Global Warming or Global Cooling?
A commentary by David Treybig
United Church of God pastor, St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida
At the recent G8 (short for Group of Eight) meetings held in Toyako,
Japan, leaders of the world's eight richest and most developed
countries—France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada, Russia, the
United Kingdom and the United States—met for three days of
informal discussions on major issues affecting the world. And as
has been the case in preceding meetings, the discussions once again
included global warming.
Surprisingly, this year U.S. President George W. Bush indicated
that the United States would join the other G8 countries in striving
to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions—the presumed cause
of global warming. Previously, Bush had refused to obligate the
U.S. to this effort because he believed doing so would be counterproductive
to the nation's business. Like most issues, global warming
and Bush's response have critics at both ends of the spectrum.
Some such as Vladimir
Ryzhkov of The Moscow Times.com don't believe the U.S.
is responding fast enough to this environmental issue. He wrote: "Of
course, it is good that the United States, with the largest economy
in the world, finally recognized the need to reduce its greenhouse
gas emissions, but it took no concrete steps to do so during the
summit. The World Wildlife Fund has made it clear that the G8
member countries—which contribute 62 percent of all greenhouse
gas emissions—have not set definite goals for reducing those
pollutants at the last three consecutive summits."
Other critics contend that global warming is based upon flawed
ideas. In support of this position over 31,000 Americans who hold
college degrees in science have signed the Oregon Petition which
claims: "There is no convincing evidence that human release
of CO2, methane or other greenhouse gases is causing or will cause,
in the foreseeable future, catastrophic heating of the Earth's
atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate." These
skeptics further believe "The proposed limits on greenhouse
gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science
and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind" (www.oism.org/pproject/).
Some maintain that the earth has always had gradual fluctuations
in temperature and that recent warming is only temporary. Supporting
this position, recent temperatures of the earth recorded over the
past year indicate that the earth has now experienced widespread
global cooling. As Dailytech.com reported: "Over
the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded.
China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its
first snow in all recorded history. North America has the
most snow cover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the
highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea
ice, record cold in Minnesota,
Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South
Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile—the list goes on and on.
"No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence
has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature
tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated
data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.
"A compiled list of all the sources can be seen here. The
total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C—a value large
enough to wipe out most of the warming recorded over the past
100 years. All in one year's time. For all four sources, it's the
single fastest temperature change ever recorded, either up or down."
Global
warming (or is it global cooling?) has become a hugely contentious
issue that has engulfed politics, science, the world economy and
efforts to equalize business opportunities for developing nations.
In the face of such divergent opinions, what should a Christian
do? From the instruction God gave Adam to "tend and keep" his
environment (Genesis 2:15), we know that we need to be careful not
to needlessly squander the earth's resources or pollute our
land. But in contrast to those who believe man will solve his environmental
concerns, the Bible predicts a different scenario.
According to God's Word, man's efforts to make the
earth a healthy place to live will not be very successful. Instead,
the Bible prophesies that humanity will come to the point of almost
destroying itself before Christ returns to save man from himself
(Matthew 24:22) and rule the earth for 1,000 years.
 This millennium
will mark the greatest "greening" of the
earth there has ever been. During this age, our planet Earth will
experience the optimal environmental conditions for abundant crops
and healthy lives. The world will truly go "green" but
not because of man's efforts alone. Then will come some real "global
warming" (2 Peter 3:10-12). For more details, download or request
our free booklet: God's
Holy Day Plan: Hope For All Mankind.
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