Monday week on Earth Day, April 22, we can expect to be hit with a hysterical dose of gloom and doom as climate extremists tell us that we are nearing climate Armageddon.
We thought that this might be a good time to revisit a true scientific study of climate change, Climate of Extremes (Patrick J Michaels and Robert C. Bulling Jr.), published in 2009 by Cato Institute, and a follow up column in the Wall Street Journal last year.
The big news in 2009 was that there had been zero global warming since 1998. The peak warming of 1998 was, in fact, related to a Pacific Ocean weather cycle known as EL Nino. In their book the authors, both climate scientists, projected another temperature peak during the next El Nino cycle, and it came to pass six years later in 2015-16. The 2018 follow up article reported that there has been no Global Warming since 1998.
Michaels and Bulling also exposed a number of climate myths which have been widely circulated by climate alarmists. For example, there was the big scare that Greenland’s ice was melting and would drive up sea levels to drown costal cities. In fact, the actual loss of ice cover has been about 0.008% per year, an insignificant amount. Other studies have found that the ocean levels stopped rising in 2015, the largest glacier in Greenland began growing in 2017, and the number of polar bears is increasing. Another myth concerned a supposed increase in strength of hurricanes, when, in fact, historical data showed that the most powerful hurricanes occurred during a period of global cooling known as the Little Ice Age. Satellite data since 1970 confirms the fact that hurricanes have not gotten stronger.
So why are so many scientists and politicians so committed to the Global Warming catastrophe theory? To start with, there actually was Global Warming in the last half of the Twentieth Century. Our research indicates that the sun put out the highest level of energy since records were kept over the last 300 years, and even climate scientists admit that the Sun is at least partly to blame. In addition, Michaels and Bulling attribute about 25% of recorded temperature increases to the “Heat Island” effect, where urbanization has encompassed previously rural recording sites. The truth is that climate is not fully understood and many of the computer simulations substantially overstate actual observed changes. But scientists, politicians, and crony capitalists are so committed to the Global Warming theory that they persecute scientists and others who present a more balanced scientific view. And now we have politicians proclaiming that the world will end in twelve years.
These climate zealots are demanding a “Green New Deal” returning to the pre industrial world of 200 years ago, at the end of the Little Ice Age. No fossil fuels, no cars, no airplanes, no trucks of bring food to cities, and no cow flatulence. And a totalitarian government to enforce the impoverishment of humanity.
This is an urgent hour for prayer. We must begin by praying that the truth will be revealed, eliminating the unfounded fear which is driving climate hysteria. We need to pray that God will protect us against those who are creating the climate of fear to advance their ambitions. But we also need to ask God for wisdom to respond to the changing climate. There is even evidence that the heat output of the sun is decreasing, perhaps bringing a new Global Cooling Cycle which would be far more harmful than Global Warming.
Only God knows how the climate will change, whether by warming or cooling, in the years ahead. As people of prayer, we know the Master of the Climate (Psalms 135:7). Let us humble ourselves and seek His face, and ask Him to relent from sending climate catastrophe (Joel 2:13).
And let us remember on Earth Day that “The Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1)