Global Warming, a brief Biblical Worldview perspective on

Last year I added some themes relating to global warming to my web article, Genesis is Scientifically Superior (http://rock.jayden12.com/superior.php).  These themes are interspersed in a larger FAQ-style, so this blog post is a copy of that information spliced together in a more cohesive article.  Note, much of the information summarized here was brought to my attention by this article.  We'll start with glaciers, which are often one of people's favorite manifestations of the dangers of global warming.

Glaciers

Glaciers are reasonably agreed to have come from the ice age. What we believe about the ice age influences our interpretation of why they are melting now. To form glaciers we'd require massive snowfall for a long time (so buildup exceeds melt and gargantuan ice sheets can form). To have massive snowfall we'd require massive volumes of moisture in the atmosphere. The landmasses don't have that level of water, and no extraterrestrial sources of water have been determined, so we're talking ocean water, specifically. We require massive, unprecedented evaporation from the oceans. Evaporation occurs fastest with hot water. If glaciers are going to form on the poles of the earth then we need a lot of hot water at the poles. There's no good evolutionary explanation for what might cause that, but to a creationist it's really easy. Genesis 7:11 and 8:2 describe that water came up from deep underground. The deeper underground we go, the warmer the water is. And the flood is the Biblical explanation of how Rodinia broke up to Pangea and then the continents we now know. The process of breaking up the planet's crust involved, for all practical purposes, unimaginably massive volcanic activity. Since most of the tectonic plate edges are in the ocean, when the magma came up and hit the oceans it would have had a huge geothermal effect. The volcanic activity on the surface would've created massive atmospheric contaminants that would have cooled the surface, further supporting glacial growth conditions. So here we have forensically (and by process of elimination) determined the origin of the glaciers. Remember, if you don't like where the facts lead doesn't mean a scientist may dismiss them. Making up stories (sorry, "models") of how it may have happened just because you don't like the current evidence is fine, more power to you, but don't call that better science, it's wishful thinking.

Many evolutionists today attribute the recession of the glaciers to global warming. They are less concerned about the glaciers themselves, as novel as they are, and fear global flooding. But more to the point, they fear (claim) the glacial melt is caused by us evil people burning fossil fuels. (Ironically, these are often the same people who might claim that people are inherently good and therefore don't need a savior, like Jesus.) But the glaciers are almost as old as the flood. They would have formed within that first century after the flood, beginning with Genesis 8:1-5, and perhaps peaking about the time of Abraham. That was the peak, and they've been shrinking ever since (so for about 4000 years). Evolutionists believe the glaciers are significantly older than that. The global trend of using fossil fuels at scale has only been since the combustion engine became popular (namely in cars, boats, and planes) about a hundred years ago. A study published in 2008 found 1200 years ago Europe was slightly warmer than it is today, and 400 years ago it was slightly cooler.

If glaciers have been around (and melting) for at least four millennia, and fossil fuels have only been used at large scale for a century, why on earth would we claim that glacial melt is caused by burning fossil fuels? Because it allows politicians to use large amounts of taxpayer money to fund pet projects of their own invention. There's no better problem to be the hero of, than one that's just in your head. So much for man being inherently good (Genesis 8:21). And don't forget Genesis 8:22, 9:11, and Jeremiah 5:21-25 (local floods and tsunamis notwithstanding, due to their temporary nature).

Deserts

Arguably, the opposite end of the geographic spectrum as glaciers are deserts.

Evolutionists are quick to claim people cause global warming and that's what causes the Sahara to expand, ruining conventionally usable land. The Biblical perspective also involves man's fault, but in a completely different way. Man's rebellion against his Creator grieved God (Genesis 3:6-7, 6:5-6) and eventually He decided to send a worldwide flood (Genesis 6:7). After the flood (and certainly because of it) we had radical climate change, including most notably the ice age. The ice age was (as described in more detail above) caused by the large scale evaporation of unusually warm oceans. The same high level of atmospheric moisture that fueled the glaciers could have supported the rain forests, including those of Africa. The Earth's oceans have since cooled, causing less oceanic evaporation, glacial recession, and desert expansion. While this disaster was caused by man, it wasn't the cars we drive nor how much stuff we ship across the oceans, it's our rebellion against our Maker (Jeremiah 9:12-14). Ironically, the problems espoused by global warming advocates are actually caused by global cooling.

Carbon Dioxide

And surely the number one favorite cause that people spout for global warming is Carbon Dioxide (CO₂).

Many of the states in the USA have passed laws relating to the levels of CO₂ our engines should emit. The story goes that too much is harmful to both humans and the climate.

• Miners know the safety limit in an underground mine is 5,000ppm. Between 1960 and 2010 the ppm in our atmosphere rose by about 25%. Scary stuff, right? But it was only at about 400ppm in 2010 (beginning in 1960 it rose less than 2ppm per year for the next 50 years). Theoretically, if we keep adding another 2ppm per year, we could get to that 5,000ppm safety concern in 2,300 years. Except we don't have 2,000 years of fossil fuel left. And that limit is less than half what it was a century ago. So the concern is completely misplaced.
• Anyone who took biology 101 knows plants need CO₂ to survive, and we need plants to survive (for multiple reasons). Plants and animals trade oxygen (O₂) and carbon dioxide back and forth forever through breathing and photosynthesis. People don't "make" CO₂ and plants don't "make" O₂, we're exchanging it.
• In hospitals we create oxygen-rich environments to help people recover/​heal/​grow. The same works for plants: when we immerse them in extra CO₂, they do better. Having more CO₂ in the atmosphere will help farmers and tree huggers.
• Burning fossil fuels is just burning old plant matter, returning the CO₂ that was locked up in the matter that couldn't escape because of its burial conditions.
• God made the atmosphere on or before day 3, which was when He made the plants (Genesis 1:6-11). When plants and animals were created they could live, so God made the atmosphere have the right amount of CO₂ and O₂ from the very beginning.
• The atmosphere is almost 80% nitrogen, over 20% oxygen, and less than half of one percent carbon dioxide.
• If anything is harmful to our air, it's smoke and other chemicals (such as those released by burning man-made materials), but not CO₂. Regulating man-made chemicals thrown into the air is being a good steward of the Earth. Regulating CO₂ is both a distraction and a waste of time.
• Atheists have a concern for CO₂ fueled by their evolutionary worldview. Christians have an appreciation for CO₂ inspired by our Biblical worldview.  There is no compromise position to be held, and I suggest you be careful to be on the right side of the fence that aligns with your fundamental beliefs about how and why we exist at all.

Conclusion

As usual, a person's presuppositions about the nature of the world influence how they interpret the times.  This isn't a new concept, it was present in the Bible, as exemplified by Judges 17:6 and 21:25 (and a couple places in between).  And Jesus made a related comment in Matthew 16:1-3.  But remember, the period of the judges was not Israel's finest (to put it nicely).  Like them, we need to take our Creator and His word more seriously.  It's not honoring God to talk and talk about what could happen in the future because of what may have happened in the past if we ignore or dismiss what He has already told us what happened and what will come.  There is nothing to fear about climate change except

• the sin nature of humanity that caused the greatest catalyst of climate change ever, about 4,000 years ago, and is still present today, and
• the spiritual forces who are hard at work to lie that the flood never happened and distract us with another lie that there is more danger from burning gasoline in our vehicles than danger of our souls burning in hell (Luke 12:4-5).