Crosstalk: August 21, 2018

​Dr. E. Calvin Beisner is the founder and national spokesman for The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, a network of over 60 Christian theologians, natural scientists, economists, and other scholars educating for biblical earth stewardship, economic development for the poor, and the proclamation and defense of the good news of salvation by God’s grace, received through faith in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.  He's the author of a dozen books, edited over 30 books, and has contributed to another 35.   In 2014 the Heritage Foundation honored Dr. Beisner with the Outstanding Spokesman for Faith, Science, and Stewardship Award at the Ninth International Conference on Climate Change.
 
According to Dr. Beisner, apparently You Tube has become the arbiter of scientific truth. On their own pages they seem to be contradicting anyone who disagrees with them. Proof of this has been shown by their placing of a non-removable panel/banner beneath any video that questions the idea of dangerous man-made global warming. That panel contains the first few lines from a Wikipedia article on the subject of climate change. That article alleges that there's overwhelming scientific consensus that man-made climate change is real. Clicking on the link takes the reader to the entire Wikipedia article.

The idea that there is overwhelming scientific consensus on the issue that climate change is real isn't contrary to what the Cornwall Alliance says in their videos. What the Cornwall Alliance believes is that the problem is much smaller than what the alarmists claim.

Dr. Beisner also takes issue with the fact that the Wikipedia article that's referenced has been controlled by a Wikipedia editor for over a decade, an editor who has been completely committed to the climate alarmist message. This editor will not allow legitimate climate scientists to edit the article to increase its scientific accuracy. This tactic runs contrary to the idea of open debate within the idea of the scientific method.

Is there a link between global climate change and the California wildfires? Dr. Beisner noted that the short answer is, 'no'. He said the following: 'There has been no significant increase in global average surface temperature since about 1997. That's completely contrary to the predictions of the climate alarmists.' He noted that this is what we get from the global temperature data available from satellites which is the most reliable data we have. It's the least contaminated data by the citing of particular temperature measurement stations such as in urban areas, airports, etc. This means that if global climate change had been causing an increase in the number of wildfires, we would have seen that increase a long time ago.

Even if we had the amount of increase in global average temperature that the alarmists predicted, it would only have been one half of one degree Celsius in global average temperature. That has no significant impact on fire combustion, on how intense a fire is, how fast it spreads, etc.

What affects how fires start are lightning as well as human activity such as burning trash and unattended campfires. In addition, in California and other Western states, there's been a stoppage of uncontrolled burns and the leaving of dense undergrowth from forest areas in the past 30-40 years, factors that only increase the chance of wildfires. So overall, what's taking place has nothing to do with global climate change.

In fact, Dr. Beisner noted that the hard data shows that the number of fires and the number of acres involved annually around the U.S. has not risen during the period of so-called man-made global warming.

As this Crosstalk moved along, Dr. Beisner also looked at the factor of temperatures in the U.S. in the 1930's compared to today, how those temperatures contrasted with those from today reveal a natural cycle of heating and cooling, the difference between weather and climate, why there are people at NOAA making bizarre statements, whether human activity can disturb the jet stream, and much more.