U.N. official calls for 'ark' to save world from global warming

A United Nations official is calling for an "ark" to save the world from global warming.

Patricia Espinosa, the executive secretary of U.N. Climate Change, was speaking at a recent conference at the Vatican hosted by Pope Francis.

Climate-change skeptic Marc Morano of the Climate Depot site noted Espinosa urged the world "to make the fundamental, transformative changes necessary" to fight "global warming."

The Vatican's International Conference was titled "Saving our Common Home and the Future of Life on Earth."

"If we truly want to make the fundamental, transformative changes necessary to combat climate change, perhaps what we need then is not a physical ark, but an ark of ambition for #climateaction," she said on social media.

Espinosa echoed former U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres, reported Morano.

Figueres called for "centralized transformation" that will make things "very different" for life on the plant.

Espinosa said: "I want to begin by discussing a narrative that is common to many cultures and faith communities throughout the world. It’s the story of a great flood that took place long ago. While different cultures tell it in different ways, most outline how humankind not only had warning that rising waters were coming, but that those warnings were ignored. Now, let me be clear: I don't propose we begin building an ark—at least not a physical one—but it's hard to ignore some parallels with today. Every day we are seeing evidence of climate change and its devastating impacts on populations around the globe."

She said climate change and the world's response to it "raises larger questions about who we are, why we’re here, and where we’re collectively going."

"Climate change is about morality: who are we to willingly destroy the ancient and intricate beauty of the world? Climate change is about legacy: who are we to leave a debt of neglect to an unborn generation?"

WND reported last year when Figueres was in Germany for a climate summit and laughed off questions about her call for a globally centralized planning structure.

Morano said he asked her about her message to President Trump and her own calls for a U.S. "centralized transformation" that "is going to make life of everyone on the planet very different."

Her comment:

Morano: "What about [your call for U.N.] 'centralized transformation'? What about people who might be afraid the U.N. is essentially going to be a climate central power?"

Figueres: Loud laugh.

Morano: "That is your response?"

Figueres: "Now that is real humor."

She continued to laugh as she got into the waiting car.

But it wasn't so long ago that she made the proposal.

According to the Tom Nelson blog, it was in 2012 when she said of her work, "It is the most inspiring job in the world because what we are doing here is we are inspiring government, private sector and civil society to [make] the biggest transformation that they have every undertaken.

"The Industrial Revolution was also a transformation, but it wasn't 'a guided transformation from a centralized policy perspective.' This [U.N. climate change action] is a centralized transformation that is taking place because governments have decided that they need to listen to science. So it's a very, very different transformation and one that is going to make the life of everyone on the planet very different."

WND reported when Al Gore used the extreme results of "Superstorm Sandy" to support his contention that sea waters are rising significantly.

The claim is in the sequel to his 2006 movie "An Inconvenient Truth."

The original movie wasn't without controversy, as a judge in the United Kingdom said it could be shown to schools only if they alert students to nine statements "that are not supported by current mainstream scientific consensus."

In the promotions for "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power," critics have found yet another misstatement by Gore.

According to the Media Research Center's Newsbusters, Gore claims in his film that the flooding caused by Superstorm Sandy at the site of the Twin Towers memorial in New York City is a fulfillment of his prediction in his original movie that a rise in the ocean level would flood the site.

But that isn't what happened.

In his 2006 film, he said, illustrated by an animation, "If Greenland broke up and melted, or if half of Greenland and half of West Antarctica broke up and melted, this is what would happen to the sea level in Florida."

Then he showed animations of what he believed would happen to San Francisco, the Netherlands, Beijing and other places.

Turning to Manhattan, he said, "This is what would happen to Manhattan; they can measure this precisely."

The animation shows water reaching the 9/11 memorial.

But Newsbusters argued Gore has twisted his original words to make it appear his prediction about Manhattan came true.

In a newly released clip from the movie, he said: "Ten years ago when the movie 'An Inconvenient Truth' came out, the single most criticized scene was an animated scene showing that the combination of sea level rise and storm surge would put the ocean water into the 9/11 memorial site, which was then under construction. And people said, 'That's ridiculous. What a terrible exaggeration.'"

The movie then shows news footage of Superstorm Sandy water reaching the memorial site.

See Al Gore:

Newsbusters pointed out the original prediction "was not about extenuating circumstances of a storm like Sandy slamming into New York or any 'storm surge' at all."

The report noted the latest maps show that Greenland still has ice 11 years after Al Gore's prediction of catastrophic melt.

Even scientists dispute Gore's contention that Superstorm Sandy was the product of "manmade climate change."

Gore also told an audience in 2009, for example, that "the entire north polar ice cap during some of the summer months could be completely ice-free within the next five to seven years."

He also predicted increasing temperatures would cause Earth's oceans to rise by 20 feet, a claim many scientists say is utterly without rational basis.

See Gore's claims: