Media outlets and liberals, including elected Democrats, were quick to blame climate change for the deadly tornadoes that ripped through the Midwest over the weekend.
President Joe Biden announced that he would ask the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct an investigation into the role climate change played in the storms that caused fatalities in Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee on Friday night. The total death toll from the tornadoes could surpass 100 after emergency responders clear the debris, according to Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear who called the storm the worst in state history.
“All that I know is that the intensity of the weather across the board has some impact as a consequence of the warming of the planet and the climate change,” Biden told reporters on Saturday.
“The specific impact on these specific storms, I can’t say at this point,” he continued. “I’m going to be asking the EPA and others to take a look at that. But the fact is that we all know everything is more intense when the climate is warming — everything. And, obviously, it has some impact here.”
The president approved an emergency declaration for Kentucky, allowing the federal government to assist in the cleanup and rescue efforts on the ground.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell, whom Biden appointed, also blamed climate change when asked about the unseasonable severity of the storm Sunday.
“We do see tornadoes in December, that part is not unusual. But at this magnitude, I don’t think we’ve ever seen one this late in the year,” Criswell told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “But it’s also historic. Even the severity and the amount of time this tornado, or these tornadoes, spent on the ground is unprecedented.”
“This is going to be our new normal and the effects that we’re seeing from climate change are the crisis of our generation,” she continued.
The five deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history occurred in 1925, 1840, 1896 and 1936, killing between 203-695 people each, The Associated Press reported. Environmental activists and liberals have argued over the past several decades that global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions and industrialization is triggering more violent storms.
“The first thing the alarmists think of is, ‘how can we use this to advance our agenda?’” Steve Milloy, a former member of the Trump transition team, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “That’s what they do nowadays. Every bad piece of bad weather is global warming.”
“They’ve got enough people in the media to go along with it that, you know, they get away with it,” he added.
Milloy said that fossil fuels are often vital for recovery efforts and save people from harm during major weather events. The amount of deaths caused by natural disasters has declined more than 96% over the last century, according to The Wall Street Journal.
But an Axios article published Monday said the tornado over the weekend “offers a grim climate warning,” while a Washington Post article cited scientists who argued “higher temperatures could add fuel to these violent disasters.”
“When you start putting a lot of these events together, and you start looking at them in the aggregate sense, the statistics are pretty clear that not only has there sort of been a change — a shift, if you will — of where the greatest tornado frequency is happening,” tornado expert Victor Gensini told CNN. “But these events are becoming perhaps stronger, more frequent and also more variable.”
However, Central Michigan University meteorology professor John Allen argued in a USA Today editorial that it was too early to speculate on whether climate change played a part in the deadly storms. He noted that “tornado outbreaks have occurred on nearly every day of the year” historically.
Still, liberals and environmental groups echoed the comments made by Biden, Criswell and Gensini.
“This climate disaster is about our electeds failing us, choosing to water down and delay climate bills instead of investing in infrastructure that will keep people safe,” Varshini Prakash, the executive director of the environmental group the Sunrise Movement, said in a statement.
Climate activist Alexandria Villaseñor tweeted that the “extreme and deadly future we keep warning you about is already here.”
“It’s only going to get worse from here,” actor and climate activist Mark Ruffalo tweeted. “Now is time to fight for our suffering and despairing youth.”
HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?
From a Christian perspective, trusting in the infallibility of the Word of God (The Bible), we know that the world is not going to end as a result of climate disaster (see: the book of Revelation).
That being said, Christians do not deny that strange and more extreme weather events are occurring.
Jan Markell in her article, “Top Bible Prophecy Stories in 2021 – Harbingers Of His Return,” stated that many in our society are quick to take “God out of the equation” and suggest that “tragedies are man-made and the result of manmade climate change.”
“Who can watch the calamity of natural disasters today?” Markell asked. “Weather commentators have said they are escalating with greater frequency and intensity. Imagine—the world is using biblical terminology! The world has taken God out of the equation, and suggests the tragedies are man-made and the result of manmade climate change, when there are over 50 Bible references stating that God is in control of the weather.”
“While these will be off-the-chart in the Tribulation, we see a foretaste of them now in the Church Age, and particularly all of 2021,” she explained. “The world is suggesting that only a mother-earth type worship system will fix these natural calamities as they refuse to recognize them as the hand of God. They are a stunning herald of Christ’s soon return.”
Franklin Graham recently responded to world leaders like Boris Johnson, who claimed that the world is “one minute to midnight” regarding climate change.
“I believe we are one minute to midnight—not regarding climate change, but on God’s clock, when He will bring judgment on those who have rejected Him and His Son, Jesus Christ,” Graham explained. “I’m often asked if we are getting close to the return of Jesus Christ. No man knows the day or the hour [Matthew 24:36], but I believe we are getting close. You’d better be ready.”
Romans chapter one states that God’s creation should cause the world to recognize Him. However, the apostle Paul warned that our society, which professes itself to be wise, has become foolish by worshiping the creation rather than the Creator (Romans 1:22-25).
