 October 1, 2008
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! Today the credit crisis, tomorrow climate policy
When discussions float off into the stratosphere, a reality check can help. The current credit crisis offers us an opportunity to think clearly about proposed policies to reduce global warming. For nearly 20 years people have bandied about figures of the cost of climate policy. They've run from a high of around $1 trillion to a low of around $200 billion per year for global compliance with the Kyoto Protocol--with maximum benefit amounting to about 0.2 degree Fahrenheit in global temperature, so little as to be undetectable and therefore meaningless. In all the discussion the actual impact of that spending on taxpayers tends to be obscured, and that's where the credit crunch can be instructive. Faced with the real prospect of a $700 billion bailout of mortgage institutions, taxpayers and lawmakers are balking. Its sheer size tends to clear the mind. Consider that, if it succeeds, the purported benefits of the bailout would be much closer to the costs, compared to the tiny cooling expected from climate policies. Even if the credit bailout balloons from $700 billion to $1 trillion or more, it would be a short-term, one-time expense. But experts say that climate policy could cost the world $200 billion to $1 trillion every year through this century and beyond. When taxpayers understand that, their support for it will wither. Offshore drilling can reduce oil pollution About 42,000 gallons of oil a day go into the ocean in the Santa Barbara channel off the California coast, often resulting in dirty, ugly globs of oil on the beaches. Evidence that offshore drilling causes pollution? No. Not according to University of California geophysics Professor Bruce Luyendyk, who recently explained to Santa Barbara residents--many of whom remember the horrendous Union Oil rig spill in 1969 that spilled 100,000 barrels into the sea, provoking outrage that launched the first Earth Day--that the oil seeps up naturally through the floor of the ocean. The seeps can't be stopped, but the rate of seepage could be slowed. How? By pumping the oil from the ocean floor, reducing pressure and thus slowing the seepage. The same goes for natural gas, about 3 million cubic feet per day of which seep through the ocean floor--enough to serve 10,000 homes. A new organization, SOS California (Stop Oil Seeps), is calling for more drilling to stop the waste and pollution from oil and gas seepage. The same geological principles operate worldwide, though offshore seepage rates vary. That makes pollution prevention and resource waste reduction additional arguments--along with making energy more affordable--for increased offshore drilling. Evangelicals more discerning than most Surveys by the Barna Research Group have shown evangelicals are more skeptical of global warming alarmism than any other segment of the American population. Now, a new study goes further, explaining that they doubt human activity is the primary cause, question media hype, and are concerned that “proposed environmental solutions would hurt the poor, particularly in developing nations.” Other survey data from Gallup show that evangelicals are less superstitious than the rest of the population. Indeed, secularists and liberal Christians are more likely to embrace superstitions and pseudo-science than evangelicals. While 31% of people who never worship expressed strong belief in things like Atlantis, the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot, and communicating with the dead, only 8% of people who attend a house of worship more than once a week did. Theological liberals are more superstitious than theological conservatives, and theological conservatism is a better guard against superstition than higher education. Perhaps evangelicals' skepticism about manmade global warming and their general resistance to superstition are related. Perhaps their belief in the Bible makes them more discerning than the population at large, and thus more likely to practice the hallmark of good science: testing all things, holding fast what is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21). 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,
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