Pope Francis’ call to action on climate change with his encyclical, Laudato Si’, has resulted in some strange and “radical” alliances.
The Guardian (UK) reported on June 27 that the Vatican added pro Occupy Wall Street activist Naomi Klein to a growing list of activists for its upcoming environmental conference. Klein is an “ferocious critic of capitalism” and a “secular radical,” according to the left-wing Guardian newspaper.
Klein is scheduled to speak on July 1 at a press conference for the “People and Planet First” Conference hosted by The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the International Alliance of Catholic Development Organisations. The Conference will focus on the practical implementation of the June 2015 encyclical.
“A lot of people have patted the pope on the head, but said he’s wrong on the economics. I think he’s right on the economics,” Klein told The Guardian. “The holistic view of the encyclical should be a catalyst to bring together the twin economic and climate crises.”
Klein has a long history of economic and environmental meddling. She described her own economic views as “intellectually cataclysmic” for conservatives in a November 2011 piece for The Nation Magazine. According to Klein, drastic economic changes would be necessary to address climate change. How drastic?
“Arriving at these new systems is going to require shredding the free-market ideology that has dominated the global economy for more than three decades,” Klein said.
Klein is also current board member of 350.org, an environmental group which has received more than $80,000 from liberal George Soros. 350.org is driven by its radical campaigns which include “fighting coal power plants in India, stopping the Keystone XL pipeline in the U.S, and divesting public institutions everywhere from fossil fuels.”
Furthermore, Klein is a proponent of the anti-capitalist Occupy Wall Street movement. She spoke at Occupy Wall Street in October, 2011, praising the movement and talking about the necessity of opposing climate change with the same ferocity.
