Philly Story Swap

Douglass F. Taber

Through the diversity of human experience, there are pleasures we all share – good food, a comfortable place to live, fresh air, sunshine, and green growing things. Our Heavenly Father created such a world for us. In the words of William W. Phelps, “This earth was once a garden place, With all her glories common…” Hymns #49. 

We rejoice in the beauties of our world. It is precious, and we want to defend it and maintain it. 

Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

BibleDictionary.com In this passage, dominion is not portrayed as a tyrannical rule but rather as a divine mandate to steward and care for creation. This stewardship implies responsibility, suggesting that dominion is about nurturing and protecting the world around us rather than exploiting it.

Just as the early saints crossing the plains planted crops for others following behind them to harvest, we have the joy and privilege and responsibility of maintaining the Earth for ourselves and for generations to come. To that end, we must understand the geological and meteorological processes of the Earth, and what influence we might have over them.

The temperatures that we experience go up and down by tens of degrees every day. As we seek to understand the Earth, it is important to realize the importance of small changes in global mean temperature. For the last several thousand years, global mean temperatures have been remarkably constant. The deviations in world temperature with which we have had the most recent experience, before the 20^th century, are the “late medieval warm period”, 950 AD, when southern Greenland was lush and was being colonized by Europeans, and the cold of 1600 AD, the “Little Ice Age”, with the canals of Holland frozen over. How large were those temperature deviations? Global mean temperature in 950 AD was higher than 1900 by 0.5^o C. The frozen 1600’s were colder than 1900 by 0.5^o C. We are currently 2.1^o C higher than 1900, twice the increment between 950 and 1600 – and rising steadily.

What will the consequences be? When the global mean temperature was 4.0^o C higher then 1900, in the age of the dinosaurs 100 million years ago, sea levels were 250 meters higher than they are today. Even a modest portion of that rise would flood all of the coastal cities and many of the island nations around the world. In terms of temperature, we are already halfway there, with the ice that stores much of the fresh water of the Earth rapidly melting, and flowing into the oceans.

With the temperature going up and down by tens of degrees every day, it is easy to understand why many, as illustrated by the accompanying cartoon, do not take seriously the change of a few degrees in global mean temperature. If it has not been a problem in the past, why is it a problem now? It is also easy to make fun of those who seem to be taking issues too seriously. To quote a well-known politician in a presidential debate, “There you go again.”

So, what is to be done? There is no need to reiterate all that has been written, ranging from solar panels to carbon dioxide capture. We do need to remember that nuclear power is also an option. The fossil fuel industry very effectively put out scare stories in the 1950’s about the horrors of nuclear power. Those still resonate today, leading to a very complicated and expensive permitting processes for new nuclear power plants. To understand the minimal real risk of nuclear power plants, remember that the Navy has been using them in ships, including submarines, for more than 70 years. It is encouraging that there has recently been much interest in small modular reactors, less expensive to construct and to operate.

The important thing is to take all of this seriously. Global warming is a scientific and engineering problem, but first it is, or has become, a political issue. There is a lot that we can do, and need to do, about it. Our Heavenly Father’s plan is for us to take care of this Earth over which he has given us stewardship. It was striking that when I first presented this information in a Latter-day Saint discussion group, several of the participants, educated professionals, were surprised to learn that global warming really is a serious concern, not just a political talking point.

We can hope that the young man in the cartoon is wiser than his father, and that he and others like him will understand this stewardship and take it on responsibly. 

wikipedia.org/wiki/There_you_go_again accessed January 18, 2025