Saturday, May 28, 2011

One Christian's climate of concern

I just posted on my work blog about a recent physics department colloquium where I heard John Cook speak about his efforts through his blog Skeptical Science to counter misinformation and misunderstandings from climate change skeptics. I was interested and encouraged to read a post Why I care about Climate change which describes his motivations:
...I care about climate change for two reasons. One reason is my ten year old daughter, Gaby. ....I want to be able to look her in the eye ....  and say I did my best to communicate the scientific reality to people.
The second reason is my faith. I'm a Christian and find myself strongly challenged by passages in the Bible like Amos 5 and Matthew 25. I believe in a God who has a heart for the poor and expects Christians to feel the same way. And as I read the peer-reviewed science, I see more and more evidence that the poorest, most vulnerable countries will be (and currently are) those hardest hit by global warming. Drought will devastate low-latitude countries. Rising sea levels will create havoc on low lying countries like Bangladesh.
I was also impressed by the tone of John's presentation. He was never patronising or rude or disparaging of those who he disagrees with. He just calmly presented his point of view and why he held it. This is a good Christian witness.

No comments:

Post a Comment