Thoughts on Global Warming

     We all know that there is a lot of talk about the Global Warming crisis. After several days of workshops, videos, lectures, books, articles, etc. etc. etc., hearing both sides of the story, it is still not easy to form an opinion. All of these presentations were mostly professional scientists or Catholic Social Justice Groups. Some professionals affirm that we are at a critical stage of decision-making to save our fragile world from an ecological disaster if we don’t reduce our human-made pollutants in the atmosphere. Others likewise professional state that it is not a Global Warming problem, but admit that we are experiencing ecological change not necessarily by human means, but through nature itself. I admit that I tend to ignore multi-national corporations’ hired scientists, who naturally favor the agenda of these institutions while receiving a handsome some of money for their downgrading the Global Warming Crisis.
     During the 1970’s there was the Global Freezing alert, where we would all be blocked by the sun and freeze. Now we are told we will die of heat exhaustion. Either way, there is a prediction of an environmental apocalypse. Where does the truth lie? And from whom do we receive the objective truth on the environment?
On the one hand, when walking through the streets of Mexico City, breathing in black smoke from the cars, and breathing in the Los Angeles smog, which occasionally filters into San Bernardino, CA, I’m convinced that that we are into a Global Warming environment.     
     On the other hand, standing on top of a California mountain on a beautiful clear day, it makes me not only thank God for the beauty, but wonder if we really are in for an ecological disaster. By the same token, when I read about unusual weather in places, e.g. snowing for the first time in areas that were snow free, it makes me wonder if Mother Nature or Mother Earth has decided to change her appearance through a natural ecological shift.
     So what should we do? Should we ignore the messages brought to us or do as one environmentally safe hotel did by replacing the Bible with Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth in each room? (Yikes! Even God is pushed aside with His own creation for an ideology.)
But then, I recently came across a new phrase which I never saw of or heard before. The phrase is post-normal science. This word involves trading truth for influence. The environmental scientist and professor and director of the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research, Mike Hulme has confirmed this word in an interview in 2007. He admitted that “scientists—and politicians—must trade (normal) truth for influence.” (See Melanie Phillips, The World Turned Upside Down, 2010, p. 278) Now when a scientist admits this, we are in trouble. Of course, I am far from being a scientist, but my understanding is that science discovers facts and then formulates a theory from what it has studied. Post-normal science is a politically correct system that invents facts to manipulate opinion.
     In his novel, The Whole Truth, David Balducci uses the phrase perception management. This word can cover a multitude of sins. It seems that this expression is not a fantasy of fiction, but in fact is a reality in our world today. Perception management refers to “Actions to convey and/or deny selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning as well as to intelligence systems and leaders at all levels to influence official estimates, ultimately resulting in foreign behaviors and official actions favorable to the originator's objectives. In various ways, perception management combines truth projection, operations security, cover and deception, and psychological operations.”  http://www.thefreedictionary.com/perception+management) This makes me wonder how much truth is conveyed and how much is fabrication there is in the global environment discussions.
     I do have a solution for the above. First, we cannot be prophets of doom. Second, we need to respect all of God’s creation. Individuals and communities are called to love, honor, and respect and save our earthly home. I am an advocate of clean air, of recycling, of clean water, of “green” and I’m an advocate in the defense of human life and our natural environment. I oppose those self-interest groups who often usurp our God-given resources for gain and profit, which result in contamination of God’s creation. I’m not these because it is politically correct, but because I believe in God’s calling humanity to be just stewards of our home. For sure, God calls us to have a love-relationship with His creation because all of creation is ordered to God’s glory. If we take this God-centered approach, we realize that it transcends all the scientific, technological, liberal vs. conservatives, politically correct, culturally correct, and economic spheres. (Here is an open dialogue.)--Brother Warren Perrotto, MSC