GLOBAL WARNING-by Catherine Larner

(Spiritual Living : JGospel News)
GLOBAL WARNING,

The earth is heating up, but is there anything Christians can really do? Catherine Larner investigates how to get past apathy, and change the planet.

We all talk about the weather. But the summer floods – the worst the UK had seen for years – meant it made the front pages of the papers more than anyone could have anticipated. Images of people stranded and homeless across the country – particularly in Tewkesbury – left a lot of people asking, “Why did this happen?”

While climate scientists have been reluctant to make the link between global warming and the summer’s catastrophic weather, it did bring home for many how we are at the mercy of the elements.

It might even serve as the ‘sudden jolt’ which Al Gore says is needed to make people aware of the danger. In his film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, Gore uses the boiling frog metaphor (the contention that if you put a frog in boiling water, it will jump straight out, but if you put it in cold water and turn the temperature up little by little it will never jump out) to illustrate human ignorance towards global warming. In reality, there is little debate over whether the planet is heating up, and whether it is a problem.

“Climate change is the most severe problem that we are facing today, more serious even than the threat of terrorism,” says David King, UK government chief scientific advisor.

Most scientists do claim that it is due to human activity. The chief scientist at the Met Office, Prof. John Mitchell, says, “Human-induced increases in carbon dioxide (CO2) are enhancing the greenhouse effect and amplifying the recent warming.”

Is it down to individuals changing their habits? Low energy light bulbs and switching off stand-by buttons on TVs and computers at night are fairly straightforward, but what about other things? Should you choose paper or plastic bags (some forms of plastic take hundreds of years to degrade, but paper takes more energy to produce)? And should you turn off the air conditioning in your car (driving with the windows open uses more fuel)? Further to that, is individual action going to make any difference at all, or is the only thing which will make a difference some sort of global consensus and policy shift?

There’s a lot of confusion, which appears to have paralysed most of us into inaction. A recent Norwich Union survey found that nine in 10 people realised they should be doing more to be environmentally friendly but didn’t feel inclined to do it, and so told ‘little green lies’ to keep up with the neighbours.

More than half of people surveyed said they would be unlikely to alter their way of life despite pressure from the media, politicians and their children to be greener. “People are feeling a great deal of anxiety, irritation and fear that what they are doing is not enough or is wrong,” psychologist Corinne Sweet told the Daily Telegraph recently. “Their anger can lead them to give up altogether and then be wracked with green guilt.”

For churches, there is a further interesting dimension to the climate change situation, namely, is there a Christian imperative to act?

(This article can be found in its entirety in December's Christianity magazine

 

There has been some interesting theological debate about what the Christian response to climate change should be. There are those who believe that having ‘dominion’ over the earth (Genesis) means we have the right to exploit the environment.

Other believers have voiced concern about environmental issues hijacking the faith agenda. “Our hope is that global warming alarmism would not become a defining or a dividing issue for evangelicals,” says Jim Daley, CEO of conservative evangelical group Focus on the Family. Daley was one of a number of prominent figures who wrote to the US National Association of Evangelicals asking them not to take any position on global warming.

“In our view, this is not a scientific issue that found political support,” Daley says. “It appears to be an effort by politicians and environmental activists to leverage a scientific issue for political gain.

“Think of it this way: if there’s a clear environmental problem with a clear solution and the cost is within reason - then let’s do it. But with global warming, it’s not clear what’s causing it, and it’s not clear that there is anything within our power to make a significant difference with respect to the earth’s temperature.”

This view is not as widely held in the UK, where support among Christians for combatting climate change is growing. Many claim that creation care is a fundamental part of the Christian message.

“Anyone who takes the Bible seriously as the Word of God will not fail to see the breadth of our human responsibilities outlined in biblical revelation,” says Dr Elaine Storkey, president of Tearfund. “The command to love God with everything we have is quickly followed by the command to love our neighbour as ourselves. A key part of loving God is to exercise faithful stewardship of the world God has made. A key part of loving our neighbour is not to harm them or exploit their vulnerability to climate change.”

According to Tearfund, the world’s poorest people have contributed least to our changing climate yet they are hardest hit by the effects. It estimates there could be 50 million environmental refugees by 2010 and 150 million by 2050 as a result of climate change.

“Indifference to climate change is not only to reject God’s call to stewardship, but to show indifference to neighbour love, for millions of the world’s poor will suffer today through environmental changes,” says Storkey. “Rising sealevels, erratic weather conditions, coastal erosions and lack of water are all partly effects of human irresponsibility.”