Look At It This Way (#LAITW)

Who knew. But stop and think about it. The garbage man, handling sanitation, has arguably done more for the health of this planet, particularly human beings, than anyone else over the millennia, including the medical world. An unsung hero. #GlobalGarbageManDay

Steven E. Koonin

Subtitled: What climate science tells us, what it doesn’t, and why it matters.

Excellent review of the status of “the science” on climate change. Should help calm minds prevail. Hardly an equation in it, but lots of graphs. He focuses on where public perception is very different from what science says, and why that’s happening. Here are a few provocative statements…

“Hurricanes show no sign of human influence.”

“Global warming won’t have much impact on the economy at least through the end of this century.”

“There’s no question the globe is warming. The real question is, what do humans have to do with that, and can it, or even should it, be mitigated.”

“Heatwaves in the US are now no more common than they were in 1900.”

“The warmest temperatures in the US have not risen in the past fifty years.”

“Greenland’s ice sheet isn’t shrinking any more rapidly today than it was eighty years ago.”

Stephen C. Meyer

Subtitle: Three scientific discoveries that reveal the mind behind the universe.

And just what are those three discoveries? The Big Bang. The Fine-Tuning of the Universe. The Coding in DNA.

Years ago, my Dad (Presbyterian minister) developed a course for church groups on science and religion, and I picked up on it and offered something similar (see here). I called my course “Is God Expanding, Too?” as it was clear that our scientific understanding was expanding rapidly but our understanding of God was not, perhaps even going backward. This book argues why our understanding and appreciation of both science and God should be at an all-time high.