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Polls show people who vote in America are divided as to why we are having so many wildfires in the West this year.
Is it "climate change", a.k.a., Global Warming?
Or is it something else?
US Department of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says regardless of what people believe about "climate change," he knows exactly why the fires are raging---and who is responsible.
Be informed.
Rasmussen reports that 54% of voters believe there are more fires this year, but have varying ideas as to why.
Rasmussen finds 28% think there's just more media hype, not necessarily more fires. But a quick glance at a "fire map" tells you there are a lot of fires. And if you live in the West, the smokey skies tell you that as well.
In fact, the Seattle Times published this view of downtown Seattle yesterday.
What's causing all the fires?
US Department of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said this past weekend that "environmental terrorist groups" are, in part, responsible for the deadly wildfires in the Western United States.
They are deadly. Not only have they charred hundreds of thousands of acres, but they have caused loss of life, including 6 firefighters...so far.
Zinke said, "While it is true that wildfire seasons have grown dryer and hotter, the underlying cause of the fires themselves is because of the 'fuel load' of dead timber and other combustible matter littering forests."
"But," he says, "we have been held hostage by these environmental terrorist groups that have not allowed public access---they have refused to allow [the] harvest of timber."
Well, they have. And they have done so in the name of preserving the forests. A glance out most windows in the West doesn't look like much "preservation" is taking place.
Zinke says, "This is a catastrophe and, in my opinion, a lot of it has to do with these public policies refusing to actively manage our forests."
True, and that includes 80 million acres of land filled with trees that have died from beetle infections or other causes.
He says, "We're spending over $2 billion fighting forest fires when many of them could be prevented by better forest management techniques."
"Radical environmentalists," he says, "close off roads, refuse to have firebreaks, refuse any timber to be harvested, no grazing, and the result in these catastrophic fires."
While he says the debate over climate change, global warming, is very important, it is a different discussion. But it is the far Left who embrace some part Al Gore's version of apocalyptic climate meltdown who have blocked forest management through far Left policies.
He was asked about the claims by left-wing environmental groups and even US lawmakers who blame climate change for contributing to the fires.
He said, "Whether you believe or don't believe in climate change, it does not relieve you of the responsibility to remove the dead and dying timber and manage our forests, so you don't have these burns."
He notes that it's ironic that environmental groups oppose access to federal lands to protect wildlife habitats when mismanagement of the land actually is destroying the habitats they claim to be protecting.
What's causing this kind of flawed thinking?
A year or so ago, the New York Post published an article about a retraction and correction in the American Journal of Political Science. The Journal said, "we made an error in our interpretation of the facts."
The correction was related to a paper published previously that said, based on scientific research, conservatives showed traits of "psychoticism," while liberals did not.
The correction said, "Liberal political beliefs, not conservative ones, are actually linked to psychoticism."
Much more importantly, Jesus ( Matt. 7) taught that the gate that leads to life is narrow and difficult because it is based on His absolute Truth. God's Word. However, the other gate is wide, easy to pass through, but leads to destruction.
He continued by using the illustration of the House built on the sand and the house built on the rock.
The house on the sand is ultimately destroyed, because of the flawed thinking that led to building without a foundation---on the shifting sands. The house built on the rock, of course, has a foundation. Storms come and the house on the sand collapses, the house on the rock stands.
In verse 21, Jesus says not everyone who claims to know Him actually do know Him...and won't enter His kingdom. And he defines the path to that point as through "false teachers"---flawed thinking---and the result as "destruction."
And He says the cause, is lawlessness. (v.23)
Lawlessness.
He's not talking about traffic tickets, He's talking about the abandonment of God's eternal laws.
Relativism is leading us to destruction. It is shifting sand. As so-called Christian leaders continually attempt to adapt to the culture, they compromise by rejecting God's laws, and the Gospel, twisting both to affirm rather than redeem.
We have seen the results in our culture as we have been led to affirm, not embrace God's laws regarding homosexual behavior and the sanctity of life---and often do so in the name of grace and "love."
In Genesis 1, from the beginning, God's plan was, after making man in His image and likeness, that man should have dominion over the fish, the birds, the cattle, all the earth, and even creeping things.
Responsible Stewardship over God's Creation.
Rebellion and "lawlessness" has caused us to worship rather than manage or steward God's creation, leading to far Left, so-called progressive policies that are in fact not progressive---they are destructive.
They are relativistic. Based on emotion, not fact. Built on the sand of ever-changing truth.
Which leads me back to the question, "What's causing all the fires?"
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Faithful. Be Prayerful.