But does Tutu know CO2 better than you do?

NEW YORK — Years ago, according to South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, anyone who cared about the environment was considered part of the “lunatic fringe.”  [When, exactly, was that?]

But with global warming melting the polar caps, turning arable land into desert and hastening the demise of hundreds of species, the lunatics have come in from the cold to take their rightful place at the pulpit, said the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize laureate at a recent New York City forum entitled “Green Justice: Caring for People and Planet Together.”

Invoking the Biblical mandate of good stewardship of the earth as humankind’s spiritual obligation, the genial Anglican cleric, speaking animatedly and gesturing broadly, described several startling illustrations of the reality of climate change.

At church services held during a global warming forum in Norway, Tutu found himself preaching “with a block of ice next to the pulpit. And I was looking at it, slowly melting, hoping it would still be there at the end of my sermon.” [How long, exactly, was that sermon?  Is all ice melt caused by human Co2 emissions?]
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Panelist Majora Carter, who created the nonprofit organization Sustainable South Bronx in 2001 to lead a successful fight against the expansion of hazardous waste-transfer facilities in her community, said the striking evidence of climate change should be seized upon to broaden the movement to protect the planet.

“A crisis is a terrible thing to waste,” said the MacArthur “Genius” fellow, citing an immediate need to ensure that the burden of environmental degradation is not visited exclusively on the poor.