How things have changed. My first exposure to the science of climatology was in 1980, when I took an upper-division Physical Climatology course at the University of Utah. I still have the textbook: Smith, 1975, Principles of Applied Climatology. The picture is a scan showing just about everything the book said about CO2 and climate change. A few …
Continue reading 1970s climatology textbook and global warming
On August 12, 2013, Rush Limbaugh made the following statement on his radio program: "If you believe in God, then intellectually you cannot believe in manmade global warming." This, of course, is utter nonsense. Unfortunately, millions of American political conservatives and Evangelicals believe Rush is right on just about everything, but Limbaugh is clearly wrong …
Continue reading Rush is wrong — Analyzing Limbaugh’s statement on God and global warming
There have been a number of articles on the web the past few weeks that deserve a long analysis, but some short notes will have to do. THE ICE AGE (SINGULAR) OCCURRED BETWEEN 2250 AND 2000 B.C. -- Answers in Genesis posted an article in February by Andrew Snelling and Mike Matthews entitled When Was …
THE "NOT SCIENCE FRIDAY" SHOW -- From Christianity Today: Creationist Pastor Loses to NPR over 'Science Friday' Radio Show. Apparently the name of the radio program---Real Science Friday---was too close to NPR's Science Friday program. It is now Real Science Radio. THE LAW OF SUPERPOSITION IS WRONG? -- At least according to the above mentioned radio …
From NASA Earth Observatory: 2011 Sea Ice Minimum From the description (emphasis added): In September 2011, sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean declined to the second-lowest extent on record. Satellite data from NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) showed that the summertime ice cover narrowly avoided a new record low. [...] …
Continue reading Thin ice and the importance of Quaternary geology
American researchers have completed the second deepest Antarctic ice core ever drilled. Analysis of dust and entrapped air bubbles give a picture of the Earth's atmosphere and climate over the past 100,000 years. From the National Science Foundation: Ice Cores Yield Rich History of Climate Change -- Research project completes drilling for the year, reaching …
Continue reading Antarctic ice cores: a window to ice age climate change
A few items from the many tabs I have open in my browser... Mammoths in the meadows? -- Japanese researchers hope to replace the nucleus of a fertilized elephant egg cell with the nucleus of a woolly mammoth, then implant the cell in an elephant's womb to create a living woolly mammoth. This is much …
One of the most significant influences that directed me into missionary service (my family served with ReachGlobal---the international mission of the Evangelical Free Church of America---from 2002 to 2008) was when we purchased a copy of Operation World back in the early days of our marriage. This book is a day-by-day prayer guide to the …
Continue reading Operation World — missions and the Earth and environmental sciences
From Yahoo! News/AP -- One scientist's hobby: recreating the ice age CHERSKY, Russia – Wild horses have returned to northern Siberia. So have musk oxen, hairy beasts that once shared this icy land with woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats. Moose and reindeer are here, and may one day be joined by Canadian bison and deer. …
From Yahoo! News: Noted anti-global-warming scientist reverses course. With scientific data piling up showing that the world has reached its hottest-ever point in recorded history, global-warming skeptics are facing a high-profile defection from their ranks. Bjorn Lomborg, author of the influential tract "The Skeptical Environmentalist," has reversed course on the urgency of global warming, and …
Continue reading Bjorn Lomborg — the “skeptical environmentalist” is skeptical no more
Video from BBC News: Glacier melt changes Italian border. I can't embed it, so you will have to go to the link. This reflects a different view of borders than what we have in the United States. In the US, if a river that marks a boundary changes course (e.g. the Mississippi), then the border …
There is no inherent reason for a scientist to not be a Christian, nor for a Christian to care deeply about the creation. From the Harvard Divinity Bulletin: The Greening of Jesus by Mark Pinsky. Riding the train down to London last summer, after a two-week fellowship session on science and religion at the University …
From CNN: Surveyed scientists agree global warming is real. The results of a University of Illinois survey of scientists include the following: 90% of the scientists surveyed agreed that global temperatures have risen compared to levels from before 1800. 82% agreed that human activity been a significant factor in this increase of mean global temperatures. 97% of …
If you are a regular reader of The GeoChristian, you know that I lean towards the validity of anthropogenic global warming (AGW), which is the idea that human activities are causing the Earth to become warmer. Much of the debate--on both sides--is driven by ideology more than science, but I have found the scientific arguments …
Tying into a post from earlier tonight: global Pliocene and Quaternary sea levels, from the US Geological Survey. The natural range of sea level for the past 3 million years is from a high of 35 meters above present sea level, to a low of 120 meters below present sea level: The +35 m value …
The US Geological Survey has a news release regarding climate during the mid-Pliocene Epoch, between 3.0 and 3.3 million years ago: Getting Warmer? Prehistoric Climate Can Help Forecast Future Changes. Scientists used paleontological data (i.e. fossils) to reconstruct surface water and deep-ocean temperatures, as well as ocean circulation patterns. Here are some of the findings: …
Continue reading The Pliocene as a model for the 21st century?
Irregardless of what we do to the planet now, the long-term climate prospect for sometime a few thousand to a few tens of thousands of years in the future is cold: Earth may face freeze worse than Ice Age. This is nothing new to geologists, recognizing that Earth is presently in a short interglacial period …
I was watching CNN today (not something I normally do; I was standing in a line at the post office) and the story was about record melting of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. The prediction was that the Arctic could be ice-free in the summer within five years. And I was reading Geology.com News …
One of the reasons I accept the idea that human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, is contributing to global warming beyond the Earth’s natural rhythms is that I find most arguments given by the opponents of this concept to be faulty. This is especially true, unfortunately, in the conservative Christian media. In my daily …
I remember hearing it too, back in the 1970s: "We're heading into another ice age." Today we hear: "Why should we believe the climate scientists when they predict global warming? Back in the 1970s, they predicted the Earth's climate was going to get much colder." But was "global cooling" really the consensus back in the …
Continue reading What scientists were really saying about “global cooling” in the 1970s
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