Environ / Mental / ism
(Part 5 of 5)
Despite the reassuring facts that were not running with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; that we are not soon to be submerged under a toxic tide; there are those Enviro / Mentalists who like creature out of a black lagoon tell us that we are about as doomed as Pompeii.
What are these fears that we should be so alarmed about? How realistic are the statistics that are used to prop them up? While there is certainly some substance to them, they are as substantive as Pierre De Coubertin’s dream to bring peace to the world through the Modern Olympics.
Population Growth
Here the cultural-alarmist-historian sees an insoluble problem, and the problem is too many people. Over population threatens the earth’s resources. It’s ‘Apocalypse Now!’ The third horse of the prophesied Apocalypse (Tribulation) is either pawing the ground or galloping out of the barn right now. If like farm animals, the ever-expanding world population is not culled and controlled the galloping horse of famine will quickly eat us out of house and home and result in world-wide poverty. (Revelation 6:5-6).
Many take the opposite View. Sure the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are coming some day as the scriptures prophesy, but that day is certainly not upon us now.
The argument that high population itself causes poverty is an erroneous one. Some of the most desirable places in the earth to live are in High density cities. That is why so many people live in them. Manhattan has 55,000 people per square mile. Despite their problems of crime and high taxes and rent and noise, people still choose to live there.
High density population is not the cause of poverty. The United States has more people per square mile than Africa, Taiwan has a population density greater than that of China and yet it has more than twice the wealth per capita. The Netherlands has a greater population density than China and it is eight to ten time richer. Bermuda has more people per square mile than Bangladesh, Germany than India, and Italy than Pakistan. Monaco is one of the most over populated kingdoms on the planet; yet all these countries have more food, more money and better homes. Over population is not proving to be a serious problem in the world. Attacking those problems that lead to poverty is a more proven way. Abortion mills and euthanasia deprive more people of the sanctity and dignity of life than overpopulation.
Global Warming
Global warming is another word that has the ring of a stone to it. Although extreme environmentalists avow that it is the biggest problem facing our planet, their unsupported assumptions based on unproven scientific theories melt under the glaring light of the proven facts. The same experts in the 1970s were telling us that it was Global cooling that was going to get us all The green house gas (carbon dioxide) which traps solar heat in the atmosphere will not let it radiate back into space and thus will cause global temperatures to rise. This will melt the polar icecaps, which will raise sea levels and cause deserts to expand and cause more hurricanes. But the irritating truth is that the increase in temperatures are not due to man made pollution but due to the sun’s solar energy out put which is a natural cause that man has no control over. Highly speculative computer climate models were and still are the driving force behind these fears. Present global warming means more evaporation and more evaporation means more rain and more rain means more vegetation plus a slight lengthening of the growing season. Contracting icecaps and contracting deserts seem more like it.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is crucial to plant growth. As Frederick Seitz former president of the National Academy of Sciences tells us, “there is good evidence that increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is environmentally helpful.” An increase in carbon dioxide into the air means and increases in plant growth and plant efficiency. Some scientists say as much as a 35% efficiency increase. This makes plants more resistant to diseases and bugs and excessive heat and cold. A portion of the great gains in agricultural productivity in the last hundred years has been due to an increase of CO2 into the atmosphere. Global warming has all the earmarks of making our planet a better place to live and to make humans and animals happier and healthier. It’s a win win!
Actual observations from both satellite and balloon-borne radiosondes show no current warming whatsoever, which contradicts computer model results. In spite of the consensus of scientists some extreme environmentalists want to curb fossil fuel use to reduce the CO2 emissions. Thankfully the Kyoto modus operandi has basically gone the way of the dodo and dinosaur. Canada has just bowed out of it. Many believe that is was a professors’ cash cow for profit.
Nature’s Road Is Not Perfect
The road of nature is long, dusty and winding, but its vistas can be breathtaking. The fact that the world is not experiencing over population or destructive man-made global warming or the loss of many species of plants and animals that will never return, does not mean that changes in policies do not need to be addressed. The big question is how much pollution we are willing to tolerate! We can live without oil and silicon and fiber optics (It would be tough); but we cannot live without food, air and water. These resources are the rights of us all and the exclusive right of no one single person or group of persons. They are not up for auction to the highest bidder.
We must get right back to Eden and reclaim our mandate to be good stewards and have ‘dominion’ over our home in outer space. Mining industries cannot help but leave large and ugly scars on the face of the countryside. But when they are finished harvesting the good earth, need not leave it that way. They are creative enough to bring them up to an aesthetic beauty that all can enjoy afterwards. History repeatedly shows that man is a creative being and capable of wise stewardship. We must no longer allow anti-corporatism, alleged proofs, phony scripts, charts and equations drafted by profiteering pseudo-scientists and extreme environmentalism politicize rule making for their own selfish gain.
Let me close this brief series with the words of the great prophet Amos (9:13)
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,
And the treader of grapes him who sows seed;
The mountains shall drip with sweet wine,
And all the hills shall flow with it.”
That triumphant, perfect day will not come until the Greatest Conservationist of all comes back to the planet which He created for us all to enjoy. Nature is not our master and we are not its slaves, we are its supervisor and have been given “dominion over it,” until that day when we shall give an account to HIM!
The Best Is Yet To Be!
Pastor Bob