by H. Sterling Burnett
GQ magazine has asserted a host of climate lies as an excuse to publish an article titled, “The Climate Crisis Isn’t Coming, It’s Already Here.” The article presents the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the biblical Book of Revelation, making the ridiculous claim that climate change has already brought the onset of the biblical End Times and these terrifying figures.
War
GQ begins with the horseman representing war.
The author of the GQ article, Rosecrans Baldwin, writes, “The climate crisis has been called ‘our third world war.’ John Kerry’s new coalition to wage it is World War Zero. The martial language emphasizes the human culpability at play.”
The fact that politician John Kerry calls climate change a war, however, does not elevate the modest and beneficial warming of the past century to the biblical Book of Revelation.
Revelation 6:4 reads, “And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.”
Nowhere in his article does Baldwin assert that climate change has so plunged the world into global war. Of course, such a claim would be nonsense.
Pestilence
GQ then presents a horseman Rosecrans claims represents pestilence.
“Actually, global warming has plenty to say when it comes to viruses,” writes Baldwin. “One consequence is a potential to revitalize diseases like bubonic plague.”
Baldwin, however, presents no scientific reasoning or evidence to assert that global warming has brought about a return of the bubonic plague. Of course, such a claim would be nonsense.
Moreover, the bubonic plague occurred in a cold period, as the world slipped out of the Medieval Warm Period and into the Little Ice Age. And, as documented in the excellent book, In the Wake of the Plague, cold conditions were likely a direct factor in the spread of the plague.
Regardless, Baldwin’s unsubstantiated and counter-scientific speculation that warming temperatures might bring back the bubonic plague does not mean that it is already happening, nor does it mean that the bubonic plague would return in such force as to fit the billing of a horseman of the apocalypse.
Famine
GQ then presents the horseman representing famine.
“In Los Angeles, in recent years, the look of starvation, of desperation, is seemingly on every corner and under every bridge,” writes Baldwin, referring to the city’s homeless population.
The mere fact that a city like Los Angeles has a homeless population does not mean that we are facing a climate catastrophe causing famine. Homelessness is not a new phenomenon. Nor does the existence of homelessness in downtown Los Angeles mean the world is experiencing shrinking crop production.
To the contrary, the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports farmers have set new records for crops yields almost every year in recent years. And the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, in Climate Change Reconsidered: Biological Impacts (CCRBI), shows the carbon dioxide humans have been releasing into the air since the middle of the 20th century has been a positive boon for the environment. Higher carbon dioxide levels have resulted in a greening of the earth, including some desert areas being reclaimed by abundant plant life.
Death
GQ finally presents the horseman representing death.
Baldwin’s “evidence” that global warming has already brought the apocalyptic horseman of death is anecdotal stories of people being very stressed out about climate change. Yes, really. Baldwin tells stories of a few people he knows who claim they have trouble sleeping because they are so worried about climate change.
Revelation 6:8 reads, “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”
I’m sorry, but a few climate hypochondriacs worried about climate change is not the same as the global death and Hell presented in Revelation 6:8.
To the contrary, Chapter 7 of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change’s report, Climate Change Reconsidered: Biological Impacts, details the results of dozens of peer-reviewed studies and reports showing premature deaths from illness and disease are far more prevalent during colder seasons and colder time periods than during warmer weather or eras.
Conclusion: Modest Global Warming Is Here, The End Times Are Not
Contrary to the fear-mongering assertions in GQ, the overwhelming scientific evidence shows we are not in the biblical End Times, and certainly not as a result of global warming. Instead, the overwhelming scientific evidence shows no net downside to a modestly warmer world. The overwhelming scientific evidence also shows Rosecrans Baldwin needs to take both an elementary science course and an elementary religion course.
