The Daily Background

A strange thought occurred to me recently, about global warming’s disbelievers.

We often think of opponents of global warming theories as conservatives (and they almost certainly are, for the most part). And we often think of many conservatives as being evangelical Christians (and many of them certainly are).

One of the common arguments that theory-opponent pseudo-scientists like to bring up is that the earth has been around for billions of years, and that it goes through cycles of warming and cooling that are completely natural in the long run.

Of course, scientists and experts in the field respond that while earth’s climate has changed greatly over the earth’s lifetime, there is real evidence to suggest that the current global climate change is very unnatural, and caused by human behavior.

But wait a second. They’re saying that earth is billions of years old, in an attempt to disprove global warming? Don’t evangelical Christians believe that the earth is only a few thousand years old, tops? Yeah, yeah they do. Therefore that argument is entirely incompatible with Christian conservatives.

Now, is this directly useful in the campaign to raise awareness of global warming? Not that I can see. But it’s an interesting thought, especially when one considers that another traditionally and reliably conservative demographic (hunters and fishermen) part ways with the Republican party when it comes to global warming as well.

Filed under: Environment Related, Z-TDB Blog