Wednesday Bulletin

Dear Friend,

Thank you for adding your name to the thousands of pastors, Christians, and evangelical leaders from across the country who have signed the WeGetIt.org declaration! If a million Christians sign this statement, we can send an important message to our leaders that Biblical principles and factual evidence, not media hype about things like global warming, should guide our care of the environment and the poor.

Every week, the WeGetIt.org Wednesday Bulletin provides updates on the stewardship-related news of our day, and offers some practical ways to think Biblically about these issues. As you read, please be thinking of the people you know who would benefit from this information. Then, forward this message to your friends and encourage them to sign the declaration.

Reality Comes Knocking

With regular gas prices hovering around $4 per gallon and American consumers becoming increasingly vocal in their protests, politicians are beginning to respond to the message. Both presidential candidates now support offshore drilling, and the recently-formed “Gang of 10” (5 Republican and 5 Democratic senators) has proposed a compromise to make it happen.

President Bush's lifting of the executive order that had prevented offshore drilling for years has already driven oil down from about $150 to about $120 per barrel on the world market, and movement in Congress to lift the statutory restriction should drive it down even farther as speculators see the handwriting on the wall. As supply rises relative to demand, prices should continue to fall.

Rising energy costs hurt the poor the most. Our leaders are to be commended for recognizing basic economic realities and acting to end suffering.

New Climate Negotiations Based on Outdated Science

The next round of UN negotiations on climate change will be in Accra, Ghana, August 21-27. The aim? To take steps toward a new treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions, superseding the Kyoto Protocol.The negotiations will be based primarily on the (May) 2007 Fourth Assessment Report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But that report considered only scientific studies published before July of 2006.

Since then, numerous studies have undermined the case for manmade global warming, leading increasing numbers of scientists, including many who used to affirm it, to rethink it—studies like those that found that

the famed “hockey stick” global temperature graph that eliminated the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age and gave the impression of unprecedented warming since 1860 was the result of huge mistakes in statistical method;

cirrus clouds diminish in response to surface warming and so reduce it, cutting estimated CO2-driven warming by about 75 percent;

global temperatures 1980-2002 rose only half as much as previously thought;

global temperature rises only about 1/6 as much in response to doubled CO2 as previously thought (about 0.5 instead of 3.0 degrees C).

The negotiations will not address malaria (the cause of 1 out of 5 childhood deaths in Ghana according to the World Health Organization), or any of the health-related projects—11 out of the top 15—ranked as the highest priorities by a world-class panel of experts earlier this year.

Governor Can't Bear New Endangered Species Ruling

Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin filed suit Monday against EPA Administrator Dirk Kempthorne seeking to reverse his decision to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.

Polar bears were listed because of allegations that they're threatened by reduced sea ice because of manmade global warming. But scientists debate whether human action is a significant cause of global warming; whether significant reduction of sea ice has occurred or will; and whether polar bears really depend on sea ice for their survival.

The last point might seem obvious, but consider that polar bears survived the Medieval Warm Period (about A.D. 950-1250), the Roman Warm Period (about 250 B.C. to A.D. 450), and the Holocene Climate Optimum (about 7000 to 5000 B.C.), during each of which global temperatures were well above those of the late 20th century and predicted for the next couple of centuries by the UN IPCC. More recently, polar bear populations have actually grown, not dwindled.

Governor Palin is a voice of reason.

Remember, word of mouth is the most effective way to get the truth out. Help us reach one million signers by forwarding this email to your friends, and encouraging them to sign the WeGetIt.org declaration. Together, we can take a stand for truth and for the poor.

Gratefully,

-- The WeGetIt.org campaign team