Crosstalk: February 18, 2016

​Dr. E. Calvin Beisner is the founder and spokesman for "The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation". He has taught theology, apologetics, ethics, church history, economics, and other disciplines. He has written four books on population, resources, economics, and the environment; eight other books, plus contributions to over 30 books; and hundreds of articles. Dr. Beisner has testified as an expert witness on the ethics and economics of climate policy before Congressional committees. A number of issues were discussed. Among them: --A recent Supreme Court decision stayed the implementation of the recent rules implemented by the Environmental Protection Agency that would have had huge ramifications. State and local government, as well utilities and most other businesses, would be required to develop very expensive plans to deal with carbon dioxide emissions. But they would have negligible impact on temperatures. These rules were not established by a congressional bill which became law, but by executive orders from the White House which then were implemented by the EPA. The legal challenge which is still in progress will likely return the issue to the Supreme Court. But now, in the absence of the conservative Justice Scalia, the outcome could be quite different. Even if the rules are eventually deemed unconstitutional, those seeking them to fight "global warming" hope to get many industries and states to implement such actions voluntarily. --The water crisis due to lead in the drinking water of Flint, Michigan. But while the lead levels are high, they have been dropping in recent years in Flint, so that the levels are not as high as they were throughout Michigan a few years ago. Thus it is not a critical situation, nothing like toxic waste from industrial sites which require massive cleanup operations. The problem developed when Flint, due to increased charges by Detroit to use their water, decided to obtain it elsewhere, ultimately from Lake Huron. But in the interim, they are using the water from a river, and many of the pipes used were lead or iron pipes, which can deposit rust and lead into the water passing through, and Flint did not take action to seal the inside of the pipes. But both the Federal and Michigan EPA's also failed to take action when they first learned of the problem years ago. --The latest budget proposed by Barack Obama has a huge number of programs designed to fight "Global Warming", now called "Climate Change", which would result in increased taxes on oil, and again at the gas pump, plus taxes on other products like plastic, all of which would be passed on to the consumer. Those affected the most would be low income consumers, not the "wealthy" who would have no problem paying more. But Calvin Beisner presented evidence that the intent of all this environmental activity worldwide is not essentially an "environment" problem, it is "economic". In fact, it is a huge program that would transfer wealth from the poor to the rich, and from wealthy nations to poorer nations. However, claims about global warming are debunked by the most reliable data, in contrast to very shaky data and slanted computer models which are quoted by supporters. Measurements of temperatures over the last half century show a minuscule variation, fractions of a degree at most. Even the cumulative totals are not enough to make any difference in the world's climate.