Temperatures are rising

We may not quite notice it here in southern Ontario with our strangely episodic torrential rains and our oppressively humid heat that alternates every few days, but a global change is happening. 2026 is set to become globally the hottest year at least in the last two decades. 2024 had already set global temperature records, and this year is already surpassing those records even as August begins. North America has experienced temperatures of upward to between 38⁰ to 42⁰ C; France, Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Spain have experienced repeated heat waves that have killed at least 2,000 people; the Danube, among many of Europe’s vital riverways, is drying up and revealing Nazi era warships that have sunken in its deepest points; Italy has issued red alerts for all 27 of its major cities as heat blankets the country; and now China, Japan, North Korea and South Korea, northern India, Pakistan and Thailand are struggling under severe temperatures as high as 46⁰ to 54⁰ C. Similarly, in the southern hemisphere, summer temperatures at beginning of 2026 in Australia, Argentina, Chile, Patagonia and South Africa mirrored the devastating heat of the Northern Hemisphere’s summer, pushing temperatures near 50⁰C in many areas. In not so many words, the world as we know it is rapidly becoming hotter by the year.

Some attribute these skyrocketing temperatures as no more than a cycle that the earth goes through every few centuries, but the “trend theory” is largely speculative since climate records don’t go back so far. Others call this an El Nino effect, that is, the warming of the oceans and its impact on global temperatures. But while El Nino may indeed be a factor, it does not fully explain the problems at hand; the phenomenon has been observed and studied for a while, and the impact exceeds the punch that El Nino can deliver. Other climate scientists are positing a new effect called a “heat dome“, that is, a high pressure system that keeps heat from dissipating, thus acting like a kettle with the lid on. Again, this is plausible, but heat domes are posited as an explanation for localized heat accumulation rather than temperatures that span several countries and across hemispheres. Then of course, there is the persistent decrying of “human impact” as the reason for our increasing weather change. That might indeed be the case, but the acceleration of such impacts is nevertheless puzzling while the solutions left to humanity are far beyond our reach.

Perhaps there is a more ominous reason for our problem. The Bible calls it sin. Genesis 1:28 tells us that humanity has been given care over the earth but because of sin, the earth has suffered. Paul tells us that that the whole creation groans under the weight of our sin (Romans 8:22). Devastating rises in global temperatures, the earth yawning open in earthquakes, the seas turbulent with weather events are all sounds of a groaning creation. What is it groaning for? Paul says, “The groaning is the eager awaiting for the Coming of Christ in the judgment of the world” (Romans 8:23). Peter says that the earth will be burned with fervent heat (2 Peter 3:10-12). John says that natural cataclysms at the Second Coming will claim a quarter of the world’s population (Revelation 6:12-17). Perhaps the “human impact” theory is the most accurate of the explanations of the climate demise of earth. But it is not because of global warming, greenhouse emissions or hydrocarbon use. It is because of sin. The mission of the church is not to call society to “go green” but to call the world to “go to God.” Next time you hear someone call out humans for being the cause of bad climate, say something about our sin. Next time you hear about how hot it is, say something that will turn a soul back to God.