What’s happening is no surprise

What’s happening is no surprise

In the Dec. 10 column on the religion page, “Life’s trials firm up one’s faith,” Marianne Lordi questions, “Is there any wonder that this whole world is suffering financially, physically, and under the devastation of earthquakes, floods, and storms of every kind?”

Extrapolating from her last point, the answer is an unequivocal “No.” As confirmed by 97 percent of the world’s climatologists, we have warmed the earth by our burning of fossil fuels, produced from digging up millions-year-old plants and animals. This has released buried carbon back into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide. The fact that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, trapping heat, was discovered around the time of the Civil War.

As evidenced in Rev. 22:17, “All men are allowed the free exercise of their will...” Accordingly, God gave humans the ability to choose between right and wrong in order to make moral decisions. He also bestowed upon us intelligence, which we have used to create our modern world.

We must now use our free will to make a moral decision about the harmful effects upon our environment that our modern world is creating. There are already millions in the world who are suffering from the effects of anthropogenic climate change, with droughts, floods, and resulting starvation.

Will we continue to burn fossil fuels, creating further climate destabilization and billions of climate refugees? Or will we use our God-given intelligence to transform our energy sources to clean renewable energy from the heavens?

Susan Shamel, Bedford, Mass.