A Journey

Swath of forest destroyed by the pine beetle 

I grew up in the 1960s and ‘70s.  I always liked fishing, and after my parents split up I became interested in wilderness survival.  Maybe emotionally, I was surviving.  I backpacked, studied ecology, and even got a college degree in forestry.  I became a Christian, and embraced a positive, environmentally friendly, stewardship view of humanity’s role in creation.  

As an adult, I became a faithful, card carrying member of the religious right, an ordained minister in fact.  I had the theological and political pedigree.  And like many of my evangelical friends, I was reading Fox News because I trusted it. 

It was the early 2000s, and reports about a warming planet were becoming more frequent.  I’d hear something, and was always relieved to find something in Fox News obfuscating, casting doubt on the climate science.  But the reports continued, and I started checking sources.  Time and again, Fox’s reporting would cite sources from unelected think tank interest groups like the Koch brothers’ Cato Institute, or the (ironically named) Heartland Institute, with its ties to the oil industry. 

We moved to Canada in 2004.  Here, I saw firsthand proof of the devastation of British Columbia lodgepole pine forests because of pine beetle infestation.  A university professor attending my church, as well as a naturalist friend, explained to me that winters used to be colder, and would kill off pine beetle larvae.  But winters are no longer as cold, pine beetles spread north, and BC’s pine forests were being devastated.[1]   

A scientist (who also attended my church and) who worked at a Canadian research facility contributed to work included with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports.  He affirmed his belief in global warming.  I reviewed the IPCC reports.  I watched An Inconvenient Truth.  Another individual (connected to the Alberta oil industry) scoffed at climate change and challenged me to watch The Great Global Warming Swindle.  I already had, eager as I was to find contrary views. I challenged him to read the wiki article exposing Swindle as a fraud. 

In western Canada, I have seen receding glaciers firsthand.  I read NASA data about declining sea ice.  My convictions on climate change have only grown deeper.  Barring some outside the box, human, planetary intervention – or a miracle – it may already be too late.  And so,

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.  Above all, keep loving one another earnestly...

1 Peter 4:7-8

Next time: Global Warming 101

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[1] In western North America, the current outbreak of the mountain pine beetle and its microbial associates has destroyed wide areas of lodgepole pine forest, including more than 16 million of the 55 million hectares of forest in British Columbia... It may be the largest forest insect blight ever seen in North America. Climate change has contributed to the size and severity of the outbreak, and the outbreak itself may, with similar infestations, have significant effects on the capability of northern forests to remove greenhouse gas (CO2) from the atmosphere. (Wiki)