The African problem of cutting trees and not replacing them is very acute. It is the main reason for the Sahara desert getting bigger. Stop the clear cutting, replant, irrigate! In Africa nobody is using the wind and sun to generate electricity - with which to pump water of which there is plenty under the Sahara, to use drip-irrigation to plant trees, bushes, grass, flowers, fruit and vegetables. Use the electricity to plant, at the same time to improve the quality of life for the native people.

Important: don't just give it to them, get them started, teach them how to be self-sufficient. When you look at all the vacation resorts along the Red Sea, you can see how to turn the desert into a green, flowery wonderland."

Erik Wassenich
Ryazan, Russia
Allentown, PA, USA

from email received 07-06-07 

Although the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a report (Feb. 2, 2007) stating that global warming is real and that there’s a 90% certainty that human activity is to blame, Harris and Mann, who together operate a climatology service, say they simply want to present their evidence and provide advice to businesses on how to profit during times of extreme weather.

According to an article in the Spokesman Review newspaper (Feb. 26, 200), Harris has been studying the weather since he was nine years old and he bases his predictions on a wide variety of scientific resources and historical records. “He’s also a devout Christian and believes the Bible is loaded with clues on predicting the weather.”

Although Harris stresses that he believes “global warming” as a theory is exaggerated, he does believe, however, in a period of extreme global warming. “That will be in The Tribulation period … and for those us believers, we’re looking forward to it.”

“I believe this planet is a breathing entity, made by God, to clean itself, adjust itself.” Harris said in the article by James Hagengruber. This would be The Rapture. The premise of this argument appears to be: human beings are not responsible for climate change because it is part of God’s greater Plan, therefore investing in costly forms of clean energy is not necessary or useful. In addition, curtailing business and the economy by demanding reductions of carbon dioxide emissions is actually counter-productive. Instead, Harris asserts, our limited resources should be devoted to” ending poverty, curing diseases or providing universal health care”.

Until that happens, how best for Christians to profit and prosper from the coming Tribulation? Put your money where your faith is …to find out Harris’ and Mann’s suggestions and advice I’d have to pay $20 and actually go to the seminar.

I can imagine, though, they might say something like this: Buy real estate (especially apartment buildings) away from the coasts, invest in companies that sell generators, bottled water, food rations, ice, guns. When the ocean levels rise and coastal communities are flooded, those smart enough to hold inland real estate can make a killing off of displaced evacuees and homeless fellow Americans.

When massive tornadoes take out entire states and regions, the price of necessary emergency commodities like ice, generators and food and guns will be at a premium. According to thinkers like Harris and Mann, good Christians prepare for the looming planetary catastrophe prophesied by the Bible by investing in those kinds of businesses that can capitalize on the inevitable natural disasters. Good old American capitalism at it’s best combined with a new theology based on Christian’s self-proclaimed entitlement to profit and prosperity.

Does this mean find a way to profit from everyone, everything, everywhere, all the time? Buy a flashlight for $10, sell it for $50 when people are desperate for light. After the hurricane, buy truckloads of water and drive around your destroyed hometown and sell off cases to the highest bidders. Clever people can easily make 1000% profit off their injured and thirsty neighbors in time of disasters.

Is this the American Christian Evangelical stand on climate change? That “global warming” isn’t real? And, even though they admit the globe is warming, humans have nothing to do with it since it’s really God’s plan as prophesied in the Bible. The predicted natural disasters and the suffering of millions of people caused by extreme weather are simply part of the Agony of the Tribulation.

I can only surmise, according to this argument, born-again Christians believe they are entitled to profit and prosper from God’s handiwork while sinners and non-believers will suffer their due. Global warming is a good thing, something to exploit not try to prevent.

In fact, if they “look forward” to The Tribulation, why not hasten it by dumping more carbons into the atmosphere, encourage more businesses to invest in fossil fuel? Don’t update aging factories that pollute our air and contaminate our water, allow the aging flood systems throughout our country to break down and fail, reduce funding for emergency services.

Isn’t this exactly what our United States government has been doing these last six years?  GC  02-27-07  10:54

Not sure yet how bad it's going to be.  I pride myself on my life-long good credit rating but it has gone down because of being late on recent payments.  I can hardly afford to keep a roof over my head now - how can I possibly look to the future to get out of this? I am not alone.  The economy has become so schizophrenic that profit and loss are manipulated like a shell game. 

Loans, more borrowing, more credit, higher limits, late fees, exorbitant interest rates are burying the Middle Class.  Health care is killing the Middle Class.  The War in Iraq is draining our children's blood and the precious resources of this great nation.  We are running a national deficit that would make my true proud Republican father absolutely sick.  We are less safe than we ever have been.  Our United States government has started a world-wide arms race like none seen in history.

Business goes on as usual. American Capitalism hums during wartime, it feeds on the billions of tax dollars thrown at the military industrial complex.   As fast as IEDs blow them up, the military has to reset it's equipment.  Contractor's and mercenaries and soldiers of fortune are  operating in Iraq under the American flag.

While the Middle Class and the military and New Orleans and our Great Southern States go down the toilet, someone's making a lot of money.  GC  02-12-07  15:25 

These are the headlines that define the great nation of the United States as we enter 2007.  More children are homeless, more families are without food, more neighborhoods are ravaged by meth addicts, more cities have been given over to gangs, more freedom has been relinquished to the government.  Fear has replaced optimism, suspicion has become our state attitude.

When I first started this blog I wrote the description "Gaia Capitalism ... combining profit and philanthropy".  I'm beginning to realize that the premise itself - that profit and philanthropy are separate - is the fundamental flaw of American Capitalism. The traditional dialectic states "thesis meets anti-thesis forming synthesis which becomes the new thesis ... on and on." If the thesis standing today is based on everything that we have come to accept as right and justifiable in society, then the Gaialectic has to begin with a new thesis.

"Profit and philanthropy are the same thing."