 November 26, 2008
Dear Friend, As you read this week's WeGetIt.org Wednesday Bulletin, please be thinking of friends who would benefit from it, and then forward it to them. Thanks for your support, and may you have a joyful Thanksgiving! Climate of hypocrisy
In a recent New York Times op-ed titled "The Climate for Change," Al Gore called on the U.S. to re-establish its moral authority on global warming. Unfortunately, Mr. Gore’s moral authority may have already peaked. First, the day after Mr. Gore received an Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth in 2007, a report surfaced that his primary residence uses 20 times more energy than the national average. Testifying shortly afterward before Congress, Mr. Gore declined to pledge that he would “consume no more energy for use in my residence than the average American household” within a year. Then, a widely-circulated comparison of the Gore residence with the private home of President Bush found that the President’s house was much ‘greener.’ It turns out that the resource-saving features of the “Texas White House” (like rainwater collection, recycled gray water irrigation, and geothermal heat) are quite a contrast to Gore’s 20-room mansion, complete with a heated indoor pool. Apparently embarrassed, Mr. Gore began renovating his home, adding solar panels, using more efficient light bulbs, and installing geothermal heating. But now comes word that, twelve months later, his energy use has increased by 10%. An Inconvenient Truth ends with a provocative question: “Are you ready to change the way you live?” Apparently not. “You will know them,” Jesus told us, “by their fruits” (Matthew 7:20). How to meet Kyoto targets? Just kill the economy Recent data indicate that the 40 signatory nations to the Kyoto agreement to reduce CO2 emissions to 5% below 1990 levels have, on average, succeeded. But hold the celebration. The group's success occurred only at the cost of near economic collapse for signatories whose emissions actually met the target, while countries whose economies stayed strong missed by a mile. Eastern European countries emerging from Communism "achieved" a 37% drop in emissions because they also suffered a 17% drop in output-per-person in the first three years of the 1990s and needed till 1998 to recover. Worse, Russia and the former Soviet Republics suffered a 43% drop in output-per-person 1990 to 1998 and needed seventeen years to climb back to their 1990 level. The economic collapse in those countries is what caused their emissions to decline enough to offset the 9.9% increase in emissions of the healthy, growing economies. Some examples: Spain's emissions grew by 51%, Australia's by 29%, Ireland's by 26%, Canada's by 22%. Twenty Kyoto signers failed to meet the agreement. The U.S., which didn't sign Kyoto, outperformed most countries that did. The Department of Energy estimates it would cost the U.S. as much as $570 billion per year (4.1% of GDP) and nearly 5 million jobs to meet Kyoto's requirements. Depression, anyone? Nature knows best? "God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth'" (Genesis 1:28). "Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it" (Genesis 2:15). "Then [after the Fall] to Adam He said, 'Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, "You shall not eat of it": Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return'" (Genesis 3:17-19). These three passages in the first three chapters of Genesis make it clear that, contrary to what many environmentalists call "the first law of ecology," namely, "Nature knows best," the Earth can and should be improved by human stewardship. Now, please forward this message to your pastor, other Christian leaders, and friends and urge them to sign the WeGetIt.org Declaration, too! The more people sign, the stronger the message our leaders will hear that Biblical principles and factual evidence, not media hype about speculative fears like global warming, should guide our care for the environment and the poor.Gratefully,
Edit your name | Bulletin Archives | Unsubscribe | Inquiries |
