many scientists, and perhaps more importantly, political institutions that benefit from that opinion. One should be mindful of Galileo Galilei’s famous letter to the Grand Duchess Christina written in 1615.

“Certainly no one doubts that the Supreme Pontiff has always an absolute power to approve or condemn; but it is not in the power of any created being to make things true or false, for this belongs to their own nature and to the fact. Therefore in my judgment one should first be assured of the necessary and immutable truth of the fact, over which no man has power. This is wiser counsel than to condemn either side in the absence of such certainty, thus depriving oneself of continued authority and ability to choose by determining things which are now undetermined, open and still lodged in the will of supreme authority.”

In brief, it may be impossible to conclude today, based on the best scientific means and analysis available, that the use of fossil fuels increases the mean global temperature or directly alters climate conditions. It is 100% clear beyond any reasonable doubt that the use of fossil fuels by man has provided an unprecedented level of elevated human condition; i.e. abundant food production, transportation, safe and secure housing, medical treatments, and the like. One only needs to study the conditions in pre-industrialized Europe to appreciate the modern energy based standard of living and human life expectancies.

Perhaps the real problem is not climate change, per se. The real problem may be the inequality of the energy available to people in industrialized nations such as America versus those of undeveloped nations. We note that in order for all people in the world to have the daily per capita energy of Americans, we would have to increase current worldwide energy production by a factor of 8; furthermore, 90% of today’s energy comes from fossil fuels.

Our Supreme Being, the Lord our God, has blessed man with several hundred years of fossil fuels. We started consuming those 200 years ago. There is no question that petroleum, natural gas, and coal are finite. When our reserves are depleted they are gone forever.

Renewable energy such as solar, wind, and geothermal, can only provide for a fraction of the energy needs of a worldwide population estimated to exceed 9 billion people by 2060. Unless this problem is solved billions of people will perish in the future as our population decreases to a level sustainable by these simple sources. Simply put solar, wind, and the others can provide less than 5% of worldwide energy requirements by 2060. And one must consider the cost of those technologies as well as their life expectancies.

Tragically the AGW concept has created corrupt conditions leading to hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on things which in no way solve the perceived climate change problem. This represents the worst side of economic imperialism; monies being taken from the people and redistributed to governments, institutions and corporations based on politics as opposed to science and solid economics.

This is the real problem that cannot be left to future generations to solve. Dr. Albert Einstein gave us the clue to the solution expressed as E=MC², meaning a little mass can be converted into a huge amount of energy.

American scientists and their European and Asian counterparts have known the solution to this hidden energy crisis for decades. It is the development and commercialization of fusion energy. Fusion has the potential to convert the hydrogen deuterium in one gallon of water into the amount of energy liberated by burning 600 gallons of gasoline.

Whereas scientists in America have been working on fusion energy for 50 years, we have not yet succeeded at demonstrating it. Why? There are three simple reasons.

The first is funding. In the 1970s American researchers estimated that getting fusion power on the grid would demand investment of 2-billion USD annually for 20 to 30 years in research and development; in other words the same order of magnitude as getting a man on the moon based on 1960s dollars. Nothing like that amount was spent. Less than 0.2 per cent of the revenue of the energy market is spent on research into new forms of energy including fusion.

Secondly, politicians are swayed to maintain the status quo by the powerful coal, natural gas, oil, aviation, and car industries, all of which have a vested interest in not developing other forms of energy. And this is now further exacerbated by the corruption associated with the AGW driven green and renewable energies. Lastly, the public is either largely unaware of or uninterested in fusion.

In April 2009 I brought this to the attention of U.S. President Barack Obama. His July 14, 2009 answer to our letter was instructive but incomplete.

A challenge to scientists and enterprises around the world from you to “conquer controlled fusion energy”… similar to that of John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1961 to put a man on the moon and return him to Earth within a decade…would result in virtually limitless energy that is clean, safe, and inexpensive and will not rely on fossil fuels.

This is the all-important challenge of the 21st Century. This will allow mankind to rise to your calling for peace, harmony and prosperity for all God’s children.

With every good wish to Your Holiness,

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