By: J. Randolph Evans
Mistake #1: Climate Change Does Not Exist.
Both creationists and scientists agree – the climate has changed over the history of planet Earth. The Bible describes a time when it rained forty days and forty nights leading to a flood. Noah built an ark packed with animals to survive. Scientists describe times when the planet was completely frozen at one time being Snowball Earth with ice sheets everywhere and the average temperature at 40 degrees below zero. Indeed, entire civilizations have ebbed and flowed in response to the changes in climate. Although it is hard to believe now, Greenland was actually once green.
Mistake #2: Climate Change Is Not Happening Now.
The climate is always changing – even now. The climate changes by the hour, day, week, year, decade, century, millennium and more. Ice ages have frozen the planet and cooling periods have chilled it.
The last cooling period is called the Little Ice Age. (NASA says this period extended from roughly 1550 AD until about 1850 AD – basically ending around 160 years ago.) Leading up to and during the Little Ice Age, glaciers grew, rains came (with the Great Famine), and summers stopped being predictable.
In fact, some scientists believe that there have been as many as five ice ages. Interestingly, according to scientists, the Earth is still in the most recent ice age that began around 2.5 million years ago (evidenced apparently by the fact that the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets still exist).
On the other hand, there have been warming periods, like the Medieval Warm Period (from about 950 to 1250). There have been others. Of course, it is no secret that most scientists believe the planet is currently in a warming period.
Yet, while the temperature changes, the Earth itself is cooling as the radioactivity that produces its heat declines and its molten mass core cools. Fortunately, if scientists are correct, this cooling process will take millions of years.
The next ice age does not appear to be so far away. Some estimate that the next ice age is around 80,000 years away, although its onset could actually be delayed by the current warming.
Mistake #3: Man can control the climate.
Climate change happens for many reasons. For creationists, it is the province of God. For scientists, there are a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is the movement of the continents. (Basically, North America moves away from Europe about as fast as a person’s fingernail grows – about an inch per year or about six feet every generation). Other factors range from volcanic activity to the Earth’s orbit to meteorites hitting the planet to the simple aging of the planet.
No one suggests (credibly) that man can actually control any of these mega-factors. Of course, this has not dampened the enthusiasm to try.
For a period, many scientists focused on the risk of global cooling and looked for ways to stop or slow it. More recently, the shift has been to focus on global warming with strategies for controlling the emission of various greenhouse gases. (Interestingly, according to many reports, cows are some of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases – hence, the push for a vegetarian diet as part of a global climate change effort. )
Mistake #4: Man should try to control the climate.
Putting aside the idea that man could control the climate, everyone should worry if man does try to control the climate. Here, the rule of unintended consequences has serious implications. Just when scientists figure out one thing, they inevitably discover that there are several other things that they never understood. Questions of advancing or postponing the next ice age in the context of drifting continents is definitely a few levels above any mortal’s pay grade. And, the risks of getting it wrong – well, they are bone-chilling.
Throughout history, climate change has really always been about adaptation. From the religious perspective, Noah adapted to the flood by building an ark. Indian civilizations moved and adapted to their changing climate on the Asian continent by building new cities. In Greenland, some folks stayed; others left.
The bottom line is that the planet changes and no one can change that. Certainly, most folks prefer things to stay exactly the way they are. Yet, the reality is that no credible scientist suggests that the climate can be controlled. After all, just predicting the weather accurately is hard enough.
Mistake #5: Man should just give up.
There are many good reasons other than climate change for taking good care of the environment. Man has a moral obligation to be a good steward of the planet. This means we should work hard to conserve natural resources and prevent pollution.
It is actually not that complicated – like everything; try to leave the place in better shape than it was found.