Our Shepherd Among Us: Reminiscences and Reflections (Part One)

by Justin Soutar
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(NOTE: Here is the first installment of a three-part article series recapping Pope Francis' unforgettable visit to the United States earlier this autumn. This series was originally published on the popular website Catholic Online and can be read there as well. God willing, I will post Part Two next Monday and Part Three the following Monday. J. S.)
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Towards the end of September 2015, our Holy Father Pope Francis made his eagerly anticipated Pastoral Visit to the United States. Like those of his saintly predecessors—the cerebral trailblazer Paul VI, the energetic actor John Paul II and the scholarly gentleman Benedict XVI—Francis’ visit to America was an historic and memorable occasion that was shared and experienced by millions of Catholics and non-Catholics alike, both here at home and around the world, thanks to extensive national and international media coverage and the power of modern communications technology. Like his three predecessors who came to this land over the course of the last fifty years, Pope Francis was afforded a personal glimpse of the vitality and vicissitudes of his substantial flock here in America—and, conversely, we American Catholics experienced the blessing of encountering our Shepherd in person and the opportunity to renew our love for and allegiance to the Successor of Saint Peter.

Of course, each papal visit to this country has been unique. That of Blessed Paul VI in 1965 was confined to New York City, where he became the first pontiff to address the United Nations Organization. The great Saint John Paul II crisscrossed America like no other pope before or since, touring nearly all of our major cities during his five pastoral visits in 1979, 1987, 1993, 1995 and 1999. With his rock-star charisma and passionate fidelity to the truth of the Gospel, these spectacular visits sparked a much-needed revitalization of the Catholic Church in America at a time of profound doctrinal and liturgical confusion resulting from erroneous interpretations of the Second Vatican Council. During his single pastoral visit in 2008, which was restricted to Washington, D.C. and New York, Benedict XVI was respectfully welcomed by President George W. Bush and endeared himself to the American people with his humble and genial personality; that, along with his firm condemnation of priestly sexual abuse, took many of his critics by surprise.

Groundless Apprehension

In the weeks and months preceding this latest papal visit, a good deal of discussion in both Catholic and secular media revolved around the question of whether Pope Francis would really click with American Catholics and the American people in general, and there was some apprehension that he might not, for several reasons including the following: 1) he didn’t speak English, our official language and that of the great majority of American Catholics; 2) he was largely ignorant of our country’s unique history and culture; 3) he was highly suspicious of, if not downright hostile to, the capitalist free-market economic system through which our nation has achieved unrivaled wealth and prosperity. Polls showing Francis’ favorability ratings among US Catholics dropping somewhat in advance of his visit seemed to confirm this sense of apprehension. Based on these assumptions, some observers even ventured to assert that Pope Francis himself was not at all eager to visit the United States, dismissing the Holy Father’s own statements to the contrary as merely exercises in formal courtesy.

Thankfully, however, all of these fears turned out to be groundless, due in large measure to the efforts of the pope himself. Of course, Francis has by now amply demonstrated his ability to transcend language barriers by speaking the universal language of Christ’s love to everyone through his simple lifestyle and deeply meaningful gestures. But he knew that gestures alone would not be enough to fully connect with the American people. So despite his advanced age and the difficulties involved, Pope Francis took it upon himself to learn the American language so that he could communicate verbally with us in our familiar native tongue. It must have been a great sacrifice for him to do this, but the result was definitely worth the effort. It was truly wonderful to hear our Argentinian Holy Father speak directly to us Catholics and Americans without the need for an interpreter in his brief prepared remarks at the White House and in his lengthy, well-written address to Congress; hundreds of thousands of English-speaking worshipers also appreciated that he said parts of the Masses at Madison Square Garden and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in their language. And then there were those brief spontaneous remarks he ventured in English at key moments that added extra flavor to many of the gatherings, which usually concluded with “Please don’t forget to pray for me” and “God bless America!” that endeared him to us all the more.

It is true that until recently, Francis could boast only a passing knowledge of American history and culture. However, during an in-flight press conference on his return trip from South America to the Vatican back in July, he promised to read up on these subjects in preparation for his visit here. He obviously kept that promise, for in his addresses and homilies given during this visit, he demonstrated a good working knowledge and understanding of, as well as a keen appreciation for, our nation’s rich historical and cultural heritage. This was quite evident in his masterfully written address to Congress, in which he acknowledged that we are a nation of immigrants and discussed in some detail the different contributions of four well-known Americans to the political and spiritual development of our country. Francis’ grasp of our history and culture was even more clearly evident in his address at Independence Mall in Philadelphia, in which he reminded us that the inalienable God-given rights enshrined in our Declaration of Independence, especially our fundamental right to religious liberty, must be protected and defended.

And finally, there was the claim that Pope Francis regards free-market capitalist economics in general with suspicion and hostility. The Holy Father deflected this inaccurate criticism in his address to Congress by clearly affirming the important role played by entrepreneurship and the creation of wealth in the fight against poverty. He underscored his point by quoting a brief passage from, of all places, Laudato Si' (Praise Be to You), his lengthy encyclical on the environment: “Business is a noble vocation, directed to producing wealth and improving the world. It can be a fruitful source of prosperity for the area in which it operates, especially if it sees the creation of jobs as an essential part of its service to the common good.” Like his predecessors John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Pope Francis is not opposed to business or capitalism per se; he is only opposed to the selfishness and greed that can, and often do, transform them into destructive forces that negatively impact human society and the natural environment.

By learning our language, getting acquainted with our history and culture, and affirming the proper role of our free-market capitalist economic system, Pope Francis dissolved all remaining psychological barriers between himself and the American people, enabling him to seamlessly connect with his immediate flock and his wider audience. Having first won us over and gained our full trust, we were then receptive to his message, which was the authentic message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ—a message of truth and love, a message of faith and hope, a message of mercy and forgiveness, a message of personal responsibility, of respect for human rights and dignity, of peace and justice, of care for creation, of the beauty of marriage and family life according to God's plan. The three overarching themes of Francis’ visit were the centrality of religious freedom, the importance of caring for the natural environment, and the critical role of the family in the life of the Church and civil society. I followed EWTN’s live coverage of this remarkable papal visit as it unfolded, and I appreciated the faithful Catholic commentary offered by news director Raymond Arroyo and his guests Father Gerald Murray and Robert Royal.

The Personal Touch

Pope Francis arrived on schedule at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., his American Airlines jet touching down shortly before 4 PM on Tuesday, September 22. Overcast skies and windy conditions seemed to reflect the general sense of apprehension surrounding this particular papal visit. However, that anxiety almost immediately began to dissipate a little. As the pontiff disembarked and set foot on American soil, closely shadowed by his security detail, he was warmly greeted on the tarmac by a brightly smiling President Obama and his family, Vice President Biden and his family, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, and other dignitaries, as well as by an enthusiastic crowd of about 1,000 people who were completely fenced in. The unusually high level of security at Andrews was maintained with remarkable uniformity throughout the pope’s stay in America, and it was reassuring to see our Holy Father so well protected at all times. After exchanging a few words of welcome with President Obama in a nearby building and then briefly greeting the crowd, Pope Francis boarded a small four-door silver Fiat and was driven under police escort to the papal nuncio’s residence, where he stayed during his visit to Washington.

Sunshine greeted Pope Francis as he emerged from the nunciature around 9 AM the following morning; he proceeded to personally greet several of the three hundred lucky Catholic schoolchildren assembled nearby. Then he was driven to the White House for the official welcoming ceremony accorded to him as a head of state. Although the ceremony was scheduled to begin at 9:15, Francis did not arrive until ten minutes later because of the time he spent with the schoolchildren. Running a little behind schedule for most of the public events, with the notable exception of the Masses, was a pattern throughout his visit which is typical of his quaintly slow personal style. Although some might be annoyed by this lack of strict punctuality on the Holy Father’s part, I find it charming and even somewhat refreshing. Unlike so many in our excessively fast-paced and self-centered world today, Francis is never in a hurry regardless of the importance of the appointment awaiting him. Of course, he does take his appointments very seriously, but he believes that taking sufficient time to encounter persons along the way is more important than maintaining rigid adherence to predetermined schedules at the cost of avoiding contact with people around him or gruffly brushing them aside. In this regard, Pope Francis gives us a valuable lesson in Christian charity that many of us need to hear, bombarded as we constantly are by the selfish ideas and attitudes of modern post-Christian secular society.

Two Speeches

A chorus of cheers from a crowd of some 15,000 people gathered on the south lawn of the White House greeted Pope Francis as the Fiat came rolling up. In his eloquent yet highly propagandistic welcome address to the Holy Father, President Obama stated that the pontiff’s visit “reveals how much all Americans, from every background and every faith, value the role that the Catholic Church plays in strengthening America.” Unfortunately, the Obama administration’s approach to the role of Catholicism in our national life has been dictated by its own radically secularist agenda. This was manifested by the fact that, for this very occasion, the President had deliberately reserved choice seats on the White House lawn for a slew of notorious Catholic dissidents and homosexual activists. Continuing his polished speech, Obama remarked to Francis, “You call on all of us, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, to put the ‘least of these’ at the center of our concerns…to stand up for justice and against inequality, and to ensure that every human being is able to live in dignity—because we are all made in the image of God.” True enough words, but here again they rang quite hollow; under the elitist Obama administration, the US poverty rate has soared to 19 percent, the wealthiest 1 percent are richer than ever before, and taxpayer funding of abortion is the order of the day. But the worst hypocrisy came a little later when President Obama turned to the subject of religious freedom, declaring, “Here in the United States, we cherish religious liberty.” I cringed when I heard that. By forcing its unprecedented HHS mandate on our country and repeatedly refusing to rescind it, the Obama administration has clearly exhibited its utter disdain for the religious liberties of Catholics and other Christians in America.

In his brief address thanking President Obama for his welcome—-his first public speech given in English on US soil—-Pope Francis emphasized that religious freedom “remains one of America’s most precious possessions…all are called to be vigilant, precisely as good citizens, to preserve and defend that freedom from everything that would threaten or compromise it.” This was a clear reference to the Obama administration’s egregious assault on our religious liberties with the HHS mandate. In his subsequent remarks, which were dedicated to the need to take responsible care of the Earth, “our common home,” Francis approved of President Obama for offering a proposal to reduce air pollution and highlighted the need to address the pressing concern of global climate change. “Climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation,” the pope declared. “We still have time to make the changes needed to bring about ‘a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change’ (Laudato Si’, 13).”

Initially I was somewhat put off by the fact that our Holy Father devoted nearly half of his introductory remarks to the topic of the environment, partly because I am convinced that global climate change is due principally to changes in solar activity and is thus largely beyond our human ability to control, partly because the global warming hypothesis which Pope Francis accepts does not square with the scientifically documented fact of declining global temperatures in recent years, and partly because I felt that His Holiness could have used the occasion to talk about an even more pressing issue such as abortion or radical secularism or the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. However, a close reading of what Pope Francis actually said reveals that the pontiff carefully avoided making explicit political or scientific statements. He was essentially laying out the Church’s perennial teaching on good stewardship of creation within the context of the present situation as he perceives it. He was apparently inferring that climate change is primarily a human-generated problem, but even if it is not, we do need to develop a strategy to deal with it because of its negative impacts on millions of people around the world. And even if increased carbon dioxide levels are not actually fueling a rise in global temperatures as the pope believes, we should still work together to reduce air pollution for the good of the planet and its inhabitants. Then too, it is the Holy Father’s prerogative and even his duty to speak about and emphasize whatever he believes is important for us to hear and think about, and it is clear from Francis’ choice of name, the length of his encyclical on the environment, and many of his addresses and homilies as pope that the responsibility to protect creation is a major theme of his pontificate. And while we Catholics are not obliged to agree with everything the Holy Father says on a matter of prudential judgment such as climate change, we should still listen respectfully to what the Vicar of Christ has to say to us on the matter, and we must not allow our prejudices to prevent us from accepting the Church’s basic teaching on the issue.

(To be continued)

Global Warming Is a Hoax

Deep down I have felt and believed for a number of years now that the ongoing global warming hysteria, much like the Darwinian theory of evolution, was a convenient, politically correct, money-driven and agenda-driven scientific hoax. Now my hunch has been confirmed by the compelling new research of a former U.S. government insider named John Casey, a retired NASA scientist and well-respected climate change expert. In his recently released book entitled Dark Winter, Casey debunks the entire global warming hypothesis using NASA weather and climate data that actually indicate a worldwide cooling trend in recent years, and he convincingly demonstrates that fluctuations in solar activity are the leading cause of global climate change. Furthermore, Casey’s book blows the lid off a disturbing conspiracy by corrupt U.S. government officials, corporate CEOs and global warming “experts” to discredit the truth of his findings while fostering the myth of a dramatic and irreversible increase in global temperatures fueled by increasing carbon emissions, also known as the “runaway greenhouse effect,” for their own profit to the tune of $22 billion a year.

Based on my own research in recent years, I have come to the conviction that man-made carbon dioxide emissions play only a minor role in affecting Earth's climate, while changes in solar activity and the sunspot cycle are in fact the leading cause of climate change over periods of decades and centuries. Furthermore, as an amateur weather and climate observer, it has dawned on me that the noticeable and undeniable slight warming trend we experienced in the first decade of this century reached its peak in 2010 and has been followed by an equally noticeable and undeniable, if perhaps a bit sharper, cooling trend over the last few years. Nor is mine an isolated observation: faced with extremely precise and reliable meteorological and climatological data from our network of highly advanced Earth-orbiting weather and climate satellites, many honest professional climate scientists around the world are now candidly acknowledging the “inconvenient truth” of a recent drop in average global temperatures (my apologies to Al Gore for stealing his favorite catchphrase) and openly challenging the once-sacrosanct global warming dogma. Casey’s research also confirms what I have intuitively come to realize and understand regarding the seemingly complex science of climate change.

Thanks to a thorough brainwashing by several decades’ worth of human-induced global warming nonsense at a time when the amount of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere is the highest it has ever been, this unexpected phenomenon of global cooling has caught most of us completely off guard. There was a somewhat humorous news blurb in the March/April issue of the Crusade last year (a magazine of America Needs Fatima and the Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property) about global warming scientists in Antarctica who had gotten stuck in ice that was thicker than they had expected, delaying their return to the inhabited continents. Newsmax ran a story last summer about the first six months of 2014 being the coolest first half of a year for the U.S. so far this century, with recorded temperatures hovering just one-tenth of a degree above the twentieth-century average. Also last summer, a related Newsmax story mentioned the interesting fact that Death Valley, California, the hottest place in the country, was experiencing an unusually cool summer: in fact, on August 3, the high temperature there was only 87 degrees Fahrenheit, the lowest high for that date since 1915. And then there has been my personal experience of cooler weather here in the southern Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Last summer was noticeably cooler than average, with high temperatures mainly in the upper 60s to middle 80s, and a few days in July with highs of just 60 to 65 degrees (mid 70s to mid 90s being more typical readings for midsummer), while we broke multiple record lows across the state this past winter, which was much colder than average for this area, and so far this spring has been the coolest since I have lived here, with the trees still 90 percent bare as of mid-April.

As Casey demonstrates in his book, NASA weather, climate and solar activity data show that while Earth did undergo a slight (.35 degree) warming trend from 1979 to 1998, our planet has been experiencing a general but unmistakable cooling trend since 1998; these trends parallel a general but unmistakable rise and decline in the solar sunspot cycle over the same period of time. According to Casey, the sun has recently entered a multi-decadal phase of reduced activity that astrophysicists call the solar minimum, which is characterized by an unusual scarcity of sunspots; the last such phase occurred in the late 1800s and early 1900s, resulting in severe winters around the world. Although the reasons for the intriguing link and how it works are still shrouded in mystery, it is nonetheless a well-established historical and scientific fact that, generally speaking, more sunspots always result in warmer weather for the Earth as a whole, while fewer sunspots always result in cooler weather. Based on this information, Casey predicts that worldwide temperatures will dip somewhat below their twentieth-century average for the next few decades as the current solar minimum runs its course.

In short, all the hard scientific data and my own rather limited observations indicate that our planet has now entered a cooling down phase, in blatant contradiction and defiance of the shrill claims of global warming alarmists. So much for the wild-eyed predictions of a catastrophic increase in global temperatures that will do away with polar ice and submerge the Florida peninsula if we don’t act now to drastically reduce our carbon emissions. Such claims can now be safely relegated to the dustbin of scientific history alongside Ptolemy’s epicycles, Martian canals, and spontaneous generation. Human-induced global warming having now been exposed for the hoax that it is, it would be wise to begin making preparations for the next few decades of cooler weather.

 

Copyright © 2015 Justin D. Soutar. All rights reserved.

P.S. My appetite for a truthful alternative to the global warming nonsense having now been whetted, I eagerly look forward to reading Casey’s book cover to cover. Stay tuned for my review of Dark Winter. In the meantime, additional interesting facts about the author, the compelling scientific basis for his claims, and the conspiracy by certain government officials, corporate CEOs and global warming “experts” to discredit the truth of his findings can be found here:
https://w3.newsmax.com/LP/Finance/RWL/RWL-Dark-Winter?ns_mail_uid=84163529&ns_mail_job=1616402_04102015&s=al&dkt_nbr=i1ktjqej

Quote of the Day

"There are no two ways of looking at either the world or God. There is no distinction between concern for human welfare and concern for ecological preservation. The way we relate to nature as creation directly reflects the way we believe in God as Creator of all things. The sensitivity with which we handle the natural environment clearly mirrors the sacredness that we reserve for the divine.

"Moreover, scientists estimate that those most hurt by global warming in the years to come, are those who can least afford it. According to the Gospel of St. Matthew, the questions that will be asked of us all at the final moment of accountability will not be about our religious observance but on whether we fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, comforted the sick, and cared for captives.

"Our reckless consumption of the earth’s resources – energy, water, and forests – threatens us with irreversible climate change. Burning more fuel than we need in an overpopulated city, we may contribute to droughts or floods thousands of miles away.

"To restore the planet we need a spiritual worldview, which brings frugality and simplicity, humility and respect. We must constantly be aware of the impact of our actions on all of creation. We must direct our focus away from what we want to what the planet needs. We must choose to care for creation; otherwise, we do not really care about anything at all.

"In our efforts, to contain global warming, we are ultimately admitting just how prepared we are to sacrifice some of our selfish and greedy lifestyles. When will we learn to say: “Enough!”? When will we understand how important it is to leave as light a footprint as possible on this planet for the sake of future generations?...

"We can no longer afford to wait; we can no longer afford to be idle. The world has clearly expressed its opinion; our political leaders must accordingly act with urgency. Deadlines can no longer be postponed; indecision and inaction are not options. We have a choice to make. The time to choose is now."

--Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople

Snow in October? AGAIN?

Yep. Here we are--it's the end of October, and the snowflakes are blowing and falling as I write this. It's a strange phenomenon, but it's real. This is the second year in a row that we've had snow in late October. This is an unusual occurrence, even here in the mountains of western Virginia. Last year we had about half an inch of accumulation, enough to cover everything; this year we have just a trace of accumulation (so far--we might get more tonight, they say). We haven't even had our first hard frost yet. Must be global warming. (Just kidding.)

Seriously, I think this odd weather has something to do with Solar Cycle 24. If you're not familiar with this, Google it and read a little about it. The Sun has a complex 11-year sunspot cycle, and there is clear scientific evidence--enough to make a convincing theory--that this cycle somehow profoundly affects Earth's weather. Sunspots are magnetically charged regions of the sun's surface from which loops of plasma originate. They're cooler than the surrounding surface areas and have a brownish look to them. They always occur in pairs due to the laws of magnetic polarity, and they can be anywhere from one to three times the size of Earth. Scientific observations show that when there are fewer sunspots, Earth gets colder; when there are more, Earth gets warmer. Scientists don't understand the mechanism by which changes in magnetic solar activity produce climate changes on Earth, but there is clearly a link between the two. I intend to research this topic further and eventually present my findings in a research paper.

Anyway, the current sunspot cycle is rather atypical compared to previous cycles. If you look at a graph or diagram showing the sunspot cycles over the last 100 or so years, you'll notice that the cycles in the early and mid-twentieth century were pretty well defined, with the number of sunspots tending to rise and fall pretty evenly over the course of an 11-year cycle. However, in more recent cycles--those in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century--the sunspot patterns have been getting noticeably more irregular and chaotic. In the current cycle so far--the 24th since scientists have been keeping track--the number of sunspots looks more like a roller coaster than a smooth up-and-down curve. I think this has something to do with our irregular weather patterns and, more broadly, with climate change. I suspect that our weather is changing because the Sun is changing. It's not as stable and unchanging as we often perceive it. Some people may not like to hear this idea, but it may be true just the same. I'm not denying that human activity plays a role in climate change, but I'm convinced that that's only part of the story. The Sun is the primary engine that drives Earth's weather, and it is unquestionably the single most powerful influence on our weather and climate--overwhelmingly more powerful than any other influences.

So don't get worked up about climate change. It's basically a natural phenomenon triggered by solar change, with artificial CO2 emissions being only a minor contributing factor. And we shouldn't worry about the Sun changing either. God is in charge of the Sun and the Earth and everything in the universe. He created the universe and holds it in the palm of His hand. He loves us and we should trust in Him. And He wants us to continue exploring the amazing complexity and mystery of his awesome creation.

The peak of Solar Cycle 24 comes next year, so we can expect plenty more weird weather along with spectacular auroras, powerful solar flares and things like that. Hang on tight and enjoy the ride!

Disappearing Bees: The Wireless Culprit

On September 18, 2011, Italy’s largest agricultural cooperative donated eight beehives containing 500,000 honeybees to Pope Benedict XVI. Given in honor of the Italian Catholic Church’s Day for the Protection of Creation, the bees from Coldiretti currently reside on the pontifical farm at Castel Gandolfo. Farmers around the world are concerned about the honeybee, whose global population has declined sharply and mysteriously in the last ten or so years. As Coldiretti president Sergio Marini observed, bees "play a vital role in the planet's ecosystem and their disappearance would have disastrous consequences for health and the environment; a third of human food production depends on crops pollinated by insects, 80 percent of which are bees." In recent years, beekeepers across North America and Europe have reported devastating losses of anywhere from 25 to 100 percent of their colonies.

The official term for this massive worldwide disappearance of honeybees is Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). It’s a bizarre and unprecedented phenomenon characterized by worker bees deserting their hives nearly en masse, leaving only the queen and her capped brood behind. Without its worker bees and their vital honey production, a bee colony cannot survive. Scientists all over the world are researching a variety of potential causes of CCD including pests (such as the Varroa mite), disease, viruses, pesticides, genetically modified crops, stress, poor nutrition, and climate change. However, none of these factors can adequately explain the unique characteristics of CCD, such as its rapid spread and simultaneous appearance on multiple continents. Attacks by pesticides, viruses or parasites would result in piles of dead bees in the hives, whereas the hives are simply left vacant in the case of CCD. Climate change has been much too gradual to account for the disorder, and harsh winters can explain only part of the bee die-off. The other possible causes (GM crops, stress, poor nutrition) are not factors in every area affected by CCD.

In fact, two pioneering research scientists—Dr. George Carlo and Milt Bowling—may have already identified the main cause of CCD. Dr. Carlo is an award-winning American public health expert who ran the wireless industry’s six-year, $28.5 million study on the health effects of cellular phones back in the 1990s. Milt Bowling of Canada has been involved with the cell phone safety issue since 1997 and has been working with Dr. Carlo on the issue since 2005. According to these two researchers, the culprit in the world’s current honeybee decline is the enormous and continuing proliferation of information-carrying radio waves (ICRW) in the global environment due to the massive 21st-century shift to wireless technology. As a result of their research carried out both independently and in concert, Dr. Carlo and Bowling are convinced that man-made wireless signals—particularly from cell phones and their transmitters—interfere with the bees’ natural navigation and communication capabilities.

A honeybee’s navigational system is comprised of small magnetite crystals in its abdomen, which allow it to tune like a radio into the earth’s electromagnetic field. When a worker bee leaves the hive to gather pollen, it senses this field and uses it to calculate its position relative to the hive much as a GPS system works. This enables it to return to the colony with its precious load, even from more than a mile away. But various independent studies show that the bees lose this crucial ability to navigate when artificial electromagnetic fields are introduced into their environment.

In one study conducted in 2006 at Landau University in Germany, two beehives were exposed to radiation from a cordless phone and two were left unexposed. Twenty-five bees were then taken from each hive and released about 2500 feet away. Within 32 minutes, 16 bees returned to one of the unexposed hives and 17 to the other, while only six bees returned to one of the exposed hives after 38 minutes and none at all made it back to the other. Moreover, after nine days the bees in the exposed hives had constructed 21 percent fewer cells in the hive frame than the bees in the unexposed hives.

Another study was carried out in 2009 by Dr. Daniel Favre, a retired biologist of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland. He placed mobile phone handsets near beehives, activated them for specific periods of time, and analyzed the bees’ resulting behavior. Favre found that activation of the phones triggered the worker piping signal, which is a sign of distress, and that the colony’s activities did not return to normal until some time after the phone activation had ceased.

In a third study conducted in 2010, researchers at Panjab University in Chandigarh, India fitted cell phones to a beehive and activated them twice a day for 15 minutes each. Within three months, honey production had ceased, the queen laid half as many eggs, and the hive population had fallen significantly.

While this research provides strong support for a link between wireless transmissions and CCD, a definitive study is still needed to conclusively prove the theory (and convince skeptics). Dr. Carlo and Bowling have designed a comprehensive research program to do just that, but it remains on hold due to lack of funding from North American and European governments. Furthermore, the highly successful mobile phone industry is in denial that the widespread global use of their product could be placing bees at risk—even though the spread pattern of CCD is remarkably consistent with trends in cell phone use during the last ten years.

Meanwhile, the number of honeybees worldwide continues to decline drastically, presenting an urgent environmental challenge. As Marini noted above, honeybees are one of the major insect pollinators essential to human food production, so their disappearance would be a disaster for the world’s food supply. Without pollination by bees, many fruits, vegetables, nuts and herbs simply could not be produced.

What can—and should—we do about this? If information-carrying radio waves are indeed disrupting honeybee colonies around the globe, the obvious solution would be a planet-wide reduction in wireless transmissions, particularly from mobile phones and their supporting infrastructure. By virtue of their sheer numbers (well over five billion worldwide), cell phones generate far more ICRW than all other wireless sources put together. Thus, cutting back global cell phone transmissions along with careful regulation of other wireless technology would allow the world’s honeybee population to stabilize and begin recovering. Individuals, communities, governments and non-government organizations should work together to address this issue and take up the challenge of saving the bees before it’s too late. The future of life on earth depends on it.


Copyright © 2012 Justin D. Soutar. All rights reserved.


REFERENCES

1. “Benedict XVI Receives Half Million Bees,” ZENIT, Sep. 21, 2011. Oct. 24, 2011

2. “Pope: Christians Should Unite to Care for Creation, Poor,” Worldwatch Institute. Oct. 28, 2011

3. Milt Bowling, “Bees and the Future of Food,” Health Action Magazine, Fall 2007. Oct. 21, 2011


4. Ibid; Milt Bowling, “Where are the Birds and Bees?”, Health Action, 2007. Oct. 21, 2011

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid. (Original source: Hermann Stever et al, “Verhaltensanderung der Honigbiene Apis mellifera unter elektromagnetischer Exposition” [Electromagnetic Radiation: Influences on Honeybees (Apis mellifera)], University of Landau, Feb. 2006. Nov. 7, 2011 <http://agbi.uni-landau.de/material_download/elmagexp_bienen_06.pdf>)

7. Daniel Favre, “Mobile phone-induced honeybee worker piping,” Kokopelli Association,
April 13, 2011. Oct. 21, 2011 http://www.kokopelli.asso.fr/documentation/favre.pdf

8. Sasha Herriman, “Study links bee decline to cell phones,” CNN World, June 30, 2010. Oct. 24, 2011

9. Wikipedia contributors, “List of countries by number of cell phones in use,” Wikipedia, Oct. 21, 2011. Oct. 24, 2011

Follow-up on Geoengineering

When I read through the article on geoengineering in the current issue of Science Illustrated (see We Are in God's Hands below), I found that some of the ideas scientists and engineers are proposing to help slow down global warming are pretty good. One of these ideas is to line highways with artificial trees, each of which could remove 1,000 times as much carbon dioxide from the air as a natural tree. These contraptions would be no substitute for planting natural trees, but they are much safer and would be a lot more effective than any of the other geoengineering ideas being floated. As even the geoengineers admit, reducing carbon emissions is the best way to counteract artificial global warming.

We Are In God's Hands

I recently received the May/June 2010 issue of Science Illustrated, one of my favorite magazines. The lead story introduces a new technological concept some scientists are getting into called "geoengineering." This would involve manipulation of the Earth itself to save humanity from predicted disasters of its own making, such as global warming. One of their ambitious ideas is to encircle the globe with gigantic mirror arrays that would reflect sunlight away from Earth. The payoff could be enormous, these scientists tell us, but the risks are also tremendous. I feel that this particular method of geoengineering is a classic case of attacking the disease by treating the symptoms while ignoring the cause. The problem with global warming is not in the amount of sunlight reaching Earth, but in the man-made greenhouse gases that trap more of its warmth and could potentially lead to a runaway greenhouse effect. It is dealing with these greenhouse gases from artificial sources right here on Earth and in our atmosphere that we will effectively address any problem of artificial warming, not by reengineering the planet from the outside in.

In his encyclical Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI has warned us of an error widely prevalent in the modern fields of science and technology, namely, the idea that we human beings must take complete control of Earth and determine our own destiny. Here I'd like to quote Bishop Thomas Wenski, whom the pope recently appointed as archbishop of Miami, Florida and who was himself quoting our Holy Father from Deus Caritas Est: "'We are only instruments in the Lord's hands; and this knowledge frees us from the presumption of thinking that we alone are personally responsible for building a better world.' In all humility we will do what we can, and in all humility we will entrust the rest to the Lord. It is God who governs the world, not we."

While seeking solutions to the great problems facing our twenty-first century world, humanity must trust more than ever in the Lord and in His infinite mercy.

Spring Weather, Gardening and Global Warming

When the sun is shining, temperatures are pleasant and everything green is starting to sprout and grow, it makes you want to get outside and do some gardening. Spring has come early this year, but even if the weather is a little premature, it still has the same effect on us. As a result of unusually mild conditions in this area last month, (followed by summerlike conditions in early April,) I started working in my garden unusually early, in March. It seems strange to be outside sweating under a cooking sun when the threat of frost and cold nights is still very real, and it's too early to plant summer vegetables. Climate change is doing some interesting things to our weather.

One of the predictions of climate change scientists is that global warming will not simply produce overall warmer weather for the planet, but more extreme weather. This prediction has been borne out in the last few years all over this country and the world: increased rainfall in some areas, decreased rainfall in others; colder and drier winters in some places, snowier winters in others; bigger hurricanes, hotter summers, etc. Some of these changes have not caused any apparent major negative effects in the regions where they are taking place; other have led to serious problems for millions of people, as for example the severe droughts in parts of Africa causing widespread famine there.

However, we should not become overly alarmed about these changes that are occurring. In his book The Weather Makers, one particular climate change expert--author Tim Flannery-- has mixed a wealth of interesting research and data on the subject of climate change with a number of major scientific, historical and logical errors. For example, Flannery presents incontrovertible evidence that our planet has been warming up over the past fifty years. But when it comes to the cause of this warming trend, Flannery places the blame squarely on increased human population and fossil-fuel activity and rules out all possible natural causes. In a related error, Flannery claims that the current warmup is without precedent in human history. Both of these flimsy myths can be deconstructed rather easily.

It is a well-accepted fact that the burning of fossil fuels produces greenhouse gases, which trap the Sun's heat in Earth's atmosphere and contribute to global warming. However, to place the blame for the current warming entirely on this process is incorrect. Earth's temperature does fluctuate slightly over periods of decades and centuries; these slight variations are natural, and have nothing to do with human activity or the lack thereof on Earth. For instance, in Medieval Europe, an Ice Age was followed by the Medieval Warm Period, during which Greenland was warm enough for Leif Ericson to establish colonies and plant vineyards there. This fact of the historical record, known to legions of schoolchildren, is casually dismissed by Flannery as "bunk." (p. 44)

It is obvious that natural causes must have been responsible for the Medieval Warm Period; the human population and burning of fossil fuels then were a fraction of their values today, and far too insignificant to affect the Earth's climate. And if this is so, then natural causes may be primarily responsible for the warm period we are currently beginning to experience. Flannery downplays the importance of such cause and effect relationships as "an unhelpful way of thinking." (p. 162)

Flannery's book is useful for the scientific research it contains on global warming, changes in Earth's climate, and the effects of both on various ecosystems (notably the Great Barrier Reef) during the last five decades. But its author fundamentally errs in attributing the warming entirely to greenhouse gases produced by modern human civilization, and ignoring natural causes altogether. After all, the greatest and most powerful natural influence on Earth's weather and climate is beyond our planet: the Sun itself. There is a strong correlation between recent changes in solar activity, observed and documented by astronomers, and changes in Earth's climate documented during the same period.

We should do what we can to take care of our planet, including reducing our pollution of Earth's atmosphere with greenhouse gases from fossil fuels, but at the same time we should be aware that Earth is going through a natural warming cycle that must play itself out regardless.