A PLANET IN PERILE

Certainly many of the 8,048,881,700 people on the planet at the moment would agree that this summer has been uncomfortably hot. Welcome to a planet in perile. As I write this, it is 41 degrees Fahrenheit in Thule Greenland. Thule is 700 miles north of the Arctic Circle, just less than half the distance from the Arctic Circle to the North Pole. In Las Vegas, it is 103 degrees, with a high of 111 degrees predicted for today. In Beijing it is now 103 degrees. Rome was 107 degrees Farhenheit earlier today. Two days ago:

Southern Iran registered a heat index value — the apparent ‘feels like‘ temperature to the human body — of 152 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday. Heat indexes of 160 are widely considered the upper threshold of what humans can endure.”

In the following week we will find Italy on the brink of declaring a national emergency over fires in their country, tourists on holiday on the island of Rhodes fighting wildfires with water pitchers and indoor extinguishers, while in Croatia firefighters are in additional perile from exploding landmines deployed in the last war. In Portugal, firefighters were, in fact, injured fighting blazes in their country. The short range forecast for Europe (August 2023) is more heat and the long range forecast (Summer 2024) is even more heat.

In Geneva, Switzerland, it is only 89 degrees at the moment, but some of the forests of the Alps are on fire. New York City is currently 84. However, smoke from 548 wildfires in Canada are forcing people in New York City, Buffalo and Boston to stay indoors.

Whether you believe in global warming or not, this summer is hot. Sizzling. Scorching. Almost to the point of lethality (See above.) Last summer, 61,000 Europeans died from heat related illnesses. In Asia, there have been more than 110,000 heat-related deaths per year for more than a decade. This summer, even more people are expected to die from the same in both continents.

In Gaza City, Palestinians are starting to protest against Hamas about additional cutbacks in electrical power. Currently, there are more than 600,000 residents in that city, and only twelve hours a day of electricity. July temperatures average around 89 degrees Fahrenheit in Gaza. August is even hotter. Meanwhile, several U.S. states such as Florida are dealing with indigenous malarial cases and West Nile Virus and the Zika Virus have already reached our shores.

Rain, rain and more rain

Swaths of the U.S. have seen record rains these past sixty days. As the oceans collect more water, there is more evaporation which can be released as rain once the saturated air reaches land. Downpours cause soil erosion and crop damage even as they did in the days before the Dust Bowl. The problem with soil erosion is that absent any roots to hold it in place, the nutrient rich topsoil is swept away by the wind, leaving barren dirt in its wake. Plus, there is the destruction of homes during floods. This was one of the driving factors in the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority or TVA in the first half of the twentieth century.

In economics, there is a term called “labor mismatch.” This describes a situation where people are gathered locally with a specific skill-set, but no opportunity or market to exercise their proficiency. At the same time and across the country, people with this skill-set are desparately needed, but are not available. This is how it is with the weather. Those drought stricken areas of the U.S. that need rain are often not getting it, while other areas of the country are getting too much rain.

Other large areas of the U.S. (and the world) are suffering perpetual drought. For example, plans to build houses for 800,000 people in the greater Phoenix area of Arizona are on hold because there is barely enough water to sustain the city’s current population. In other cities in the Southwestern U.S., water is often rationed or its use restricted. Some parts of the world have no water at all except for a few primitive wells with little water pressure for drinking, cooking, bathing, providing water for cattle. Or, agriculture, which leads hundreds of thousands of people in Africa to join migrants from other parts of the world on a trek to the temperate zones of the planet.

Can you blame them?

There is a pressing concern at the moment. What if the atmospheric and climatic models are wrong? What if global warming has already reached the tipping point and the average temperatures will rise much more rapidly that predicted? Passing the theoretical tipping point means that there is no going back. How would we survive? What would become of our planet? Of life on our planet? In an interview reported today with Michael Mann, a climate scientist and distinguished professor at the University of Pennsylvania CNN notes:

In some cases, the heat, fire and floods are already exceeding what climate models have predicted, Mann said. In part, this is due to changes in the jet stream, he said.

“‘The jet stream is driven by the temperature difference between the poles and the equator. As the Arctic rapidly warms, that temperature difference reduces and the jet stream slows and weakens. This can mean that weather systems can get locked into place for prolonged periods.‘”

Consequences

What humans do have consequences, and not just as far as carbon emissions are concerned. James Lovelock in his seminal work Gaia describes our planet as adapting to change. Our environment shapes our civilization and our civilization shapes our environment. What happens to the greater biosphere in one hemisphere affects the biosphere in the other. Our inhabitat is resilent, but perhaps only to a point. Vladimir Vernadsky (1863-1845) notes that even rocks play important roles in maintaining life on earth.

Scientific American recently (June 2023) published an article titled “Rampant Groundwater Pumping Has Changed the Tilt of Earth’s Axis.” It notes that there have been an estimated two trillion tons of groundwater ciphoned from the ground between 1993 and 2010. And the earth’s axis has shifted alomst two inches a year since that time. The earth spins on its axis like a gyro, and there is some existing, minor “wobble” (called precession) that occurs to which the current shift must be added. At one point does it start to reel like a drunken sailor?

Then there is the liklihood of rising seas. Today, the seas are 5-8 inches higher than they were in 1900. There is much more to this than the ice caps melting. For example, the principle of thermal expansion, where warm water occupies more space than cold water does. Then there is the disruption of existing ocean currents. And because of the complicated dynamics involved, some seas will rise faster than others. Coastal areas in the Eastern U.S. and Gulf will be affected. So will islands and estuaries around the world.

Also, salt water intrusion will affect more land further than the current coastlines. This will affect the fresh water table, make the land impossible to till to raise crops and so on.

Hypercanes

Hypercanes may at some point replace hurricanes as the stability of the atmosphere is challenged in extremis. Hypercanes, with 500 MPH winds are being predicted by climate models. While none of us might ever see them, it is possible that our children or grandchildren will. What structures can withstand that sort of pummeling and what would the cost be to replace such a structure?

Unintended consequences

Increasing the “wobble” of the Earth means that GPS satellites most likely must be calibrated or replaced if they are to remain accurate. And who knows what the effect might be if there was a change of two or ten degrees in the planet’s tilt? perhaps perpetual daylight–or darkness–over some areas of the earth?

Plankton form a major source of food for oceanic life. Coral reefs are also pivotal. Both are in danger of destruction.

We’ve discovered 5,425 planets outside of our solar system, but as far as we can tell, very few if any of them can host the rich biodiversity that we have here. Most are gas giants, or rocky planets with surfaces such as what we find on the moon, perhaps Mars. Some are water worlds. Some are too small for an atmosphere. A few may be interesting in the sense of certain elements present or the distance the exoplanet is from its sun and so on.

What went wrong?

When God made humans custodians of our world, He did not mean we should hunt species to the point of extinction, or torment and exploit others species (including our own) in thoughtless ways for sport or just plain meanness. Forests were given to us to maintain breathable air, not to be destroyed for the sake of making a few bucks in the scheme of capitalism, capitalistic extraction and sheer greed.

What this means

In Romans 8:22-24 the apostle Paul writes: “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.”

Look at the labor contraction monitoring device above. It measures and displays not just the mother’s contractions, but fetal heart activity as well. The top graph is a representation the baby’s heart activity minute-by-minute and the line at the bottom (left in the photo) represents uterine contractions measured in the same unit of measurement as your blood pressure is. But notice the peaks and troughs in the squiggly line and think of them as events in our physical world. Events like earthquakes, mudslides, volcanic eruptions, meteor impacts, explosions, storms and wildfires, etc. As the birth of the baby gets closer, even so the contractions become more frequent, and more intense. The pain, the contractions, the mother’s groaning and the cervix and birth canal stretching painfully is for the sole purpose of delivering her child that she has been patiently waiting for all this time. Perhaps she cries out, perspires, but it is worthwhile because it leads to the delivery her child. So it is with our world. As the Messiah approaches, the Rapture nears, everything in our world becomes more intense. Revelation 16:18 says:

“Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake.”

Speaking of Jesus, Zechariah 14:4 states:

On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.”

This, of course, does not excuse what we are doing to the planet. God left the planet for us as if it were a well manicured park to enjoy for generations. But we’ve stomped on the flowers, carved graffiti on the tree trunks, dug holes in the ground, chased away the wildlife, thrown trash in the ponds and now we’re too lazy to clean it up. Because God knows everything that has ever happened or will happen, He knew we’d do this eventually, but He loved us anyway and sent the Messiah to provide us with a better place to live . . . for eternity.

If you have any questions about this, please use the comment section to contact me.