Has global warming become a religion?

From what I read and hear, one dare not say anything against 'Global Warming' - Has it become a Religion and not just a theory ?

It isn't that global warming is a religion, it is just that the vast majority of climate scientists agree that global warming is real and a huge ecological problem. Global warming skeptics are being relegated to the lunatic fringe.

There are people who still believe the Earth is flat even though we have pictures of it from space and there are people who believe the Earth is only about 6000 years old even though every scientific method of measuring its age indicates it is about 4.5 billion years old. People can believe anything they want but just because there are a few credentialed scientists who disagree with the vast majority this does not mean that we should consider both sides to be equally valid.

Much of the funding of global warming skeptics came from the fossil fuel industry and even they are having to acknowledge that global warming is real. They still fund a few "think tanks" who's job is to put the skeptical position in the media as much as possible but like the way tobacco companies eventually had to admit that cigarettes kill people the fossil fuel industry is beginning to admit that burning fossil fuels contributes to global warming.

Global warming is a theory much like gravity is a theory.

"Seventeen-thousand years ago the water level of the sea was 170 meters lower than today. There was no man, no industry, and the greenhouse effect came from volcanic clouds. The cause of the warming up of the earth is not only human it is geophysical. There are decimation periods and their are warming-up periods. We are now in a warming-up period and the level of the sea is increasing four millimeters per year. So I don't know what to say except we should be careful and not add to nature an additional bad factor. But to say we are responsible for the warming up, no. -- The volcanic effects are probably much stronger than the human effects, and what is going to be spilled out of the volcanoes in the future? We don't know. How many spray cans in an eruption of a volcano?" ~ Jacques Cousteau

Jacques Cousteau also said we should take all measures to limit CO2. This interview was 10 years ago and we know a lot more about global warming now than we did then.

The extent of Global Wamring is uncertain because our climate models are not perfect. Some systems self-regulate while other systems can run away after reaching a tipping point and all the ways that systems interact with each other are not known. At no point in Earth's history has the amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere increased as quickly as it has since the beginning of our industrial revolution so we have no historical data to go on. As far as I'm concerned we are already playing with fire so to speak.

There are a number of phenomena that scientists have observed since Cousteau's 1996 interview that has increase concerns about global warming. Were Cousteau still alive chances are that he would be more concerned about global warming than he was.

Above: huge ecological problem - Global warming skeptics are being relegated to the lunatic fringe.

Hmmmmmm.........

Yesterday, NASA administrator Dr Michael Griffin said "I have no doubt that a trend of global warming exists," Griffin told Inskeep. "I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with."

"To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of Earth's climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn't change.

Must not know what he's talking about, right ? - one of those 'lunatics'

From ABC news:

"Griffin's comments immediately drew stunned reaction from James Hansen, NASA's top climate scientist at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.

"It's an incredibly arrogant and ignorant statement," Hansen told ABC News. "It indicates a complete ignorance of understanding the implications of climate change." "

I won't say that Griffin's a lunatic but he certainly wasn't using logic to come to his conclusion. It doesn't matter whether we now have an optimal climate or not. If global warming increases, the sea levels will rise and millions of acres of crops and homes will be destroyed. That isn't an optimal condition for anyone!

As to whether it's a religion: Global warming offers us no answers to the great philosophical questions and gives us no moral guidance. It is a theory based on evidence and not just faith in the unseen. Just like evolution, it is not a religion. It is science.

Global Warming has become a religion to some - and you better not say anything against it or you'll be labeled, demonized, etc...freedom of speech/opinion does not apply.

10/10/07

The Gore movie: A British judge set out nine alleged errors in the film in which statements were made that were not supported by the current mainstream scientific consensus.

ERROR: Mr Gore asserted that a sea-level rise of up to 20 feet would be caused by melting of either West Antarctica or Greenland "in the near future".

The judge said: "This is distinctly alarmist and part of Mr Gore's "wake-up call".

It was common ground that if Greenland melted it would release this amount of water - "but only after, and over, millennia."

ERROR: The film had also asserted that low-lying inhabited Pacific atolls "are being inundated because of anthropogenic global warming" - but there was no evidence of any evacuation having yet happened.

ERROR: The documentary had also spoken of global warming "shutting down the Ocean Conveyor" - the process by which the Gulf Stream is carried over the North Atlantic to western Europe.

The judge said that, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it was "very unlikely" that the Ocean Conveyor, also known as the Meridional Overturning Circulation, would shut down in the future, though it might slow down.

ERROR: Mr Gore had also asserted - by ridiculing the opposite view - that two graphs, one plotting a rise in C02 and the other the rise in temperature over a period of 650,000 years, showed "an exact fit".

The judge said that, although there was general scientific agreement that there was a connection, "the two graphs do not establish what Mr Gore asserts".

ERROR: Mr Gore had asserted that the disappearance of snow on Mt Kilimanjaro was expressly attributable to global warming. The judge said this had "specifically impressed" the Environment Secretary David Miliband.

But the scientific consensus was that it cannot be established that the recession of snows on Mt Kilimanjaro is mainly attributable to human-induced climate change.

ERROR: The drying up of Lake Chad was used in the film as a prime example of a catastrophic result of global warming, said the judge.

"However, it is generally accepted that the evidence remains insufficient to establish such an attribution.

"It is apparently considered to be far more likely to result from other factors, such as population increase and over-grazing, and regional climate variability."

ERROR: Mr Gore ascribes Hurricane Katrina and the consequent devastation in New Orleans to global warming, but there was "insufficient evidence to show that".

ERROR: MR Gore had also referred to a new scientific study showing that, for the first time, polar bears were being found that had actually drowned "swimming long distances - up to 60 miles - to find the ice".

The judge said: "The only scientific study that either side before me can find is one which indicates that four polar bears have recently been found drowned because of a storm."

That was not to say there might not in future be drowning-related deaths of bears if the trend of regression of pack ice continued - "but it plainly does not support Mr Gore's description".

ERROR: Mr Gore said in the film that coral reefs all over the world were bleaching because of global warming and other factors.

The judge said the IPCC had reported that, if temperatures were to rise by 1-3 degrees centigrade, there would be increased coral bleaching and mortality, unless the coral could adapt.

But separating the impacts of stresses due to climate change from other stresses, such as over-fishing, and pollution was difficult.

A Government spokesperson said it was not proposing to make any further comment on the case at present.

Look up,
James Lovelock,"The theory of Gaia"...maybe it'll help some. I hope.

Interesting article:

//icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog/comments_about_global_warming/

Founder of the Weather Channel weighs in:

onenewsnow.com/2007/11/founder_of_weather_channel_dis.php

Note: Global Warming 'experts' predicted record-setting Hurricane Seasons in '06 and '07...didn't happen.

Senate report released 12/20/07:

Over 400 prominent scientists from more than two dozen countries recently voiced significant objections to major aspects of the so-called "consensus" on man-made global warming. These scientists, many of whom are current and former participants in the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), criticized the climate claims made by the UN IPCC and former Vice President Al Gore.

The new report issued by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's office details the views of the scientists, the overwhelming majority of whom spoke out in 2007.

Amblessed, this is the one area where you and I really disagree.

As an evanglical Christian myself I would argue that it's global warming denial which has become an article of faith for some American evangelicals, rather than GW itself being a religion.

The science studying global warming is complex and the attempts by governments and individuals to respond to it seem nothing more than common sense, to me.

Instead, the 'blind faith', or even 'ignorant faith' I see is when people attempt to link a minority political view to their religious belief. Remember, this is my faith we're talking about, not just yours, this is my Creator God who is seeing His world mucked up, not just yours. I find it very embarassing to see the bad witness going on when a few American evangelicals decide to link their opinions with their witness to God.

It is only 'a few' - please check out the Creation Care website of the American Evangelical Environmental Network to realise that many evangelicals in the US take global warming seriously.

It is also almost entirely only in the US - I'm a British evangelical in an international evangelical church and only the Americans (and indeed only a few of them) hold global-warming-denial to be an article of their faith.

And I really think you are holding it as an article of faith. God is going to judge me as well as you, and it's always easier to see what he'll judge others for than to spot our own sins, but I truly believe that your lack of Creation Care is going to be a big issue for you. And I also believe you'll be judged on earth by our children and grandchildren, who have to deal with the problems left by our generations.

So, I think you hold a minority political opinion - not usually a sin, and sometimes a positive virtue! But this one is more dangerous than most. Please, whatever you do, don't confuse people disagreeing with you with religious persecution. They're simply paying better attention to the facts and letting political bias affect them less, on this occasion.

I didn't write that info on the just-released Senate report - you would have to take it up with the author...Merry Christmas !!

1/13/08

A cardinal in the Catholic Church says the hysteria over man-made climate change is akin to a “new religion” and a symptom of “pagan emptiness.”

Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia, has been the target of criticism in his country for expressing doubts about the validity of man-made global warming.

In an interview that appeared in The Catholic World Report, he said: “Right now, the mass media, politicians, many church figures, and the public generally seem to have embraced even the wilder claims about man-made climate change as if they constituted a new religion.

“These days, for any public figure to question the basis of what amounts to green fundamentalist faith is tantamount to heresy.”

Cardinal Pell called long-term weather forecasting “notoriously imprecise,” and pointed to predictions in the 1970s that the planet was about to enter a new ice age because of global cooling.

He said some of the more “hysterical and extreme” claims about impending climate change “appear symptomatic of a pagan emptiness, of a Western fear when confronted by the immense and basically uncontrollable forces of nature…

“It’s almost as though people without religion, who don’t belong to any of the great religious traditions, have got to be frightened of something. Perhaps they’re looking for a cause that is almost a substitute for religion.”

As for Al Gore’s message of doom about climate change, Cardinal Pell noted that there are “significant errors” in his film “An Inconvenient Truth,” and added: “Few of us have the scientific knowledge to question the wild claims Gore has made — other than some grains of common sense.”

But for an alternative Christian view, I recommend a good Bible Study from Britain's 'The Evangelical Alliance Relief Fund' (which is snappily known as Tearfund).

http://www.tearfund.org/webdocs/Website/Campaigning/Whose%20life%20Bible%20study%203.pdf

2/18/08: A new report from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that reveal that almost all the allegedly “lost” ice has come back. A NOAA report shows that ice levels which had shrunk from 5 million square miles in January 2007 to just 1.5 million square miles in October, are almost back to their original levels.
Moreover, a Feb. 18 report in the London Daily Express showed that there is nearly a third more ice in Antarctica than usual.
The Daily express recalls the photograph of polar bears clinging on to a melting iceberg which has been widely hailed as proof of the need to fight climate change and has been used by former Vice President Al Gore during his "Inconvenient Truth" lectures about mankind’s alleged impact on the global climate. Gore fails to mention that the photograph was taken in the month of August when melting is normal. Or that the polar bear population has soared in recent years.

NOAA: Coolest Winter Since 2001 for U.S., Globe
March 13, 2008

The average temperature across both the contiguous U.S. and the globe during climatological winter (December 2007-February 2008) was the coolest since 2001, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center

amblessed, you might be interested in this...

the National Association of Evangelicals have produced a statement titled, “For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility.” One of the priorities listed was working to protect God’s creation.

The statement declared “God-given dominion” is a “sacred responsibility” that rejects “depletion” and “destruction” of creation. Instead, “our uses of the Earth must be designed to conserve and renew the Earth.”

Bible-believing Christians now understand that their worldview affects all of life, not just personal salvation. It deals with the work place, the neighborhood, politics, arts, and, yes, the environment.

also, this is a great website.
http://green.yahoo.com/blog/ecogeek/244/high-school-teacher-spreads-the-word-on-climate-change.html

it does not call for your belief or disbelief in global warming, just weighs the results. it was produced by a teacher.

Thanks for the info amoeba...Take care !!

I use amoeba's websites quite a bit - they're great Christian resources for a green lifestyle and green campaigning. There are other British ones too - most of the Christian Aid Agencies recognise how much Climate Change is affecting/is going to affect the poorest people more than the rest of us, so Tearfund and Christian Aid are big on Climate Change these days.