What or Who Is Causing Climate Change? That Depends on Your Starting Point

Worldview determines interpretation—we’ve said that many times before. It’s true with topics like creation/evolution, the age of the earth, and even morality and social issues. And it’s also true when it comes to climate change as a recent blog published by Quanta Magazine highlighted.

This blog by Howard Lee starts by saying,

Earth has been a snowball and a hothouse at different times in its past. So if the climate changed before humans, how can we be sure we’re responsible for the dramatic warming that’s happening today?

Lee begins with the assumption that man is driving climate change today and that it’s dramatic and cause for alarm. He goes on to list 10 ways the climate supposedly varies naturally, citing the sun, volcanic activity, weather patterns, plate tectonics, asteroid impacts, and more. Some of these he claims only impact earth for a short time (e.g., volcanic activity); others are drawn out over millions of years (e.g., plate tectonics).

So what is his answer to “how can we be sure we’re responsible for the dramatic warming that’s happening today?” Well, he says that, first of all, scientists have shown a strong link between rising CO2 levels and warming temperatures. Then he says that paleoclimatologists have “made great strides” in understanding past climate changes so we know it’s not the same as what’s driving climate change today.

Most of the list is dominated by worldview-driven interpretations of the evidence, specifically the worldview of millions of years and naturalism. Lee assumes alleged past climate events were driven by events and cycles over long ages. It’s an evolutionary interpretation of the evidence.

Of course, those who start with God’s Word, instead of the anti-biblical idea of millions of years, know that the global flood, not millions of years, explains most of the rock layers and fossil record. So those sedimentary layers that are interpreted as “past climate changes” aren’t really climate changes at all—they’re the record of what happened during the most cataclysmic year of earth’s history! Bottom line: if scientists reject the events of history such as the Flood as recorded in the Bible, they will have wrong interpretations about climate change.

What you believe about the past determines how you interpret the evidence and draw conclusions. We need to start with God’s Word—not man’s ideas—in every area!

And about Lee’s assumptions about carbon dioxide and global warming—well, the computer models that drive policy changes have consistently been wrong and there’s much more to the CO2 story than Lee (and others) let on. For example, see this article from a climate scientist at Cornwall Alliance. Also, read this article on climate change by a Harvard-trained scientist: What Scientists Ignore About Climate Change.

Get More Answers on Answers News

This item was discussed yesterday on Answers News with cohosts Tim Chaffey, Roger Patterson, and Dr. Jennifer Rivera. Answers News is our weekly news program filmed live before a studio audience here at the Creation Museum and broadcast on my Facebook page and the Answers in Genesis Facebook page. We also covered the following topics:

• Will polar bears disappear by 2100?
• Crosswalks—they’re the newest racist symbol.
• Survival of the…friendliest?
• And more!

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Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.