Monday, February 05, 2007
Random Musings for the Week Ending Feb 2, 2007 - On Global Warming and Super Coaches
How do you know it has been a slow week newswise? When the entire media becomes focused on the victims of the tornados in Florida. Don’t get me wrong, it was a tragedy, but tornados and tornado destruction and death are a regular feature of life in the United States, so why the 24-7 coverage? Slow news week. Though that doesn’t mean we cannot be in prayer for all the folks who lost loved ones, homes and jobs in the tornados. With that note, this week’s two main stories.
Global Warming Report – Big Yawn - So the U.N. releases its summary of its report that is not coming out until May. And the results? Well, if you read the press releases, it is now undoubted that the Earth is warming, that the cause is human beings, and that we have a decade to repair the damage.
The actual facts – they reduced their estimates to 3 degree C rise over the next century, they admit of the now 9 factors in climate (down from 12 by combining some), they still cannot accurately estimate 6 of them. In other words…they don’t really know but they are committed to the idea of global warming being true.
A couple of weeks ago I said follow the money (all the grant money goes to Global Warming Human Cause research. So, if you want money for research (and while many scientist got into science for noble reasons, lets face it, they have to eat, pay the rent/mortgage, and educate their kids as well), you agree with the concept. But it isn’t just the money, it is also the two a prioris of the Global Warming Alamrmist (GWA) crowd – that the climate as is right now is the best and that their policy prescriptions would be the same regardless of the fact of Global Warming.
First, the world’s bureaucrats have a passion for the way things are. Whether its political (“Yes, but we know how to deal with Arab dictators”), the tax code, or climate change, the natural assumption is that the way things are right now is the way things should
always be. The climate we have right now is not the climate that existed 200 years ago, nor the one that will exist 200 years from now.
Why do we prefer the current over the future? If, as many sources point out, the British Isles used to produce prodigious amounts of wine, then is it a bad thing that we are going back to that world (note: friends gave me a bottle of “British wine last fall in Manchester, UK, and perhaps the bureaucrats are right on this one – it was dreadful). The way things are now are not the ontological height of perfection. But the world’s elite always seem to think that is the case – the suffering of the rest of the world be damned.
From just the historical records (not of temperature but of living standards), the world was warmer (at least in the Northern Hemisphere – we must remember that written history is a product of the Global North, so the South doesn’t have the same level of records) at the time of Christ’s life until sometime mid 1st millennia. Then the world cooled, which in part led to the fall of empires and the rise of the Dark Ages. Then around 900 or so the world entered a period of warming again (British wines in direct competition with that of France). Then came the now famous “Little Ice Age” (read the book The Little Ice Age, which is a good argument for the role of climate in historical changes, although at the end he says, “Yes, human beings are causing climate change.” Umm, okay, then why the warming period of 900-1200s????). The Little Ice Age last about 500 years, played a major role in the Black Death, wars, the Reformation, and the wars between the European Empires. Then, around 1800 or so, the Earth began to warm again. Why? We don’t know why. It wasn’t because of CO2 though, because it was only the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (oh, and no SUVs).
The fact is that the climate is never going to be the same, so trying to freeze (pun intended) the climate at 1988 levels is absurd.
Second, the question that comes into my mind when I read the bios on so many of the global warming alarmists is this: If we could give the Earth a pill today that would freeze the world’s climate in its current state for the rest of eternity, how would these individuals policy prescriptions change?
The answer of course is, not at all. Many (to be fair, not all) of the global warming alarmists are anti-capitalist, anti-globalist, anti-American, and anti-business in their very core. Global warming provides the latest means of pushing their agenda, since you know, that Communism thing didn’t quite work out. These people want to destroy the vast opportunities we have to lift millions out of poverty because of their own ideology. And they say conservatives don’t care about the poor.
Yes, the Earth is warmer than it was 10 years ago, but it could just as well be heading toward a global cooling (hello next Ice Age) as anything else. The potential decline in the Sun’s output is far more important and worrying (oh yea, and completely beyond our ability to do anything about) than anything else going on.
For a good book on the topic, read Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 Years by S. Fred Singer and Dennis Avery. For some other interesting web sites on the issue:
National Review Online’s Editorial on the U.N. Report
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MGMyZWY4NjMxOWUyNDExMTMwMTUxYzNjMjE4N2ZmNjg=
A Great Series from the National Post of Canada on the Global Warming “Skeptics”
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=22003a0d-37cc-4399-8bcc-39cd20bed2f6&k=0
Oh, and a fun cheap shot article on Al Gore, who has as much validity as a global climate change expert as I do
http://www.phillymag.com/articles/science_al_gore_is_a_greenhouse_gasbag
More on the price being paid by skeptics
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070201/NEWS/702010363/1006/NEWS
Now, please do not hear me say that we should rape and pillage the earth. As a Christian, a vegetarian, and a conservationist, we should be using great care in our interactions with the Earth, caring for it, and allowing it to experience as much abundance as possible. But not at the cost of causing more people to die or be subject to debilitating poverty. Too often Christians believe that “this world is not my home,” and forgot that this world is the Lord’s, our sister, and deserving of care.
I think we can have good global economic growth, bring people out of poverty, and at the same time in the long-term (the short-term we may have to use fossil fuels and such) bring about innovation that will preserve the Earth. But Global Warming caused by human beings? Sorry, don’t buy it.
Two Great Men and Super Coaches – Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy and the great article by Michael Smith – This column was supposed to be written on Saturday, but due to factors (like being sick) I didn’t finish it until Monday (so yes, I know the outcome). I have been a football fan for a longtime, but in recent years have had my interest wane because I think people treat football as if it is life, not just a game.
Well, Michael Smith writing on ESPN has what I think is the best sports column I have read it many many years. It tells us about Mr. Dungy and Mr. Smith, and the quality of human beings they are and the fact that their race, while continuing the work of overthrowing any person’s belief that blacks are not capable of doing just as well as anyone else at any occupation just because they are black, does not define their being. More important than their race though is the quality of these two men’s character – and that is what matters to me and it should be what matters to the world. Read the column here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs06/columns/story?columnist=smith_michael&id=2740318
And do me a favour, drop Michael Smith a line at his email and tell him thanks for such an outstanding column.
Well that is all for this week, lets hope for lots of good news next week to talk about.
The Roving Theologian
