Global Warming
9 Feb 2007
According to the leading international network of climate scientists—the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—global warming is “unequivocal” and human activity is “very likely” the cause of rising temperatures. Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nations Environmental Program, which administers the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, declared February 2—the day the Panel released its report—to be “the date when uncertainty was removed as to whether humans [have] anything to do with climate change on this planet.” Steiner’s rigidity over a report that is riddled with the word “likely” and includes phrases like “a 1-in-10 chance” is inexplicable apart from the politically correct pressure being brought to bear by environmentalists on today’s scientists to sing in unison the global warming mantra.
Contrary to popular opinion and environmentalists’ propaganda, global warming is anything but a scientifically proven fact. Why then, one may ask, is it being propagated as a foregone conclusion by the majority of today’s scientific community. It is being done solely on the basis of scientific consensus. In other words, it’s presented as fact rather than theory because a majority of scientists profess it; not because any of them have proven it.
Supposedly, the scientific method consist of the following: (1) Observation of a phenomenon (2) Development of a hypothesis as to why it occurs (3) Construction of a set of rigorous tests that are demonstrable and repeatable to gather data (4) Analysis of the data (5) Confirmation or refutation of the hypothesis. In the case of global warming, scientists have stopped at step two, skipped steps three, four and five, and proclaimed their hypothesis as fact on the sole basis of consensus. In light of modern-day science’s shocking replacement of the scientific method with scientists’ show of hands, permit me to point out that scientific consensus once asserted that the sun revolved around a flat earth and that blood-sucking leeches cured diseases.
A good example of the problem with today’s climate control craze is the “post hoc ergo propter hoc (after this therefore because of this) fallacy.” The rooster crows and then the sun rises; therefore, the sun rises because the rooster crows. Consequently, we better not mess with the rooster. Man is producing greenhouse gases and the earth’s temperature is rising; therefore, the earth is warming because of manmade greenhouse gases. Consequently, man must stop producing greenhouse gasses.
When it comes to the earth’s greenhouse effect, few know, because so little is reported about it, that most of it is attributable to water vapor. The natural origin of water vapor is approximately 99 percent. Other greenhouse gases are for the most part of natural origin as well. Thus, the effect of manmade greenhouse gases on climate control is negligible at best. Still, this doesn’t stop today’s doomsday climatologists from predicting an impending climate apocalypse if we don’t halt tropical deforestation and fossil-fuel burning.
Thanks to his doomsday documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, which champions the pseudo-science of today’s environmentalist wackos and warns of impending environmental disaster, Al Gore has been nominated for an Academy Award and the Nobel Peace Prize. Of course, old Oscar ain’t what he used to be, having been awarded to the likes of Michael Moore, and Nobel laureates have certainly fallen in prestige ever since they were joined by the likes of Yasir Arafat and Kofi Annan. Still, Gore would undoubtedly love to have Hollywood’s coveted golden statuette for his mantel and the Nobel Committee’s million-dollar prize to start production on a remake of “Love Story” starring him and Tipper.
Despite the accolades hurled in Gore’s direction, his documentary is fraught with deception. For example, while it points out that sea ice in the Northern Hemisphere is shrinking, it neglects to report that sea ice in the Southern Hemisphere is actually increasing. Furthermore, according to the United Nations’ study of Gore’s proposed global warming solutions, the price tag for fixing our problem is an astronomical $533 trillion, which translates into every man, woman, and child on this planet becoming 30 percent poorer than they are now. It’s safe to say, if “Egore’s” mad science is ever implemented we’ll all starve long before we’re suffocated by earth’s gradually warming temperatures.
In spite of all of the above, I do believe in a form of global warming. What’s more, I believe all of us need to be preparing for it. Long ago the Apostle Peter warned, “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7). According to Peter, this world is going to be reserved by God until the Day of Judgment. In that day, the fire of God’s judgment will result in the purification of “the heavens and the earth” and the “perdition of ungodly men.” If I were today’s environmentalists, I’d stop worrying about the preservation of the earth and start worrying about the salvation of my immortal soul.
Don Walton
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