We’re Having a Heat Wave

Diana, the scholars’ assistant, and I don’t always agree on the ideal temperature for the office space we share. She prefers to keep things cold, but I like it hot—or at least comfortably warm. One thing we can agree on, however: it’s way too hot outside today.

Throughout this week (August 22–27) The National Weather Service issued “excessive heat warnings” for the region surrounding RTB headquarters. As I write this, it’s 104˚F (40˚C) outside—and I can just imagine what such heat is doing to my car’s interior temperature.

Despite having lived in Southern California all my life, the sheer oppressiveness of summer heat waves still takes me by surprise. It can make weekend activities unpleasant, if not unbearable. Yet for all my griping about the weather, I really ought to be grateful for planet Earth’s ideal climate.

In chapter 16 of his book The Creator and the Cosmos, RTB founder Hugh Ross writes of our planet’s climate, “Earth’s biosphere is poised between a runaway freeze-up and a runaway evaporation.” Too big a temperature shift in either direction would make advanced life impossible on Earth.

Planetary neighbors Mars and Venus display the effects of severe climate change. In the case of the Red Planet, research by NASA astronomer Norbert Schorghofer showed that increases in the tilt of Mars’ rotation axis “were so dramatic and so rapid as to establish that over the past five million years Mars suffered forty ice age events, each event resulting in a wholesale climate change for the entire Martian surface.”

Meanwhile, our “sister” planet’s environment is anything but loving. Venus’ surface measures 800˚F (426.7˚C) and a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide covers the entire planet in a stifling shroud—talk about global warming!

Many factors, such as a just-right rotation period and orbital characteristics, contribute to maintaining Earth’s fine-tuned biosphere. Even flowering plants and sperm whales play their part in keeping our environment habitable. Here at RTB we would suggest that Earth’s climate is the result of intelligent design by the loving Creator who “supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills.”

And following the Creator’s example of fine-tuning, Diana and I always find a way to balance our own personal temperature preferences.

— Maureen

Resources: Global warming never seems far from our minds these days, but how can we separate scientific truth out from political agenda? Listen to “A Sensible Approach to Climate Change,” a special four-part I Didn’t Know That! podcast series, as RTB scholars Hugh Ross and Jeff Zweerink discuss climate change with climatologist Kevin Birdwell (February 25 and March 2, 4, and 9 episodes).