Well, The Onion beat me to the punch on this with Frustrated Republicans Argue Pope Should Leave Science To Scientists Who Deny Climate Change, but here goes anyway.

Rick Santorum has some advice for Pope Francis:  When it comes to climate change, leave it to the scientists. It’s very interesting that Santorum feels that scientists should be deciding whether or not we should take action on climate change, seeing as how he and his party refuse to believe the scientists that are telling us we need to be proactive about climate change.

Santorum does willingly admit that the climate as a whole has been warming, but he still does not accept the fact that human beings are to blame, which places him at odds with the scientists that the Pope says we should listen to.  To be clear, 97% of climate scientists say that the climate is warming and that human activities are the cause.

But even though he admits that the planet’s atmosphere is warming, Santorum believes the United States shouldn’t do anything about it, since our actions will have absolutely no impact in terms of making things better.

Here is Santorum’s logic boiled down:  There is no point in doing something good for the environment – or good for the American people – if we’re the only country involved.  Apparently, Santorum has never heard of leading by example, which is scary considering this man is running for president.

If Santorum wants to take a purely religious approach to climate change, then let me give it to you:  If God created the earth, then isn’t it our duty to protect and preserve it? 

There are countless quotes from the Bible where the defiling of land is specifically mentioned as an affront to God. So even if you don’t believe in climate change, but you do believe in God, your mission should be right on par with that of climate scientists, and that is to protect our planet.

Jeb Bush has taken the Rick Santorum approach to Catholicism by telling Pope Francis that he needs to stay out of the climate change debate.

This statement from Jeb came just days after the Pope’s encyclical on climate change was leaked to the press, where Pope Francis laid out his ideas for how the Catholic Church needs to respond to the growing threat of global climate change.

Jeb, a Catholic, believes that the Church should stay out of the issue altogether, and that Pope Francis needs to focus more on making us better people.  News flash for Jeb Bush — mitigating climate change and protecting billions of people will make you a better person. 

Right now, we have areas of the world where people are already being displaced by rising sea levels, food shortages, droughts, and floods, all of which have been attributed to climate change. These people have nowhere to go, little or nothing to eat, their way of life has been destroyed. 

Pope Francis understands that. He recognizes that we have people in need – and that we’ll have even more people in need in the coming years – and he wants the Church to be able to help in any way possible. 

I don’t know exactly what Jeb thinks being a better person means, but I’m going to start with taking care of the less fortunate. That seems like something that could make you a better person. 

Or maybe Jeb should read through the Bible and see what Jesus did so that he can be a better person – that includes being a peacemaker, clothing the poor, feeding the hungry, healing the sick – all without charging them. 

This is the first time in history that we have had an outspoken religious leader telling us that tackling climate change is important, and this could very well be enough to get some of the outliers on board to finally stop buying into the talking points of the fossil fuel industry.