Vatican official suggests climate skeptics like President Trump are akin to flat-Earth believers

An official at the Vatican has reportedly suggested that climate change skeptics like President Donald Trump are like those who believe the Earth is flat.

Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, who leads the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, recently said that a withdrawal from the Paris accord "would not only be a disaster but completely unscientific," according to Reuters.

He added, "Saying that we need to rely on coal and oil is like saying that the earth is not round. It is an absurdity dictated by the need to make money."

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The bishop's statements about the reality of climate change came just before Trump's historic decision, announcing the U.S. will be leaving the Paris climate agreement.

Sorondo's views are largely in line with those Pope Francis himself has made in the past.

The Independent notes that in an encyclical, or papal letter, the pope issued in 2015, he wrote that climate change was a "global problem which has grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political, and for the distribution of goods."

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In it, he also said, "Reducing greenhouse gases requires honesty, courage and responsibility."

Pope Francis gave a copy of this encyclical to President Trump during their meeting at the Vatican last week.

While Trump has, in the past, called climate change a "hoax," other members of his administration like daughter Ivanka Trump and chief economist Gary Cohn are believed to be advocates.