When we lived in the upper midwest we learned that the Great Lakes were formed by receding glaciers at the end of the last ice age (of five total). Fish fossils have been found in the Nevada desert and the fossil of a giant catfish was unearthed southwest of Cairo. These and other phenomena are an indication that our earth is billions of years old and has undergone major environmental disruptions. Unless Adam had a bellybutton (see last night's post).
Is climate change real? Are global temperatures rising and bringing with them catastrophic changes like rising sea levels and 100-year events named Harvey? If temps are rising, is a significant portion of that change caused by human actions, especially the release of pollutants into the atmosphere creating the greenhouse effect? Are we learning that indeed, "it's not nice to fool Mother Nature?" (from 1977)
I'll accept for the sake of discussion that systemic global warming is taking place and that we're not just in the middle of an occasional short-term fluctuation of the kind that drops record snow one year and brings a crazy hot summer the next. Let's grant that the earth is in the midst of a sustained and significant rise in temperatures and move on to the question of the extent that rise is caused by human activity.
Two problems occur to me as we try to answer that question. The first: we're told that there have been previous ice ages that ended in dramatic fashion doing things like carving out the Great Lakes. So how can we know if we're not just experiencing a similar thing now? And the only empirical way to know the extent of any human causes is to measure for them by removing those from the dynamic...which obviously can't be done. Are we responsible for 10% of the change, or 50%, or 90%? No way of knowing.
Al Gore at least leaves the impression that it's all our fault. He and others say that if we don't make BIG changes very soon we're doomed. Our planet will be uninhabitable and beyond repair. That strikes me as not an inconvenient truth, but as unsubstantiated speculation without any empirical support. The earth not only survived, it flourished after the global warming that brought an end to the last ice age, suggesting that we should be at least cautious in predicting outcomes on that grand a scale.
That said, I'm disinclined to accept the existence of a prehistoric ice age that ended abruptly creating Lake Superior in its wake. I'm also inclined to think Adam had a bellybutton, saw stars at night, and that tree stump had rings. I think the evidence and biblical record combine to suggest the earth was created fully mature with an appearance of an age it did not possess, including petroleum deposits and Great Lakes. So the question of any similarities between this round of global warming and the end of the previous ice age are moot. Assuming we're experiencing systemic global warming it's probably a one-off and unprecedented.
Is Al correct that it's human caused and we need to clean up our act or face extinction?
On a practical basis I don't care. It doesn't matter...to me.
"The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it." - Ps. 24:1
When God put Adam and Eve in the garden he told Adam to "work it and keep it" (Gen. 2:15 ). It was not Adam's; the garden remained God's and Adam was the caretaker, charged with tending it.
"Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful." - 1 Cor. 4:2
I'm sure Adam took his responsibilities to work and keep the garden seriously, tending it judiciously as a good steward of that which was entrusted to him.
I am Adam's descendant. The earth is still the Lord's and I am, at most, a steward of my small corner.
I don't recycle because Al says I should. I don't turn off the water while I brush my teeth because it pleases some environmental council, or compost our kitchen and animal waste to keep the Green's happy. I do those things and more because I am a steward of this 3 acres God has given us (!) and I answer to him. That's a big part of why we downsized so dramatically and now live simply and small in a 40-year old single wide. Less is more and life isn't measured by the amount of stuff we possess. When I accept the truth of Ps. 24:1 and 1 Cor. 4:2 waste is sin.
This means I haven't joined the chorus of conservatives (and many Christians) ripping on Al Gore and the environmentalists. We may disagree about some specifics (I'm not convinced the carbon footprint of an electric car is better than a good internal combustion engine), but I should be at least as environmentally conscious as any climate change crusader, just for a wholly different reason. For me it's the living out of my understanding of biblical teaching in God's world. I'm just living on his earth. That's why, for me, Al Gore is irrelevant.
Imagine that! A "young earth" (young being a very relative term here) Christian crazy who's a staunch environmentalist.
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