Am I an Enviromentalist?

In light of Francis' impending encyclical on the environment, I thought I'd propose this question: am I an environmentalist?  My wife and I don't drive especially fuel efficient cars, but we don't drive very much at all.  Combined we drive less than 50 miles per week and routinely fill up the cars once a month or so (sometimes less).  We planted trees and bushes to provide shade in the summer and reduce our cooling bills.  We keep the A/C set to 78 in the summer and the heat set to 68 in the winter.  We recycle and for years have had an energy plan that used mostly wind energy (but don't currently for unrelated reasons to this argument).  I've never calculated my carbon footprint, but I suspect it's pretty low.

But I hate environmentalists.  I can't think of a crowd more full of crap than the professional bed-wetters that make up the environmentalist movement.  I think Al Gore should be deported to the North Pole, where he can watch the melting ice pack in person.  I think Greenpeace with it's jetsetting CEO and historical site trashing activists should be banned to the South Pole where they can huddle with the penguins.

So, am I an environmentalist?  Am I a Green bean?  Would I be welcome at a meeting of the IPCC?  I am actually a pretty green guy, as far as that goes, but I don't buy the philosophy / morality / religion behind it.  I just want to save money.  But is it good enough to get me into the club?

While we're on the subject of religion, what about Catholics-in-name-only, who probably will be very happy with at least a few parts of what Francis publishes tomorrow.  They are mostly good on social justice, they help the poor, they defend the defenseless, they pick up the pieces when a disaster strikes in Haiti or The Philippines.  But they don't believe a word of Papal infallibility. They deride and belittle Bishops that uphold the Church's teachings on sexual morality.  They organize protests if the Church decides to only support pro-life charities.  Are they Catholic?  Is the social justice good enough without Should they be welcomed into the halls of power of Catholic universities, hospitals, and chancery offices.  Or even the Vatican?

Today a man can be a woman and a white woman can be a black woman (and presumably a white woman can be a black man).  But can you be a member in good standing of a group if you display raw contempt for the values that group holds?  Who decides or, in the Pope's words, who am I to judge?

So call me an environmentalist.  And when you see me driving to the bank to cash my checks call me a capitalists.  And when you see me do it in my Chevy SUV call me an American.  But above all call me a Catholic, because that's what I call myself.  I think environmentalists are a pestilence. And think my credit union's a bunch of crooks.  And I think GM is run by idiots.  But I love my Church. Even it the Pope in his new encyclical insults me and calls me a smarmy neo-patripassionist crabbypants because I use styrofoam cups (it's likely, he really should have taken the name Jerome given the daily stream of invective from his mouth).