Scientists are reporting that within a few decades, hundreds of millions of people will face starvation and many animals face extinction. One scientist claims that we as a human race are on the brink of extinction as well. Are these scientists blowing smoke? Are they overreacting? Or are they right? Are humans really facing a global disaster?
What does this mean for Christians? How should we respond to these claims by the scientific community? We know that not everyone will be destroyed because our Lord hasn't returned yet. But that doesn't discount a terrible change in climate that could lead to the destruction of millions of people.
Here are some of the claims from this report:
* Hundreds of millions of Africans and tens of millions of Latin Americans who now have water will be short of it in less than 20 years. By 2050, more than 1 billion people in Asia could face water shortages. By 2080, water shortages could threaten 1.1 billion to 3.2 billion people, depending on the level of greenhouse gases that cars and industry spew into the air.
* Death rates for the world’s poor from global warming-related illnesses, such as malnutrition and diarrhea, will rise by 2030. Malaria and dengue fever, as well as illnesses from eating contaminated shellfish, are likely to grow.
* Europe’s small glaciers will disappear with many of the continent’s large glaciers shrinking dramatically by 2050. And half of Europe’s plant species could be vulnerable, endangered or extinct by 2100.
* By 2080, between 200 million and 600 million people could be hungry because of global warming’s effects.
* About 100 million people each year could be flooded by 2080 by rising seas.
* Smog in U.S. cities will worsen and “ozone-related deaths from climate (will) increase by approximately 4.5 percent for the mid-2050s, compared with 1990s levels,” turning a small health risk into a substantial one.
* Polar bears in the wild and other animals will be pushed to extinction.
* At first, more food will be grown. For example, soybean and rice yields in Latin America will increase starting in a couple of years. Areas outside the tropics, especially the northern latitudes, will see longer growing seasons and healthier forests.
Is this an overreaction from the scientific community? What are we to think?
1 comment:
The Chicken Littles of the environmental movement perfer to forget the the Earth's temperatures have been oscillating since before our puny species was able to affect them.
During the so-called Medieval Warm Period, which lasted from about 800-1300, Greenland was actually green and wine grape grew in Nova Scotia. Then, for the next 600 years, the world got so cool that the period became known as the Little Ice Age. Climate Change is the norm not the exception. It is the product of innumerable variables, including greenhouse gases, sunspots, cosmic rays, clouds, and snow cover. Its the most complex, coupled, nonlinear, chaotic system known.
As for Christians? This just means the 10/40 window gets a little warmer.
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