Their assessments of the state of knowledge on the subject are the “gold standard of climate change information,” said Gerald Meehl, a senior scientist at the US government-funded National Centre for Atmospheric Research and chair of the National Academy of Science. He would rather refer to them.

CLIMATE CHANGE: How to spot a dodgy study

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=94171

The IPCC’s Fake Review Editor

http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2011/11/09/the-ipccs-fake-review-editor/

ALL Bible-reading Christians should be ”greenies” because ”creation carries the imprint of the maker”, says the head of World Vision Australia, the Reverend Tim Costello.

Speaking at the start of a national day of prayer on climate change yesterday, Mr Costello said it was incumbent on Christians to take the problem of global warming seriously, and to battle cynicism and despair.

[...]

He was speaking as a new coalition, Hope for Creation, launched the national day of prayer, with thousands of Christians taking part nationally and joining those from 40 other countries.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/being-green-is-gods-work-says-costello-20111106-1n21y.html#ixzz1d0OJdO9X

In the same vein as ‘Common Belief’ up-thread e.g. the Anglicans:-

Climate Change: A Core Matter of Faith

“Christian faith is certainly about personal salvation. But it is more than that:
Christianity is, first and foremost, a concern for the whole of the created order — biodiversity and business; politics and pollution; rivers, religion and rainforests.”

Which (for those biblically illiterate) tallies with a prophesy of a “falling away” or apostacy (2 Thess 2:3). This fundamentalist website puts it this way in their ‘Apostacy’ category:-

The fact is that the World Council [of Churches] is made up of a bunch of theological weirdoes! It is the home of every sort of radical: environmentalists, communists, New Agers, One Worlders, feminists, syncretists.

Greenie ‘Christians’ have varying takes on Genesis 1:28 – a point-of-difference between Fundamentalist and Greenie Christians:-

…replenish the earth, and subdue it…

Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams:-

Subdue the earth is not license to exploit it

Echoed by the Salvation Army in ‘Common Belief’:-

God’s instruction to “subdue” the earth and “rule” over every living thing (Gen. 1:28) cannot be interpreted to justify exploitation.

But more read into it in this book:-

Redeeming creation: the Biblical basis for environmental stewardship

[Page 90] It also seems unlikely that God’s command to subdue the earth meant to mine and exploit its inorganic matter

The words steward and stewardship present a problem too, they are used about two dozen times in the KJV but not once in the context of the earth but that doesn’t sway the Anglicans:-

“…our first calling by God is to be stewards of the earth“

There are more problems with the notion of “Redeeming Creation” and that the earth is an “object of God’s redemptive purpose” (page 26). Evidently, God’s redemptive purpose for the earth is limited. Going by the book of Revelation (that Greenie ‘Christians’ avoid like the plague), the earth undergoes major climatic and geologic upheaval before ultimately in Revelation 21:1:-

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

It shouldn’t be improbable to anyone that believes in an entity powerful enough to create the universe and the earth, that the same entity is equally powerful enough to take the whole thing down and put up a new one – but that’s not “being green” and doing “God’s work”, apparently.

(Yes I am the same “Andy” on Brooke’s page)
The joy of social networking.

“For example, the article on foxnews.com states, “Grad students often co-author scientific papers to help with the laborious task of writing. Such papers are rarely the cornerstone for trillions of dollars worth of government climate funding, however — nor do they win Nobel Peace prizes.” I will assume that the bit about “Nobel Peace prizes” was a mistake made by the Fox News writer, since as I’m sure you’re aware, scientific achievements do not lead to Peace prizes. Further, most science of any kind doesn’t lead to a Nobel Prize. They really don’t hand out that many of them.”

http://nittygrittyscience.com/2011/11/03/an-open-letter-to-donna-laframboise-or-you-have-got-to-be-f-kidding-me/

Brooke is now older and wiser after La Flamme-out

H/T Tom Nelson.

Funding for the Institute is provided by the Poola Foundation’s Tom Kantor fund. The current cycle of funding is for five years at a rate of approximately A$2 million per annum.[1][2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_Institute_of_Australia

The Poola Foundation’s approach

Mark [Mark Wootton, Director of the Poola Foundation] began his presentation by explaining that the Poola Foundation is a charitable entity. He and his wife (the Director’s of the Poola Foundation) consider it to be the ‘divestment arm’ of their family company. The Foundation’s primary areas of focus are on the environment, social justice, and peace. In its activities, the foundation aims to inspire, to educate and to demonstrate solutions. The Foundation tends to provide larger grants but has made grants ranging from $2,000 to $10 million in size. By 30 June 2007, the Foundation expects to have distributed about $30 million in grants.

The Climate Institute defends its coal alliance

Has The Climate Institute damaged their brand by announcing a “historic alliance” with the World Wildlife Fund, The Coal Association and the CFMEU?

[WWF actually now the World Wide Fund for Nature and still using the former name in the U.S. and Canada http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWF ]

http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/04/18/the-climate-institute-defends-its-coal-alliance/

Analysis of “Common Belief” follows.

AUSTRALIA’S FAITH COMMUNITIES ON CLIMATE CHANGE
December 2006
© Copyright Climate Institute (Australia) Ltd 2006
The Climate Institute (Australia) Ltd

“for most of us, the fate of the planet as a
result of global warming is really a moral issue”

ABORIGINAL PEOPLE 6
ANGLICANS 8
THE AUSTRALIAN CHRISTIAN LOBBY 10
BAHÁ’Í BELIEVERS 12
BAPTISTS 14
BUDDHISTS 16
CATHOLICS 18
EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS 20
GREEK ORTHODOX 22
HINDUS 24
JEWISH PEOPLE 26
LUTHERANS 28
MUSLIMS 30
THE SALVATION ARMY 32
SIKHS 34
THE UNITING CHURCH 36

http://www.climateinstitute.org.au/images/reports/commonbelief.pdf

http://www.micahchallenge.org.au/assets/pdf/Theology-of-climate-change.pdf

1. Introduction
Climate change is as much a social and moral issue as it is an environmental issue. Its far reaching effects will touch all of us in some way. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) a group of over 2,500 leading scientists from around the world are now predicting a rise in globally‐averaged temperatures of between 2◦C and 6◦C by the end of this century1. With these changes in temperatures, scientists are predicting that we in Australia will experience more extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, and heat waves, further water shortages and more intense bushfires.2 The most recent IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that it is now very likely that most of the observed increase in globally‐averaged temperatures in the last 50 years is attributable to human activities.3 The current climate change that the world is experiencing has historically been caused by those of us in wealthy countries as we have developed our economies. However, the people who stand to lose the most are people in impoverished countries, who have historically contributed least to the problem. Furthermore, they lack the financial resources to cope adequately with the problem. The deep injustice of wealthy countries’ actions and the disproportionate effect this will have on people in poorer
countries, requires a moral and ethical response.

Climate change threatens to cut across the success of all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These eight goals were developed in response to the world’s main development challenges and include:
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development
Climate change is already beginning to undermine poverty reduction

[MDG is a UN initiative http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ ]

3. A Christian response to economics The Greek word for house is oikos. This is also the source of the words economics, ecology and ecumenicity. Sallie McFague argues, “The three belong together: in order for the whole household of the planet to flourish, the earth’s resources must be distributed justly among all its inhabitants, human and earth others, on a sustainable basis.”

4.1 Hope for the future
To start moving towards a more just and sustainable world we have to first have hope that a different world is possible and imagine what that world will look like. In 1987 the Brundtland Report, also known as Our Common Future, alerted the world to the urgency of making progress toward economic development that could be sustained without depleting natural resources or harming the environment.

4.2 Acknowledging Sin
Christian Aid’s Paula Clifford defines sin:

in the breakdown of human relationships, revealed in the unjust distribution of resources which creates a chasm between rich and poor. Sin also lies in the loss of connectedness between human beings and the environment, which has brought about the crisis of global warming. And in all this there is, too, the breakdown of the relationship between us and God.

4.4 Eight principles for sustainable living these guiding principles inform an understanding of how our relationships might be re‐ordered so that our relationships better reflect a right relationship with God. These principles also acknowledge that the particulars of what is ‘sustainable’ is not going to be the same for every situation. For example, whilst switching to renewable energy rather than relying on coal fired electricity is an important step in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and becoming more sustainable, the type of renewable energy that is appropriate will change depending on the situation – some sites are very suited to solar, for others wind would be more appropriate. These principles are therefore only a first step on the path towards sustainability.

5. We should favour regulated solutions that take account of natural, human and social capital.

7. …….The World Council of Churches has also been promoting the concept of ecological debt ‐ the idea is that industrialized Northern countries ‐ their institutions and corporations – have a debt towards Southern countries because of the manner in which they have used these countries’

5.4 Mission/Outreach
Conduct one event to demonstrate the church’s commitment to being a “green” church.

7. References

Climate Institute, Common Belief: Australia’s faith communities on climate change, December 2006,
http://www.climateinstitute.org.au/images/reports/commonbelief.pdf

Hope For Creation is a Christian prayer movement that is mobilising people of faith all around Australia and the world, in a prayerful response to the issue of climate change. Join us on Sunday 6th November for a day of prayer in a changing climate

http://hopeforcreation.com.au/

Page 1, “The rich world gets richer burning fossil fuels while ‘downstream’, without resources to defend themselves, the poor suffer consequences.”

Page 2, reflect on God, creation and climate change.

Page 4, songs for creation care and climate change

e.g. “May You Live in the Love of the Evergreen God”

Page 5, “shocked” about the fact that our world is still warming and clues as to the socialist/communitarian underpinnings of this movement e.g. “Barack Obama titled his first book The Audacity of Hope, which is a phrase he heard in a sermon by Reverend Jeremiah Wright”

Also a link to “A theology of Climate Change”

Page 6, Cathy Cook has a Masters in Theological Ethics focusing on ecology from Edinburgh University.

Why Pray? As people of faith, we believe that prayer is vital in bringing about change in our world and ourselves. Prayer brings healing and witnesses to our hope in God’s restoration of all creation [Huh? This is an interesting new "Christian" doctrine that you wont find in the KJV]

Prayers

We confess that we have not cared for the earth
with the self-sacrificing and nurturing love that you require of us.
We mourn the broken relationships in creation.
We repent for our part in causing the current environmental crisis that has led to climate change.

God of all wisdom, give wisdom to the leaders of the world’s nations.
Let them work together for a global agreement to tackle climate change.
Give them the determination to find a just solution that protects the people who are most vulnerable in our world, and protects creation.

Motivate us to take action,
and grant wisdom and courage to the world’s leaders
that they can negotiate a fair deal for the world’s poor.

There’s also a bastardization of the bread and wine that I wont go into here. Suffice to say that this Green “Christian” doctrine is not unusual in modern Christianity especially in the USA and the Pope is big on it too.

Take a look at Hope For Creation Partners. Includes World Vision that has recently picked up a $200m UN contract.

more at Donna’s site: http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2011/10/28/a-paperback-is-born/

cheers