Global Warming Argument Speech

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Argument Speech: “For or against the case for man-made global warming”
Y2K, May 21, 2011, December 21, 2012, what do all these dates have in common? A prediction about the end of the world. Many hear the words “global warming” and think the same thing. As Jonathan Kent in the recent Superman movie Man of Steel: “People are afraid of what they don't understand.” We don’t understand global warming, there is a plethora of propaganda, and uncertainty. What we do understand is that there are problems in every area of society...and we’re motivated by the fear that maybe we’ve messed up the earth itself too. This is especially true in the West, where some enjoy the luxuries energy has produced -- electricity, refrigerators and easily accessible clean water. A billion people currently live without what has become commonplace to us and we feel guilty about what we have, how we’ve allegedly used the planet to suit our needs. Caught up in the idea that life was simpler in a bygone era, some wish we didn’t have to deal with the “inconveniences” of technology -- the absence of which would leave us with an “unsanitary, difficult and short life.”
Many believe that man is at fault for global warming. A Gallup poll in 2012, found that the majority of Americans agree.1 I disagree, the case for man made global warming is based upon man made fear and guilt, not man made
We will see this three points: 1) What is global warming? 2) What drives it and 3) A proper response
1) According to NASA: “Global warming is the unusually rapid increase in Earth’s average surface temperature over the past century primarily due to the greenhouse gases released by burning fossil fuels.” The EPA explains that: “Greenhouse gases
(GHGs) like water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) absorb energy, slowing or preventing the loss of heat to space. In this way, GHGs act like a blanket, making Earth warmer than it would otherwise be. This process is commonly known as the “greenhouse effect”.
a. Proponents of man made global warming believe the increase in greenhouse gases will lead to the eventual end of the world. According to National Geographic, “Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, cloud forests are drying, and wildlife is scrambling to keep pace. It's becoming clear that humans have caused most of the past century's warming by releasing heat-trapping gases as we power our modern lives.”2
b. 3 responses - water vapor, the sun, incomplete data: The largest, most abundant, most important contributor to the greenhouse effect, is water vapor which is completely natural, but makes up anywhere from about 75-95% of the earth’s warming effect.3
c. In addition, ozone, cloud cover, volcanic and sunspot activity, orbital movement, and solar system affect the warmth of the earth. As Dr. Jason Lisle, an astrophysicist from
Answers in Genesis stated, The sun goes through warming and cooling cycles, that while not fully understood, impact the earth’s warmth. For example, the number of
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http://www.gallup.com/poll/153608/global-warming-views-steady-despite-warm-winter.aspx

2

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-overview.html

3

http://www.nolanchart.com/article4029-global-warming-man-made-or-natural-cycle.html

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sunspots varies over a 22 year cycle and higher sunspot activity is associated with higher temperatures on earth...For example, sunspot activity was very low during the period 1645–1715, at the depth of the Little Ice Age. In contrast, sunspot activity was high during the Medieval Warm Period.4 And Dr. Roy Spencer, climatologist and former
NASA scientist, and supported by (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
NOAA, and the DOE (Department of Energy) said “The recent warming cycle that started in the 1970s, might have been due to these natural causes, but we’ve only had the instruments to document this for about the last 10 years.5
d. Scientists claim data going back hundreds of thousands of years prove that the earth is warming at an alarming rate due to an heavy increase in human produced greenhouse gases. But the truth is that we are dealing with a very limited amount of data. Actual detailed climate records only go back to about 1880. We cannot study data we don’t have. The limited details that we have before this year are only approximations, made through ““proxy” data, ie geophysical and biological indicators that “imply” climate. Examples of these include tree rings, lake sediments, and ice cores.”6 One problem with proxy data is the lack of accuracy it entails. For example “the growth of tree rings can be impacted by many issues - not just rainfall amount, temperature, and cloud cover – but also by wind, soil properties, and disease, or even pollution.” 7 All the data really shows is that the earth goes through warming and cooling cycles. e. Facts: Thus any conclusion we reach in regards to the current amount of global warming and that this is a man made phenomena is not based on conclusive fact. The only thing really know with certainty as NASA found is this: “The global average surface temperature rose (1.1 to 1.6° F) between 1906 and 2005, and the rate of temperature increase has nearly doubled in the last 50 years.” And this past spring of 2013? It was the 2nd coolest on record in the US since 1975, which by the way started the previous global cooling hysteria. In addition, this summer we have the coldest start to the Arctic summer on record -- that is since we’ve been recording in 1958.
f. Therefore, we must draw conclusions with caution, because correlation is not causation. Increased use of fossil fuels, in industry, technology, et cetera does not equate a warmer earth.
2) Now that we know what global warming is, what’s driving it?
a. Problems:
i. Fear and guilt. Fear of a possibility and guilt for using earth’s resources. We live in a world where most worship the earth, and believe we have a moral obligation to prevent global warming. According to Dr. Spencer, consensus science states: “Earth’s climate sensitivity is quite high, and so warming of...(about 0.5 deg. F to 0.9 deg. F) every 10 years can be expected for as long as mankind continues to use fossil fuels as our
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http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v5/n3/global-warming-science

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvObfrs3qoE

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http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v5/n3/global-warming-politics

7

http://www.priweb.org/globalchange/climatechange/studyingcc/scc_01.html

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primary source of energy. NASA’s James Hansen claims climate sensitivity is very high, and that we have already put too much extra CO2 in the atmosphere.” 8 But consensus science does not equate fact. It’s like democracy where whoever has the most votes wins. ii. Problems: Propagandists: National Geographic, Al Gore, promoters of carbon credits, and the “green earth” movement, say global warming is our fault. The case for man made global warming is based on the arrogant fear that we have the power to destroy the planet. And because we caused it, we can fix it. Man can minimize and control his impact on the earth. But the greenhouse gas most at fault for global warming is CO2, ie carbon dioxide.
According to causesofglobalwarming.net “Man-made causes [of global warming] probably do the most damage to our planet...fossil fuels are burned they give off a green house gas called CO2...
Skeptical Science, a website on global warming says: “There are two reasons for the focus on CO2: 1) CO2 is the most dominant [greenhouse gas] radiative forcing 2) CO2 radiative forcing is increasing faster than any other [greenhouse gas] forcing” 9 iii. According to The World Health Organization global warming is at fault for: “150,000 death/year through extreme weather, drought, heat waves, decreased food production, and the increase in vector borne diseases like malaria.” Even those in the church have bought into the idea and been convinced that we are responsible for global warming and that we can atone for our environmental sins through regulating our behavior. A
2009 Lifeway Research survey of 1000 pastors found that 75 percent of pastors in mainline denominations agree global warming is real and man-made.10 And scientists believe in man made global warming to a much higher degree. An evaluation of scientific papers written from 1991-2011 found that about 97% of them support man made global warming.11 While this may appear to be extensive data in support of maninduced climate change, the truth is this is consensus science -- this does not dictate fact, but they believe it because of the fear of what might happen, not what actually does. Response: They make CO2 the enemy that we must fight, because it’s an unknown risk we produce. But to determine whether or not to take action though is not science, but a value judgment that science cannot decide and cannot mandate. Nor can science dictate what action should be taken. As Stephen Henry Schneider, a former Professor of
Environmental Biology at Stanford University said: We have to make a value judgment: there is a risk, like a spot on a lung -- it can either be benign or it can be cancer but we won’t know unless we take it out, but there’s risk in that too, so what should we do do?
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http://www.drroyspencer.com/global-warming-natural-or-manmade/

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http://www.skepticalscience.com/CO2-is-not-the-only-driver-of-climate.html

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http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2009/april/views-of-global-warming-among-protestantpastors.html
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http://science.slashdot.org/story/13/05/17/133201/97-of-climate-science-papers-agree-global-warmingis-man-made

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what’s the lower risk? we can’t really say. Science can’t tell us the answer. We are very risk adverse, even if there is little risk for fire or flood, many will buy insurance even if it’s only a 1% risk.12
So we are motivated by the fear that global warming and CO2 is not benign, but a cancer, and because we started it, we can fix it. vi. Facts: It is factually true that the amount of CO2 has increased by about 40-45% in comparison to pre-industrial times13. But we must remember that CO2 is necessary for life on earth. Natural CO2 Emissions is about 20 Times that of the Human Emissions.14
And as Dr. Roy Spencer, “Nature absorbs CO2 at about the same rate it is produced.
And about 50% of what we produce is sucked out of the atmosphere by nature, mostly through photosynthesis...The total amount of CO2 humans have added to the atmosphere in the last 100 years has upset the radiative energy budget of the Earth by only 1%. How the climate system responds to that small “poke” is very uncertain.”
In addition, as Dr. Lisle said “changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide do not always correlate with changes in the earth’s temperature. For example, the earth’s temperature rose substantially from 1910 to 1940, yet the carbon dioxide levels rose only slightly.
Conversely, the global temperature has been falling since 2002, even though carbon dioxide levels continue to rise. There were substantial changes in climate in the ninth and seventeenth centuries, and yet these certainly cannot be due to carbon dioxide produced by industry.”15
Science can inform us that the earth is 1 degree warmer than it was 100 years ago, predict that it might get warmer, but it CANNOT conclusively tell us what the actual risk is or what we should do. But scientific focus has been on man as the problem, that we are completely at fault for the earth’s eventual destruction. But we’ve faced global problems like global warming before with the population bomb and sustainability. And we’ve survived, thrived and grown.
3) So what should our response be?
This is what we know - global warming is happening, but the effect is minuscule and the impact we have is null. We cannot extrapolate from that it will continue to warm indefinitely. i. Most people hear about the ice caps melting or extinction of the polar bear and their natural reaction is to try to stop it from happening, without actually examining if the claims are true. The natural human response is a reaction based on fear, guilt and risk aversion.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_eJdX6y4hM

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http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/causes.html#ref1

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http://www.drroyspencer.com/my-global-warming-skepticism-for-dummies/

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http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v5/n3/global-warming-science

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The naturalistic or pantheistic spirituality of environmentalists, causes them to be fearful of global warming. They believe it will lead to environmental apocalypticism, which leads to drastic action.
Because, if global warming is man made and CO2 will really bring about the end of the world, then according to Dr Spencer, we need to make at least a 50% reduction in CO2 by 2050.16 And according to NASA “Even if we completely cease CO2 emissions today, it takes 100 years for CO2 to cease action.”
b. costs. Many countries are considering acting against their emissions of greenhouse gases, but at an extremely high cost. Mitigation by adhering to policies like the Kyoto
Protocols have the heavy global cost about $200billion-$1trillion/year for 50 years. In addition, we do not have any effective “green” replacement for our energy needs. It is not only more expensive, but solar, wind, hydro and nuclear energy can only meet about
15% of our current energy needs.
To give into action based on fear would cripple the industrial world and cut most if not all innovation based upon the technology we have today. ii. Christian response: As much as we would like to ignore the political debates and implications of public policy on global warming, we can’t. As Christians we must confront the fear environmentalism has stirred. They are trying to mitigate guilt from actual sin against God by paying for “environmental sins” with carbon credits. As it says in
Romans 1:25, they are worshipping the creation than the Creator.
As Christians, we will be judged for our stewardship of the earth, so we cannot continue the legacy of silence, apathy, and unconcern about the earth. But as Dr. Al Mohler said,
“We cannot buy into the implicit pantheism and questionable science of so many environmentalists. We cannot accept environmental apocalypticism.”
As Isaiah 45:18 says God made the earth “to be inhabited.”
God has extended to us a mandate of dominion in Genesis 1:28: "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth". As Al
Mohler said, “We are called to care for the environment because this is "our Father's world." We cannot neglect our responsibility to exercise our dominion in a way that treasures the earth, heals its wounds, respects its creatures, and values its divinely given resources. Human dominion over the earth is to be exercised so that God's glory is most evident in God's creation. The love and care the Creator invested in the cosmos is to be our model of dominion, rightly fulfilled. But in the end, the keeper of the earth is the Creator himself.17 ” So ultimately what happens in our world is under God’s control.
The earth is falling apart and headed for judgment, one day we will face the end of the world. But in Christ we don’t have to fear, we don’t have to fear global warming or what it may or may not do. The guilt and fear involved with global warming is all that it is. God is in control.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvObfrs3qoE

17

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/june/26.46.html?paging=off

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So, yes, we affect the earth, we cannot help it, but we are not blights on creation. As our own President John MacArthur said, “Man is not an intruder in the creation, he is the king of the creation and it is all designed to be subdued by him, to be dominated by him for his own good and his own joy. The Lord has filled this earth with all things so that we can richly enjoy them...If it weren’t for man, its riches would never be extracted.” John
Calvin declared, creation is the theater of God's own glory.
We should be aware that people are buying into a false system, and point them to
Christ. We should act as stewards and care for the environment, but we should always remember that we have no reason to be afraid. Our creator made the world to sustain us for His ultimate purpose and nothing happens that he doesn’t control. We have no reason to have fear something that is in God’s control. Our guilt has been paid by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
In Conclusion: Yes, the world has gotten a whole 1 degree warmer. But the hype behind global warming is motivated by fear and guilt that the end of the world is at hand and that we’re at fault, but it’s not man made. Some scientists estimate that global warming will end the world in a hundred years or so, Y2K is now 2113. Ultimately, we fear global warming because we don’t understand who made and controls the world. Some try to control global warming by throwing billions of dollars at it, but the truth is we can’t control it. God is in control and He sovereignly wills whether it will get cooler or warmer.
We are responsible to govern the earth wisely, but we shouldn’t fear what we can do.
What we should fear is God’s judgment, for as 2 Peter 3:7 the earth is reserved for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly man...so the world will end though global warming, it just won’t be the way the environmentalists think it will.