“Though I have often been frustrated and angered by what I perceived as the dominance of liberal and progressive perspectives overall, I am now more amused, entertained and brought to laughter by what I read.”
So writes Pastor Gary Bourbeau in his Sept. 11 “My Turn” column. Bourbeau writes that he has come to view the writings of others on such subjects as climate change as “satire,” naming several My Turn contributors who write frequently about the impacts of global warming. He believes, “The more ridiculously left-leaning the piece seems, the more probable it is satire.”
Bourbeau seems annoyed that climate change deniers are not given proper regard by The Recorder. “No evidence of perspectives counter to the prevailing climate change … patterns are to be considered,” he complains.
He is defending the right of Recorder letter writers like Jim Bates, who on Sept. 8 challenged the fact that we humans control the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere.
“Seriously!” Bates writes: “Nature alone takes care of our atmosphere.”
Seems to me that by publishing the writings of Bourbeau, Bates and others, The Recorder is demonstrating regard for opposing opinions.
Back in a June 2015 article in The Recorder, Bourbeau asked, “Isn’t it interesting that the debate over intelligent design (creationism) and the theory of evolution (naturalism) continues 150 years after Darwin?”
He was making a case for intelligent design. “Science has spoken on this issue,” Bourbeau wrote, “but not all of us believe it has spoken coherently. Many on the ‘science’ side often speak more philosophy and opinion and are determined to not at least consider the view of those who espouse the position that there is plenty of evidence to support the view that an intelligent creator is the cause of all that exists.”
“Ironically and uncomfortably for the naturalist,” Bourbeau continued, “Genesis and science agree on the above statement: ‘In the beginning God created … let there be light.’ Almost every scientist agrees with the Big Bang explanation for the beginning of light, time and matter.”
I don’t get how the Big Bang is evidence that there was a designer of the whole shebang; almost every scientist agrees with Darwin.
That said, I do concur with Gary Bourbeau, who believes that, “We all make judgments in every area of our lives every day. We know that cruelty, hatred and selfishness are undesirable, and kindness, love and generosity are desirable. There has to be a source beyond ourselves that informs us as to what constitutes those ideas.”
That’s where we again part ways as to how these human traits might have been inculcated in a person. For Bourbeau, “The logical, remaining step is to acknowledge that if there is a moral law, there is a moral lawgiver.”
I gather from his 2015 column that Bourbeau’s moral lawgiver is also the intelligent designer. Given that almost every scientist concurs that the human race is the primary cause of our planet’s degradation, one might wonder if the designer is asleep at the switch.
I want to suggest an approach to understanding for Gary Bourbeau, Jim Bates and others who find the conclusions of over 90 percent of the world’s scientific community about global warming difficult to accept.
Here’s a question: how dangerous is it to operate a gasoline engine in a closed garage? The answer is that carbon monoxide reduces the amount of oxygen to the brain, causing CO intoxication and lack of reasoning. CO concentrations reach the Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health (IDLH) concentration of 1,200 parts per million (ppm) in only seven minutes when a small 5-horsepower gasoline engine is run in a 10,000 cubic foot room. Now consider the CO air impacts of a 135 horsepower automobile in a single car garage of 1,600 cubic feet.
If one can comprehend those scientifically proven facts, here’s a follow-up question. In 2014, some 260 million vehicles were registered in the U.S. This figure includes passenger cars, motorcycles, trucks, buses, and other vehicles, but not jet aircraft.
While calculating the total number of motor vehicles on the planet is an inexact science, the number is growing rapidly. The automotive trade journal Ward’s Auto has estimated that the vehicle count exceeded 1 billion some time during 2010. Another calculation in July 2014 estimated that there were 1.2 billion vehicles on the world’s roads and that there would be 2 billion vehicles in service by 2035.
Our planetary garage is not big enough to prevent CO2 pollution from killing people. This is why the Chinese government has announced plans to take up to 6 million vehicles that don’t meet emission standards off the roads by the end of the year, in a bid to mitigate that country’s air pollution crisis.
Petroleum powered vehicles are only one source of CO2 pollution that we humans do control. As a culture we are in deep denial about the irreparable damage we have visited upon our collective home. Earth cannot begin to reverse its slide into an uninhabitable climate without the help from those who live on it.
It’s nothing to laugh about.
John Bos lives in Shelburne Falls. He writes frequently about environmental issues and invites dialogue at john01370@gmail.com.