• I would like to recommend a secular book titled "Environmental Overkill / Whatever Happened to Common Sense?" (Regnery Gateway Publisher's of Washington, DC) by the late Dixy Lee Ray former Governor of Washington State. I was going to write a review, but feel compelled to go beyond that.

More then 30 years ago I read Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring." I was impressed with the need for environmental action. I used to live in Butte, Montana. When the smelters were in full operation at the turn of the century not only did all the trees die in Silver Bow county, but all the cats and dogs. One of our neighbor's sent a sample from her garden for a free governmental analysis. She received a prompt reply that not only was the arsenic content beyond safe standards, but was so high that the method of disposal of such foods is regulated. She had to burn the entire harvest.

We bought our water by the gallon at the IGA like most folks buy milk because the Butte Water Utility could not supply safe water. The Berkley pit (one of the largest open pit mines) is presently abandoned, and filling with 10 million gallons of mine acid water every day. It is advertized as the world's largest body of polluted water. In a few more years it will begin spilling over into the aquifer if no action is taken. Common sense dictates that Butte needs environmental action. After reading this book, I conclude that common sense environmental action no longer exists. Environmental restoration and protection has been hijacked by politically motivated extremists. The cost of submitting to this modern environmental movement, even for Butte, Montana, is just too high.

This book is essential, if you want to know the state of our secular world. It reveals how environmental problems are being politicized, and imaginary problems exploded into doomsday hysteria. The book is in six parts, but the kernel can be found

in the first 64 pages under the heading "The Air Above Us." It is quick to see that science is no longer science in this present secular world. The masses of people who reject the Creator God of the Bible have put their faith in a new science for the answers and solutions to life. Now a pseudo-science has been manifested as a political tool to manipulate the masses. Are CFC's destroying the ozone layer? Will we all soon die of skin cancer? Is the greenhouse effect already melting the ice cap? Is major coastal flooding by rising oceans already beginning? Will the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil set the agenda for the salvation of planet earth? Read the book!

• The balance of nature (better understood as the provisions of an Omniscience God) was examined by Dixy Lee Ray. She said that the same pseudo-scientists now forecasting the greenhouse effect were forecasting global cooling and the next ice age only 15 years ago. She reveals that 50% of present carbon dioxide emission (the greenhouse gas environmentalists are using to build hysteria) is not accounted for. [What kind of science has no clue to what's happening in half of it's argument, but continues to argue counting on the ignorance of it's listeners?] She suggested a possible answer might be the balance of natural systems, where when the carbon dioxide increases so does the growth & photosynthesis of plants. There is another book I read that reveals a similar natural balancing process. "An Ice Age Caused by The Genesis Flood" by Michael J. Oard published by the Institute for Creation Research. It is a scientific report that explains why only a major, major catastrophe could ever cause another ice age to develop. Stated very simply: for the Northern ice cap to expand into another ice age, it must have more winter snow build up that does not melt during the summer months. This would automatically begin to bring down the temperature necessary for expansion and an ice age. The problem is that the colder air gets, the less moisture it can carry; Thus, the ice cap's expansion stops and temperatures reverse. This balance can only be overcome by a catastrophe of monumental proportion (like Noah's Flood).
• Dixy Lee Ray points out that 98% of greenhouse gas is water vapor. An increase in carbon dioxide at less then 2% of the entire picture can hardly be called a catastrophe. God knew how much carbon dioxide would find it's way into the atmosphere (200 billion tons annually through such natural sources as microorganisms and leaf decay every Fall). Man's contribution of 7 billion tons is not taxing the size of this natural balance.
• Why are the secular masses so gullible? Why have they panicked, and sided with the manipulators of our day? I believe deep down they know a real doomsday is coming from God. The Creator will judge His creature. They do their best to hid from

• this inner feeling. They have put their faith in a faulty science. They accepted the false science of evolution as fact, even if it is running backwards! Just compare the measurable rate of extinctions to the rate of evolution over the last two hundred years of scientific record keeping! What is the score? It is at minimum thousands extinct to zero evolved new species! Evolution cannot possibly be a scientific answer to the origin of life. True science indicates it's going backwards! The only way they can make it appear to work is to say that it takes such a long time that it cannot be realistically measured in 200 years of reality. How many species went extinct in the 200 years before modern science came along? How many in the previous 2000 years? Yet this is not a long enough time span for one single bacteria to evolve into something new, much less a mouse or an elephant. This pseudo-science of evolution is going backwards! Real science cannot be applied by their standards. The masses are told to just believe, trust, put your faith in us, and our science. It is but a little step to believe, trust, put your faith, in the environmental movement's ability to correct all pending disasters. It is but a little step to bypass the reportable facts of the old fashion scientific method. Just jump on the bandwagon of the Pseudo-scientists who say - time will prove us right! Just believe, trust, put your faith in us for your future salvation. Personally, I wouldn't trust the competence of these guys any farther then I could throw a wooly mammoth?
• I wish our Christian bookstores would make this book available, but you'll probably have to go to the secular distributors in the mall to get your copy. Michael Oard's book can be ordered through ICR Box 2667 El Cajun, Ca. 92021.

I would like to conclude with a recent experience. I was confronted by a neighbor who said: "How can you call yourself a Christian when you do not recycle!" There is a new morality being manifested. President Clinton can admit to adultery and still be electable because he is environmentally correct. The new environmental fines are from 25 to 50 thousand dollars a day, and mandatory jail time. Do you see what is happening? To sin against the environment is becoming the greater iniquity, even surpassing immorality and violent crime. In the end, God will be the Judge, but the standard will be the Bible. The most important question will not be environmental, but what did you do with My Son the Lord Jesus Christ! Did you receive Him or reject Him! There is a judgement of works in the Bible where immorality, violence, and even environmental abuse will be addressed by God. It is why the "lake of fire" was part of His creation. Some will be pardoned from this great and final judgement of all men who violated God's purity and holiness.

Rev 20:11-15

My friend, there is only one way to be certain your name is written in the "book of life." That is to admit that you are guilty. A man who commits adultery has sinned. An empty can tossed out the window is sin. Big sins, little sins, they all violate God's purity and holiness. There is only One who came, and proved He had power to forgive men of their sins.

Matt 9:2-7

• It is Jesus Christ that this whole creation is about. God is not afar off leaving this planet in confusion, and fending for itself. He is here, even today, offering forgiveness, and more importantly - restoration. Only He can right what sin has ruined.

• When I was seven years old a Sunday School Teacher held up some colored cards. The first was black (pollution of the foulest sort), and I knew it represented what was in my heart (sin). Then she held up a white card, and I knew that was how I wanted my heart to be. She lastly held up a red card representing the blood of Christ, and read from the Bible.

John 3:16-21

• It was then that I prayed, and asked The Lord Jesus Christ to be my Savior. It was then that I knew my name was written in the "book of life." All my sins, big and little, were now entrusted to His promise, and His power to purify.

• Yes, I have sinned against the environment for which I am exceedingly sorry. I should be fined and thrown in Jail. Even worse then that, I have sinned against my fellow man. Most heinous of all, I have sinned against God. The penalty of which I cringe. To try to turn over a new leaf can't correct what I've already done. My heart knows I'm already guilty and condemned, I'm like the man with palsy, but my palsy is of the heart. What joy to know that it was for people like me Christ came to forgive and to save.

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