We ended Part 3 of this history with reference to An Examination of the Scientific, Ethical, and Theological Implications of Climate Change, produced by the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance—the original name of what became the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation. I don’t think any of us involved in creating it could imagine all that would come of it. But it shook some things up. Over a decade before, Marxist atheist astronomer Carl Sagan (famous for his Cosmos PBS program, each … [Read more...]
Do Health Risks from Mercury Justify Stringent Regulations on Coal-Fired Power Plants?
[Editor's Note: The announcement December 27, 2018, by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that it is revising cost findings behind its Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) ignited a firestorm of complaints on the ground that mercury is a known neurotoxin that can cause brain damage in infants and young people. While that is true, it's also true that the risk depends greatly on the degree of exposure---and there is compelling evidence that mercury emissions from coal-fired … [Read more...]
Are Christians Automatically Biased Where Science is Concerned?
Here at the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation we try to answer email questions in detail as often as we can. That's not to say we have the time to answer every single question that way, but we do try. This week Dr. Beisner received the following question from a staff member of a college apologetics ministry. (We do not include the names of those who ask questions when we share the information with our readers.) What are your thoughts on the critical claim that organizations … [Read more...]
The Rest of the Story: What Got Left on Newsy’s Cutting-Room Floor?
On September 25, 2017, Newsy reporter Zach Tombs interviewed Cornwall Alliance Founder and National Spokesman Dr. E. Calvin Beisner. Parts of that interview were included in the 13-minute documentary video Revolt: The Kingdom and the Power, by Kevin Clancy, Kate Grumke, and Zach Toombs. [Note: There is no family connection between Zach Toombs and Cornwall Alliance Director of Communications Megan (Toombs) Kinard.] We hope many people who see that video will be interested to know what else Mr. … [Read more...]
Mitch’s Pitch for Climate Alarm—Reason, or Unreason?
Recently Rev. Mitchell Hescox, CEO of the Evangelical Environmental Network, wrote an email to a pastor, who forwarded it to us. It's a prime example of the fallacious (and worse) discourse climate alarmists often use. Here's what Hescox wrote: I pray you will reconsider your stance on climate change. It is apparent, you have been mislead by evil spirits. Climate change science was first published in 1892, the National Academy of Science first told President Johnson about the serious impacts … [Read more...]
Blog: 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...]
Climate Change, Caring for Creation, and Evangelicals
Last year Mitchell Hescox, CEO of the Evangelical Environmental Network, teamed up with television meteorologist Paul Douglas to write Caring for Creation: The Evangelical’s Guide to Climate Change and a Healthy Environment (Bethany House). Their hearts are in the right place, but their understanding of global climate-change science is seriously deficient, and the result could be a cure worse than the disease—especially for the billions of poor around the world. Anthony Sadar, a veteran … [Read more...]
“Climate Change”: A Leap of Faith?
Tonight at Duke University there will be a panel discussion titled “Climate Change Not a Leap of Faith.” Among the event hosts is the group Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, an offshoot of the Evangelical Environmental Network. They and the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, the Nicholas School of the Environment, and the Kenan Institute for Ethics are bringing in the Nicholas Institute’s Amy Pickle, the Nicholas School’s Megan Mullin, the Kenan Institute’s David … [Read more...]
The Theologization of Global Warming Among American Evangelicals: Who Says Religion and Science Can’t Mix?
[Note: This essay was written in the summer of 2010 at the request of Dr. Patrick Michaels, intended for a book he was editing. His publisher declined to include it in the book because of its religious content. It was never published elsewhere until now. We hope it remains a helpful survey of the history of the debate over global warming among evangelicals up to that time.—ECB, March 11, 2016] Introduction In the last half decade there has been a blossoming of public concern about global … [Read more...]
Validation of IPCC’s Global Warming Forecasts would Require More than Tripling Warming Rate
At +0.11C per decade rate, Global Average Temperature would rise 1.1C in a century, not the ~3C generally predicted by IPCC without CO2 emission reduction. Actual increase in the 36.5 years since 1978 is 0.407C. To wind up with 3C increase in the century from 1978 through 2077, we'd need to add another 2.593C in the remaining 63.5 years, i.e., 0.41C per decade, 3.7 times the rate so far. Anybody got a good idea what's going to drive that more-than-tripling of the rate of increase? Or might it … [Read more...]