Creation and Climate Change
The Creation: The first chapter of Genesis tells us that God created herbs and fruit trees on the third day, birds and sea creatures on the fifth day, and cattle, beast, creeping things and man on the sixth day. Then He declared everything to be “very good.” Reasonably, we assume this to mean that death was not part of the original creation. Thus, the climate was perfect, man was eternal and had no need to wear protective clothing. God instructed Adam to tend and keep the garden – the oldest profession! The work was pleasant, but following Adam’s disobedience, God cursed, not Adam, but the ground [Gen. 3:17-19]. Thorns and thistles grew, not as new creations, but as mutants from existing plants, and Adam’s work became much harder. God’s objective was to keep mankind fully occupied with little time or energy left for sin!
All that we can know of that pre-flood world is found in Scripture and in the fossil record. For example, what was the oxygen content of the preflood atmosphere? Today, it is 21% but Genesis 9:20-21 tells us that after the Flood, Noah planted a vineyard, prepared wine and became drunk. It is well known that drinking alcohol, say on a mountain-top where the partial pressure of oxygen is lower, will have a far greater effect than when the same quantity is drunk at sea level. Assuming that Noah prepared the same quality of wine and drank the same quantity at the same elevation, then the greater effect would have been produced if the partial pressure of atmospheric oxygen was less than it was in that pre-flood world. Many of the fossil creatures and plants are recognizable from those in the world today; however, prior to the Flood, many were much larger. As we shall see later, plants and trees live in a symbiotic relationship with animals and man. We take for granted the trees planted on the sidewalks and boulevards of city streets, yet the purpose in doing so was not merely for appearance but to reduce the CO2 produced by traffic. Experiments have shown that by increasing the CO2, trees can grow to twice their size; indeed, commercial hot-house operators add CO2 to obtain larger fruits and vegetables. We tentatively conclude that the pre-flood world atmoshere had greater oxygen and greater CO2 contents.
Some facts about CO2. Carbon dioxide is the gas of life for plants and hence food and life for animals and man. Trees live on carbon dioxide [CO2] and breathe out oxygen; man needs oxygen and breathes out CO2. Today’s atmosphere contains 385 ppm of CO2 but from glacier analysis, in times past it was as high as 2450 ppm. If atmospheric CO2 drops to 220 ppm, plants get sick, and at 160 ppm they die. Segalstad has shown that 150 years ago the earth’s atmosphere contained 700 billion tons of carbon as CO2. Today, man and/or nature has increased this carbon load to 720 billion tons – a 3% increase. By fudge factors, the UN claims that over the same period, the carbon load has increased by 21%. Water, as liquid or vapor, has tremendous heat capacity, far greater than CO2. If the earth were like the moon with no atmosphere, the surface temperature would be zero degrees F [minus 320C.]. With our “green-house gas” atmosphere, the temperature increases to 580F [140C] mostly due to water vapor. The world’s oceans are the greatest reservoir of heat and help to stabilize the temperature of the land. The world’s oceans are also the greatest repository for CO2 as dissolved gas and, like carbonated drinks, when the ocean temperature rises, the CO2 bubbles out. Both ocean water and CO2 act as a giant thermostat to moderate living conditions on earth.
The Sources of CO2 in the USA: These are divided into equal thirds: 1) Electrical Power generation, 56% of which is from the cheapest fuel [i.e., coal]. Coal produces 30% more CO2 than natural gas, but there are insufficient natural gas resources in the US to change this situation. 2) Manufacturing: Here the energy source relies upon the national infrastructure [i.e., the electrical power grid]. 3) Transportation, especially private cars, but the situation is unlikely to change within the next two decades except to increase as the population increases.
The Environmental Movement. The world-view of these idealists is firmly based on the unquestioned faith in evolution where the fittest creatures survived to produce great harmony and even beauty in the natural world before the emergence of man. In making progress from the cave without natural predators, man is said to have reproduced irresponsibly and consumed the resources of nature. The first commandment given by God to Adam was “to be fruitful and multiply” [Genesis 1:28] but activists advocate reduction of the human population; they also demand rigid control of education to ensure complete absence of religious ideologies that have formerly divided nations. While all these ideals have been expressed since Plato’s day, the movement to achieve them has only become global after the second world war with the establishment of the UN. Canadian Maurice Strong [born 1929], is the shadowy figure who has played a leading role in globalizing the Environmental Movement. He has held high government positions in Canada and in the UN. In 1972 he was Secretary General of the UN Stockholm Conference on the Environment, then in 1988 he formed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC]. In 1992 he organized the Earth Summit [Rio] and in 1997 orchestrated the Kyoto Protocol. All these organizations consist of bureaucrats, not scientists. Strong also has interests in several large companies including Canada’s PetroCan, is leader of a New Age religion and has retired to live and teach in China; he has been replaced by former US Vice President Al Gore who is also not a scientist. The environmentalists and politicians have learned to use the “politics of fear” more succesfully in recent years. Recall these examples: 1948-1979, Fear of world over-population; 1950, Fear of Communism; 1960, Fear of DDT; 1999, The Y2K scare; 2001, Fear of terrorism; etc.
Forgotten history. Earlier in Earth’s history there really was an Ice Age. According to evolution, there have been several with the last ending about 12,000 years ago; the Creationist interpretation is that there was only one that was caused by and followed the global Flood; it took place in historic times about 4,500 years ago and is called The Great Ice Age. Then, between AD 800 - 1300 there was a Medieval Warm Period that brought prosperity: the great cathedrals of Europe were built, Greenland was green and invited immigrant farmers while Scotland was warm enough to grow grapes. This was followed by The Little Ice Age between AD 1300 and 1850 when the Frost Fair was celebrated on England’s frozen River Thames at London. The Little Ice Age brought famine followed by plague and very hard times. The facts are that there are both long and short cycles of heating and cooling that are to this day not fully understood; the sun is certainly one agent in this process. The climate has evidently had a great influence upon the affairs of history and, while this may be seen to be God’s hidden hand at work, it is seldom given recognition in formal teaching.
The Ten Top Global Warming Myths.
1. Blowing hot and cold. The 1920s: certain scientists warned of a fast approaching Glacial Age. 1930s: [the century’s hottest decade] scientists predicted global warming due to the “Greenhouse Effect.” 1972: Time Magazine warns of “imminent runaway glaciation.” 1975: Newsweek advises government to stock up on food for the approaching Ice-Age. 1990s: many dire warnings of global warming. 2000+: inclement weather has led the spin-doctors to change the cry from “Global Warming” to “Climate change!” The facts are that throughout the century temperature measurements were made at the Arctic where the temperatures did fall in the 1920s, rose in the 1930s, fell in the 1960s, rose again in the 1980s and from 2000 appear to be falling again. These changes were only one or two degrees and nicely correlate with solar activity and not human activity or carbon emissions.
2. The hole in the ozone. The 1970s saw alarming reports that chlorofluorocarbons [CFCs from aerosol containers] had formed a hole in the Earth’s protective ozone [O3] layer above the Antarctic. Man was responsible! There was a call to ban CFCs and while it may have been mere coincidence, DuPont’s patent on CFC was about to expire at this time – the ban would have eliminated any possible competition from use of the old formula! However, in 1996 the IPCC Supplement Report stated: “Aerosols actually have a cooling effect on global temperatures which helps to cancel out any warming effect of CO2.”
3. “The Science is settled”. This put-down to any possible scientific debate that CO2 causes global warming is often used by environmentalists following the example set by Al Gore in 1992. Quote: “Only an insignificant fraction of scientists deny the global warming crisis. The time for debate is over. The science is settled.” That same year a Gallup Poll of scientists actively involved in global climate research agreed that warming and cooling are cyclic, but 53% did not believe that man’s activity has caused it, while only 17% believed that it had. In 2008 the Oregon Petition had been signed by 31,072 American scientists declaring environmental claims to be nonsense.
4. The environment was stable before the evolution of man. Not only is there no data to support this argument but even the “hockey-stick” graph used by IPCC to illustrate it has long been disgraced and abandoned.
5. The glaciers are melting. Fact: Glaciers are generally retreating following the Little Ice Age, but it is not uncommon to find a glacier advancing and located next to one retreating! Global warming cannot explain both.
6. The polar bears are becoming extinct. Fact: Canada has two-thirds of the world’s polar bears and there are 13 populations, 11 of which are stable or increasing with a total count of 15,000 and thriving! Should they ever become extinct, they could be recovered from the brown and grizzly bear populations since they are all related; similarly, humans are all related: Caucasians have lost the ability to produce melanin.
7. The sea level is rising. Al Gore claimed that sea levels would rise 20 to 40 feet with “waves crashing against the steps of the US Capitol.” Others claimed Florida and large parts of Texas would be under water. Estimates based upon actual measurements now revise the sea level rise to “a few inches – a few feet at most.”
8. Global warming means more severe and more frequent storms. Even the UN’s own climate panel does not now support this. Storms are known to be cyclical, but there is still not sufficient solid data over a long enough period of time to enable science to have a good understanding and make accurate predictions.
9. The US is going it alone without Kyoto. Fact: The US rejected the 1997 Kyoto treaty along with 155 other countries, including India and China. These countries and the US represent most of the world’s population and economic activity. Mostly European countries and a dozen others, including Japan, have signed on to the Kyoto Treaty, but few are actually reducing their emissions.
10. Indulgencies for the 21st Century. The Kyoto Protocol calls for a “cap and trade” policy on industries that produce CO2 This would set a limit or “cap” on CO2 emissions produced in order to meet the Kyoto objectives. Industries that produce less than “the cap” would receive credits that can be traded with those industries that exceed “the cap.” In Japan, “Carbon credits” or “carbon offsets” are currently being traded. Credits are expressed in terms of tons of carbon sent into the atmosphere [e.g., one metric ton of carbon is equivalent to the amount of CO2 emitted by a car driven 8,000km or 5,000 miles]. The purchase of a credit gives that industry the “right” to exceed the Kyoto limit – an indulgence! Little is ever said or written about the cost of global monitoring and adminstration for this grand scheme. One outcome is certain: it will cost the taxpayer, make some persons wealthy, and not reduce CO2 emissions!
The Globalist Agenda
Those shadowy and largely hidden idealists enamored with the world-view of Plato have enlisted the enthusiasm of the lovers of nature, officially the Green Party, to serve their purpose of introducing a one-world government through the well-tested politics of fear. As examples, the fear of Communism of the 1950s and the fear of Y2K at the turn of the millennium will be recalled. The Environment is the means to this end and ideally suited since science has yet to get a full understanding of its workings; thus, opinions without facts can be the order of the day! In this 21st century worldview, the UN becomes the single governing body of the people of the world, suitably supported by global taxation; national sovereignty would necessarily be dissolved. Steps have already been taken to this effect in Europe. Active steps are also being taken in other countries through education to erase and replace National differences based upon custom and religion. Where these steps prove intractable, the end is justified by means of ethnic cleansing. Any form of democracy [the will of the people] stands in the way of achieving totalitarian control. Whether contrived or not, inept control on the part of UN bureaucrats will inevitably result in famine, disease and death for millions [e.g. Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot and N. Korea today], but this will be perceived as improving the human race by culling those less fit to survive.
The Christian Response
Throughout Scripture we see that God is sovereignly in charge so that our perception of history is really the outworking of His plan while the Earth is the stage upon which the predestined action takes place. God gave Man a set of rules by which to live and these were given for our own good. The second requirement given to Adam was to “tend and keep the garden”, and it is still in effect just as are the ten Commandments.
Genesis 8:22: Following the great Flood, God has promised us that there will never be another world-destroying Flood but seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease. However, in Matthew 24:21 Jesus warns us that in the last days there will be great tribulation such as has never been before.