Shining a Light in the Dark Corners of Climate Science

By E. Calvin Beisner Published on December 4, 2015

If you’re like the vast majority of Christians, John 3:16 is one of your favorite verses in the Bible, and rightly so: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” That verse has been like a bright light for millions of people, illuminating the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ!

But not so many are familiar with what Jesus said just a few verses later:

… this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God. (John 3:19–21)

One of the dark secrets of today’s world has been the scientific misconduct of some proponents of global warming alarmism — secret because it involves extremely technical procedures that very few people are equipped to understand.

The corruption of these procedures is therefore very hard to detect, so it has gone largely unnoticed for years. One of the few exceptions was the famous “hockey stick” graph purporting to do away with the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age. And even these details are only known to dedicated participants in the debate.

Since the UN climate summit underway in Paris is committed to climate alarmism, you can be sure that participants will not do anything to bring scientific misconduct to light.

Lately, however, some members of the US Congress have started trying to shine a light in this dark place. Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX), the chairman of the House Science Committee, has demanded documents from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to determine whether the agency has been “cooking the books,” so to speak, about global temperatures, exaggerating the magnitude of global warming.

And now the light is getting brighter. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), chairman of the Space, Science, and Competitiveness subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee, will chair a hearing Tuesday titled “Data or Dogma? Promoting Open Inquiry in the Debate over the Magnitude of Human Impact on Earth’s Climate.”

The hearing will focus on the ongoing debate over climate science, the impact of federal funding on the objectivity of climate research, and how political pressure can suppress opposing viewpoints in climate science.

Expert witnesses include:

  • Dr. John Christy, Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science and Director of the Earth System Science Center, University of Alabama in Huntsville, who joined Ross McKitrick and me in a debate/dialogue with 350.org founder Bill McKibben and partners at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary last spring;
  • Dr. Judith Curry, Chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, whom I’ve joined as a panel member in a conference discussion of the ethics of climate and energy policy;
  • Dr. William Happer, Cyrus Fogg Bracket Professor of Physics, Princeton University, one of America’s leading physicists, who is featured in a new video documentary, Where the Grass is Greener: Biblical Stewardship vs. Climate Alarmism;
  • and Mark Steyn, international bestselling author, whose book A Disgrace to the Profession exposes the fraud behind the “hockey stick” graph.

That hearing could be a historic turning point. The thousands who have signed the petition Forget ‘Climate Change’, Energy Empowers the Poor, which reminds our nation’s leaders that overcoming poverty around the world is a much greater need than fighting global warming, will certainly find it encouraging.

 

Calvin Beisner, Ph.D., is Founder and National Spokesman of The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, a network of Christian theologians, scientists, and economics educating for Biblical earth stewardship, economic development for the poor, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

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