Reality Check 101

What if Earth is not a product of happenstance out of nothing.  What if it is a purpose-driven, powerful, resilient system designed to welcome humanity and promote our thriving?  What if it is so intricate that wise men should admit how small they and their knowledge are?  What if, after all that, the evidence all around us is shouting to be heard – testimony from a Creator with unfathomable power, love, and a sustaining mastery of His works?

A small contingent of the youth of the world have risen to the survival challenge of the centuries, or so they have been educated to believe. 

The power of the recent climate protests rests in a rather mystical idea.  Suddenly, across the entire globe, a spontaneous movement generated itself among children who have garnered expertise in climate science, mass self-promotion, astounding levels of financial management, logistical operations, and voices of authority reaching all the way to the U.S. government and the United Nations.

Any thinking adult knows better.  Since Greta Thunberg is one of the best-known participants, reporter Dominic Green of Great Britain’s Standpoint Magazine decided to dig into the background.  As it turns out, Greta’s parents are nearly lifelong environmental activists.  Her family ties involve lobbyists, eco-academics, an ex-minister’s (government official) think-tank, and Sweden’s governmental connections to its energy companies.  The driving force behind her in the social media is the founder of a platform called “We Have No Time”, Ingmar Rentzhog (“Young People Across the World Participate in Climate Strike, The Briefing, Albert Mohler).

There is nothing immoral or illegal about any of Greta’s history.  But, when the power of a movement rests almost completely on its public image, its symbolism, the facts behind it should be just as transparent to its audience as the intense emotions of the participants.

The idea that the world is being catapulted into a climate catastrophe rests on some important claims.  In a report from the United Nations Climate Action Summit, Somini Sengupta parroted familiar claims that if emissions keep rising as they are currently, by 2040 coastlines will be inundated, droughts will intensify causing food insecurity (“Climate Protester and World Leaders: Same Planet, Different Worlds”).

Alice Hill who is with the Council on Foreign Relations was also quoted in the Sengupta article.  In her eyes, saving Earth is being hampered because “Multilateralism is under attack. We have seen the rise of authoritarian governments”.  In other words, avoiding the catastrophe is being blocked by nations who think independently, don’t kowtow to United Nations attempts at world governance, and fiercely protect their sovereignty.

As has been noted many times over the years in this column, none of this is new territory, however its revised packaging sparkles now.  The last 120 years of documented prediction history is informative. Being at the end of that time, the world’s climate “experts” are now experiencing a fourth change of heart between freezing Earth and baking Earth.  It is easily apparent throughout that period that apocalyptic consequences always ride on the tails of climate predictions – no matter what the vehicle of Earth’s demise is said to be. 

Far more fundamental questions exist for any thinking American who could be staring down the barrel of progressively more oppressive government-mandated steps to save us humans from ourselves.  Does Earth’s history demonstrate this hyper-sensitive fragility?  Is there really a “Mother” Nature crying out for an international “profound reorientation of ALL humans” (“Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save our Planet”)?  What does ALL of science say?  More important than either of those questions; Is our world really so dependent on the one hand or our power over her so great on the other? 

Even from a secular evolutionary point of view, there is much more than human villainy within climate science that is being ignored, abused, or suppressed.  A detailed 2005 report, “The Physical Evidence of Earth’s Unstoppable 1,500-Year Climate Cycle”, (National Center for Policy Analysis & The Hudson Institute) is a valuable summary.  The authors studied the science from “proxies” such as ice cores, seabed & lake sediments, fossilized pollen, small sea creatures, glacial movements, migrations (plants, animals, and humans) and much more.  They studied findings from carbon-dated crop remains and prehistoric clustering of villages.  As the title of their report and the resulting book revealed, Earth is now simply amid the latest 1,500-year warming cycle.

Harris-Mann Climatology (http://www.longrangeweather.com/Long-Range-Weather-Trends.htm) has continued to update the latest information of Earth cycling.  In addition to their writings, they have published a 2,500 B.C. to 2020 A.D. chart (“Global Temperature Trends From 2500 B.C. to 2040 A.D.).  As Professor Nir Shaviv of Hebrew University bluntly put it, “There is no calculation based on first principles that leads to a large warming by CO2 – none”( https://www.theepochtimes.com/how-climate-change-pseudoscience-became-publicly-accepted_3093372.html.).

In every wave of panic about Earth’s temperature, CO2 takes the fall.  But the science does not agree and neither does the God who designed the created order (“A Proposed Bible-Science Perspective on Global Warming”).  It would take a 1,300% increase in atmospheric CO2 to reach the current federal threshold for safety in mines.  As CO2 levels increase, plants increase their tolerances for heat and cold, accelerate growth rate, and crops increase productivity for the hungry.  The oceans contain about 60 times more carbon dioxide than the atmosphere.  At the same time, they cover over 70% of the Earth’s surface and hold 1,000 times more heat than the atmosphere.  60% to 90% of  the greenhouse gas effect on which our world survives is driven by  water vapor and clouds while even a 36% rise in CO2 levels would increase temperatures by just 0.2%.

There is so much more, not the least of which is massively flawed data collection and handling.  Nearly 90% of weather stations do not meet National Weather Service site requirements and the number of stations recommended for accurate temperature coverage for the U.S. alone stands at a miserable 1%.

In the final analysis, the climate catastrophe narrative is driven by worldview, not the facts.  God’s gift to mankind is a robust creation designed to bless us until the return of Christ.  He has commanded us to handle it responsibly.  That can only happen when truth is honored.