Dear Editor,
In response to Simon Marsh’s piece ‘Hot, hot and hotter still’ in September’s en, it is disturbing to see another article in the Christian press about a coming climate disaster. This seems to be a prevailing view today, but it is not universally held despite claims to the contrary. It is important for the sake of journalistic balance that different opinions are presented.
There have been doomsday cults from the beginnings of the church, so the climate alarmism gripping much of today’s church is not new. We frequently hear prayers for parts of the world adversely affected by hurricanes, wild fires and floods. Relief organisations show us videos claiming that droughts have been brought about by climate change.
The truth is that data from the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change) simply doesn’t support these claims. There have always been adverse weather events, and long droughts are not new. Joseph’s seven-year drought was probably not caused by Jacob’s camp fire. We are frequently shown the alarming graph in Simon Marsh’s article, starting in 1850 to the present day. What is not shown is that if the timeline is extended back to the time of Christ we would see warmer periods such as in the 1200s when Greenland was green and farmed by the Vikings, and then the mini ice age a few hundred years later when Londoners were skating on the Thames.
In other words, climate change has always occurred. Yes, 97% of scientists believe global warming is occurring, but it is simply not true that they all take an alarmist view.
Yours sincerely,
Stephen Carter Musselburgh
