Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Global Warming from another perspective

I have been a steady reader of Ron McKenzie and his blog Blessed Economist. He and I may not agree on absolutely everything but he is always a good read.

He has applied his no little understanding of Scripture and Economics to the issue of Global Warming. I am posting them in full and the links. You are going to find this interesting.

Serious floods and storms are being blamed on climate change or global warming. The evidence that the earth is warming now seems to be quite strong. Records show that average temperatures were rising through most of the twentieth century. However, the cause of this rise in temperature is more difficult to be ascertain.

Many scientists argue that the warming is the result of human activity. They identify carbon emissions from motor vehicles and industrial activity as the cause. Others claim that the current warming is part of the normal warming and cooling that always occurs on planet earth. Getting an answer from science will be extremely difficult.

The global weather system is incredibly complex. Scientists build computer models that attempt to represent the weather system, but these models by definition must be simplifications of reality.

I do not understand these models of the global weather system, but I am familiar with the computer models developed by economists to represent the economy of a nation. These economic modelers face the same problems as meteorologists. The economic behavior of people and businesses is so complex that they cannot be fully represented in a computer model. Numerous simplifying assumptions have to be applied to get a model simple enough for a computer can handle.

THIS IS GENE, Not Ron. I visited the National Weather Service for the Chicagoland area open house on Saturday last. During the visit they had no less than 30 computers in an area they call the fish bowl. It was asked as to certitude of forecasting. He said 2 days they were pretty sure, 3 days a bit less, more than three it was a wild guess. He was asked about forecasting long term, global warming and all. He got a little red faced. He said that variations in temperatures and climate systems were cycles and no one knows for sure. There were 5 other graduate meteorologists in the room when he said it and no one flinched. I think the climate is changing. Why, how much, how fast and what's causing all this is not understood. BACK TO RON'S TAKE:

The consequence of this simplification is that the results produced by an economic model are partly determined by the set of assumptions chosen. A different set of assumptions will produce a different set of results. This leaves the modeller in a position where they determine the results that there computer model produces. This is not very satisfactory for reaching the truth about the functioning of the economic systems.

Differing assumptions are one reason why economists frequently disagree with each other. They reach different conclusions by starting from a different place. This is also the reason why the predictions of economists are so often wrong. A factor that that is left out, or incorrectly specified in the model can have a greater effect than expected, causing some of the predictions of the model to be incorrect.

I am sure that the scientists attempting to model the global weather system face exactly the same problems. The results predicted by their models will vary according to the assumptions built into their models. The global weather system is far more complex that even the most complex economy, so their task is even hard. Most people understand that the predictions of economists are usually wrong. We should apply the same level of caution to the global predictions of the meteorologists.

Measuring the change in global temperatures is difficult enough. Determining the cause of changes is virtually impossible. Deciding what actions would reverse the change in temperature is well beyond limited human capability.

God is the creator of the earth and the weather system. He designed a weather system that is sufficiently robust to accomplish his purposes on the earth. The belief that mankind can destroy what God has accomplished is quite arrogant. So if global warming has occurred, I am more inclined to believe that this is part of God’s plan and purpose than just the unexpected result of human activities. Rather than searching through the bowels of computer programs, we should dig into God’s word to find the answers.


Tomorrow I will post his venture into the Word to see if there are some clues to what is REALLY going on.

To read it in raw form go here.

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