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The claim is rampant: manmade climate change is an existential threat to human and planetary survival. To prevent it, we must reach “net-zero carbon emissions,” ASAP. That means no more energy from fossil fuels; no more internal-combustion vehicles; no more nitrous fertilizers; eating less meat, or none; getting all our energy from wind, solar, and geothermal, and all our food from “organic” farming; and, consequently, shrinking and impoverishing human population—all in the name of “justice.”

How do we navigate the seemingly conflicting claims of nature and human welfare? How can we care for the earth while caring for people, made in the image of God—especially the poor? This conference will help Christians understand climate science, energy economics, and common-sense public policy. Attendees will leave able to think critically and constructively about environmental, climate, and energy policy and how it affects people all over the world.

To host this conference at your church, school, or other organization,
click here and complete the form.

Presentations

Biblical Principles of Environmental Stewardship
David R. Legates

This talk will introduce and expand on The Biblical Perspective of Environmental Stewardship: Subduing and Ruling the Earth to the Glory of God and the Benefit of Our Neighbors—thirty theses in a “We Affirm/We Deny” format about how Christians should view creation and what good Christian stewardship of our environment should be. It will provide an overview of the Cornwall Alliance’s perspective on Christian environmental stewardship, which puts our Lord God, ourselves, our neighbors, and the whole of creation in proper perspective.

What Economic Order Best Protects Nature While Overcoming Poverty?
E. Calvin Beisner

Throughout its history, environmentalism has leaned heavily toward increasing government rather than private control over business and private life in the name or protecting nature. This presentation will assess the most important arguments for that view and weigh the pros and cons, in both argument and historical performance, of socialist/progressive/planned versus capitalist/free-market approaches to environmental stewardship.

A History of the Climate Change Movement
David R. Legates

Since the early 1960s, Earth’s climate has become an increasingly important topic that has dominated political and economic policies. Beginning with concern over a cooling planet (i.e., global cooling) and morphing into fear of a warming planet (i.e., global warming), many environmentalists decry the use of fossil fuels and, more recently, modern agriculture, which they say drive the “existential threat” of “climate change.” Where we are today is a result of a well-orchestrated effort to mold policies and beliefs to further an agenda developed over at least a century. This presentation will explore the history of the climate change movement and explain why it is less about science than about reducing freedom and prosperity.

Climate Change and the Poor: Guidelines for Passionate Christians
E. Calvin Beisner

A constant refrain of those who demand rapid and expensive policies to fight climate change is that the world’s poor will suffer more from the effects of global warming than anyone else. Is the claim true? If it is, how should it shape policy? This talk will explain why the very solutions proposed to mitigate climate change—especially a forced transition from hydrocarbon (fossil fuel) energy sources to wind, solar, and other “renewable” sources, and abandoning modern farming with chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides—will be far more harmful to the poor, and the planet, than climate change itself. It will then describe alternative policies informed by sound science and economics that simultaneously help the poor while protecting our natural environment.

Speakers

David R. Legates, Ph.D., Climatology, is Cornwall Alliance’s Director of Research and Education. Honored by the Science and Environmental Policy Project with the Frederick Seitz Award, he is a retired Professor of Climatology and Geography at the University of Delaware. He is co-author with S. Fred Singer and Anthony Lupo of Hot Talk, Cold Science: Global Warming’s Unfinished Debate, 3^rd edition, co-author of Cornwall Alliance’s A Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor 2014: The Case against Harmful Climate Policies Gets Stronger, and author or co-author of over 150 peer-reviewed articles in climate science.

E. Calvin Beisner, Ph.D., History of Political Thought, is Cornwall Alliance’s President and Founder. Honored in 2014 by the Heritage Foundation with the Outstanding Spokesperson on Faith, Science, and Stewardship Award, he is former Associate Professor of Historical Theology and Social Ethics at Knox Theological Seminary and of Interdisciplinary Studies at Covenant College and author of Prospects for Growth: A Biblical View of Population, Resources, and the Future; Where Garden Meets Wilderness: Evangelical Entry into the Environmental Debate; Is Capitalism Bad for the Environment?; What Is the Most Important Environmental Task Facing American Christians Today? and other books.

What Does a Host Organization Need to Do?

To learn how your church, school, or other organization can host this conference, click this link and complete the form. Here you will also find a list of helpful answers to frequently asked questions.

The Vision and Mission of the Cornwall Alliance

We aspire to a world in which people, made in the image of God, reconciled to Him by Jesus Christ, and reflecting God’s own creativity, work together to enhance the fruitfulness, beauty, and safety of the earth, enabling more and more of our neighbors to enjoy good health, long life, freedom, justice, and spiritual and material abundance, for the glory of God and the good of our fellow man, thus addressing the two Great Commandments to love God and love our neighbor. To this end we educate the public and policymakers about Biblical earth stewardship, economic development for the poor, and the gospel of Jesus Christ, along with the Christian worldview, theology, and ethics. Learn more about us at www.CornwallAlliance.org.

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