Bishop defends comparisons to Fritzl

LONDON, June 2 (UPI) -- A British bishop says he didn't mean to offend when he compared people who ignored climate change to the Austrian man accused of repeatedly raping his daughter.

The Right Rev. Gordon Mursell said he used the example of Joseph Fritzl because he was "the most extreme form" of selfishness, The Times of London reported Monday.

The bishop defended the comments in his letter distributed around the Diocese of Lichfield, saying he didn't want "to shock people unnecessarily, but was using a comparison to get people to wake up to the consequences of what we are failing to do, because if we don't there won't be a future for our children either."

Fritzl is accused of keeping his daughter locked in a cellar for 24 years, repeatedly raping her and fathering seven children with her.

Mursell said people who didn't act to prevent global warming are "as guilty as" Fritzl and "destroying the

future of our children," The Times reported.

"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 letter distributed around the Diocese of Lichfield.