A new report by an international panel of top climate scientists supports claims by the newly formed evangelical-scientist climate change coalition that global warming is caused mainly by human activities.
The report blames mainly fossil fuel burning for the rise in global temperatures, according to CBS news, which obtained a final draft of the study ahead of its publication next week. The name of the organization publishing the report was left unidentified.
"As we add to those gases, we are just doing the same thing as putting another blanket on our bed at night,” said Sir David King, British chief government scientific adviser, according to CBS in an article Wednesday. “The consequences are that you get warmer, and that is as simple as it is.”
King was referring to greenhouse gases, some of which occur naturally in the atmosphere, and which some believe have risen in concentration due to human activities producing an increase in the average temperature of the Earth.
The debate on global warming has flared among evangelicals lately with the release of last week’s joint statement by evangelicals and scientists. The coalition - brought together by the Rev. Rich Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Eric Chivian, Nobel laureate and director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School - called for “fundamental changes” in private and public consumption of energy among other factors that contribute to global warming.
But not all evangelicals agree with the coalition that humans are to blame for global warming. The Interfaith Stewardship Alliance and other evangelicals have spoken out against the coalition, arguing that global warming is caused naturally by changes such as alternations in the Earth’s orbit and solar energy and solar wind output. Opposing evangelicals, however, agree with Cizik and the coalition that Christians have a responsibility to care for God’s creation.
The global warming issue has not only concerned evangelicals and scientists, but a growing number of Americans are troubled by the rise in the Earth’s temperature.
A recent poll by CBS news, conducted on Jan. 18-21, with 1,168 American adults found that 70 percent of Americans now think that global warming is an environmental problem causing a serious impact. The percentage is up from 67 percent last year.
The evangelical-scientist coalition is calling on President Bush, congressmen, churches and scientific organizations to help change values, lifestyles, and public policies to address the warming problem.
