A number of people have asked us about the lecture given by Etienne Vernaz on 30 October 2022. In his talk, he called into question the scientific consensus on the age of the earth, the theory of evolution, the origin of mankind and the seriousness of global warming. A video (1) has been posted on YouTube and already has tens of thousands of views. We’d like to share our reaction here.
The A Rocha France association – which shares the speaker’s Christian convictions – encourages Christians to care for creation according to the teachings of the Bible. Like Etienne Vernaz, we too believe in a God who created the Universe and who continues to take an interest in his creation and in what human beings do. With the exception of one of the signatories (who signs as president of A Rocha), we are also academics and have published articles and/or books on global warming and the ecological crisis.
We find it regrettable that human responsibility for current climate change and its serious nature are denied in the statements made at this conference. The majority of the statements made at this conference on climate change are false, as we demonstrate in this document, refuting point by point some of the arguments used. We believe that these misleading arguments are likely to mislead listeners, which is why A Rocha is taking action to refute them. There is no neutral position on the current ecological crisis. The position that would consist of saying, as a Christian leader, “I don’t know whether global warming is man-made or not”, or even asserting “It’s not serious and God will provide anyway” is not without its real problems.
To take an analogy, if someone said to you: “My doctor has just diagnosed me with lung cancer, and he says I should stop smoking straight away. What do you think?”, what would you say? Would you be content to look for an answer by listening to a lecture on YouTube? You might find on the internet (which seems to be true according to this article) that Jeanne Calment smoked until the age of 117, just like other centenarians, and that there are doctors who have long denied that smoking promotes the development of cancer. Would you then reply to the person: “In fact, smoking probably doesn’t cause cancer, it even seems to be a good thing, so you can carry on smoking in peace”?
Today, scientists tell us that we are collectively diagnosed with the equivalent of cancer of several organs; that the main cause is our addiction to fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal…) and that the only solution is to stop ‘smoking’, i.e. to stop burning fossil fuels and emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Simply saying “I don’t know if it’s true” or “I’m not taking a position” is not neutral and encourages inaction and apathy. It is legitimate to have doubts, but in the face of what is probably the major issue of our century, we strongly encourage Christians to take time to inform themselves and acquire a conviction on the subject, listening not only to the opinions of the “sceptics” but also to those of the many Christians who are concerned.
Like all Christians, we place our hope in Jesus Christ alone and not in science. However, we firmly believe that scientists today have an essential role to play in alerting us to the injustice caused by global warming and the over-exploitation of resources. Science and the Bible are in fact united by the same observation: sin is at work in this world. Science does not provide THE solution, but it does offer a diagnosis similar to the one given by the Bible: the main reasons for our current problems are the selfishness and excessive consumption of the richest (us); and this is what causes the most harm to the poorest and most vulnerable, as well as to future generations.
We underline the importance and urgency for the Church to have Christian scholars and experts bring to the faithful a scientifically informed discourse on climate change, while articulating the link with Scripture and emphasising the God-given mandate to care for our neighbours, however distant, and the whole of his creation.
We pray that the Lord will forgive us for the injustice we do to the poorest of the poor, and we ask him to shine a light and tell the truth about climate change, so that our brothers and sisters who believe that it is a plot “of the world” can see the truth of this injustice. We pray that he will equip us to act on behalf of those who suffer from these injustices.
Signatures
Professor Antoine Bret, University of Castilla-La Mancha, author of 119 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, frequently Visiting Professor at Harvard University, university lecturer on energy and climate since 2004 and author of a textbook on the subject (The Energy-Climate Continuum: Lessons from Basic Science and History, Springer 2014), and A Rocha ambassador.
Professor Thierry Dudok de Wit, University of Orléans and International Space Science Institute (Berne), author of more than 150 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, including 6 related to solar radiative forcing and its role in global warming. Co-editor of the book Earth’s climate response to a changing Sun (EDP Sciences, 2015) and ambassador for A Rocha.
Dr Joël White, Vice-President of A Rocha France, Senior Lecturer at Toulouse III University (EDB UT3-CNRS-IRD). Researcher in ecology, author of 30 scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals including Nature Ecology & Evolution, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, Proceedings of the Royal Society, etc.
Rachel Calvert, President of A Rocha France, has been involved in church planting and pastoral care for some twenty years within a union of evangelical Protestant churches; she has a degree in history (Oxford University), biblical and intercultural studies (All Nations Christian College) and a professional master’s degree in missiology and church planting (FLTE).
Dr. Jean-François Mouhot, Director of A Rocha France, former lecturer and research fellow at Georgetown, Birmingham and Lille Universities, author of Des Esclaves énergétiques, reflections on climate change and co-editor of Evangile et changement climatique and several articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals on climate change.
P.S. (added on 15/11/2022) Etienne Vernaz has already appeared in several climate sceptic videos. Almost 3 years ago, our colleague Dr Steve Tanner, President of A Rocha Suisse, sent him a scientific argument demonstrating his numerous errors. Steve Tanner never received a reply. Here is the text that was sent to E. Vernaz, to which he never replied.
Resources
To find out more about the reality of the crisis and why it’s important to act as Christians, you can start with the Christian resources available on our website. If you read English, you can consult the well-documented website of climate scientist and committed evangelical Christian Katharine Hayhoe, or the skeptical science site (run by Christian John Cook) which deciphers the arguments of climate sceptics. You can also listen to Antoine Bret’s lecture on climate change, why and how, or listen to the podcast Understanding and responding to climate scepticism.
There are also many resources that are not specifically Christian. You can listen to the podcast “Les Calottes sont cuites” (produced by Météo France and Géo), view computer graphics (for example on the IPCC reports). We also recommend the lectures, videos and interviews of engineer Jean-Marc Jancovici – you can search YouTube for videos of his lectures or read his various books or his comic book Le Monde Sans Fin. The Bon Pote website tackles many of the issues raised by Etienne Vernaz, with in-depth treatment by experts in the field. You can also find an analysis of the errors in the discourse of another climate sceptic, Vincent Courtillot, on this video from Le Réveilleur.