A Push for Human Extinction? Experts Cal Beisner and Wesley J. Smith Respond
In a request for a statement for an upcoming column by Jerry Newcombe on how some climate alarmists are calling for human extinction for the sake of the planet, Dr. E. Calvin Beisner, president of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, sent an email to Jerry on December 1, 2022, saying:
The proposal is absurdity in the extreme. Even the scenarios for the future in the UN IPCC’s scientific reports, exaggerated as they are, don’t depict human-induced global warming as an existential threat or even a great crisis. Such claims come only from the UN’s and various nations’ political leaders, environmental activists, and the mainstream media. Instead, the IPCC estimates that its effect on humanity will be a reduction of about 5% in global domestic product—not from today’s GDP but from what they project it will be in 2100, which is multiples more than it is now. In other words, everyone will be much, much better off than today, but not quite as much as without the climate change. And the impact on the rest of terrestrial life? Heightened atmospheric CO2 content greens the Earth, improving plant growth efficiency in warmer and cooler temperatures and wetter and drier soils, enabling plants to make better use of soil nutrients and to resist disease and pests better while improving fruit/fiber ratio. That means expanded ranges for the plants and all the other species that depend on them, thus reducing risks to biodiversity. The hope for human extinction is nothing more than anti-human. Christians, who recognize that people are the image of God, will recognize it as attacking God in effigy.
Dr. E. Calvin Beisner, President
Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation
Jerry also asked for a statement on this push for voluntary human extinction from Wesley J. Smith, an author and commentator with the Discovery Institute. He sent an email to Jerry on December 1, 2022:
The Human Extinction Movement is a form of nature worship, expressing the belief that the world will be pristine without us. But why will that matter? No one will be around capable of appreciating nature’s wonder. Conversely, transhumanism is technology worship, expressing the idea that human life is inadequate and that we die too soon. The supposed answer of using technology to make people post human and immortal, is nothing short of a Utopian “Tower of Babel” project that will not redound to the benefit of the human race.
Wesley J Smith
Host, Humanize Podcast https://humanize.today
Chair, Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism
