Global Warming

The Great Climate Debate

Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be
a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.—Isaiah 32:15

Richard Doctor

In 1881 Allegheny, Pennsylvania, was a hotbed of activity on every front of spiritual, human, and industrial endeavor. Food for Thinking Christians published in that year by twenty-nine-year old Charles Taze Russell marks one of the most significant advances in a Christian challenge to the received dogma of institutionalized Christianity. Five years later, Millennial Dawn (soon renamed The Divine Plan of the Ages so it would not be mistaken for a novel) awakened Christians throughout the world to the true promises of God for the blessing of all the families of the earth through Christ and the church.

This prosperous town lay north of the world industrial powerhouse of Pittsburgh, on the opposite side of the Allegheny River. The development of steel-making with all the raw resources at hand provided the region’s industrial base. Twenty-two years earlier and eighty miles upriver, the world’s first oil well was drilled fifty-nine feet into oil-soaked sandstone, thus inaugurating our unprecedented era of unquenchable thirst for petroleum.

Allegheny’s civic planners placed the railroads carrying raw materials and finished product below street level. They made provisions for an organized park system, attractive boulevards, and a cultural center. It also was the host site for a new world-class astronomical observatory linked to the local university. Heading the Allegheny Observatory was Samuel Pierpont Langley, who had achieved fame as a world expert on sunspots. His studies of the moon’s temperature added immensely to our knowledge of the “lesser light that rules the night.” In the same year of 1881 he and three colleagues traveled to the pristine atmosphere of southern California to make observations from Mt. Wilson. These observations were not of the heavenly bodies, but of the earth itself to validate theories of French mathematician and theorist Joseph Fourier, who in 1827 wrote of the “greenhouse” effect provided by earth’s atmosphere. Langley made scientific history by returning with the first direct measurements of “greenhouse” warming. The “greenhouse” principally is caused by water vapor and carbon dioxide in earth’s atmospheric blanket that wraps and warms us against the frigid cold of outer space; this “blanket” keeps our planet at a comfortable 15°C (60°F). This means water is a liquid most everywhere on earth, and our temperature is nearly 40°C (72°F) warmer than it would be in the absence of this effect. But there can be too much of a good thing.

At the close of the nineteenth century Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius, using Langley’s data, made thirty thousand sophisticated mathematical computations to calculate the impact of mankind’s geophysical experiment in the massive use of fossil fuels. He calculated that earth would warm by 5-6°C (9-11°F) if the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were doubled; this still is considered a reasonable estimate. Arrhenius’ greatest miscalculation was to anticipate that nearly a thousand years of human activity would be needed for this to happen. As we stand at the beginning of the twenty-first century, this doubling may be expected within the next forty-five years unless something happens to stop it. Faced with such challenges, Dr. Botkin in a study for the National Academy of Science concludes, “A new approach to studying Earth processes [is needed], in which the Earth is viewed as an integrated dynamic system, rather than a collection of isolated components.” In this Bible Students heartily agree.

Jehovah’s Footstool Made Glorious

The Lord’s people have the special privilege of knowing about the work of the kingdom. We understand the promise that the physical earth “abideth forever” (Ecclesiastes 1:4) and that the earth in its entire potential splendor will someday be the glorious footstool of Jehovah. We see this in two promises recorded in Isaiah: “Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?” (Isaiah 66:1). “And I will make the place of my feet glorious” (Isaiah 60:13).

There is a dual application to the phrase “place of my feet” being made glorious. In Isaiah 60:13 the thought is evidently the sanctuary: spiritually, the sanctuary class, the Church. When the temple was destroyed, Jeremiah lamented that God “remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger” (Lamentations 2:1). Isaiah 33:9 speaks metaphorically, just as does Jeremiah 22:29, “O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.” It is the people of Israel, not the literal land, of whom both Isaiah and Jeremiah speak.

Ezekiel uses the same kind of metaphor: “Say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD [clearly people, not trees] … I will kindle a fire … it shall devour every green tree in thee … all flesh shall see that I the LORD have kindled it” (Ezekiel 20:47,48). This is a prophecy of calamity on people, not a forest fire. Yet in another sense these promises also refer to the physical earth. Throughout the world there is a growing respect and concern for the environment and what is happening to our planet. In fact there is recognition that through mankind’s unwise management, “The earth mourneth and languisheth: Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down, Sharon is like a wilderness” (Isaiah 33:9).

If one were to visit the magnificent forests of northern California, one might get a sense of the glory Lebanon once had, a land now in a sad and languishing condition. Faced with a growing body of evidence that man’s activities have a degrading impact on the environment, the response within the greater Christian community has for the most part been dismissive, although there are notable exceptions who advocate “environmental stewardship.” However, as we move forward, the societal, political, and economic impacts are a concern for every world government.

Perplexity of Nations

Among the poorest nations, Bangladesh with an average elevation of about five feet above sea level, would see its unrelenting misery increase if even the most conservative estimate of a rise of about three feet in sea level were to occur during this century. The third world and developing economies, such as China that does not face the threat from the sea as does Bangladesh, do see both immediate threats to shifting watersheds, challenges to an already stressed and marginal agriculture, and a roadblock to their economic path forward. This is perceived as but one more ill the developed world is visiting upon the third world, increasing further the polarization that characterizes our day. By any metric, the industrial world’s way of life is deeply enmeshed with the release of carbon dioxide. Already, all these problems are feeding into the perplexity of nations that characterizes this great “time of trouble” (Daniel 12:1).

As the Lord’s people, we have a privileged vantage point that permits us to see the Lord’s wisdom in the affairs of earth. By faith we are counted among that company upon the “sea of glass mingled with fire” (Revelation 15:2). In seeming defiance of the Creator’s own laws, our feet stand supported by the very waters of the stormy seas, as did our Master’s (John 6:19,20). Like him, our message to the humble of heart is, “Be not afraid.” While not in any way advocating staying the course with a “business-as-usual” approach to “sustainable development,” let us recognize that some of the problems that are, or will, come, as a consequence of the environmental response to the buildup of greenhouse gases and climate change, will actually be a blessing in terms of how the kingdom is going to be ministered.

What Does This Mean?

What if the resurrection took place this afternoon, with world conditions just as they are right now? First, there would be incomparably better administration. We might be tempted to think, “So that takes care of all these problems for the billions that are coming back from the grave,” and that is true. It will be a perfect administration, the best the earth has ever seen. Surely that’s why it has taken so long to find the “jewels” here on earth, and for our heavenly Father to oversee their much-needed polishing.

But let us take the next step. What if the resurrection took place right now and people came back from the grave possessing only the skills with which they went into the grave? Concerning the resurrection, “Where the tree falleth, there it shall be” (Ecclesiastes 11:3). What skills do the majority of humankind possess?

On the eve of the industrial revolution in the 1820s, as the old economic order was coming to a close, agrarian China accounted for nearly one-third of the world’s economic productivity (David Hale, “China Takes Off,” Foreign Affairs, November 2003, p. 37). Economic historian Fernand Braudel chronicles how England as the world leader in the industrial revolution, found industry overtaking agriculture by 1820. Shortly thereafter town-dwellers outnumbered farmers. For the U.S. and Germany, economic domination of industrialization at the expense of agriculture occurred in the late 1860s, while France followed nearly twenty years later in the mid-1880s (F. Braudel, Civilization & Capitalism, vol. 3, Harper Rowe, 1984, p. 306). Currently, less than 3% of the developed world’s population is involved with agriculture production to supply their domestic dietary needs, with 50% more produced for export markets (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, The Future of Food, Paris, 1998, p. 27). The thousand-year period from David to Christ (Matthew 1:17,18) supports a reasonable approximation of three generations per century. So for England it took only five generations to reach the point where farming skills did not play the dominant role in that society.

Kingdom Skills

In the resurrection those having farming skills will predominate among those returning from the grave. If you were one of these resurrected ones, you would be entering a society with no particular use for your farming skills. How would you feel under those circumstances? Since you are far from perfect, you would likely feel as if you were a second-class citizen with marginal skills, and no skills whatsoever in respect to present-day technology.

But what if you came back at a time when your skills as a farmer were exactly what the world needed? A well-predicted chain of events may be over-simplified as, “Climate stress leads to a weakened forest and that sets up conditions for forest fires.” This paradigm has blamed climate stress as a contributor to forest fires ranging from the Blue Mountains of Sydney, Australia, to the devastating blazes around San Diego, California. The further we continue with “business-as-usual” the worse things become. It is already recognized that higher carbon dioxide levels promote woody tissue growth, but since the cycling of other critical nutrients such as phosphorus, nitrogen, and sulfur, do not increase, decay slows down, setting up conditions for more fires. Recognizing this, there are suggestions from leading researchers that these new dynamics “may even diminish long-term carbon storage,” thus amplifying the problem (C. Korner, Science, 23 May 2003, p. 1242). Did the Lord forewarn us of this?

In biblical types, “trees” often picture the established world leaders of high ethical principle and purpose. Nebuchadnezzar was one such “tree” (Daniel 4:10). Perhaps these texts, previously considered as symbolic, may have both a symbolic and literal application. Perhaps “trees” might also picture … trees! “And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them” (Isaiah 10:19).

There is, of course, a promise of restoration: “Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest” (Isaiah 32:15). “Is it not a very little while and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?” (Isaiah 29:17).

Clearly we have brought some of the ecological troubles that will close out this age upon ourselves. Man’s original job was to “keep” the garden (Genesis 2:15). Now it appears as if his job will be to straighten up the mess he’s made. If children mess up their bedroom, a good parent doesn’t straighten it for them while they are at school. A good parent makes them learn by making the children take care of it.

The Lord’s people understand the scriptural basis for the times of restitution and ecology. As the resurrection takes place, people coming up from the grave will have the job skills and life experience that are just what the earth needs.

There should be more than enough replanting work to keep everyone productively employed as they make progress walking up the highway of holiness (Isaiah 35:8-10), and this will certainly be the most massive public education and public works program ever! After everything is reconciled in Christ, we will find Jehovah’s footstool both glorious for its moral perfection and of surpassing beauty.