When it was
recently announced that a group of largely
liberal evangelical leaders had decided to
take the initiative to fight global warming,
I became suspicious; not because good
stewardship of the Earth isn’t a Christian’s
responsibility. On the contrary, the Bible
has much to say about nature, the
environment, and humanity's responsibility
to the Earth.
The Genesis
account of creation reveals humanity's
original calling—to be the caretakers of the
Earth. Man was created in a beautiful garden
and was instructed by God to “work it and
take care of it” and to “fill the earth and
subdue it.” As caretakers, the Earth is not
ours—it belongs to God. We are to rule over
and subdue the Earth as an integral part of
the environment as well as respect it
because it is God’s creation, not the result
of some accident from the cosmic past.
But the science of global warming is suspect
and its anthropogenic cause unproven and
unprovable. And that’s the reason why
another group of conservative evangelicals
has refused to join hands with liberals
prodding the Bush administration “to soften
its position on global warming.”
In an article
that appeared in
The
Washington Post on February 2,
more than 20 evangelical leaders urged the
leadership of the 30-million member National
Association of Evangelicals not to adopt an
official position on global climate change
because “Bible-believing evangelicals . . .
disagree about the cause, severity and
solutions to the global warming issue.”
E. Calvin
Beisner, professor of social ethics at Knox
Theological Seminary, a conservative
Presbyterian school in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
explained that it would be wrong to “assume
as true certain things that we think are
still debatable, such as that global warming
is not only real but also almost certainly
going to be catastrophically harmful;
second, that it is being driven to a
significant extent by human activity; and
third, that some regime, some international
treaty for mandatory reductions in
CO2emissions, could make a significant
enough drop in global emissions to justify
the costs to the human economy.”
The debate
about global climate change is hardly
settled. Most climatologists agree that the
Earth’s
surface warmed by approximately
one degree during the 20th
century with the bulk of that warming
occurring before 1940 when CO2 emissions
were lower than now. Oddly, during this same
period of time, NASA reported that the
Earth’s atmosphere cooled.
The Pew Center
reported last year “global warming will
result in more intense hurricanes, as
increasing sea surface temperatures provide
energy for storm intensification,” but the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration countered that with an
explanation for the active Atlantic
hurricane season being the result of a
“confluence of optimal ocean and atmosphere
conditions [that] has been known to produce
increased tropical storm activity in
multi-decadal (approximately 20-30 year)
cycles.”
NOAA also
reported the global annual temperature for
combined land and ocean surfaces was a
“statistical dead heat” to the record global
temperature that was established in 1998
“…[with] unusual warmth across large parts
of the globe throughout the year.”
Additionally, it reported that a new record
was established in September for the lowest
Arctic sea ice extent since satellite
monitoring began in the late 1970s. But
scientists have also noted large reductions
in Mars’ polar ice caps since the start of
the 21st century. An increase in
the sun’s intensity is cited as a plausible
explanation, especially on Mars where there
aren’t any SUVs.
Reporting
about wild and warmer than usual weather in
the United States makes for brisk newspaper
sales but it does not equate with a global
climate shift. We were basking in mild
January temperatures across much of the
nation but Russia and parts of Eastern
Europe suffered through a winter that was
colder than normal.
The Bible does mention global warming, but
in a slightly different context. The apostle
Peter described an event in Earth’s future
when “the heavens will be dissolved, being
on fire, and the elements will melt with
fervent heat.” Evangelicals would better
serve the world by paying heed to this
coming Day of Judgment. They should focus
primarily on obeying God’s specific command
to them to evangelize by “preach[ing] the
Gospel to every creature” and “mak[ing]
disciples of all the nations.”
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