Pope’s picture spurs Republicans to shift climate views

After Pope Francis framed climate change as a moral issue in his second encyclical , conservative Republicans shifted and began to see that environmental dilemma in the same way, according to a new study led by Cornell communication researchers. 'When Pope Francis issued his encyclical paper in June 2015, he emerged as a strong advocate for climate action,' said Jonathon P. Schuldt, assistant professor of communication. 'He is in many ways uniquely positioned as a global moral authority - a religious authority - and his position is very visible.' Schuldt, along with Adam R. Pearson of Pomona College and Rainer Romero-Canyas and Dylan Larson-Konar, both of the Environmental Defense Fund, sought to understand a mechanism for changing public opinion about climate change. Their research, - Brief Exposure to Pope Francis Heightens Moral Beliefs About Climate Change ,' was published online in the journal Climatic Change, Dec. The pontiff addressed waste, culture and modern day ills in the encyclical. Climate change is a global problem with grave environmental, social, economic and political implications, the pope wrote. Many of the world's poor live in areas particularly affected by phenomena related to global warming, and their subsistence depends on keeping Earth healthy.