When the Heat Is On

A few weeks ago the temperatures were absolutely blistering here.  It was on those days that the argument favoring the reality of global warming made a lot of sense.  The last couple weeks have been marvelously cool.  In my 25 years of living in this area of the country, I can never remember it being like this in August.  So now the Ice Age theory seems more likely.

I have tried to remain open-minded in my assessment of the whole global warming debate.  Of these two things I am fairly sure:

1. The climate in most regions seems slightly warmer than it was 30 years ago.
2. Man-made pollution does have some kind of affect on our global environment.

The questions that nag at me, however, are these:

1. How has the climate changed over longer spans of time?  Global warming and ice age prophets both seem to focus on a handful of decades, when the atmospheric cycles for the history of the earth - regardless if you believe it has been here for 6000 years or 4 billion years - would be far more instructive as to what is "normal."  Though the debate rages, areas like Greenland had a much warmer annual climate in the ancient past than today (thus the name).  Ice core samples reveal lush forests and vast insect populations.
2. How accurately can we ever know what the climate was like, say, 100 years ago?  The precision of single or fractions of degrees cannot be reliably determined in past generations due to the nature of the apparatuses used then, or the lack of any apparatus at all.  Even using current technology to assess ice cores and other samples could not possibly be accurate to the degree (pun intended) needed for evaluating environmental changes.
3. Is even the worst of our pollutants able to actually alter atmospheric conditions over the long haul?  We cannot automatically jump to cause-effect assumptions simply because we now pollute more and temperatures have risen (if they have).  What other factors may be the cause?  What pollutants which actually come from creation itself (forest fires, volcanic eruptions, flatulating cattle, etc.) are a part of the effect?  A friend recently directed me to a website which tracks sunspot activity which indicates a strong correlation between sunspot activity and temperature change cycles.  The more potential factors that are added to the list, the more improbable it becomes that we can ever, with any integrity, say what causes climate change.  The combination of factors becomes so complex that there exists no laboratory big enough, or computer powerful enough, to combine the factors and come to an accurate conclusion.
4. In what specific ways is the climate affected by man-made pollutants?  The talk today is about global warming, but when I was a kid in the early 70s, the were panicked about the coming ice age.  There are some "scientists" who claim that every bizarre atmospheric condition that we see is the result of global warming - record blizzards, scorching heat waves, and killer hurricanes.  How is that possible?  If our pollution causes such random events, then we wouldn't be talking about global warming.  We would be concerned about warming for a brief time followed by freezing conditions, followed by massive floods, then devastating droughts. . .

I am (obviously) no scientist.  I don't even do much armchair-meteorology.  But I do consider my connection to this issue as a follower of Jesus Christ.  I affirm that the God of Scripture created this world and all that exists.  When He created human beings, God charged us with having "dominion over" (not a term for abusive or uncaring sovereignty) the planet and its multi-faceted life forms.  God's direction definitely allows man the privilege of "exploiting" parts of creation for his own benefit (see Genesis 1:26-29), but we have also been called to be good stewards of all that God has given.

The concept of stewardship is throughout the Bible, and we usually apply it to money, the gospel, our lives, or other "spiritual" issues.  Seldom do we discuss our stewardship of creation.  If God desires us to be good stewards of our material possessions, and God desires us to be good stewards of His truth and life itself, doesn't it make sense that anything that falls in between those two extremes (material to eternal) should be "stewarded" as well?  How can we become passionate about spending $100 properly, yet not care about how we treat the earth that God created and pronounced as "Good"?  Regardless of whether global warming is a reality or not, our role as caretakers of God's creation is a Scriptural mandate.

Our very existence on this planet will cause the environment to be impacted, but the severity of the impact can be greatly altered by our lifestyle.  When venturing into wilderness areas, hikers and campers are instructed to "leave no trace" or live in such a way as to leave "minimal impact."  This shows respect for the beauty of God's handiwork.

The difficult part of this philosophy comes in determining where the line is crossed from honoring and respecting the creation of God to worshipping it.  When does my insistence on minimal impact become more oppressive to man than to creation?  When does creation begin to have dominion over human beings?  Herein lies the heart of the ecology debate.  And much of this is rooted in vastly differing opinions on what constitutes necessity as opposed to luxury.  Progress in technology has impacted creation as both manufacturing methods, and the goods produced (or the maintenance of them) pollute our environment.  But the technology boom has also elevated the health and life span of people throughout the world.  How much is enough?  Where is a God-honoring balance?

It is important as a follower of Jesus for me to be "green" to a certain degree (pun not intended).  As I consider the fact that God made the ground I walk on, the air I breath, the water I drink, the food I eat (unless it came from a cardboard box or a drive-thru window), and the people I see.  As an expression of worship to God, I treat all of these with honor.  I used to dump my motor oil on the backyard brush pile.  I recycle it now.  I used to throw discarded mail and most trash into a landfill.  I now take time to sort and recycle what I can.  I think more about the conservation of gasoline, not only because it impacts my wallet, but because it has some kind of impact on the air quality in my community.  I am more carefully thinking through more of my actions in regard to the environment, not because it's preservation is my ultimate goal, but because what God has created deserves my respect.

And your thoughts would be. . .?