Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Canada Free Press.com has published a great article by Timothy Ball called Global Warming: The Cold, Hard Facts? Dr. Ball is the first Canadian Ph.D. in Climatology, has a Ph.D. from the University of London, has been a professor at the University of Winnipeg and has been studying the earth’s climates for years.

Dr. Ball puts it bluntly. He says “Global Warming, as we think we know it, doesn't exist.” He goes on to say that “Global Warming is not due to human contribution of Carbon Dioxide (CO2). This in fact is the greatest deception in the history of science. We are wasting time, energy and trillions of dollars while creating unnecessary fear and consternation over an issue with no scientific justification.” Another guy that shares his opinion is Yuri A. Izrael, Vice President of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Richard Lindzen, an atmospheric physicist and a professor of meteorology at MIT, member of the National Academy of Sciences, formerly professor at the University of Chicago, Harvard University and MIT, says disagrees with the idea that humans cause significant global warming.

It seems that many people believe what is happening today will happen forever. However, it used to be that global cooling was considered a danger. We were constantly told the sun would burn out in so many years and we would all freeze to death. It you live in Minnesota today, you can resonate. Ball points out in his article that, in 1976, Lowell Ponte wrote "It is a cold fact: the Global Cooling presents humankind with the most important social, political, and adaptive challenge we have had to deal with for ten thousand years. Your stake in the decisions we make concerning it is of ultimate importance; the survival of ourselves, our children, our species". I was in law school at Lubbock, Texas, at the time and it seemed that way in winter. But, change the words from “cooling” to “warming” and it sounds exactly like something Al Gore would say today (or make a movie about).

Ball also points out that temperatures declined from 1940 to 1980. He notes that by the early ‘70's, global cooling was a universal belief. Then, in the ‘90s, temperatures began to rise. Now, global warming is assumed to be a fact. I guess no one is reading the old articles. What goes around, comes around, however. Ball states that global temperature trends now indicate a cooling.

Despite this, politicians, especially liberals, accept global warming as the gospel. Actors decry the use of big cars for anyone but themselves. Now, even preachers are in the market. Eighty-six (86) evangelical Christian leaders signed on to fight global warming, saying "millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors." They call it the "Evangelical Climate Initiative.” Few, if any, have any scientific background or understand science.

This includes “megachurch pastor” Rick Warren. His Master of Divinity decree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary hardly qualifies him to speak on climate change. Warren and others signed a statement saying they had seen enough to know that global warming is a fact. According to Dr. Ball, they may barely get in the game before the game is over. Global cooling may well be underway before the evangelicals get going on the issue. This is not a rare occurrence among evangelicals, by the way. It is kind of like their yelling about “secular humanism” decades after humanism had become the accepted philosophy in most universities and even public secondary schools.

Like most liberals, the preachers believe the government should fix it. You might think, being preachers and religious leaders, they would lead the church to do something, but, no, they have grabbed the liberal mindset of seeking government assistance. They call for federal legislation requiring reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. They actually used the language from last year’s Senate resolution.

How did the idea of carbon dioxide emissions become the new gospel for the purpose driven life? It’s an assumption that is unproven. Scientists certainly make assumptions, then test them. That is the scientific method. However, in this instance, the assumption appears to have been and the conclusion reached without the scientific proof from testing. Factors such as the activity of the sun are ignored. The contribution of animals to gas collections has been noticed, but not included in these discussions. The fact is, we do not know near enough to say that humans are changing the climate significantly.

Some evangelical leaders are opposed to the statement signed by Warren and others. Charles W. Colson, James Dobson and Richard Land are a few of these.

Oh, and speaking to the claim of Warren and others that global warming impacts the poor, note that 30 cents for every $1,000 spent by the United States, the European Union and the United Nations since 1993 ($80 billion) was spent on global warming research. The United States alone budgeted $6.5 billion for global warming research in 2007. You could feed and house a lot of poor people for that.

Meanwhile, dozens of preachers and Christian leaders are wasting time and money. Their call is to preach the gospel, but they are arm pit deep in political issues. They are also over their heads, spouting off in areas in which they are not trained or educated, jumping on the political bandwagon of the day.

All I can say to them is remember Y2K.

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