The three minutes that brought science and religion together

This is the story of the Indian researcher Veerabhadran Ramanathan, or Ram, professor of Applied Ocean Sciences at the University of California. Although he had been a consultant to the Vatican since 2004, his recommendations had not gained traction in the religious community – at least until 2014. That was when he had the opportunity to speak directly with the Pope Francis. The problem? Exactly 180 seconds to convince you about the greenhouse effect.

The big balcony of Dr. Ram took the conversation to the moral and ethical side. Instead of convincing the Pope with data, he quickly said what the effects of global warming are on billions of the world's poor. Something that, in turn, is mainly caused by the richest. science and religion finally found common ground.

Everyone wants clean water, fresh air and energy to spare. But not everyone believes in global warming that threatens all of this. “They were the three most important minutes of my career”, says the researcher.

the voice of the pope

The result of this the world already knows. Pope Francis was the first leader of the Catholic Church to publicly fight global warming. Since then, he has helped to convince a mass of religious in the world. The issue is simple: in general, people tend to believe more in the person carrying the message than in the message itself spoken by whom they do not trust.

Conviction is more related to the type of argument than to the source of the problem. For some, it is enough to say that the greenhouse effect is a threat to the ecosystem to bring them on board. For others, it is necessary to resort to empathy with the poorest, as in the case of the Pope. Or even commercial freedom, as with one of the founders of the Tea Party, in the USA. A symbol of conservatism, she has become one of the voices against global warming for a large part of the country.

The Pope's word was not enough to make Trump stay in the Paris Agreement. But if more moral leaders around the world adhere to the climate agenda, popular pressure can help reverse this kind of action that threatens the planet.

In the video below, you can see other details of this story that science and religion together in the fight against global warming:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qfI3DZmmQw]