Creationist Ken Ham: Climate Change Goes Back to “the Flood of Noah’s Day”


When Bill Nye the Science Guy took the stage Tuesday night at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, his task was to refute the idea that biblical creationism is a scientifically valid idea—one that should be taught in schools.

But as we’ve seen again and again, science denial is rarely limited in scope. So perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that Nye’s opponent, museum head Ken Ham, doesn’t just reject evolution; he’s also spreading some rather unscientific ideas about global warming. Appearing on CNN after the debate, Ham informed viewers that “there’s been climate change ever since the flood of Noah’s day.” Ham added that while the climate had warmed “a bit in the past,” it’s now “cooling again.” (Not true.) You can watch Ham and Nye debate climate science in the clip above.

This has been something of a theme for Ham, who says in a series of online videos that this supposed “cooling trend” is “no surprise to creation scientists.” According to Ham: “Western governments have invested so much in the carbon dioxide theory that they probably won’t change their minds any time soon. But Scripture tells us what really happened: We live on a young Earth that has undergone radical climate changes from the global flood.”

Watch:

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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