10 Things about climate change

Just before lockdown I read a little booklet on climate change. At least ten things come out of it. Here they are.

1. The climate is changing
2. The climate has changed in the past
3. There is no universal agreement on what is causing climate change
4. There is no universal agreement on what to do about climate change
5. There is a difference between observable science and historical science. Your view of historical science will affect how you interpret observable science
6. Calculating an average global temperature is very difficult
7. No global temperature figures are available from before 1880
8. In the 1970s the media was concerned about global cooling rather than global warming!
9. Some 31,000 scientists agree that there is no convincing scientific evidence greenhouse gases are causing or will cause catastrophic heating of earth's atmosphere or disruption of earth's climate
10. It cannot be proved that the and the rise in temperature are related

Three Books

These three books have nothing in common beyond the fact that I have read them recently.

1. The band played on by Steve Turner has sat on my shelf for some time. It is a beautiful hardback full of pictures that came out a few years ago on an anniversary of the Titanic disaster. (It must have been as far back as 2011, the centenary). Anyway it focuses on the band and is full of human interest. It is published by Thomas Nelson and is written by a Christian but does not stress that. Great read. I like Steve Turner's stuff.

2. A pocket guide to Climate Change. This little guide from Answers in Genesis written by various authors does not toe the accepted line, as you might expect but takes a creationist and moderate approach, accepting that the climate is changing but urging no panic. It's a complex subject but the writers are all scientists and it was good to get some scientific light on the subject. It is interesting to know that 31,487 American scientists,including 9,029 with PhDs, have signed a petition opposing the Kyoto agreement. It would seem that people don't decide on this issue simply by looking at the science.

3. The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse by Charlie Mackesy. This hardback is a work of art with writing rather than a book in the usual sense. It came into our house as a present from one son to another recently. There was great disappointment on the part of my dyslexic son that he had been given a book but once he sat down he had it read in no time. (It only took me 15 or 20 minutes I would guess - it is there to be savoured). One has mixed feelings about it. On its own terms it is lovely and kind but maybe God (the creator of all boys, moles, foxes and horses) is conspicuous by his absence and there is a certain starkness, even loneliness that stalks the book, despite its positivity. A little research reveals, however, that Charles Mackesy is an atheist turned evangelical so perhaps this is just overhang from his past rather than anything else or perhaps I am just far too harsh on people, always expecting too much.

Westminster Fellowship Pastoralia

We had a very good couple of sessions on Monday with Bill James, Principal of the London Seminary, on pastoral care and counselling. Bill spoke about our goal as pastors and the means to it in very helpful terms. About twenty of us were there and we had a good time discussing. The Westminster Fellowship meets in Westminster Baptist Church on the first Monday of most months October-July. The above picture is of what was happening a hundred or so yards from the venue. This was the means of blocking access to Vauxhall Bridge from one side. I have highlighted the fact that several of these protesters were from Aberystwyth where this is very much a  live issue.