One can’t help admiring the motives of many religious leaders alarmed about human-induced climate change. From the Pope to the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury to leaders of the Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jewish faiths, many express their angst that climate change is an “existential threat” to humanity, especially the poor, and to all life on Earth.
But sometimes one wishes they would combine some knowledge of basic data with their good intentions.
An AP story published today, “Faith groups increasingly join the fight against climate change,” tells the stories of various religiously motivated people in Louisiana who have teamed up to fight global warming.
The article cites Rev. Kristina Peterson, Pastor of Bayou Blue Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in Gray, Louisiana, and a former professor of environmental planning at the University of New Orleans, saying of what they’re doing: “It’s saving what we know that’s going to be destroyed from both the change of the heat and the rising of the water.”
One wouldn’t assume that, as a pastor, she would necessarily be aware of hard data on Louisiana’s long-term temperature or sea-level trends. But as a former professor of environmental planning, she ought to know.
First, the apparent rise in sea level along Louisiana’s coast is far more from land subsidence (about 9mm, or 1/3 inch, per year) than from a general global rise in sea level (which averages around 3 mm/year).
Second, as the graph above of data from NOAA/NCEI shows, the average daily maximum temperature for Louisiana has risen for the last 125 years at a rate of about 0.008 degree C (0.014 degree F) per decade—for a total increase of 0.096 degree C (0.168 degree F) in 125 years, an amount far too little for a human to feel and far too little to have any impact on any ecosystem, including Louisiana’s beloved bayous and wetlands.
Louisiana’s religious environmentalists can be applauded for working “to protect sacred sites from coastal erosion, refill canals dug by oil companies that allow for saltwater intrusion.” Though blaming the recent Hurricane Ida on climate change is mistaken, cleaning up and rebuilding after a hurricane is good stewardship, especially helpful to the poor. But fighting climate change needn’t be on their list of major issues.
Lazy fools all of them and a very real danger to the religious community.
I am not sure what Bible these folks read from or what God they really serve?
I wish this were not true.
Best Regards,
Jeff Skalla
There is a difference between satire and sarcasm, which isclost on those who are on the leftward end of the political center., Railing about “what bible?” may feel cathartic, but the anger should rightly be directed toward those who mislead. “Figures never lie, but liars always figure.” Just as with Margaret Sanger, who misled black pastors into thinking her motives were compassion, or who may have suborned them in some fashion, climate activists use Christians’ natural interest in being good stewards to hide the true motives of anarchy and hate by ensuring all are poorly educated. Christians trust too seldom, perhaps, but they should also verify more – and a religious leader who welcomes discourse will soon learn that discourse is the activist’s enemy.
I’ve been censored for telling the truth. Censored by a professing Christian.