Is Pope Francis Greening?

In its issue of January 3-9, 2015, The Economist published a story describing a political dispute over Yellowstone National Park. (The Economist, in my opinion the best general newsmagazine anywhere, is blessedly free of the anti-American animus that is common in European journalism. It reports objectively and in depth about developments in the United States. But it also shows occasional wonder at the more bizarre aspects of the American scene.) The three issues involved in this dispute concern the release of wolves since the 1990s into Yellowstone in order to reduce the huge number of elk (who apparently are choice ingredients of wolf cuisine), the roaming rights of bison, and the access of snowmobiles. This sharply pits ranchers (who are anti-wolf and anti-bison because wolves and bison threaten their cattle), and environmentalists (who cherish “unspoilt nature”, including all free-roaming wild animals, but detest snowmobiles).