Any religion that does not endorse the belief that its followers are custodians of this divine gift called planet Earth, has no right to be called a religion. You could ask any religious person, anywhere in the world, if they see life and this planet as a gift from their creator, and they would all agree. If you were to then ask if they have a spiritual obligation to act as custodians for this big wonderful world, most would also agree. The ones that disagree seem to me to be heavily influenced by propaganda from the fossil fuel industry that wants to see the party continue, business as usual. I see the brainwashing somewhat in the U.K. and Australia, but mostly in the USA. I'm not religious, but I have to ask, how do Christians come to terms with this?
Global warming and climate science has been going on for 150
years. Most of the scientist in the 1800’s understood that CO2 was a greenhouse
gas. But now, a century and a half later, we see the true “dumbing down”. A
situation where the average Joe in America either doesn’t understand what the “greenhouse
effect” is, or simply doesn’t believe that CO2 is a greenhouse gas.
A litany of arguments spew forth from the right-wing think
tanks. A never-ending cacophony of lies, spin, and deception, all designed to
keep their party going. They want to keep using fossil fuels until our
ecosystem is devastated beyond repair.
Lie #1, “CO2 is such
a small percentage of the atmosphere, how can it possibly affect temperature?”
We all understand that greenhouses do work. If they didn’t
work, people wouldn’t use greenhouses. I don’t need to get into the science to
prove it, we just know it works. How thick is the glass or plastic for a
greenhouse? I’ve seen some very large greenhouses, and that thin piece of glass
for the roof and walls makes up a very small percentage of the overall volume
of the greenhouse, but IT STILL WORKS!!!
Lie #2, “It is the
sun that causes warming, not man.”
This is actually true, but misleading. Of course it is the
sun. What good is a greenhouse without the sun? Then again, what good is a
greenhouse without a roof? In other words, if the sun makes it hot, then a
greenhouse in the sun makes it hotter. Duh!
Lie #3, “Plants need
CO2, how can it be harmful?”
Plants need water too, but what happens when they are
flooded? Water is good for humans, too. What happens when we get too much? If
you look at the last 500,000 years of ice record, you can see that every time
CO2 levels go up by 100 ppm, the temperature goes up about 18 degrees F. There
is a lag time because the earth has such a huge thermal mass and it takes
decades to equalize. But, like it or not, we are due for much higher
temperatures, flooding, economic disruptions, food shortages, etc.
Lie #4, “The world
has had higher concentrations of CO2 before”
Yeah, when dinosaurs were here and humans were not. Life
will survive, but not life like we know it. The plants we have now mostly
couldn’t survive. It takes a long time for plant and animal life to evolve to
handle extreme temperatures and humidity. It takes ocean life tens of thousands
of years to evolve to survive under high concentrations of carbonic acid. So,
life would still be here, but it isn’t pretty.
Lie #5, “How can
other planets in our solar system be warming too?
Short answer, they aren’t. That is a myth.
Lie #6, “The natural
carbon cycle is far bigger than anything man does.”
This is true, but misleading. Nature can handle the normal
CO2 cycle. But we are throwing excess into the system that it can’t handle fast
enough. If we released that much CO2 over eons, it would be fine, but we are
doing it in 200 years. Not a good idea.
Lie #7, “The climate
models are so complicated and the scientists never get it right.”
Actually, the energy balance equation is simple. We look at
all the energy coming in and how much leaves and we figure how much warming will
occur. That is a done deal and we’ve been able to do the math for CENTURIES!
What we don’t know are things like how fast it will happen. We know it WILL
happen, just not how fast. Air currents, ocean currents, subtle variations in
weather, pollution, solar activity, etc. make models very complicated. The
think tanks use that fact to trick people into thinking that the science is too
complicated. But let me make it simple, if we don’t change, life will not be
very pleasant in the next 50 to 100 years.
Lie #8, “First they
said we would enter an ice age, and then global warming. Which is it?”
All the scientists understood CO2 and the greenhouse effect.
They also understood that pollution blocks the sunlight. What they were unsure
about is which would win. By the 90’s, it was finally understood that CO2 would
win, while pollution just slows down the global warming.
Lie #9, “Warming has
stopped, we are entering into global cooling.”
From NASA’s website “The ten warmest years in the 132-year
record have all occurred since 1998.”
Lie #10, "Global warming is just a religion"
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a religion just faith based beliefs in spite of science or any contrary proof? Enough said.
Lie #11, "We've had many natural warming and cooling cycles in the past, long before man was here, so man can't be the cause of any warming."
Really bad logic here. Just because something has happened before doesn't mean that we can't change it now or make it worse. It is like saying, "Men died from all kinds of natural causes long before cars were invented, therefore, driving a car recklessly can not possibly kill you." The truly sad part is that I have to even address this lie.
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There are many more lies, but these are some of the ones I
see most often. I know it is hard to figure out which party is telling the
truth and which one is spinning with an agenda. Just look at the end result. Is
what you believe taking care of the planet or is it destroying the planet? Does
your belief ensure a clean sustainable planet for future generations, or does
your belief help some elite make money while they leave us with a putrid stink
hole?
All I can hope is that whoever reads this is not so far gone
and brainwashed by big oil, that they can’t honestly and critically look at the
situation that we are in. Besides, imagine how future generations will judge
the science deniers, the evil minions that groveled at the feet of elite
bastards that don’t care for life, but only profit. They will probably judge the deniers more harshly than the elite. At least the elite have a reason to lie,
what’s your excuse?