Creation Song
My Christian Witness in Science, Politics, Values, Culture
‘Time is Running Out,’ American Petroleum Institute Chief Said in 1965 Speech on Climate Change
The Petroleum Industry scientists knew over 50 years ago that their product would create massive climate change disasters on a global basis. At first the industry was open about the truth. However, facing potential loss of profit if society moved away from oil-related transportation, the industry began to fund fake science and pour on lobbying of Congress to stop climate change dialogue.
Read this article written in 2018 from an article in Nature journal.
Israelis Know That True Democracy Will Spell the End of Zionism. by Gideon Levy in Haaretz
Haaretz is a newspaper published in Israel that I subscribe to online. Haaretz opinion pieces and reporting includes articles critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
Gideon Levy argues that the Apartheid treatment of Palestinians cannot comport with the illusion that Israel is a democracy. Levy states that Zionism in its present form means Israel as a Jewish state with special benefits to Jews. This does not comport with the democracy concept of equality of voting.
For the article, see here.
“The Big Lie”
Jesus said to those who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31). Jesus counters HIs truth with lies, saying of the Devil,.. “that he was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)
Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels is inaccurately credited with originating “The Big Lie” that ““If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” In his “Mein Kamf” HItler elaborated on the Big Lie in his diatribes against Jews.
A chief responsibility of Christ-followers is to hold to unvarnished truth. Our culture (and other cultures) use sophisticated propaganda lies to manipulate people. The Church is targeted.
A short essay in Jewish Virtual Library on the Big Lie is prescient and critical to faithful following Jesus.
Alcohol-fueled Men Beat Wives in India
83 percent of married women are beaten by their husbands after the men have been drinking, according to the latest available official data.
Our youngest son, Micah, and is wife, Heather, spent much of a year in Bihar state in India. Their hearts are toward the people.
Because of grinding poverty and work, too many men drink alcohol excessively, and then they beat their spouses and family members.
Alcohol is too often a gateway to addiction, crime, violence, accidents, and reckless behavior. I personally advocate that people avoid use of alcohol. Even if a person “can handle it,” one can tempt another to abuse alcohol. There is a reason that alcohol is sometimes called “demon rum.”
See this link about the women in Bihar, India who are victims of alcohol.
Food Waste Makes up Half of Global Food System Emissions
Greenhouse gases resulting from rotted and otherwise wasted food accounts for around half of all global food system emissions, according to a new study.
Around one-third of all food produced is either lost or wasted each year, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). One of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals is to halve global food waste and reduce food losses in production and supply by 2030.
The study assesses the emissions of food loss and waste along every link in the supply chain—from the time the food is harvested to when it ends up in landfill or compost. It finds that, in 2017, global food waste resulted in 9.3bn tonnes of CO2-equivalent (GtCO2e) emissions—roughly the same as the total combined emissions of the US and the EU that same year. Alongside the carbon emissions, this is occurring at a time when more than 800 million people were impacted by hunger in 2021, according to the UN.
Africans Rally to Defend Against Big Agribiz
Across the continent, organizations representing hundreds of millions of African farmers strongly oppose this Green Revolution model of large-scale, monocrop production reliant on chemical fertilizers.
Today, agrochemical companies see Africa as the last expansion market. While an average 135kg of fertilizer is applied per agricultural hectare globally, that figure in sub-Sahara Africa is just 17kg. On the continent, smallholder farmers have been feeding hundreds of millions of people with little need for chemical fertilizers or so-called “improved” seeds. Entrenching a greater reliance on commercial inputs for African farmers is thus seen as a major opportunity for business growth.
The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) and many other networks of farmers reject these programs and have urged governments and international institutions to instead support a move to sustainable and climate-friendly methods.
See this link for more on this issue.