The Cornwall Alliance was created in 2005 by Dr. E. Calvin Beisner. Originally called the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance, it was renamed in 2006 after the Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship, a statement released in 2000 that claimed humans are “producers and stewards” rather than “consumers and polluters” and that “some environmental concerns…are without foundation or greatly exaggerated.” The Cornwall Alliance is now a network of over 60 Christian theologians, economists, natural scientists, and others who are “educating on Biblical earth stewardship.”
On Climate Change
The Cornwall Alliance is built on the principle that humans are not responsible for climate change, and any effort to diminish the effects of natural climate change would hurt humanity as a whole. The Cornwall Declaration states that the belief that “nature knows best” leads people to “deify nature or oppose human dominion over creation…the human person is the most valuable resource on earth.”
The Alliance sees the climate crisis through an intensely religious lens.
In “The Cornwall Stewardship Agenda,” released in 2008, the Cornwall Alliance introduced a few key points of their environmental philosophy. They believe that “mankind has a divinely ordained responsibility to exercise faithful stewardship…environmental policies should harness human creative potential by expanding political political and economic freedom, instead of imposing draconian restrictions.”
They continue to cite scripture to reinforce the point that since people were divinely created, then attempts to impose environmental restrictions would “devalue human beings created in the image of God.” The Alliance believes humans are the earth’s most valuable resource, the planet functions to serve human beings, and that environmentalism hurts humanity by restricting creativity and economic progress.
In the energy and climate change section of their agenda, the Cornwall Alliance asserted, “at times, God altered Earth’s weather and climate to compel mankind to obey His command ‘to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God’ (Micah 6:8),” to show that the climate change we are currently experiencing is not only natural, but is divine in origin and is in fact a divine effort to guide humanity.
In their 2005 document, “An Examination of the Scientific, Ethical and Theological Implications of Climate Change Policy,” the Alliance wrote “Our wise Creator has built multiple self-protecting and self-correcting layers into His world…which we have been given for our benefit as responsible environmental stewards” and that the “key conclusions are these: We cannot say for certain how much the planet may be warming, how much is due to human activities versus natural cycles, or whether these changes in global temperature would be mostly good or mostly bad for the majority of people.”
In a section of 2005 document, titled “Biblical Principles for Environmental Stewardship,” Beisner writes not only does “Creation display Divine Wisdom,” but that “the dominion mandate survives the Fall” and that “the Noahic Covenant implies God’s continuing preservation of the Earth.” In other words, according to Beisner and the Cornwall Alliance, the earth is a divine creation, and God will continue to protect and restore the earth. Beisner also writes that “this ought to make Christians inherently skeptical of claims that this or that human action threatens permanent and catastrophic damage to the Earth.”
In 2006, the Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI) published “Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action,” a statement, in line with the scientific consensus that human emissions cause climate change, and that there needs to be mandatory CO2 emissions reductions. In response, the Cornwall Alliance wrote their own document, “A Evangelical Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Response to Global Warming,” stating that the assumptions regarding global climate change ”…are false, probably false, or exaggerated.”
To counter the policy suggestions made by the ECI, the Cornwall Alliance wrote that “Stopping or reversing economic development in the world’s poor countries—which drastic restrictions on fossil fuel use would cause—would keep poor nations impoverished.”
In an additional response to the ECI, the Cornwall Alliance released “An Open Letter to the Signers of “Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action” and Others Concerned about Global Warming.” In this letter, they wrote that “compassionate policy requires dispassionate analysis,” which essentially accused the signers of the “Call to Action” as being biased and too attached to the cause of climate change action. The Cornwall Alliance goes on to say that “we believe the harm caused by mandated reductions in energy consumption in the quixotic quest to reduce global warming will far exceed its benefits” and that the significant increase in the cost of energy would “mean the difference between life and death” for those living in poverty.
The Cornwall Alliance released their own call to action: “A Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Response to Global Warming.” In it, the Alliance refuted the points made by the ECI. The Alliance reiterated their foundational beliefs, namely that: “Natural causes may account for a large part, perhaps the majority, of the global warming in both the last thirty and the last one hundred fifty years, which together constitute an episode in the natural rising and falling cycles of global average temperature. Human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are probably a minor and possibly insignificant contributor to its causes.”
They continued, “Whether or not global warming is largely natural, (1) human efforts to stop it are largely futile; (2) whatever efforts we undertake to stem our small contributions to it would needlessly divert resources from much more beneficial uses; and (3) adaptation strategies for whatever slight warming does occur are much more sensible than costly but futile prevention strategies. Therefore, we believe it is far wiser to promote economic growth, partly through keeping energy inexpensive, than to fight against potential global warming and thus slow economic growth.”
In 2010, the Cornwall Alliance published “A Renewed Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Examination of the Theology, Science, and Economics of Global Warming,” which reiterated their points from 2006 with new data. They again described proposed carbon emission reductions as “draconian” and claimed again that “human activity has negligible influence on global temperatures…the influence is not dangerous.”
Also in 2010, they published “An Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming,” a declaration that restated their belief that the environment is “robust, resilient, self-regulating, and self-correcting.” They also denied that “carbon dioxide—essential to all plant growth—is a pollutant. Reducing greenhouse gases cannot achieve significant reductions in future global temperatures, and the costs of the policies would far exceed their benefits.”
A published list of notable signers of this document included professors, meteorologists, physicians, engineers, and Christian communication leaders. As of January 14, 2010, there were 153 “prominent signers,” consisting of influential people, apparently respected in their fields.
Finally, another notable document published by the Cornwall Alliance is their, “An Open Letter to Pope Francis on Climate Change,” published in April 2015. In this letter, they stated that “rather than a careful reporting of the best evidence, we get highly speculative and theory-laden conclusions presented as the assured results of science.” They go on to say that the practice of genuine science “follows necessarily—and only—from the Biblical worldview,” and that they hoped the Pope would consider the effects of climate change policy on the poor and what it would mean for “man’s dominion.” At the end of the letter, they implore the Pope to advise world leaders to reject these “unwise and unjust” climate change policies in the Paris Climate Accords.
Campaigns
The Cornwall Alliance has a forum for climate change deniers on their website, where people submit their own blog posts questioning climate change. One of the most recent articles posted on the forum “Bridging Humanity and the Environment,” “Record Cold of 2021 Reminds Us: Be Wary of Climate Predictions and Energy Priorities” by Vijay Jayaraj, says that while the record cold does not disprove “global warming,” it does bring into question the “media narrative that climate change is causing midler winters and temperatures increasing to dangerous levels.”
Another recent article, “Healthy Polar Bears and Thriving Tigers: The Common Climate Tale” by Jayaraj and Calvin Beisner, also calls into question the validity of climate change based on the belief that some species that are no longer going extinct. They wrote that “to the dismay of climate doomsayers, tiger populations are on the rise,” later calling it a myth that climate change is destroying the habitats of tigers and polar bears alike.
The Cornwall Alliance has also released various documentary series. Besides posting videos weekly on YouTube, including their series “Greener on the Other Side: Climate Alarmism— Facts, Not Fear,” they also have hour-long documentaries, including “Where the Grass is Greener: Biblical Stewardship vs. Climate Alarmism,” which premiered at the Heritage Foundation. In the trailer, they make the claim that the world is getting greener every year according to satellite imagery.
Unfortunately, Dr. Beisner has been called multiple times to serve as an expert witness on climate change policy. In 2006, he testified before the Environment and Public Works Committee of the United States Senate, where he claimed that “human emissions of CO2 are a minor cause of global warming but they enhance plant growth and so contribute to feeding the human population and all other species, [and] global warming is unlikely to become catastrophic in the foreseeable future.”
In 2009, he testified before the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment of the Committee of Energy and Commerce of the United States House of Representatives, where he cited scripture to reinforce his claims that “policies meant to reduce alleged carbon dioxide-induced global warming will be destructive, devising mischief by decree.” Besiner has also debated the leaders of other organizations that advocate for climate change policy, including Dr. David Gushee, the author of the Evangelical Climate Initiative’s “Call to Action” and 350.org founder Bill McKibben regarding climate change policies.
In July 2014, at the Heartland Institute’s 9th annual International Conference on Climate Change, Dr. Roy W. Spencer, a senior fellow, received the Outstanding Evangelical Climate Scientist Award. Dr. Beisner was presented with the Outstanding Spokesman for Faith, Science, and Stewardship Award by the Heritage Foundation.
Funding
The Cornwall Alliance as an organization does not disclose their sources for donations and funding. In an interview, Dr. Beisner has said that he is not told who gives donations so that he does not feel beholden to others.
The Cornwall Alliance is a project of the James Partnership, which in 2012 got more than half of their $340,000 income from the Donor’s Trust, a “dark money” funding group. In 2009, the James Partnership accumulated $370,000 in donations. The James Partnership and the associated media and public relations firm, CDR Communications, both have ties with different oil companies. Chris Rogers, director of the James Partnership and CDR Communications, often works with David Rothbard, the founder and president of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow. According to publicly filed disclosures, the Cornwall Alliance also shared a common fundraising firm with the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, and the ClearWord Communications Group.. As a side note, CDR Communications, the James Partnership, and the Cornwall Alliance are all registered at the same address in Virginia.
See Also
Dr. Roy W. Spencer
Chris Rogers
Climate of Denial