The continuing secession of America from everyone else.

On several occasions when Mrs. Mosley and I have talked politics, she has expressed bewilderment at how prominent religious leaders in this country have taken such a vigorous stance against the science of global warming.

I've tried to state it like this: Being that theirs is a very black vs. white worldview (and since that includes Democratic positions vs. Republican positions), their opinions on things that really have no precedence in the Bible default to what their good friends the Republicans think.

They're already inclined to be suspicious of scientific issues because of the whole Evolution vs. "Intelligent Design" debate. And since the rest of the world sees global warming as a valid threat, American Christians can view it as a United Nations/New World Order conspiracy that fits nicely with the whole End-of-Times line of thought.

I bring all this up because of a story today in the Independent about some recent moves by the Vatican:

The Pope is expected to use his first address to the United Nations to deliver a powerful warning over climate change in a move to adopt protection of the environment as a "moral" cause for the Catholic Church and its billion-strong following.

The New York speech is likely to contain an appeal for sustainable development, and it will follow an unprecedented Encyclical (a message to the wider church) on the subject, senior diplomatic sources have told The Independent.

It will act as the centrepiece of a US visit scheduled for next April – the first by Benedict XVI, and the first Papal visit since 1999 – and round off an environmental blitz at the Vatican, in which the Pope has personally led moves to emphasise green issues based on the belief that climate change is affecting the poorest people on the planet, and the principle that believers have a duty to "protect creation".

Incidentally, this declaration follows another from the Pope two years ago which stated that Evolution was a valid theory and that Christians should not take every single part of the Bible as, for lack of a better word, gospel.

Will this make a difference? Probably not. Religious fundamentalists in this country who aren't Catholic don't give a tinker's cuss about the Pope. Add into the mix that he's addressing the aforementioned United Nations, and his pleas can and will be easily ignored by the religious powerbrokers here in this country. More's the pity.