Leading Evangelical Experts Call Global Warming Policies “Destructive,” “Detrimental to the Poor”
New Study: Global warming alarmism is
based on biased science, sloppy economics, and misguided theology

UPDATE: Cornwall Alliance releases An Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming--click here to sign!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009 – (Washington, D.C.) As President Barack Obama prepares to join other leaders in Copenhagen to discuss climate change policy, the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation prepares to release a major study that calls into question the need for any climate negotiations.

Release of A Renewed Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor
Thursday, December 3rd, 1 p.m.
Heritage Foundation, Lehrman Auditorium
RSVP @ http://www.heritage.org/events

A panel of top experts will be joined by Senator James Inhofe (OK).

The Renewed Call to Truth exposes the absurdity of global warming alarmism.  The idea that affordable, abundant energy from fossil fuels is causing dangerous global warming is losing credibility among scientists and causing serious debate among economists.

“We believe global warming alarmism fails the tests of science, economics, and theology,” states Dr. Beisner. “The whole notion of dangerous climate change rests on poor science that confuses theory with observation, computer models with reality, and model results with evidence. It rests on poor economics, failing to do rational cost/benefit analysis, ignoring or underestimating the costs of reducing fossil fuel use while exaggerating the benefits. And it rests on poor theology, with a worldview of the Earth and its climate system contrary to that taught in the Bible.”

The Cornwall Alliance’s findings show that global warming policies would produce unethical results that would:

• destroy millions of jobs.
• cost trillions of dollars in lost economic production.
• slow, stop, or reverse economic growth.
• reduce the standard of living for all but the elite few who are well positioned to benefit from laws that unfairly advantage them.
• endanger liberty by putting vast new powers over private, social, and market life in the hands of national and international governments.
• condemn the world’s poor to generations of continued misery characterized by rampant disease and premature death.

“In return for all these sacrifices,” Beisner asks, “what will the world get?  At most a negligible, undetectable reduction in global average temperature a hundred years from now.”

“The Renewed Call to Truth is a landmark document,” says Beisner. “Building on more recent studies in science, economics, and theology, it goes well beyond our previous Call to Truth and takes a stronger position. Before, we said natural causes might account for a major part, perhaps a majority, of recent climate change. Now we’re convinced they’re the overwhelming cause and human activities are at most a minor contributor. New economic studies also make clear the enormous costs of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, while atmospheric studies show that such reductions would have little if any impact on future temperatures. That makes us all the more sure that such policies are wrongheaded, destructive, and detrimental to the poor.”

Along with the release of the study, the Cornwall Alliance is unveiling An Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming, for which it is gathering endorsements from evangelical scholars, scientists, economists, pastors and other ministry leaders.

According to Beisner, “The Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming rests on the solid findings of the Renewed Call to Truth, so evangelicals can be confident that it represents outstanding theology, science, and economics.”

Research shows declining support for global warming policies, with a pronounced drop among evangelicals. In January the Pew Center for the People and the Press found that climate ranks dead last in a list of thirty policy priorities, and in March Gallup recorded “the highest level of public skepticism about mainstream reporting on global warming seen in more than a decade of Gallup polling on the subject.” Every credible study in the last two years has demonstrated that evangelicals, especially, are wary of this issue; the authors of a Calvin College study were shocked to find a 10-point drop in evangelical support for environmental regulations “despite the efforts of many Evangelical Protestant leaders.”

John Sparks, Dean of Arts and Letters at Grove City College, called the Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming “Biblically and scientifically sound—a remarkable combination of right reason and Scriptural understanding,”

Since 2005, the Cornwall Alliance has emerged as the go-to voice for the mainstream evangelical perspective on issues of environmental stewardship and development. Over 180 experts signed the original Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Response to Global Warming (http://www.CornwallAlliance.org/call-to-truth), and thousands of pastors, evangelical leaders, and laymen have joined major Christian organizations in the WeGetIt.org campaign (http://www.WeGetIt.org).

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MEDIA NOTES:  Local media may attend the event at the Heritage Foundation.  For those interested in an interview with Dr. E. Calvin Beisner or any of the scholars speaking on Thursday please call Melinda Kay Ronn at 917-743-7836.

Dr. E. Calvin Beisner will be in Copenhagen December 11 through 17, and is available for LIVE or TAPED interview segments and reporting.  Please call Melinda Kay Ronn at 917-743-7836 or email at Media@CornwallAlliance.org to schedule a segment or interview from Copenhagen.