Surrounded as I am by a blanket of snow, backed up by a blistering cold wind keeping the temperature down to around zero, the ongoing debate around global warming springs to mind. I say debate somewhat loosely because it is now regarded as an unquestionable fact along with evolution and the evils of colonialism.
It’s all hot air!
But it’s important to challenge this theory because the roll-out of heating, motoring and running industry without carbon emissions might well cost the taxpayer trillions of pounds they can ill afford1, especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic which will leave us heavily in debt for decades to come. And quite apart from that, it’s a false gospel leading the world astray.
Even green gurus are frankly admitting that the mass conversion to clean air is pie in the sky. In an article for BBC News2, environment analyst Roger Harrabin says that hydrogen is the most talked-about candidate to replace the gas boiler. And the big firms backing it say it could heat all of the UK’s homes. But then he quotes Professor Julia King, from the advisory Climate Change Committee, who says that that’s hot air and is not going to happen! Rather, she estimates that only 11% of home-heating will come from hydrogen.
Largest-ever opinion poll
According to what The Guardian called the biggest-ever opinion poll on climate change, almost two-thirds of 1.2 million people in 50 countries agree that it’s a ‘global emergency’ – Italy and the UK having the highest proportion (81%) with this view. So the survey, commissioned by the UN Development Programme, is thus seen to give politicians a clear mandate to act. “The voice of the people is clear – they want action on climate change,” said Cassie Flynn of the UNDP.3
This and similar reports given acres of media space on an almost daily basis reminds me of what brilliant columnist Melanie Phillips wrote more than a decade ago in her book The World Turned Upside Down.4 In a chapter titled ‘The Myth of Environmental Armageddon’, she quotes Paul Watson, one of the founders of Greenpeace, as saying: “It doesn’t matter what is true; it only matters what people believe is true…”5
There has been a departure from reason and logic because objectivity has been replaced in large measure by ideology.
Climate-change activism as a brand
It was about using ‘science’ to stifle public debate and alter people’s behaviour, she concluded. So in a report on global warming, the Institute for Public Policy Research, a British think tank, argued that “The ‘facts’ need to be treated as being so taken-for-granted that they need not be spoken… It amounts to treating climate-friendly activity as a brand that can be sold. This is, we believe, the route to mass behaviour changes.”
World turned upside-down
In the preface to her book, in which she covers a wide range of issues also including cults, conspiracies, Jihad, Israel and anti-Semitism, Melanie writes: “What I have concluded is that power has now hijacked truth and made it subservient to its own ends. The result is a world turned upside down… My aim is to make the case that there has been a departure from reason and logic because objectivity has been replaced in large measure by ideology…
“Not only do all these ideologies display zero tolerance of dissent but, in enforcing what amounts to a secular inquisition, the Western world displays a modernised version of the medieval millenarian and apocalyptic movements – replicated also in the present-day Islamic jihad – which not only repudiated reason in the name of religion but led to tyranny, oppression, persecution and war.”
‘Global warming’ or ‘climate change’?
Melanie’s book was published in 2010, when I recall having to dig my way onto the road each day for a fortnight during which I distinctly remember a temperature reading of –16C on arrival at work at 9am with the sun shining brightly! This January has been the coldest since then. And I have noticed that when the temperature plummets, the phrase ‘global warming’ suddenly reverts to ‘climate change’!
That is not to say I am denying the constant changes in weather patterns we are witnessing, which, far from being predominantly man-made, are among signs of the imminent return of Christ (see Luke 21:25f).
Idolatry
But it is idolatry that is key to the phenomenon distracting us all from the real issues we should be facing. We have dispensed with the God of creation by worshipping created things – including the environment as a whole – instead of the Creator. One result of this is that we begin to indulge in all kinds of sexual immorality because we have been led to believe there is no God to whom we will be ultimately answerable.
The constant changes in weather patterns we are witnessing, far from being predominently man-made, are among signs of the imminent return of Christ.
The Apostle Paul, writing to the Roman Christians of the first century, says that men have suppressed the truth “by their wickedness” and goes on to argue that they are without excuse because creation itself declares the glory of God. But their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. As a result, “they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator…” (Rom 1:18-27). All of which led to what Paul referred to as “shameful lusts” which he described as unnatural relations with the same sex.
Keeping our eyes on the Lord
There is nothing new under the sun. And there is nothing new about a society that brooks no dissent over issues of morality, religion and pagan philosophies. It was all in evidence at the height of the Roman Empire, which coincided with the emergence of the Church. Paul encouraged believers to take their stand against the devil’s schemes and, in due time, a great civilization collapsed from within due to lack of moral fibre.
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph 6:12)
Or to put it another way, keep your eyes on the Lord – not the weather!
Endnotes
1. Caroline Glick, Israel Hayom, 8th January 2021, referring to the US but something that could conceivably be replicated this side of the pond
2. BBC News, 6th February 2021
3. The Guardian, 27th January 2021
4. Published by Encounter Books
5. Ibid
