Being pedantic again I would suggest that the recent Avatar film was a necessary parable for our times. At a base level it was about the culture of life versus the "culture" of death.

About the death saturated techno-cratic machine world-view that now dominates the entire planet, as pictured in this stark image:

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~spanmod/mural/panel14.html

Versus the wholistic green world-view in which everything is permeated an enlivened by what the great poet Dylan Thomas called the GREEN FUSE and in which ever thing is in one way or another inter-connected in an Indivisible Unity.

In the film the techno-cratic barbarian invaders had already "created" a dying planet (just as we have too), and were compelled by the inexorable logic of their DOMINATOR world-view to conquer Pandora and the Navi---rather than change their way of life.

Which is of course what Western DOMINATOR "culture" has always done. Invade and to one degree or another destroy all other cultures. AND ABSOLUTELY REFUSE TO CHANGE. That process of never-ending imperial expansion, and the attempt to conquer nature by brute force is no longer viable---it never was of course.

What was notable about the film was the entirely predictable right-wing group-think response to the film. Including that of right-wing so called conservative religionists such as George Pell.

They all came out loudly cheering for the techno-barbarian invaders and their "culture" of death.

The above image is featured in The Pentagon of Power by Lewis Mumford.
A book in which Mumford describes the origins and historical developments of what he called the Invisible Mega-Machine. Which IS the all encompassing psychic blue-print, or pattern that patterns everything which now patterns the entire world, and every minute fraction of our "culture". Quite literally unto death, if its inevitable deadly logic runs its inevitable course.

Thankfully Cardinal Pell does not reflect the views of the many Christians I know, many who do vote Green or ALP.

If Cardinal Pell looked hard enough he would find enough to be concerned with in the Conservative side of politics. That would mean being able to separate his political views from his Christianity long enough to critically assess which parties represent human interests in the long term.

Many on the radical side of Christianity hate the Greens because they support same-sex marriage. Nothing more, nothing less. I think some radical Christians still resent Bob Brown for raising issues in Parliament about some fringe Christian groups denying access to ex-members to their own children and other questionable practices. It seems if one questions actions by any Church such as response to allegations of pedophilia, fraud, tax avoidance or cultism they are anti-Christian.

These are all spin or weasel responses to real issues that adversely affect people's lives.

Many Christians are involved in the environmental movement. Greenpeace originated from a group of concerned Quakers who felt not enough was being done to protect the environment.

I find some of the widely varied 'Christian' positions to be bizarre in the extreme. Why wouldn't the ability of humanity to live within the limits of this world to be the true test of our 'right' to be it's custodian?

Pell is a right wing ideologue on top of being a Catholic ideologue and has contributed nothing to real solutions to the increasing pressure on our environment and has not addressed sustainability in any way shape or form; more like he's ideologically opposed to efforts to imbed sustainability into our economy and way of life. Like most ideologues his arguments are appeals to ignorance and prejudice and his position is rooted in preserving the power of traditional social structures; developing new and more appropriate ones is beyond his scope and he will mobilise the considerable resources at his disposal to actually oppose such efforts.

Even more strange to me are fundamentalist Christians who fail to see that the use of fossil fuels has all the hallmarks of a deal with the devil - vast wealth and power from the foulest substances found within the depths of the Earth and there's a catch; for every bit of energy it gives, the Earth gains more than 100 times that, making it, bit by bit, more hellish. Instead of reading the fine print to check on that catch they want 'Christian' nations to dominate the world with that wealth and power. Me, I think God has nothing to do with it; people are strongly moved by immediate opportunities and need to be well informed to choose to forgo them for the sake of longer term security and prosperity and there's been a well funded and professional campaign by those with strong immediate interests to undermine confidence in our scientists in order to prevent reasoned policy development. Pell doesn't need to pray more, he needs to fight his conservative urges and get much better informed.

The hypocrisy of those who continually harp on about the evils of fossil fuels is evident in the willingness to embrace all the benefits from these fuels. We have better heating, better cooling, better travel and we live longer than we use to. The CopenHagen farce along with Al Gores life style just highlights how these preachers make the wealth preachers in America look tame. These same preachers are quick to oppose nuclear power. Go figure!

Is this the same Cardinal Pell who had secret meetings with mr rabbot before the last election? The same Cardinal Pell who mr rabbott claims as his spiritual mentor?
Hardly suprising then that he is out to help his little mate into office any way he can.
I wonder what he expects in return?

runner
Take a look at the depletion of the oil field reserves of the USA. The USA peak oil was in about 1973 and current recovery is down to 30% or less of that peak.

Australia's known oil reserves are minor and the relatively minor reserves in North Sea fields are as depleted as the USA fields.

All fossil fuels are finite resources and will eventually be exhausted.

The faster the population grows and the greater the rate of per capita consumption the earlier that day of reckoning will be.

Please, before you raise your head on such issues, make sure you know something about the subject.