While giving a presentation this month to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences at the Vatican, it struck me just how fortuitous the timing was for this three-day meeting at the intersection of health, climate science, and faith.

On the day before, the U.S. federal government released a comprehensive report on climate science. Two days after, the world turned to Bonn, Germany, for the next round of United Nations climate talks. In both instances, the Trump administration’s denial and isolation stuck out like a sore thumb. While his own federal scientists laid out in exquisite detail the extent of how human activity causes climate change, his administration has operated under the opposite assumption and promoted fossil fuels at every turn.