The following is a brief non-scientific response to a climate change article that appeared recently in a Christian topical magazine in Northern Ireland. This article remains unpublished by the editor of the magazine. Sadly, different views on climate change other than the media’s secular left are rarely represented.
In the book of Genesis after God created man and woman in his own image, he gave them certain instructions namely; ‘be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it’. ‘The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.’
There are numerous other passages in scripture concerning the environment, including flora and fauna and man’s relationship with them. Interestingly there are no specific passages relating to what we would understand now as ‘climate change’. You might say, then it’s ok to pollute and destroy the world God has made? No, it’s not. We are still to take ‘care’ of His creation. It is a specific instruction from God, for us to carry out.
Sir David Attenborough recently presented a programme on BBC 1 about the looming disaster of ‘climate change’. He begins, ‘right now we are facing the greatest threat in thousands of years. Scientists across the globe are in no doubt that at the current rate of warming we risk a devasting future.’
Throughout the programme Sir David and other like-minded scientists portrayed a doomsday scenario repeatedly stating that this was a ‘man made’ disaster of global proportions due to mankind’s involvement in the increase of carbon emissions. He further says; ‘the scientific evidence is, that if we do not take action, we face the collapse of our societies’.
His case is built on scientific research and his words designed to provoke mass hysteria.But are we to believe everything that Sir David and many climate scientists say is true? And more importantly where does God fit into all this?
Sir David over many decades has brought into our living rooms the beauty and wonder of nature, and more recently the horrendous pollution of the oceans and its devastating effects on marine life. We thank him for his commitment and enlightening our minds to the beautiful yet fragile world of nature.
However, there are gaping holes in his analysis. . Sir David as a passionate evolutionist has no time whatsoever for theism. He and many of the IPCC scientists who back up his analysis have the same outlook. In other words, they have ‘exchanged the truth of God for a lie.’ Humans contribute to, but do not cause climate change.
It is God himself who controls the climate. A cursory read from Job chapter 36 will confirm this. ‘He draws up the drops of water’ v 27. God is responsible for water vapour, and clouds, not mankind. Psalm 24 states, ‘the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.’ The climate is his. He is responsible for it. ‘Seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.’ Do Christians really believe this?
Radical environmentalism promotes its own world view and its own version of the origin and meaning of life. It goes without saying that these man-made doctrines are in total conflict to what the bible says and teaches.
The bible begins with God as creator and sustainer; not man. . The IPCC are a large body of like-minded scientists. . But who pays their salaries? And who pays for their research?
Billions of pounds, dollars, and euros, are poured into this field of ‘climate change’ to ensure the correct political answers. Wind farms and solar panels are morally a good idea but extremely limited. But what’s in it for these companies who are financed by government subsidies? I assume they get richer. Do we see evidence for the re distribution of their wealth? That’s another debate.
The key word for much of the ‘evidence’ that is presented is; predicted. Predictions as we all know are seldom accurate. Predictions and facts are two very different things. There is climate change because there has always been and always will be climate change.
The overall climate has increased by roughly .8 degrees c which when globally measured is relatively insignificant. The climate change facts and graphs we are presented with are ‘predicted’ by feeding readings and assessments into computing systems for the desired analysis. Which in turn become ‘facts’. But are they the truth? Over stating possible outcomes has become the norm.
What is the chemical makeup of the earth’s atmosphere? Wikipedia states; 78.09 nitrogen, 20.75 oxygen, 0.93 argon, 0.04 carbon dioxide. Are we to believe that 0.19 of carbon dioxide will reach epidemic proportions threatening the existence of human life? On NASA website we can see clearly that the earth is getting greener because of the slight increase of carbon, which has increased food production. Plant life and the biosphere need carbon to grow and develop as well as the human body.
Environmentalism used to be a non-political, unbiased campaign to help guide humanity to look after the environment and take care of it. Today it is anything but. It has become the new religion of the age. It and other aligned groupings policed by the media are not allowed to voice a contrary opinion. Concerning climate change the BBC inform us, ‘the matter is now closed, scientific evidence is conclusive.’
I note that Creationist theology is rarely if ever mentioned in any climate change debate. One can only assume that’s because it is not relevant. It has no kudos. It is cool and trendy to worship creation rather than the creator. Current secular thinking believes scientific enlightenment will sort the earth’s climatic problems out with God incapable of such a task.
Climate change is not an exact science and if man believes that he has it sourced through his elite so called superior knowledge; humanity is in deep trouble.
Another error climate scientists make is to compare like with like. In the world of climate change no two areas of land mass are the same. No two oceans or seas are the same. No two forests are the same. No two mountain ranges are the same. Yet the Arctic and the Antarctic are somehow equally compared. They are not the same. How they remain cold and freezing differ dramatically mainly due to deep sea currents. Sea ice in the Artic has decreased but in the Antarctic it has increased. More enlightened minds than mine can explain this.
NASA observes the recent warming on Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto. The warming of these planets is proportional to warming on Earth. Yet these planets have no jumbo jets or SUV’s.
Might it have something to do with the Sun getting warmer rather than increased man-made carbon dioxide? The sun and the moon according to the bible control the seasons and the climate. They were placed there for that reason.
Climate change is a mystery and will remain so. The El Nino and La Nina ocean changes are only recently discovered phenomenon which we know little or nothing about, yet are essential. . It is not for us to ‘give orders to the morning or shown the dawn its place’. When we do this, it highlights the sheer arrogance and foolishness of the over privileged who seek to tell the rest of us what we must do, and not do. And how we are to live our lives according to a vociferous political agenda. Paul writing to the Corinthian Church encountered similar elitism; ‘But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.’ 1 Cor 1: 27ff.
We should all strive to be environmentalists in our own way. We are not to sit on our hands bemoaning the many problems the world faces. Let’s help creation in a biblical way remembering that God still sustains the heavens and the earth. One wonders what ever happened to the campaign to stop the destruction of the rain forests back in the eighties? Or the gigantic hole in the ozone layer.
The tropical rain forests can absorb roughly a third of global carbon emissions. More projects should be encouraged and financed by the UN and the World Bank like the Great Green Wall that is transforming much of Sub-Sahara Africa and countering the effects of climate change, migration and desertification. God placed the tropical rain forests there for a reason, to act as a giant atmospheric filter. Sadly, we have all contributed in some way to its destruction.
As for me in my limited capacity I hope to plant a native woodland, to try and restore the imbalance. The scientific elite and academia can get on with manufacturing their own political agenda.
In closing I read that in the recent Science journal after much soul-searching a leading scientist in the editorial simply concludes; ‘plant more trees’. A very good idea. In short, the Climate Change hysteria is totally unfounded, and without any biblical foundation.
Rev Alan Wilson is a recently retired Presbyterian Minister in Northern Ireland. He was a former Police Officer during the ‘troubles’ before going into the ministry. He is married to Ann and they are now proud grandparents of Jacob and Cora. He enjoys keeping Alpaccas, gardening, watching football and learning how theology relates to the environment and the world at large. He and his wife spent a summer Exchange in 2018 with a Presbyterian Church in Toronto.
The photo shows, “View from Mount Holyoke,” by Thomas Nash, painted in 1836.