By now everybody knows that the national academies of science of the world's top countries, and various professional scientific associations, and in short all people with brains firmly believe that human emissions of carbon dioxide have been the primary driver of global warming/climate change for the past half century. But what most people don't know is that those organizations' official positions on the matter rarely reflect the considered opinions of their members. They tend to be adopted … [Read more...]
A step toward restoring civility to climate-change debates?
For years people like Al Gore, Robert Kennedy Jr., John Cook, and others have labeled those who question one or another aspect of the case for belief in dangerous human-induced climate change as "science deniers," "climate deniers," "environmental criminals," and worse. Such rhetoric is far from helpful not only because it demonizes, making respectful dialogue difficult if not impossible, but also because it leads inexorably to misrepresentation, and consequently misunderstanding, as people with … [Read more...]
This changes everything!
"Consensus" climate science has for decades assumed that the vast majority of the increase in atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (from about 280 parts per million by volume [ppmv] before the Industrial Revolution to about 400 today) has come from burning fossil fuels for energy. On that assumption, "consensus" scientists have alleged that human activity has driven all or most global warming over that time. Most criticism of that thinking has focused on "climate sensitivity"---how … [Read more...]
Does the Trump Administration Put Science in Jeopardy?
It's hard to imagine a more thoroughly ignorant statement than this: “The discipline of science is one where the facts, once they are peer-reviewed and published in scientific journals, are fixed. They’re not open to interpretation, or at least not much.” That's the opinion of Jeffrey Kluger and Justin Worland, writing in "How a war on science could hurt the U.S.---and its citizens." in Time magazine. The truth, of course, for these two apparent neophytes to science, is quite the … [Read more...]
Caring for Creation: A Book of Good Intentions but Poor Science
As an evangelical Christian, I believe we should be good stewards of God’s planet. We should strive to reduce pollution to protect human health and the natural environment. We should explore new alternative energy sources, always seeking to maximize benefits and minimize harms. We should prioritize providing electricity for the 1.2 billion people who don’t have it—and consequently suffer high rates of disease and premature death. For these and many other reasons I applaud Mitch Hescox and … [Read more...]
Sierra Club pushing abortion as population control to ‘save the environment’
FOX News host Tucker Carlson interviewed the Sierra Club’s Executive Director, Michael Brune, on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Feb 2, 2017. Carlson, a former Sierra Club member himself, dove right into asking Brune the tough questions. Puzzled by some of the Sierra Club’s recent position statements on such varied topics as President Trump’s border wall, the women’s march, abortion, and transgender bathrooms, Carlson asked Mr. Brune why the Sierra Club was veering away from protecting the … [Read more...]
The Trump Climate Dump: Why It Doesn’t Matter if Even 100% of Scientists Agree on Global Warming
Given current technologies, it makes no sense to destroy $100 Trillion in wealth this century for an unmeasurable reduction in warming. The more efficiently we can do those things, the greater humanity prospers. Affordable energy is part of that efficiency. Everything humans do requires energy. Everything. But when human prosperity suffers, people die. So, can it really be called “anti-science” that the moment Trump was inaugurated, the White House deleted all references to climate … [Read more...]
Climate Science or Climate Advocacy?
For almost thirty years, I have taught climate science at three different universities. What I have observed is that students are increasingly being fed climate change advocacy as a surrogate for becoming climate science literate. This makes them easy targets for the climate alarmism that pervades America today. Earth’s climate probably is the most complicated non-living system one can study, because it naturally integrates astronomy, chemistry, physics, biology, geology, hydrology, … [Read more...]
Evangelicals, Katharine Hayhoe, and Climate Change
Dr. Katharine Hayhoe is an evangelical scientist who desires the wellbeing of human society. She crunches data and helps people quantify the impacts of climate change. Sadly, her communication to the church has been anything but helpful. Dr. Hayhoe says, "The data tells us the planet is warming; the science is clear that humans are responsible; the impacts we're seeing today are already serious; and our future is in our hands." But is it? Does the church have to take her at her word because … [Read more...]
Pope Francis and Climate Politics
Reuters reports, “Pope Francis urged national leaders on Monday to implement global environmental agreements without delay, a message that looked to be squarely aimed at U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. “Addressing a group of scientists that included theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, the pope gave his strongest speech on the environment since the election of Trump, who has threatened to pull out of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. ‘The ‘distraction’ or delay in … [Read more...]
