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Howdy!

Welcome to this week's Christian Carnival. Thanks to Tyler for hosting last week.  It's not Tyler's first time hosting a carnival (he actually began and runs the Biblical Studies Carnival), but it's his first time hosting the Christian Carnival.

Lots of great posts this week. Here they are in the order I got 'em...

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UPDATE: Please visit Annette's post about Abel, Enoch and Noah over at her Fish and Cans blog.

Noah obeyed God without seeing the cause for it. In reverent fear he built an ark. This huge boat and he built it because God told him to. He saved his household but condemned the world. Laughed at, mocked, for years (100 or so they think it took him) he simply obeyed God and built an ark. That's perseverance, that's faith, that's holy fear of the Lord.

Have there been just a few books that have made a tremendous impact on your life? Barry Wallace would like to hear about them. His post, The Potentially Damning Danger of Theology (or, Why I'm Thankful for Packer's "Knowing God") is over at who am i?.

Wanna know what the Bible has to say about generosity? FMF presents Who's the Most Generous? posted at Free Money Finance.

When someone asks you why you believe in the bible, you should be able to offer a clear explanation. Angela Williams Duea has more at Why I believe the bible is the inspired word of God « angelawd posted at angelawd.

Do followers of Christ have a responsibility to publicly denounce obnoxious things said in our name by other Christians in the public eye? John asks Must I Confront "Bad" Christians? at Brain Cramps for God.

Greg Chaney presents Walking in the Light posted at the practical CHRISTian.

Scott presents Create a Godless Nation? YES! WE! CAN! posted at FIRE BREATHING CHRISTIAN.

Ridge Burns presents Wonder posted at Ridge’s Blog.

Chris offers a look at biblican and Christian numerology. Check out Biblical and Christian Numerology at MJJ Party.

Here's a story of not giving up hope, based on 1 Samuel 1. Tim King's When Nothing Goes the Way It Ought is posted at J. Timothy King's Blog.

Michelle has this week's Thoughts and Confessions of a Girl Who Loves Jesus… posted at her blog of the same name.

Here are some thoughts on the feeling that we're losing the fight. ChrisB presents Outnumbered and Overwhelmed? posted at Homeward Bound.

Rey Reynoso examines Romans 5:12 and suggests that it leans more towards Corporate Solidarity than it does towards Federal Headship. More at Federal Headship vs. Corporate Solidarity in Romans 5:12 at The Bible Archive.

Does inerrancy require believing in an individual, historical Adam? Jeremy Pierce dives into this controversial issue at Longman, Literalism, and Genesis 1 over at Parableman.

NCSue presents I hate math. posted at IN HIM WE LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING.

Helping Moms keep better control of household finances through negotiation - that's the subject of Jonathan Martin's post Negotiating for Moms over at The Negotiation Board.

Thanks for dropping by! Submit your blog article to the next edition of christian carnival ii using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Grace and peace,

Don

Steve Bishop reviews Environmental Stewardship Critical Perspectives - Past and Present edited by R. J. Berry.

After touching on the often-overlooked influence of Thomas Malthus on Charles Darwin, Bishop notes:

Christians cannot be culture transformers and shapers if they follow such cultural ebbs and flows. We have a responsibility to God's good creation irrespective if it fashionable to be green or not. Unfortunately, the shadow of Lynn White's seminal paper 'The historical roots of our ecologic crisis' Science 155 (10 March 1967) has loomed large over Christian discussion of the environment. Until recently most Christian writing has been to defend Christianity against the accusation of Lyn White that Christianity with its emphasis on dominion has been to blame for the environmental crisis. The debate, however, must move on. And that is exactly what these essays do. Christianity is not merely environmentally benign but it has something vital to contribute to a robust theocentric environmental ethic. An ethic that avoids the excesses of anthropic approaches and the sloppy mysticism of biocentric approaches.

The role of humans as stewards is a crucial issue and it is this that volume, Environmental Stewardship, seeks to address. Stewardship has been the 'default position' for most Christians. However, not many stop to consider it and examine its implications. What does it mean to be a steward? As Gandalf once said we are all stewards now. But is stewardship dominion and technological imperialism by another name?

Looks like a good read. 

God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. His Word, taken daily, is the asprin for environmental doublemindedness.

From the header in freelance writer Penny Musco's terrific blog:

I love God and I love His creation! The two are inseparable: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made…” (Romans 1:20). And while I can (and do) enjoy God’s handiwork just sitting on the deck overlooking my back yard, I’ve discovered the national parks provide an even greater variety of environments in which to worship and learn more about the Creator. My prayer is that my humble observations will strengthen you in your Christian walk, whet your appetite for your own exploration of our wonderful parks, and, most importantly, in case you don’t know what in the world I’m talking about, encourage you to “seek the Lord while He may be found [and] call on Him while He is near” (Isaiah 55:6). He’s knocking on your heart’s door right now (Revelation 3:20).

As a kid who grew up in Washington State's national parks it was an easy decision to add LLNP to the blogroll today. Great to see she's taken up blogging. 

Drop by and say howdy!

National Wildlife Federation teams up with the Christain Coalition.

WWRRD?

Old Testament Ecology:

Instead of condemning anyone who doesn’t take caring for God’s creation as seriously as you would like, remember that people respond more to positive encouragement. After all, Christ didn’t come to condemn, but to seek and save the lost. Similarly, we can take a positive attitude in encouraging those around us to find new, creative, and inspirational ways to care for God’s creation, and worship Him as the Creator, instead of blasting someone for using too much gasoline (in your opinion).

Well, yeh.

Found OTE via this week's Christian Carnival. Another good one for the blogroll...

Sorry it took so long for me to get over to visit April's Christian Nature blog. Such a great idea for a blog!  Tons of great links to other Christian nature blogs too.

Don't make the same mistake I did - go over there NOW!

:-)

Fellow Aquidneck Islander Beth Milham and some friends have set up Cool Aquineck Island, a wiki of climate change prevention events here in Rhode Island. One of their projects is a series of pics of what a three-foot sea level rise would do to downtown Newport. Add three feet to historic high-tides and you're going to get some striking results, which they do.

After cycling through these pics it's worth your time to head over at EPA's link-laden site dedicated to the latest estimates on sea level rise.  One study puts climate change impacts in context:

In the last decade, estimates of the global warming likely to occur by the year 2100 have been approximately cut in half. The 1983 reports by EPA and the National Academy of Sciences assumed that the radiative forcing equivalent of a CO2 doubling was likely to occur by 2050. During the mid-1980s, several reports suggested that an effective CO2 doubling could occur by the 2030s (see e.g., Villach 1985). Thus, the EPA reports released in 1983 projected a warming of 3 to 9°C by 2100, with CO2 and other greenhouse gases accounting for equal amounts of warming (Hoffman et al. 1983; Seidel & Keyes 1983). The NAS (1983) report projected a warming of 1 to 5°C from CO2 alone and was thus viewed as being consistent with the EPA results (see e.g., Chafee 1986). EPA’s 1989 Report to Congress (Smith & Tirpak 1989) was based on similar assumptions, as shown in Table 8-2. For the most part, scenarios of sea level rise for the year 2100 were in the 50 to 200 cm range, with 100 cm being the most likely.

As the first sentence notes, estimates are being revised down to put the likely date for 100cm sea rise out to the year 2200 now.  If that's true then David Stookey's scenario is less likely. Of course if sea levels reach half the 1980's-calculated 200cm mark by 2100 we're back to David's three feet again, and assuming the Red Parrot's still open for business (great burgers!).

Not passing judgement here. Just wondering if sea level rise estimates will continue to trend down the more we find out what we don't know.  As the EPA study authors put it: The processes that determine warming of the circumpolar ocean, the melting of ice shelves, and the speed at which glaciers flow are very poorly understood.  For all we know they could be revised up.

For folks blogging this sort of thing there's this great quote: The nuanced characterization of uncertainty that might occur in professional assessment is often mis-translated into the appearance of scientific cacophony in the public arena.

Translation - the biggest task for climate science is not measuring what can be measured, but explaining uncertainty with more certainty.  The biggest task for us is acknowledging that uncertainty when it rears its head.

Grist: Earth Day is for amateurs.

Shocker: I agree.

Greg Sargent: (h/t)

Some of the leading liberal bloggers are privately furious with the major progressive groups — and in some cases, the Democratic Party committees — for failing to spend money advertising on their sites, even as these groups constantly ask the bloggers for free assistance in driving their message.

Not "privately furious" on this end, but it happens a lot. I get about one green email a week asking for a post, link or other free advertising. Green bloggers get free links. Retailers and non-profits get an email with a link to my BlogAds page where they can buy a couple weeks or several months of ad space at the top of my righthand column for a reasonable price. I haven't had one taker yet. No surprise. Most liberal environmentalists don't get free market economics.

For what it's worth we have always donated our BlogAd profits to green Christian programs.

***wait a minute!*** I should call it a "blog post carbon offset tax" to reduce CO2 emissions! I've been going about this the wrong way....ROTFL