Global Warming and the Towel of Babel (updated)

Genesis 11:1-9 (New International Version)

The Tower of Babel

¹ Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. ² As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

³ They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

⁵ But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. ⁶ The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

⁸ So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹That is why it was called Babel—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

I've been thinking a lot about "climate change" lately, or, as it used to be called, "global warming." Climategate, the shocking scandal in which the researchers in the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University were found to be manipulating and destroying data that did not fit with their preconceived notions, has been in the news a lot this past week. Well, at least all the actual news sources. The mainstream media reminds me a lot of the dodos from Ice Age 1 (would post a clip, but I can't find it anywhere online-stupid copyright laws!). They're running around, trying to save themselves (and asking for federal bailouts) while destroying their sustenance and making sure the current generation doesn't spawn a new one.

But enough about the idiotic media! It struck me as we ducked snow (in south Texas!!!) and the forecasters are warning about a cold winter ahead that this whole apocalyptic business is nonsense. First it was that the earth was warming, and then, when the snowstorms hit and the hurricanes didn't, it became "climate change." So, what is changing? Not the temperatures, because that's been proven false. Not the frequency of storms or sever weather. Climates change gradually (or suddenly, when there's a volcanic eruption), as anyone who has studied history knows. Minnesota used to be covered in glaciers. Greenland was, when the Vikings discovered it, green land. The Sahara Desert was once a jungle. Yes, climates change, but man is not a factor.

All of this brings me to my point. Don't you find it interesting that just as the world is in a frenzy to do something about global warming and punish those who produce wealth and goods that we are in one of the coldest years on record in some places? We almost had snow right after Thanksgiving, which is unheard of down here. Man is busy displaying his hubris (the Israelites, not the Greeks, should have invented that word), while God gently reminds us that it is He, not man, who shapes the world by wind, rain, snow, and a myriad of other mechanisms.

As I write this, a cold, cold rain is falling. Message received, now can we please get some warm, sunny days? ;)

Update: Sarah Palin, a woman who we should all admire, has more to say on Climategate.