This is so incredibly short-sighted. Support for solar energy really should be a Republican priority too - it’s business, it’s industry, it’s making money. China, India, the entire continent of Africa, are all going solar. The United States could be a world leader in this trillion-dollar industry - hell, there’s a national security argument that we need American scientists and workers to support the American solar industry.

Never mind the climate issue for now. Walking away from solar leaves billions on the table that other countries are going to snap up. Republicans love subsidizing industry. This is a braindead bipartisan opportunity.

But little Donnie hates solar energy personally, threw a tantrum about it, and no one in the 80-year-old boy king’s court dares to disagree with him.

The CCP was founded in 1921 with less than fifty “thoughtful, committed citizens” as members.

Ralph Nader created modern automotive safety regulations practically single-handedly.

Hell, Jesus started with twelve apostles.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead

To get systemic changes in any sort of representative government, you need a critical mass of people to support that systemic change. You don’t need “every single individual making the right choice”. But you need enough people to make the right choice that politicians can pass laws supporting that choice without getting kicked out of office and their laws revoked by the next administration.

I mean, how do you expect to pass laws that make meat more expensive when 90% of the people in your country eat meat and are worried about their budgets?

The idea that changing your diet won’t make a difference is, unironically, meat industry propaganda. We build the consensus for systemic change one meal at a time.

Probably very few people will change their mind. It might sway a few Catholics who are on the fence about global climate change (somehow).

But what the Pope says will have an impact on young people from Catholic families who haven’t learned much about climate change. Especially in places like the Philippines where climate change is quite literally lapping at their shores.

The idea that all Catholics have to do what the Pope says, or even agree with the Pope, is, frankly, anti-Catholic bullcrap - back when I was a very very small child, John Birch Society bigots were passing out pamphlets claiming JFK would be taking his orders from the Vatican.

But what the Pope does have is moral and persuasive authority. And when teenagers are growing up and learning about the world, and TikTok and right wing news are spewing all sorts of climate denial garbage at them, and they’re being bombarded from all sides by the message that all politicians are liars and everybody’s out to take your money and trying to change anything is hopeless - don’t underestimate the influence of someone who’s respected as not just a world leader but a good man.