November 14, 2010:

Ponderings of a Pilgrim PASTOR

“The Sky Is Falling”

I remember reading the story of “Chicken Little” when I was as a child. Perhaps, you do, too. One day Chicken Little is hit on the head by a falling nut. He assumes the sky is falling and rushes off to tell his farmyard neighbors, “Goosey Loosey, “Turkey Lurkey,” and the like. They are all in a panic until someone — I forget who — sets them straight. I assume the point of the story was to impress upon us as children the importance of getting our facts straight before we panic.

Great advice. But these days we seem to be dealing with an ironic reverse to that story. We really should be upset and concerned (maybe, even in a panic) over the very real threat of global warming. This past week, The American Geophysical Union, the nation’s largest association of climate scientists, announced that 700 climate scientists have agreed to speak out as experts about global warming and the role of human-made air pollution. They will be in touch with politicians and appear on conservative talk-radio and television shows.

This has come about because of the election of politicians, at least half of whom say they do not believe in the “myth” of global warming. I have to say I assume this is because these politicians are in the pockets of the corporations who helped elect them and who have a vested interest in doing nothing about the problems they have helped to create. Why should they? It would be rather like asking the tobacco industry to produce ads warning the public about tobacco and cancer.

Global warming is not a myth. It is a very real and growing danger to the survival of humanity on this planet. I won’t live to see that and you may not, either, but our children and certainly our grandchildren will. To believe that this can be ignored is to have a brain the size of Chicken Little’s. Let our leaders know you won’t accept their nutty pseudo-science.

Love,
Pastor Dave