Bishop clarifies Fritzl climate change comments

The Bishop of Stafford has issued a statement after a number of media reports claimed he had likened people who deny the reality of climate change to paedophiles like the Austrian Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned his daughter in the basement of their family home for 24 years.

In a pastoral letter in the June edition of Lichfield Diocese's parish magazine, the Bishop of Stafford, the Rt Rev Gordon Mursell said that the "monstrous and revolting" crimes committed by Fritzl were the most extreme manifestation of a 'me first' mentality based on the principle of "I will do what makes me happy, and if that causes others to suffer, hard luck".

Such a mentality was, he argued condemning future generations to an uncertain future in the face of climate change.

"In fact you could argue that, by our refusal to face the truth about climate change, we are as guilty as he is - we are in effect locking our children and grandchildren into a world with no future and throwing away the key," he wrote.

In the wake of numerous media reports, the Bishop attempted to clarify his comments in a statement on Monday in which he rejected media reports that he was likening climate change deniers to paedophiles.

"I am not saying that people who refuse to accept the reality of global change are child abusers," he said in the statement. "I'd like to set the record straight: I am not suggesting that, to quote the BBC News website's headline: 'Climate deniers are like Fritzl' - and to those people who are offended because they think I have said that people who deny climate change are like paedophiles I'd like to apologise for being unclear."

Bishop Mursell added, however, that he would not withdraw the letter or back down on his initial point on the need to address climate change, and explained further that he had used the example of Fritzl only to demonstrate the extent to which the 'me first' mentality has taken hold in today's society.

"But I do not seek to retract the letter or the point that I was actually trying to make - which is a point so old you'd think people would understand it by now," he wrote.

"The corny way of putting it is that 'I' is the centre of 'SIN'.

"All to [sic] often in today's society the philosophy of 'me first' has overtaken the idea of the 'common good' and what is important for 'me' and 'my family' take precedent over what's good for the stranger on the other side of the world."

He also hit back at letters he had received from some people suggesting that he was not in the position to comment on the climate change debate as he was not a scientist.

"This is the very response that must be condemned. If we leave this important issue to scientists we have a convenient excuse to do nothing," he wrote.

Bishop Mursell repeated his concerns over the impact that climate change is already having in some of the poorest communities in the world and the urgent need to respond, and assured he would continue to speak out on climate change issues.

"Climate change isn't simply a rhetorical question," his statement concluded. "It is real and it is here and is having an effect now. Thousands of lives are at risk. But we can and must do something about it.

"So if my point has been lost by a clumsy analogy then I'm sorry; but I'm not sorry for raising the issue."