Indiana Governor Mike Pence recently announced that Indiana would defy President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency regulations to limit carbon emissions from power plants. U.S. per capita emissions are more than twice those of China. Because of Indiana’s massive reliance on coal, its per capita emissions are among the highest in the nation, three times those of New York or California. If Indiana were a nation, it would be the most intensely carbon polluting one in the world.
Will future generations look back at Governor Pence with gratitude for defending the Hoosier way of life — or with dismay for entrenching Indiana on the wrong side of environmental and economic history? The corporate world is changing its attitudes on energy and climate; the religious world more so.
Governor Pence’s announcement came just a few days after Pope Francis issued an Encyclical on climate change. The Pope writes: “Our freedom fades when it is handed over to the blind forces of the unconscious, of immediate needs, of self-interest, and of violence.” “What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up?” In this profound document, the Pope challenges us to understand the climate crisis as an issue of justice between generations, and he reminds us to care for the poor, who will be left homeless and hungry in a climate catastrophe.
Governor Pence would do well to heed the Pope’s admonition.
Sources:
https://indianapublicmedia.org/news/pence-obama-indiana-comply-epa-rules-84002/
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29239194
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions
