We recognize almost all the characters even if some do not exist today such as knights. One we are unfamiliar with, in name at least is the Pardoner. Johnson describes him as follows, “The Pardoner, a seller of indulgences, is a complete and shameless rogue; but Chaucer, not content with exposing his impudence, shows how good he was at his job and how powerfully he preached against sinfulness.  The Pardoner had also been taught to use the figure of death to scare his hearers.” So the Pardoner sold indulgences or pardons, hence his name.

If we just had the Pardoner and the tale he told to entertain his fellow pilgrims it would be interesting, but not expose the true meaning of his tale and the duplicity and hypocrisy of the character. Hypocrisy is the one thing people despise in any aspect of life, but especially in religious and political leaders. Chaucer cleverly provides us with a prologue in which the Pardoner, as if talking off the record, explains his activities and motives and exposes his hypocrisy.

We see behind the facade and learn of his cynical view of human nature and how he exploits their weaknesses and fears for his financial gain. Here are the opening lines,

“My lords, he said, in churches where I preach
I cultivate a haughty kind of speech
And wring it out as roundly as a bell;
I’ve got it all by heart, detail I tell.
I have a text, it always is the same
And always has been since I learned the game,
Old as the hills and fresher than the grass,
Radix malorum est cupiditas.”

He then explains the duplicity of his message against sin and avarice.  He tells how he isolates and personally attacks those who challenge him without mentioning names. He then bluntly states,

“But let me briefly make my purpose plain;
I preach for nothing but for greed of gain
And use the same old text, as bold as brass,
Radix malorum est cupiditas.
And thus I preach against the very vice
I make my living out of - avarice”

How did he preach against sinfulness?  He explains,

“Well, then I give examples thick and fast
From bygone times, old stories from the past.
A yokel mind loves stories from of old,
Being the kind you can repeat and hold.

Alexander Cockburn in an article titled, “From Papal Indulgences to Carbon Credits; But Is Global Warming a Sin?” made the comparison between indulgences and carbon credits. He wrote, Then as now, a buoyant market throve on fear. The Roman Catholic Church was a bank whose capital was secured by the infinite mercy of Christ, Mary and the Saints, and so the Pope could sell indulgences, like checks. The sinners established a line of credit against bad behavior and could go on sinning. Today a world market in “carbon credits” is in formation. Those whose “carbon footprint” is small can sell their surplus carbon credits to others, less virtuous than themselves. (Source)

It is a good analogy in many ways, but especially as both create a source of income for those who identify and define the problem, exploit the guilt, and offer a solution.  They also do nothing to ameliorate the supposed problems, the amount of sinning or the amount of CO2 going into the atmosphere from human sources. In fact, they almost guarantee an increase in both cases. The analogy fails because sin exists whether it is a transgression against religious or secular law. CO2 in the atmosphere from any source including human is not causing global warming or climate change. More important, it is essential to life on the planet and it has been demonstrated that an increase in atmospheric levels is beneficial to their distribution, abundance, and productivity.

There is pathetic irony in the fact that financial gain, if not necessarily the underlying motive, is certainly the reward of the modern day pardoners.  Financial gain is one of the unforgivable sins of the evil energy companies producing the planet destroying CO2.

Undoubtedly, the most effective pardoner of carbon credits is Al Gore.  An Oscar and the Nobel Peace Prize are testimony to his effectiveness. They underline how well he does as Chaucer’s pardoner proscribed.

“Well, then I give examples thick and fast
From bygone times, old stories from the past.
A yokel mind loves stories from of old,
Being the kind you can repeat and hold.

The movie, “An Inconvenient Truth” is full of “thick and fast” examples. Gore’s appearances on television are a litany of stories from the past designed to capture through fear and to stick in the mind so especially the media can repeat them.

Gore was involved early in the establishment of carbon credits a key part of the Kyoto Accord.

Before the company collapsed under the weight of financial scandal, Enron under CEO Ken Lay was a key proponent of the cap-and-trade idea. So was BP’s Lord John Browne, before he resigned last May under a cloud of personal scandal. In August 1997, Lay and Browne met with President Bill Clinton and Vice President Gore in the Oval Office to develop administration positions for the Kyoto negotiations that resulted in an international treaty to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. In his book, The Green Wave (Capital Research Center, 2006), author Bonner Cohen notes that the companies expected to profit handsomely from the Kyoto global warming treaty by creating the worldwide trading network in which industries would buy and sell carbon emissions credits.

Even though the Kyoto Accord has effectively failed carbon credits, its most bizarre initiative, has not only survived but also grown enormously to the financial benefit of its originators at the expense of poor people everywhere.

Al Gore is chairman and founder of a private equity firm called Generation Investment Management (GIM). According to Gore, the London-based firm invests money from institutions and wealthy investors in companies that are going green. “Generation Investment Management (GIM), purchases—but isn’t a provider of—carbon dioxide offsets,” notes spokesman Richard Campbell. (CNSNews.com, March 7, 2007) GIM appears to have considerable influence over the major carbon credit trading firms that currently exist: the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) in the U.S. and the Carbon Neutral Company (CNC) in Great Britain. CCX is the only firm in the U.S. that claims to trade carbon credits.

Source: PDF above.

And guess who is on the board of CCX but Maurice Strong founder of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a very good friend of Al Gore.

Chaucer’s Pardoner personally benefited from selling indulgences.  The people that can afford to buy them or possibly cheated, except that their consciences were absolved and they had peace of mind about going to heaven. Nobody else really suffered.  True, they had to live less sinful lives to ensure going to heaven, but I am sure the Pardoner would argue with sanctimony that it was good for them.  It was an argument made to me recently that even if Gore was not truthful and benefiting from his actions, the collateral effects of saving the environment made it acceptable. This illogical thinking is similar to the 1998 quote in the Calgary Herald by Christine Stewart, then Canada’s Minister of the Environment that, “No matter if the science is all phony, there are collateral environmental benefits… Climate change provides the greatest chance to bring about justice and equality in the world.”

Each Pilgrim in Chaucer’s work had to entertain fellow travelers with a tale. As Johnson wrote the Pardoner was, “taught to use the figure of Death to scare his hearers.” It is a device that Al Gore uses as with his most recent threat that we have 10 years left. He also refuses to debate and interviews are carefully controlled. The Pardoners method is very similar as he explains.

“or when I dare not otherwise debate
I’ll put my discourse into such a shape,
my tongue will be a dagger; no escape
for him from slandering falsehood shall there be,
if he has hurt my brethren or me.

Here is what J Murray wrote about Gore’s behavior. “Apparently rather than debating the merits of his argument in a rational and reasoned manner, Gore is left only with ad hominem attacks and smug condescension toward his critics. Self-avowed "P.R. agent for the planet" Al Gore says those who still doubt that global warming is caused by man - among them, Vice President Dick Cheney - are acting like the fringe groups who think the 1969 moon landing never really happened, or who once believed the world is flat.” (Source)

The Pardoner’ story has three drunken rioters set out to find and slay Death.  In a wonderful dramatic twist, Chaucer’s rioters stumble upon an old man who cherishes Death to escape the weariness of a long life. In other words, the outcome is exactly opposite to their objective.

What is Al Gore’s story? Well here is what he told Congress in March 2007 in a presentation that broke the rule of having submitted in advance of presentation and then left before answering questions.

“The science is settled, Gore told the lawmakers. Carbon-dioxide emissions — from cars, power plants, buildings and other sources — are heating the Earth’s atmosphere.

Gore said that if left unchecked, global warming could lead to a drastic change in the weather, sea levels and other aspects of the environment.” (Source)

He increased the threat in 2008 using James Hansen’s claim of a “tipping point” in 10 years as the basis for arguing the US has only 10 years to become carbon independent.

So Gore’s objective is to eliminate human production of CO2 to save people, especially those in developing nations, from dying in severe weather, drowning in rising sea levels or starving because of high temperatures and drought. Ironically, developing nations were excluded from the Kyoto Accord so they could develop and offset starvation and political chaos.  Just as with the pardoner’s tale, death and increased potential for death have already occurred because of policies implemented to reduce the evil CO2.  At the same time higher energy has lowered the standard of living throughout the world. 

The Pardoner said in his prologue,

“What!  Do you think, as long as I can preach
And get this over for the things I teach,
that I will live in poverty, from choice?
That’s not the counsel of my inner voice!
No! Let me preach and bake from Kirk to Kirk
and never do an honest job of work,
no, nor make baskets, like St. Paul, to gain
a livelihood. I do not preach in vain.

The week after Gore’s film won an Academy Award, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research announced that Gore’s Nashville home uses 20 times the electricity on average US households. A year later apparently after steps to make his home more energy-efficient, his energy use was up 10%, causing Drew Johnson, President of the Tennessee Center to say, “Al Gore is a hypocrite and a fraud when it comes to his commitment to the environment, judging by his home energy consumption.” According to the Center as well as his Oscar, Grammy and Nobel Peace Prize, “Gore’s personal wealth increased by an estimated $100 million thanks largely to speaking fees and investments related to global warming hysteria.”

The Pardoner would understand and be proud, albeit secretly, of his 21st-century equivalent.  Source