GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL. BUT ...

Climatologists tell us that for the past twelve years the earth has not been warming.  Some people suggest that this data proves that there is no global warming.  But it seems to me that most people agree that a true warming trend started in the 1850s.  This warming has been, on average, about 1.5 degrees C.  For the past twelve years we might have been in a plateau and the warming will resume, or we might be at the peak.  For Christians, there are two fundamental questions.

QUESTION 1

Is global warming bad? 

(For this question and some comments about it, I am indebted to a marvelous lecture by Jay Richards which can be accessed through the website for The Acton Institute: www.acton.org.  Here is a link to the lecture, which is one hour. http://www.acton.org/media/20080417_christians_and_global_warming.php) 

When Jay Richards speaks to this questions he mentions that one college professor virtually thought he should be imprisoned for voicing such heresy.  But an argument can be made that a small amount of warming can be good.  Growing seasons can be lengthened, helping some populations get food.  Because ten times more people die from extreme cold as opposed to extreme heat, lives would be saved.  Obviously excessive warming would be bad.  There have always been warming and cooling trends so a good scientific enterprise would be to determine the optimum global temperature.

QUESTION 2

Is human behavior responsible for global warming?

Unlike the first question this one has been frequently asked and hotly (sorry) debated.  I recommend you watch a debate between two Evangelicals, E. Calvin Beisner and David P. Gushee.  It is an excellent resource and available on DVD for under $20 and I have seen it on CD for just a few dollars.  It is titled Evangelicals & Global Warming: A Formal Debate.  You can buy it at www.nicenecouncil.com or Amazon.  While some would have us believe that the question has already been decided in the affirmative, the debate shows that the skeptics have a case.

Why is there strong presumption that humans are responsible for global warming?

Here is my take:
     1. Scientists discovered that the earth is warming.
     2. Some scientists hypothesized that this is due to human activity increasing levels of CO2.
     3. Grant requests were made to research this possibility.
     4. Grant givers, many of whom are very liberal and prone to believe in redistribution of wealth, found this hypothesis to hold great promise for them.  If humans were at fault, then the highly developed nations, especially the United States, owed a huge debt to the rest of the world.
     5. Liberals found a wonderful justification for redistribution of wealth
     6. Liberal grant givers created a climate (sorry again) in which scientists had to express support for human causation of global warming if they wanted grant money for their projects.
     7. Many scientists asserted human causation of global warming in order to get grant money for their projects.

The intimidation suggested above is not just conservative paranoia.  It is documented by Dr. Richard Lindzen in an article in the Wall Street Journal of April 12, 2006.  Dr. Lindzen is an atmospheric physicist and the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at M. I. T.

We should note that the tide is turning.  Scientists by the thousands are now expressing doubts about human causation of global warming.