Cornwall Alliance Founder and National Spokesman Dr. E. Calvin Beisner, a Florida resident, wrote a letter to Florida Governor Rick Scott opposing pressure for urgent action in Florida to fight global warming. His letter, dated July 28, 2014, began:

Grace and peace to you in Christ Jesus. I live in Pembroke Pines, Florida, and am the Founder and National Spokesman of an evangelical ministry, The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, a network of nearly 60 evangelical theologians, scientists, economists, and other scholars dedicated to Biblical earth stewardship, economic development for the poor, and the proclamation and defense of the gospel of Christ.

Recently Rev. Mitchell Hescox, President of the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN), requested to meet with you to discuss the threats of anthropogenic climate change to Florida, saying, “Sea level rise, more extreme weather, saltwater contaminated wells, loss of farm land and increased air pollution all pose significant threats to the health and well-being of Floridians.” Rev. Hescox described this as a “pro-life” concern and claims to speak for over 60,000 pro-life Florida Christians.

We at the Cornwall Alliance take a different—more scientifically, economically, and morally justified—view of climate change. We believe, as expressed in the Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming (copy enclosed; endorsed by over 500 evangelical leaders, including climate scientists, other scientists, environmental and developmental economists, theologians and pastors, and other scholars, plus hundreds of lay Christians), that

•  recent and foreseeable climate change are primarily natural, not anthropogenic;
•  human contribution to recent global warming, while probably real, is neither major nor dangerous; and
•  efforts to mitigate global warming by reducing carbon dioxide emissions would have more harmful than beneficial effects, especially to the world’s poor, by raising the cost of energy when abundant, affordable, reliable energy is essential to overcoming poverty.

In contrast to each of Rev. Hescox’s assertions about Florida’s vulnerability: …

Click here to read the rest of Dr. Beisner’s letter to Governor Scott (PDF).

 

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