22 Section A
THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE
Global Warming
I s global warming a plane-
tary emergency? That’s
what Al Gore tearfully told
Congress in March. He
hypothesized “a crisis that
threatens the survival of our
civilization and the habitabil-
WILLIAM T. PELLETIER
ity of earth.” Is this true?
Polls show 70% of evangel-
icals think global warming is
dangerous. Half favor high expenditures
to reduce it. Are these views correct?
Most scientists agree earth
warmed some in recent decades, but
difficult questions remain unanswered:
1. How much global warming has
occurred?
2. How much is man-generated?
3. Will consequences be catastrophic,
inconvenient, or beneficial?
4. Will reducing dependence on fossil
fuels affect global warming?
5. Will reducing CO2 emissions be
detrimental or beneficial?
6. What are the economic and social
repercussions?
The loudest voices urge drastic
action to avert global warming. They
assume that global warming will cause
catastrophic climate change, that man
is causing it, and that he can prevent
it by reducing fossil fuel consumption.
But scientists are split on global
warming. At least half disagree that it
is worrisome. Over 20,000 scientists
have signed a statement that man-
generated greenhouse gases will not
disrupt earth’s climate and that more
atmospheric CO2 is beneficial.
(www.oism.org/pproject)
Man is responsible to God as
earth’s steward. Claims that man is
damaging earth need to be sensibly
evaluated. Distinguish legitimate scien-
tific fact from agenda-driven fear-mon-
gering. Don’t give imaginative interpre-
tations the authority of concrete facts.
CLIMATE FACTS
Weather fluctuates. Some periods of
earth history have been colder than
today; others have been warmer.
Tropical fossils found worldwide indi-
cate a much warmer climate in the
past. Alarmist warnings about global
cooling and an ensuing ice age were
common as recently as the 1970’s!
Why is ice-covered Greenland
called Greenland? Centuries ago
Viking farmers named it for its lush
verdancy. England, swathed in grape
vineyards, was renowned for wine.
From the 1500’s the climate cooled
for 300 years wiping out the vine-
JUNE 2007
BY WILLIAM T. PELLETIER, PH.D [WOODSIDE NEWS COLUMNIST]
yards. Viking settlements,
stranded by advancing ice
packs, disappeared.
Scientists think earth has
warmed 0.67°C and atmos-
pheric CO2 has increased 30%
since 1880. This may or may
not be true. When evaluating
scientific claims, always ask,
PH.D.
“How do you know?”
Such conclusions require
collection and averaging of
huge amounts of data worldwide. The
process only estimates earth’s average
temperature. This certainly wasn’t done
100 years ago. Even today, weather sta-
tions are haphazardly located with
most thermometers accurate only to
0.5°C; calculations to hundredths of a
degree are meaningless.
Rampant guesswork and extrapo-
lation permeate global warming
claims. Temperature guesses for previ-
ous centuries use tree rings, coral reefs,
lake sedimentation, stalagmite size,
Greenland ice cores, crop records.
Global warming is not truly glob-
Is the massive ocean-atmosphere system so unstable
that slight warming could tip it into catastrophe?
al—the southern hemisphere is not
warming. Northern hemisphere aver-
ages were biased toward warming by the
closure of thousands of Russian weath-
er stations during the USSR’s collapse.
CO2 makes up less than 1% of the
atmosphere, and only 3% of that frac-
tion is manmade. Measurements
require sensitive detection equipment.
Accurate worldwide measurements of
atmospheric CO2 concentration were
not made 100 years ago.
Thus claims that earth has
warmed 1°F in the last century and
atmospheric CO2 has increased 30%
are conjectures—not proven facts.
Even if true, there is no proof that
man caused the warming or that it will
be catastrophic. In fact, recent research
attributes 0.5°C of warming to
solar activity. Moreover, most
warming of the past century
could not be from increased
CO2 levels because scientists
say it occurred before 1940—
when industrial emissions were
insignificant.
The movie An Inconvenient
Truth claimed global warming
will melt polar ice caps raising
oceans 10 feet. Contrary to such
hysterical predictions, coastlines
will not flood. When a glass of
ice melts, does the glass over-
flow? Water has less volume
than ice. Moreover, continents
and the atmosphere can absorb
huge amounts of water.
Effects on coastlines are
impossible to predict accurately.
However, a 1992-2002 NASA
study found a sea-level rise of
0.05 mm/year from combined
Greenland/Antarctica melt-
ing—that’s two inches in 1,000 years.
Scripture teaches coastline stability.
God told Job, “Who enclosed the sea with
doors?...I placed boundaries on it and set a
bolt and doors. I said, ‘Thus far you shall
come, but no farther; here shall your proud
waves stop.” ( Job 38:8-11; Proverbs 8:29)
It is also false to blame global
warming for severe storms, floods, and
droughts. These have always varied
with no discernible trend.
“Greenhouse gases” are gases that
trap the sun’s heat just like cars parked
in sunshine. CO2 is the most vilified
greenhouse gas—the primary one
spurring chatter about cutting emis-
sions. Yet CO2 contributes less than
5% of earth’s greenhouse warmth.
Does increased CO 2 cause warm-
ing, or does warming increase CO2?
Since CO2 increased 30% with only
slight warming over the last century
and since CO2 changes trail tempera-
ture changes, it’s doubtful that CO2
emissions cause global warming.
Oceans contain thousands of times
more CO 2 than the atmosphere. Slight
solar warming releases CO2 from
oceans into the atmosphere.
Water vapor is by far the main
greenhouse gas, and it actually stabi-
lizes climate. As temperatures increase,
evaporation and cloud cover increase.
Clouds reflect sunlight, cooling the
planet. With lower temperatures there
is less cloud cover, permitting more
absorption of solar radiation.
Neptune has been brightening and
warming since 1980. The changes
closely correlate with solar changes.
Mars has also been warming. Man’s
CO2 emissions didn’t cause warming on
Mars or Neptune—it’s the sun. Earth’s
temperature changes correlate more
closely to solar activity than to CO2 lev-
els. Solar activity varies over time and
The Woodside News
causes earth’s temperature variation,
including the current slight warming
cycle. This is well within historical
norms and likely part of a natural cycle.
GLOBAL WARMING BENEFITS
Warmer weather lengthens growing
seasons. Higher CO2 levels accelerate
plant growth. With increased CO 2,
leaves lose less water, so plants can grow
in drier climates. Animal life, which
depends on plant life, correspondingly
flourishes. This all makes food more
plentiful, reducing food prices and help-
ing alleviate world hunger.
Warmer weather makes colder
regions more livable. Ten times as
many people die from severe cold as
from severe heat, so warmer tempera-
tures save lives and fuel.
As man releases carbon from gas,
oil, and coal into the atmosphere, it’s
recycled into plants and animals. Future
generations will enjoy an environment
increasingly lush with flora and fauna as
this carbon-recycling continues.
KYOTO REPERCUSSIONS
The 1997 Kyoto Protocol on global
warming mandates reductions in fossil
fuels to reduce CO 2 emissions. It
requires 30% reduction in U.S. fossil fuel
use by 2010, making energy far more
expensive. This will drive costs of every
human activity and consumer product
higher, severely retarding economic
growth. The U.S. Energy Information
Administration estimates Kyoto will run
$1 trillion/year, costing 3,200,000
American jobs and doubling electricity
prices. Due to its horrific expense and
unproven benefits, Kyoto is still unrati-
fied by the U.S. and 155 other countries.
Kyoto’s energy rationing and CO2
taxes will especially impact the poor,
directly affecting heating, cooling, and
transportation costs. Two billion
people lack standard electrical
conveniences like refrigerators
and lights. Four million children
under five die annually of lung
infections from air pollution by
dung fires. Six million die annu-
ally of intestinal diseases from
dirty water. Kyoto will negatively
impact these numbers by making
energy much more expensive.
Yet implementing Kyoto
only reduces temperatures a
negligible 0.2°F by 2050 —
meaningless for preventing pre-
dicted catastrophes.
Kyoto costs five times the
expense of providing hygiene
and clean water to all who lack
them worldwide. This would
annually prevent two million
premature deaths and 500 mil-
lion serious illnesses, says the
World Health Organization.
SCIENCE continued on page 23
The Woodside News
SCIENCE continued from page 22
Malaria, malnutrition, heart disease
and cancer are much graver threats than
global warming. For billions of people,
dirty water and inadequate energy
sources are far more significant crises
than global warming. Most would actu-
ally welcome warming.
Will global warming be used to
restrict family size? Britain’s Optimum
Population Trust urges limits, claiming
that each child’s CO2 output is equiva-
lent to 620 transatlantic flights.
The economic costs of implement-
ing Kyoto are staggering, and Kyoto
provides negligible temperature reduc-
tions while making energy costlier.
Money spent on global warming won’t
be available for water, hygiene, and
electricity. Which investment is better?
Shouldn’t we focus resources solving
problems we can affect?
ANALYSIS
Computer simulations used for global
warming are no more accurate than the
estimates and assumptions they use.
Yet predictions from these crude mod-
els are bruited as scientific fact.
Climate is a highly complex non-
linear chaotic system. Interactions
between ocean and atmosphere are poor-
ly understood. Even the most powerful
computers cannot mathematically model
weather accurately, for climate is too
complicated with too many variables.
Ten-day weather forecasts are
notoriously inaccurate. Why think cli-
mate, which is far more complicated
than weather, can be accurately predict-
ed decades from now? Why think we
can predict the effect on next century’s
climate of today’s CO2 emissions?
Weather and climate are impossi-
ble to control. Nobody can accurately
state the results on weather of any pro-
posed action. Effects on climate are
equally unpredictable whether CO2
emissions rise or fall. Will global
warming increase or decrease? Nobody
knows what, if anything will happen.
God designed the atmosphere-
ocean system to maintain a stable cli-
mate for mankind via many self-bal-
ancing feedback mechanisms like the
greenhouse effect and cloud cover.
There are scores of biological, chemi-
cal, and physical processes which heat
and cool earth. These natural thermo-
stats maintain long-term thermal bal-
ance with short-term variation. Only a
global catastrophe like Noah’s Flood
could disrupt the climate.
Post-Flood, God promised Noah
regular cycles of seasons and tempera-
tures: While earth remains, seedtime and
harvest, cold and heat, summer and win-
ter, day and night shall not cease.
(Genesis 8:22) It is preposterous to
believe that the massive ocean-atmos-
phere system is so unstable that slight
warming could tip it into catastrophe.
Most yapping about global warm-
ing is global hot air. Global warming is
a hoax based on bogus science.
Temperature evidence shows at most
only minor changes which are well
within historical variation and not pri-
JUNE 2007 Section A 23
Global warming
in the Bible
BY WILLIAM T. PELLETIER, PH.D.
WOODSIDE NEWS COLUMNIST
S cripture speaks of future
intense global warming: The
LORD will come in fire and…will
execute judgment by fire (Isaiah
66:15,16). The day is coming, burn-
ing like a furnace and…will set them
ablaze. (Malachi 4:1)
But this warming is due to solar
activity, not man-generated CO2
emissions. The sun was given power
to scorch men with fire. Men were
seared with fierce heat. (Rev 16:8,9)
Many have doubts about the
extent and significance of today’s
global warming. There can be no
doubt about the future one. The
entire universe will be burned up.
The present heavens and earth by His
word are being reserved for fire, kept
for the day of judgment…earth and
its works will be burned up…the
heavens will be destroyed by burning,
and the elements will melt with
intense heat. (2 Peter 3:7-12)
What is Peter’s “environmen-
tal counsel” regarding this
impending global warming? Be
diligent to be found by Him in peace,
spotless and blameless…Be on your
guard lest, being carried away by the
error of unprincipled men, you fall
from your own steadfastness, but
grow in the grace and knowledge of
our Lord. (2 Peter 3:14-18)
In short, live godly and don’t be
led astray. Paul urges, “Examine
everything carefully; hold fast to that
which is good.” (1 Thess 5:21) The
counsel of Scripture given through
Peter and Paul is better than that of
today’s global warming doomsayers.
The Global Warming every-
one should be concerned about is
the Biblical one that will come sud-
denly like a thief in the night (2 Peter
3:10; 1 Thess 5:2). That’s the one
that should drive personal, politi-
cal, social, and economic changes.
Dr. Pelletier may be contacted by email
at BibleScienceGuy@WoodsideNews.org
marily man-generated. Measures pro-
posed to mitigate global warming will
cripple the world’s economies and
severely impact the poor while produc-
ing negligible benefits.
Global warming is not a true cri-
sis, but rather an agenda driven by
politics, not science. Global warming
hysteria is alarmist hype designed to
increase global governance and gov-
ernment power through controlling
energy. The propaganda is full of mis-
leading data, exaggerated speculations,
and invalid conclusions. It’s not a
cause for alarm, unless people believe
it. The crisis is not global warming but
rather the associated hidden agenda
and fear-mongering.
Dr. Pelletier may be contacted by email
at BillPelletier@TheWoodsideNews.com
©2007 William T. Pelletier