Global Warming—Another Babel?

Note: This is a slightly modified version from the post that went out to email subscribers this morning. Because this issue is so sensitive I tried to explain a little better why I wrote it and what application I feel it has to what we might face as Christians.

As a Christian who tries to make my faith relevant in every area of life, and not just as a compartmentalized part of my life, I feel like I often have to confront the assumption by others (in error) that I don't care about the environment because I either don't esteem sciences' opinion as high as others do, or because I make values and pro-life a higher priority in my voting. I want to share some reflections on this, and maybe it will help others who face the same thing.

I read today that Al Gore plans on a 24-hour broadcast to defend man’s impact on global warming. I think about this topic now and then because it comes up so much. I am not a scientist, and I am sure I don't understand all the arguments, but I’ll share my struggle with this whole thing, and then close with a thought. I am not bashing on global warming believers in what I am about to say—I am sure they have sincere hearts and I can only wish more Christians shared their passion for a cause. I just can't, at this point, buy what they are saying when I really think about it. I obviously can't personally verify the numbers I am using, but I have tried to find websites that seemed solid. So, here is how I think about it all:

Depending on what internet site you look at, anywhere from 70–75% of the earth’s surface is covered by water. That leaves only 25–30% covered by land.

One web site said that 70% of the world’s land mass is covered by vegetation. So, that means 17.5–21% (70% of 25% and 30%) of the world is vegetated. This means only 7.5–9% of the world is land that is not covered in vegetation.

According to one web site, half the earth’s landmass is unihabitable for one geographic reason or another. So now you are down to anywhere from 12.5–15% of the earth is even inhabitable.

So, of the 7.5–9% of the earth that is land not covered in vegetation, or of the 12.5–15% of the earth that is even inhabitable, what percent is covered by industrial, emissions producing people, buildings, and vehicles? I couldn’t find the figures, but I’ll bet it is tiny! I know I have flown over the United States many times and I am awed by the percent of the land below me that is uninhabited, or sparsely and agriculturally inhabited. One web site I did find says the U.S. Census Bureau qualifies “developed land” as land with 30 or more residents per square mile. According to that qualification, as of 2000 only 5.4% of the United States is considered developed! And we are a developed country!

So, take that fractional percent of the earth's water and land surface that is populated by emission producing, pollution producing people and facilities. Set that aside for a moment and consider that a conservative estimate of the thickness of the critical portions of our atmosphere is 29 miles thick. (The stratosphere is, I understand, the area of our atmosphere where the ozone is contained and it is from 11 miles above the surface to 29–31 miles.) If we take all of the atmosphere it is hard to know where it ends because it fades off into space, but different web sites put it at many hundreds of miles thick.

I can’t even do that math, but if you picture the critical atmosphere of 30 miles thick, spread that thick above every part of the earths surface (almost 197,000,000 square miles according to multiple web sites), that is a lot of atmosphere! Thirty miles thick over close to 200 million square miles! And the tiny percent of the earth that actually produces emissions (and many of those are heavily regulated) is supposed to be affecting that so much that it is altering the earth’s climates?

As I said earlier, I am not a scientist, but that just doesn’t make sense to me. And, honestly, I get tired of it being implied that I don’t care about the earth or the environment because I don’t buy global warming. Our family loves the outdoors. We live where we do, for one reason, because of the wide open spaces, the clear skies, the clean air, the wildlife, the stars, etc. We police after ourselves, and others, when we are in the wilds. We fish. We camp. We compost. We conserve water. We recycle. We believe God made us custodians of the earth, but we also believe He made the earth for us and not the other way around. I guess if you believe evolution then you believe Mother Nature is your equal, but if you believe Creation you know man is God’s shining Creation, made in His image, and given the earth for stewardship and use.

Frankly, the global warming argument strikes me as another tower of Babel. While I am not saying global warming believers are arrogant, I do believe that the extension of what they are saying, laid out as I have tried to do, is another sign of man’s arrogance (intentional or unintentional). To me it is inherently arrogant to think that we are so mighty that this fractional percent of people and factories can affect the earth’s climate on a global scale. I do believe sin affected it—I believe the whole earth groans under sin’s curse. And, I believe we can locally affect it and destroy its air and streams and land. But the claim of global warming is, too me, at this point, not something I can believe. Maybe I just don’t give us enough credit. I just know that there are, to me, much bigger issue at work and that we live in a world that desperately needs to know the love of the God that made them in His image and loves them beyond measure. This is, to me, the crisis that should energize us all, and I don't think it means we have to not care about the earth and be custodians of it, but we remember it is not our equal, it is for us and not us for it, and that it will pass away one day while human spirits will live eternally. I don't like having to choose sometimes in candidates that don't meet all of my viewpoints on things, but when I have to choose I will choose pro-life, family values, and a Christian with a solid, Biblical world view (and witness) every time.

The BIG Picture . . .

Sometimes I get so narrowly focused on a passage or theme of Scripture, or just “stuff” in my life, that I forget the larger picture of Scripture and the grand plan and movement of God believers are a part of. It is so easy to get down, slip in to a rut, entertain negative expectations, and to lose the divine sense of purpose and urgency the BIG picture gives us.

I was struck recently with an overview of the Bible through Arthur Glasser’s book Announcing the Kingdom. His words, and some things God showed me as I reflected on them, really blessed me. Here it is, in a nutshell:

One: Genesis 1–11 give us a “universal” or wide view picture. They deal with Creation, the Fall, the spread of men (and wickedness), the global judgement on all men through the Flood. They end with the disobedience of men resulting in God scattering them and confusing their language at Babel. These chapters deal with the full population of men (said generically to include women and children as well).

Two: While men are clearly scattering and populating the world from then on, Genesis 12 through the end of Acts 1 basically ignore the rest of the world and focus, simply, on one narrow line. Beginning with Abraham we see the Bible following God’s work of preparing a people for restoring God with the people of the world. We follow the line through Abraham, into Egypt, back in to the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, through the captivity, and in to Jesus who declares both the presence, and the future full fulfillment, of the Kingdom of God. Through Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, He destroys the devil’s two greatest weapons (death, and our guilt).

But, even through this narrow focus of the bulk of the Bible which basically ignores the rest of the world, God is working His plan to redeem the fallen people of the world. Even with Abraham His promise was that through Abraham’s line all the nations of the world would be blessed, and this theme and thread are woven throughout.

Three: Then comes Acts, chapter 2, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This is the Spirit prophesied in Joel that would be poured out on ALL flesh (we suddenly explode again to a wide, non-Israel centered view).  With this outpouring the disciples receive the power from on high God promises them to enable them in His mission which He gives them . . . to go in to all the WORLD and make disciples. This is the world that was scattered at Babel and whose language was confused. It is significant, I believe, that this anointing for God’s global mission was accompanied by the disciples speaking in tongues and people from many different languages each heard the same Gospel! Shortly thereafter the Jew goes to the Gentile, and all the scattered world becomes invited to join in the “nation” of God’s people. It is Babel in reverse, and it catapults us out of the narrow focus of the line of Israel, then Christ, and back in to a wide view in which we see and focus on the scope of God’s majestic, sweeping, powerful invasion of earth to bring back a prodigal race to Him.

So the Bible goes from wide, to narrow, and then explodes back to wide—and at each end of it, like bookends, we find a place where God’s will is done perfectly, free of sin’s tarnish. They are the Garden in the beginning, and Heaven and the New Earth at the end (with Jesus, in the "middle," modeling it for us and telling us to pray for it). In this time in between, as light and darkness battle, as Kingship over individual hearts is decided, we are called of God to be His hands and feet, His soldiers and ambassadors, and the power of attorney’s for His name. We are the ones to walk in His place; anointed of the same Spirit that anointed Him; taking His mission and call to the ends of the earth; modeling His love and power; being a light among the darkness, and partakers in a huge, awe-inspiring, sacrificial, mind blowing, purpose inspiring, physical and spiritual war and mission.

I cringe when I hear Christians say they are bored. We are an integral part in something so breathtaking, and of a scope so large, that the Lord of the Rings pales in comparison to the reality of who God is, who we are in Christ, and what we are privileged to be partakers in.

Why would God use such broken vessels? I don’t know. But He has. And with that I say, “March on! The King is calling!” (And, feel free to remind me of the same when I get bogged down, routine, and lose my sense of direction and purpose—I need that reminder all too often.)

A World Growing Smaller . . .

This post didn't really start as anything theological—nor is it really about me or my family. Rather, I just wanted to share with you something I find neat and fascinating, that you are a part of.

Today marks six months to the day that I installed a fun "widget" on my blog from Revolver Maps. You can find it near the bottom of the right column on the blog. It tracks the locations people have accessed "A Great God and Good Coffee" from. It is hard to see well from the blog, but when you click on it you are taken to a page that shows you an enlarged world map with red dots marking each location the blog has been accessed from, and a pulsating white mark showing where current visitors are located (you can view this as a flattened map, or a pretty cool revolving globe). It is not completely accurate as some people access through servers in locations other than theirs, but it gives a pretty good picture.

I find it fascinating that technology has come to the point that from our dusty old dirt road in the middle of nowhere the world, and people in it, can be tied together. Man's mind is truly amazing, and what he can accomplish really stunning when you think about it. Consider that, in December of 1903, the Wright Brothers flew under power for the first time—and by 1969 we had taken men to the moon and back safely! It is no wonder that God, at Babel, came down to a rebellious man and confused and scattered him. He said, at the time, in Genesis 11:6 "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them." (I guess there is a bit of theology in here, after all.) When we harness our mind, in right relationship with God, it is truly the most amazing partnership. When our mind, because it is so amazing, runs, not harnessed with God and out of relationship with Him, it has terrifying and evil potential.

I have included three images for you to share with me (I believe you can click on each one to see them enlarged and more clearly). The first picture is a screen shot of the Revolver map widget on January 19, 2010, just 13 days after I put it on and it started tracking visitors. The second picture is a screen shot of the Revolver map today, showing the growth of the scope of visitors (I am stunned by how many different countries have visited this blog!). The final image is a screen shot of my "Whose Visiting" widget from earlier today (also found on the blog), showing, in another form, the scope of the most current visitors. You can see that you, as a reader, are truly a part of a much larger community than you may realize. That is why I encourage you to use the comment feature and come together, in a place we can all share and grow as one body, separated geographically, but knit together in Christ and through the internet.

It truly is, in so many ways, a small world. May we, God's children through the blood of Christ, shine as bright lights in it—be it as missionaries in Malawi, Africa or the Philippines . . . or homemakers and grandparents in Lockwood, California. May we shine brightly to a lost world, and may we encourage and build up one another as well. For any part my little blog plays in all of that, I thank and praise our mighty Lord!