Tag: hurricane

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Desertas Petrels Flying Into Hurricanes

Desertas Petrels Flying Into Hurricanes

Most sea birds stay ashore when they sense a storm is approaching. Frigate birds ascend to very high altitudes to avoid the strong winds of hurricanes. Albatrosses find calm in the eye of a hurricane. But not all birds see hurricanes as threats. For Desertas petrels, flying into hurricanes is a feast.

These small, agile seabirds with long, slender wings dive straight into the spinning air bands, reaching areas 124 miles (200 km) from the hurricane’s eye. In one study, a Desertas petrel was seen flying into winds over 60 mph and ocean waves taller than 26 feet. As a hurricane moves, these birds travel with it. Researchers have tracked Desertas petrels flying from Africa to the New England coast, over 7,000 miles.

This unusual behavior creates a feast for the Desertas petrels, key predators in the ocean. Hurricanes stir up life forms from depths as great as 3,280 feet. They also bring zooplankton and larger swimming prey up from the deep, allowing the Desertas petrels to feed and help maintain balance among different ocean life forms.

It’s easy for humans to misunderstand the careful design of ocean food chains. Without balance, a species could become overly numerous, consume all available food, and face extinction. Desertas petrels help maintain the balance of squid, octopus, cuttlefish, hatchetfish, and lanternfish. Francesco Ventura, a researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, has studied these birds in detail and has shown how they not only survive hurricanes but thrive in them.

We can learn many lessons from studying God’s creatures. We see how crucial it is for humans to care for ocean life without disrupting the balance, which ultimately affects our own food supply. Understanding how all life forms survive provides powerful evidence of God’s wisdom and design of our planet. We are not here by chance.

— John N. Clayton © 2025

  Reference: sciencedirect.com

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Dealing With Disasters

Dealing With Disasters

One of the challenges that we all face is dealing with disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods. Skeptics claim that if a God exists, He wouldn’t allow these terrible natural disasters to take place. That claim displays a combination of scientific and theological ignorance.

Tornadoes result when hot air is trapped under a layer of cold air. Warm air rises, but if the cold air above it is dense enough, the warm surface air will become even warmer. Eventually, the hot air will rise through the cold layer. Hang glider pilots and soaring birds look for these vertical updrafts. When the ground is covered with vegetation, there is never enough heat to trigger a strong upward air movement. However, when thousands of acres of land are plowed up or paved over, the surface air becomes hotter and creates stronger vertical movement. Earth’s rotation spins these upward air movements, creating a tornado.

Areas around 30 degrees north and south latitude are usually deserts. The states of Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama are at or near 30 degrees north latitude. Hurricanes pick up massive amounts of water from the ocean and dump it on the land. Without hurricanes, there would be a water shortage in many places. In the past, storm surges were not a problem because the coastal areas were lined with mangroves and other plants on the barrier islands and along the mainland coast. Today, that protection has been stripped away and replaced with hotels, roads, parking lots, and beach-front homes. The result is that we are dealing with disasters.

God told humans to take care of the Earth, but greed, selfishness, and ignorance have often caused disasters. The more we learn about the creation, the more we understand that God designed it to work well, but humans have brought much pain and suffering on ourselves by misusing God’s gift. We must work together and avoid repeating past mistakes, or we will continually be dealing with disasters.

— John N. Clayton © 2025

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Hadley Cells and God’s Design

Hadley Cells and God’s Design

One of planet Earth’s many unique design features is the atmosphere’s circulation pattern, allowing advanced life to exist on our planet. This pattern was first noticed in 1735 when George Hadley was working with the motions of wind recorded by scientists. Realizing that wind currents were not just accidental, he originated the idea of what we call Hadley cells. We know today that the circulation of the atmosphere is much more critical and complex than anyone understood in Hadley’s day.

A feature designed into Earth’s weather pattern is how the insolation moves daily. Insolation is the amount of solar radiation that reaches the surface of a planet. Of the other planets in our solar system, only Mars has a tilt, which spreads the insolation from one latitude to the next, but Mars does not have enough atmosphere for this to be a significant factor. The other planets don’t change their tilt, so the Sun’s radiation is constantly over one latitude. The temperatures at that latitude climb very high, and everywhere else is unbelievably cold.

On Earth, the Sun’s energy gradually changes daily, moving to 20 degrees north or south latitude and striking at the Earth’s equator only two times a year. The Sun is over the equator at the equinoxes on about March 20 and September 22, and the day and night length is the same. Around June 21, the Sun is as far north as it gets, and around December 22, it reaches its southernmost point.

In the Hadley cells, air rises in tropical zones, where it drops its moisture as it cools. At 30 degrees latitude, the cooler air sinks and has very little moisture. Virtually all of Earth’s major deserts are around 30 degrees latitude north and south. In the western United States, we find the Mohave Desert, but the eastern U.S. does not have a desert even though it is at 30 degrees. Hurricanes and the Atlantic Ocean bring a large amount of water to states located at 30 degrees latitude in the eastern U.S. So many things make advanced life possible on this planet that trying to attribute all of them to chance requires far more faith than believing that God designed and created the weather on Earth so you and I can exist.

— John N. Clayton © 2025

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Does God Cause Natural Disasters?

Does God Cause Natural Disasters?One of the struggles we all have is understanding why God allows disastrous events that cause massive destruction and suffering to humans. Atheists use this question as a club against faith, and it is perhaps their best weapon. The list of events that harm humans is huge – earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis, landslides, fires, floods, droughts, etc. At this time of the year, hurricanes are at the front of our awareness. Does God cause natural disasters to punish people?

If you have just seen a natural event take place that destroyed your home and killed a loved one, no rational explanation is going to be of any help. Our hearts go out to those of you who are trying to make sense of what seems to be a senseless disaster that has hurt them in ways that no one else can understand. We don’t want anyone to think that we have all the answers. If somehow we can remove ourselves from our own emotions, here are three things we need to understanding:

1) God does not cause disasters. The notion that God brings catastrophes upon people He doesn’t like, or people who violate His laws or commands is inconsistent with the nature of God. James 1:13 tells us clearly that God doesn’t tempt us in any way. The passage specifically deals with moral temptation, but verse 17 goes on to say that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” God brings good things. Jealousy or vindictiveness is not a part of His nature.

2) Human stupidity in the face of natural processes is a significant cause of calamity. Hurricanes are a classic example of this. The Earth has zones of climate that are made functional by natural processes which create climate zones. The Hadley Cell explains these zones, with different zones creating tropical rainforests and deserts. Those zones are balanced by natural processes such as hurricanes that carry water into what would otherwise be a desert. Thirty-degree latitudes north and south would be deserts if it were not for hurricanes that bring massive amounts of water to recharge water supplies. In the United States, northern Florida and southern Georgia would be deserts with no water were it not for hurricanes. Humans ignoring this system and building in areas known to be vulnerable to hurricanes while removing natural barriers such as mangroves causes much of the suffering and death.

3) Human mismanagement of God’s creation due to greed and ignorance is a major cause of human suffering. Genesis 2:15 tells us that God gave humans the assignment to take care of “the garden, to dress it and keep it.” We are the caretakers of what God has created, but selfishness and greed have caused significant suffering and destruction. We all know that polluting the air, rivers, lakes, and now the ocean has led to cancer and now appears to be affecting Earth’s climate. We all understand that exploitative agriculture has led to fires, erosion, dust storms, and insect swarms. Scientific journals are full of studies showing how human mismanagement of what God has given us is leading and has led to disaster.

Does God cause natural disasters? The answer is “NO!” It isn’t God’s will that humans suffer from natural disasters, but God has never promised us that He will protect us from ourselves. What God has done is to build a base by which His servants can help those who are suffering. The Church has a responsibility to show God’s love and compassion for the hurting. Atheists need to pitch in and help clean up the mess, not try to blame God. (Read Matthew 25:31-40.)
— John N. Clayton © 2019

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Self-Imposed Plagues

Self-Imposed Plagues
We have received several emails bemoaning the cost of the storms and wildfires that have caused significant damage and some deaths in every country in the world. Some of the writers have suggested that God is responsible for all the bad things that have been happening. We have pointed out in previous articles how the massive destruction of hurricanes and wildfires are really a product of human mismanagement. But an even greater issue is the cost of self-imposed plagues.

Popular Science in the winter 2018 issue on page 26 published some data on what the magazine calls “The Plagues We Made.” The article uses data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Here are some of the numbers:

-Cost of the opioid crisis in 2015 – $504 billion
-Cost of firearm violence – $229 billion
-Opioid overdose deaths in 2016 were five times what they were in 1999
-Years of life lost to opioids in 2016 – 1,681,359
-Years of life lost to gun violence in the U.S. in 2016 – 916,869
-Americans killed by guns in the U.S. per day – 96.2 – 59% of those are suicides

These self-imposed plagues are taking more lives than the so-called “natural” disasters. As our country moves away from God and deeper into a “survival of the fittest” mentality, these numbers are guaranteed to increase.
–John N. Clayton© 2018

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Natural Disaster and God

Natural Disaster and God Every time natural disaster strikes anywhere in the world, people tend to blame God for what happened. The current examples are the hurricane in the panhandle of Florida, and the catastrophic earthquake in Indonesia. What atheists and skeptics fail to realize about natural disasters is that the vast majority of catastrophes are due to human ignorance and mismanagement. Both of the current crises demonstrate that point.

The major loss of life and devastation in Indonesia is in an area that was built on a restored landfill. Gravel, sand, and dirt were brought in to make living space for what were mostly poor workers and laborers. Engineers have warned for a very long time that the land under the highly populated area was unstable, and the earthquake was enough to cause that land to move in a significant way. You could call this a human-designed natural disaster.

In America, we have the same situation in New Orleans and Los Angeles. New Orleans is built on an area that is soft and prone to flooding, and part of the city is even below sea level. Los Angeles is built in an earthquake active area riddled with faults. It isn’t a question of whether a severe earthquake will happen in the Los Angeles area, it is just a question of when. There will be a catastrophe when that happens, and God will be blamed for causing it.

Hurricane Michael is a demonstration of another human-caused natural disaster. One of the designs of our planet is the method which brings water to areas that would otherwise be a desert. At the equator, the direct sunlight evaporates ocean water which falls as rain causing tropical rain forests. The remaining dry air moves north or south in what is called the “Hadley Cells.” When that dry air cools and returns Earth’s surface at 30 degrees latitude, it produces desert conditions. Most of the world’s great deserts are found at 30 degrees north or south latitude–the Sahara, the Australian Outback, the Mohave, etc.

In the southeastern United States, 30 degrees north latitude runs through northern Florida. That area would be a desert were it not for hurricanes. The heating of the ocean in the summer is sufficient to lift massive amounts of water which are then carried to the land restoring lakes, rivers, and underground aquifers. Without that large water supply system, that area would be a desert like the Sahara. The land area around the Gulf of Mexico in its pristine state had barrier beaches and mangrove forests that moderated the wind and storm surge. When I was a child living in Alabama, we looked forward to “hurricane parties” when we would “button down” and enjoy not having to work. The storm’s damage was limited, and even the storm surge was never a problem. That was 80 years ago.

Since that time, we have modified the shoreline stripping the barrier beaches of vegetation, and building houses where they are easily destroyed by water or wind. Even the vast mangrove swamps that were a buffer to storms have been removed, and channels have been built lined with aluminum houses, golf courses, and boat facilities. It was an invitation for a natural disaster.

We are sympathetic to those who have suffered because of the greed and foolishness of city planners and real estate salespeople. But don’t blame God for the foolishness of human actions.
–John N. Clayton © 2018

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Doomsday Predictions Misguided

Doomsday Predictions
Just about every day you will see a headline in some periodical saying that the world will soon end in catastrophe. These doomsday predictions come from tabloids and church bulletins and always bring some kind of data to support them. Religious periodicals usually quote from Revelation and tabloids will take something out of context from a scientist or political figure.

The fact is that the major possible causes of global catastrophe do not come from periods of unusual natural activity. Earthquake numbers for the past ten years have been much smaller than 50 years ago. Hurricane frequency and intensity are not higher than in the past, although human mismanagement of shorelines has increased the damage even a small hurricane can produce.

The Sun is not becoming more active. The current cycle of solar activity is the lowest it has been in 100 years. In 1990 solar activity peaked at almost 300 sunspots. In the next maximum which happened in 2000, there were just over 200 sunspots. The last cycle which was in 2014, had 100 sunspots. In the December 2017 issue of Astronomy magazine, the lead article by Bruce Dorminey (page 20) is titled “Why Has the Sun Gone Quiet.” He suggests that the Sun will be relatively quiet for a long time.

In spite of the doomsday predictions, the biggest threat to our survival does not come from the natural world. God has designed a world that is remarkably stable. Earthquakes, hurricanes, and solar activity may cause problems, especially where humans have built vulnerable structures and removed natural safeguards, but our greatest danger is from each other. Our biggest problems come from humans refusing to do what Jesus told us would lead to our safety and security now and in eternally. You can read about it in the “Sermon on the Mount” recorded in Matthew chapters 5-7.
–John N. Clayton © 2017