The utter collapse of anthropogenic climate change as a reasonable scientific theory now seems to be near at hand, though the advocates of the theory would never admit it. In the aftermath of the implosion of last December’s UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, “cap and trade” — the cornerstone of the Obama administration’s agenda for environmental legislation — appears dead at last, and there is reason to hope that the United States Senate will find its spine and undo the unconstitutional actions of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate carbon dioxide as if it were a pollutant.

The perfect storm of a whole series of explosive revelations — beginning with Climategate — is fundamentally undermining popular belief in the theory of manmade global warming, as polls in the United States and the United Kingdom clearly demonstrate.

The latest scandal — Glaciergate — strikes at the very heart of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the institution which has been one of the most significant centers for promulgation of the doomsday theories of manmade climate change.

The situation is unraveling so completely that even though the head of the IPCC, Rajendra Pachauri, has managed thus far to dodge calls for his resignation, even his home country, India, is no longer willing to listen to the IPCC on the topic of climate change, and has dropped out of that organization.

According to a report at Icecap.us:

India has established its own body to monitor the effects of global warming because it “cannot rely” on the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the group headed by its own Nobel Prize-winning scientist Dr R K Pachauri.

The Indian government’s move is a significant snub to both the IPCC and Dr Pachauri as he battles to defend his reputation following the revelation his most recent climate change report included false claims that most of the Himalayan glaciers would melt away by 2035. Scientists believe it could take more than 300 years for the glaciers to disappear. ...

In India the false claims have heightened tensions between Dr Pachauri and the government, which had earlier questioned his glacial melting claims. In Autumn, its environment minister Mr Jairam Ramesh said while glacial melting in the Himalayas was a real concern, there was evidence that some were actually advancing in the face of global warming.

Dr Pachauri had dismissed challenges like these as based on “voodoo science”, but last night Mr Ramesh effectively marginalised the IPC chairman even further.

He announced the Indian government will established a separate National Institute of Himalayan Glaciology to monitor the effects of climate change on the world’s ‘third ice cap’, and an ‘Indian IPCC’ to use ‘climate science’ to assess the impact of global warming throughout the country. “There is a fine line between climate science and climate evangelism. I am for climate science. I think people misused [the] IPCC report, [the] IPCC doesn’t do the original research which is one of the weaknesses...they just take published literature and then they derive assessments, so we had goof-ups on Amazon forest, glaciers, snow peaks.

“I respect the IPCC but India is a very large country and cannot depend only on [the] IPCC and so we have launched the Indian Network on Comprehensive Climate Change Assessment (INCCA),” he said.

In summation, while it remains an open question whether any substantial ‘meltdown’ of India’s glaciers is taking place, the same cannot be said for the credibility of Pachauri’s IPCC, which seems to be melting away like a snow cone in a blast furnace.

For the pro-global warming crowd, the question now is, if adults are waking up to the scam, what is to be done? The answer: go after the young.

The introduction to an Associated Press article (“Environmentalism Latest Niche in Children’s Books”) sums up the situation pretty well:

It's another turn at instilling environmental sensibilities in youngsters who may not know climate change from diaper change. But that's OK, isn't it? Or should we be concerned about heavy-handed green-washing? After all, some of today's environmentalists were no doubt hauled around in their parents' big cars, ate fast food and wasted electricity. They heard fairy tales in which wolves got slaughtered just for being wolves, trees and treasure were there for the taking and the bigger the machine, the better.

They recovered just fine. Do today's kids really need a primer on sustainability?

Well, no, actually. First of all, little children are far less able than adults to assess whether what they be told is actually true; their capacity for nearly-blind trust in adults leaves them frighteningly open to manipulation. Simplistic descriptions of environmental problems and proposed solutions which could not stand up to critical analysis by adults can lead to very different results in children.

The AP article highlights one book in particular: Lauren Davis’ Giggles the Green Bean Turns Stinkeytown into Greentown. (A fact which no doubt delights Ms. Davis.) According to the AP:

Writing a newsletter for her brother and interacting with sustainability groups, Davis realized there wasn't much information out there for children. Much of it was "stiff and technical," sounding like an engineer addressing a class of mystified first-graders.

"I woke up with the story in my head," she says. "Giggles the Green Bean. I wrote the story in 45 minutes."

It was important, she says, to show that Giggles is not overwhelmed by the problems he discovered. The Wise Old Cabbage tells Giggles to do five important things: Recycle, use less water, use less paper, save energy and eat healthfully.

The story thus provides a "how-to" element, rather than just a vague call for awareness, Davis says.

The rather tenuous environmental connection of eating “healthfully” to saving the earth from environmental degradation aside, yet another call for children to recycle and save energy hardly seems all that “cutting edge.” Unfortunately, Ms. Davis has already had to confess to a certain difficulty living up to her professed principles:

The catch is that Giggles must promise to share what he learns with everyone in Stinkytown. Davis says she couldn't afford to have the book printed on recycled paper or using soy-based inks. To make up for that, she's donating some of the proceeds to the U.S. Forest Service's Plant-A-Tree program.

"I'm not a poster child for being green, but I do what I can," Davis says.

Her book and Web site offer Giggles accessories: green bean seeds and an "eco-friendly" pot to grow them in, stickers, a CD, coloring pages and games. More Giggles books are on the way.

Poor Giggles must be feeling pretty conflicted by all this. Presumably the ‘noble’ character of his efforts at eco-evangelism justify the use of virgin pulp paper — not to mention the stickers, etc. It doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to conceive of Giggles’ CDs mouldering in a landfill for centuries, does it? And the fact that the AP presents Ms. Davis as appearing to be hesitant to put into practice the principles she advocates for others is less than helpful for her cause.

Of course, such books hardly constitute the first attempt by environmentalists to mold the minds of the young. The preachy cartoon series Captain Planet and the Planeteers droned on for 113 episodes during the 1990s, subjecting viewers to cartoonish  portrayals (in both the literal and figurative sense of the term) of environmental issues. They hardly stopped a generation of young people from growing up to be astoundingly self-absorbed consumers.

Regardless of whether or not books such as Giggles the Green Bean is worth a hill of beans, the efforts of many environmentalists appear to be rather glaringly full of strained self-justification.

Rt. Rev. James Heiser has served as Pastor of Salem Lutheran Church in Malone, Texas, while maintaining his responsibilities as publisher of Repristination Press, which he established in 1993 to publish academic and popular theological books to serve the Lutheran Church.  Heiser has also served since 2005 as the Dean of Missions for The Augustana Ministerium and in 2006 was called to serve as Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America (ELDoNA). An advocate of manned space exploration, Heiser serves on the Steering Committee of the Mars Society. His publications include two books; The Office of the Ministry in N. Hunnius' Epitome Credendorum (1996) and A Shining City on a Higher Hill: Christianity and the Next New World (2006), as well as dozens of journal articles and book reviews.

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DDW said:

	Great piece Rev. Heiser. Keep 'em coming please.
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February 09, 2010
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JamesSalata said:

Hope that the United States Senate will find its spine and undo the unconstitutional actions of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) I hope that the United States Senate will find its spine and undo the unconstitutional actions of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate carbon dioxide as if it were a pollutant. But hoping for our Senate to do the right thing is almost hopeless :^) I say vote all the incumbents out, save Ron Paul, and enact term limits to all of our "public servants". STOP THE EPA FROM RUINING OUR ECONOMY.

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February 09, 2010
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CommieBlaster said:

	Global Warming is a Communist Plot FLASH!! This Brand New Video Blows a Huge Gaping Hole in Obama's Cap and Tax Scheme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVm5-6H_sH4
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February 09, 2010 | url
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RP said:

	Perhaps... ...children should be taught how to recycle useless environmental children's books into useful math books and toilet paper.
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February 09, 2010
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Opener Sauce said:

	... Where did you do your science study, Reverend Heiser?
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February 09, 2010
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Green is Good said:

Children Are the Future What is the harm in people going after their passion? The Giggles author woke up with the story in her head and ran with it! Think of all those people that sit on the couch thinking about all the things they should, could, and would do...but they're too afraid to go after it. Why rip apart an author who is trying to help families make decisions that will ensure a cleaner, less toxic, healthier, and happier existence for years to come. Would you rather have Giggles tell kids that obesity is cool, that playing video games is exercise, and littering is harmless? Of course the content of the book is going to be about recycling, eating healthy, etc...they're kids! I understand the angle of your article in that she didn't print the book on recycled paper with water ink etc and she is no poster child for green, but how many people are in the church that don't do anything more than show up on Sunday? There are all shades of believers that self-justify their actions...At least the author and Giggles is are two beans with a purpose.

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February 09, 2010
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RP said:

	... Heiser was a founding member and serves on the Steering Committee of the Mars Society.
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February 09, 2010
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Liberty Now said:

Science and religion The weak minded think that science and religion are mutually exclusive. "Opener Sauce" above seems to be suggesting by his comment that Rev. Heiser can not speak or write about science because he is a minister. A position like this is intrinsically anti-human and anti-liberal, as it denies the fundamental right to self expression on the basis of some externally imposed condition and is objectionable on that basis. It is also objectionable on more pragmatic ground, that being that individuals of great faith can and do work and speak intelligently about science and scientific issues. In this context one might mention John Polkinghorne, for instance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Polkinghorne).

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February 10, 2010
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Openn Source said:

	Close but no cigar You can mention Mars and Polkinghorne all you like. This dude ain't Polkinghorne and the planet that's getting warmed ain't Mars. The argument's not that the Reverend (who hilariously has a poli-sci degree) can't express a view about policy issues. It's that he should take care to justify intricate scientific argument, something any scientist would do by training. Try again.
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February 10, 2010
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RP said:

Missed the whole side of the barn! "It's that he should take care to justify intricate scientific argument, something any scientist would do by training." This is an argument that would better be directed against Al Gore, Rajendra Pachauri, James Hansen, et. al. James Heiser's analysis would be better compared to the likes of Timothy Ball, Robert Carter, Vincent Gray, Ian Clark, Hendrik Tennekes, Richard Lindzen, Garth Paltridge, etc. Where did you learn YOUR science?

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February 10, 2010
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Curtis Bennett said:

Copenhagen, Academia and United Nations Literally Blind to Temperature Causing Global Warming In order for man to heat the atmosphere and change climate, there needs to be a source of heat. We blamed C02 because we all assumed from science to policy that we were all doing our jobs. Unfortunately we missed out on much with that lack of sight. We did several years of work to see the cause of urban heat islands as well as how they use billions in energy production responding to the urban heat. We found buildings were being radiated by the same sun that burns us and generating heat that approached boiling temperature. The energy and emissions were produced responding to the symptoms of solar radiation. Go to this link and see infrared images and infrared time-lapsed videos of buildings being radiated. There are images of areas showing the surface of the planet being radiated when we removed trees and those trees were provided by creation for many reasons. The domino effect of this is into our bodies where it is impacting the health of newborns before they take their first breath. http://www.thermoguy.com/urbanheat.html

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February 10, 2010 | url
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DDW said:

	Global "Warming" Is such hogwash. I would direct folks to go to Charles Clough's website and listen to what he has to say. He has an M.S. in atmospheric science and was staff meteorologist for the Department of the Army, retiring as Chief of the Atmospheric Effects Team. http://www.bibleframework.com/lessons/overview/
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February 12, 2010
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DDW said:

	You know what? If the enviro fascists wackos really want to do some good, why don't they get to work turning Washington D.C. back into its natural state: a swampland? Now that would be a real service to the nation and the environment.
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February 12, 2010
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