Global Warming

My technical training and background makes me more capable than average of grappling with the facts concerning global warming. Even if you believe most of the assertions made by those who warn of imminent, catastrophic climatological effects from human activities, you cannot verify a direct cause and effect relationship with any certainty because we are in uncharted territory. Scientists love to hammer away with their Spockian occupation of the logical high ground, but the truth is they cannot know how accurate their predictions will turn out to be.

Apparently, the earth warms and cools naturally. An “ice age” is technically defined as any time when polar ice caps exist. Scientists’ best guess is that there have been four major continental glaciations periods in North America, the last one beginning 70,000 years ago and ending about 10,000 years ago when the ice began to retreat. At that point in time, what we know today as “Canada” was 97% covered with ice. So technically, we have been in a “global warming” period for the last ten thousand years. When I consider this, it is easy to believe that larger forces are at work on earth that are not well understood by science to date.

Yes, my faith plays a role here. I know that many scientists who denigrate religion as delusional are often practicing their own form of “religion”, or belief system, which happens to be called “science”. I recommend Ben Stein’s film, “Expelled”,
as an excellent documentary on this subject. Scientists, at times, hold to their cherished beliefs just as “irrationally” as religious people do.

My belief is that God did not create this earth and fill it with people only to have it become uninhabitable. God does not deal in futility.

Even when scientists raising the alarm are as objective as they absolutely can be, I do not believe they have the whole picture. I spent 20 years in the computer modeling business-- enough to know that even very good computer models are never as accurate as advertised.

Bottom line—I am not ready to buy a hybrid, but I will keep my eye on the situation and ride my bike more often.