Friday, August 29, 2008
Christians and Global Warming
"Greenie Watch" is a blog our of Australia that reprints the best stuff on global warming. He recently reprinted an article on the "Christian" view of global warming. (Second item):
In fact, if you think about it, "change" is the very heart of the gospel message. We are changed from sinner to saint - that is the Good News. So why would we be surprised that God's creation would be subject to change as well.
More importantly, not being God, we do not always see the ramification of change. So as this piece points out, shifting to biofuels has increased the price of grain and therefore increased food shortages in desperate and hungry parts of the world. The story of the banning of DDT and the subsequent rise in deaths from malaria in the poor tropical regions is now well known.
Now, if we buy that change is part of creation, but continue to argue the problem is "man-made" change, we still have a theological problem because such a statement sets us apart from creation. We are created, we are not creator, and more we are created precisely as one of God's agents of change in His whole creation. We, uniquely, are created in His image, and one of the things that means is we are ourselves creative. In our limited creativity we generate the change in God's whole creation.
Change is not bad - change is part of the dynamism God created in the universe. (here is a reason EVERYONE should learn calculus, it is the language of changing systems, but I digress.) And even the evaluation of a specific change as "good" or "bad" requires, in many cases, a perspective that as created, not creator, we simply cannot attain.
We are to be stewards of God's creation, but that does not mean unchanged preservation, and it means we have to be very, very smart about how that creation works. Just remember, we are still learning.
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If we go down the route of cutting carbon emissions to less than 20% of current levels, irrespective of cost, we should be clear on some fundamental truths about God's created world. There is not now, and never has been, a `stable environment'. Climate has changed, often far more dramatically than it is changing now, in very short periods of time - and quite unrelated to any human activity. These changes are very little understood, and we have no means of knowing where we are in the cycle of changing climates.That is very good stuff people! God is indeed "orderly," and in some fundamental sense HE is unchanging, but His creation is a dynamic thing indeed.
We have to ask: is there anything inherently Christian in a goal of "stopping climate change", as if that represented a return to a God-given stability and security? Cheap energy has been absolutely central to the massive improvements in health and well-being which have so enormously lengthened and improved the quality of life for millions across the world during the last century. Are these changes truly sinful and a sign of greed? It is not surprising that governments in the developing world, and their people, rate such improvements so highly that, come what may, they will continue to increase their energy consumption to achieve them. China is already the world's largest single emitter of carbon dioxide, and India is not far behind. Is it our Christian responsibility to tell them to stop?
One day - perhaps soon - that energy will have to come from sources other than fossil fuels. But let's not pretend that when that day comes, whatever other benefits it may bring with it, we will have been freed from the shocks of dramatic and often unpredictable climate change. For, along with earthquakes and tsunami, the scientific record demonstrates that climate change - dramatic, sudden, unpredictable, and sometimes potentially catastrophic - is an integral part of God's created world.
Does the non-use of the world's resources get us off any hooks, whether environmental, economic, or theological? Or should we be seeking to use the earth's resources as responsibly and productively as we can, while struggling to achieve fairness and justice in the opportunities that such development can bring?
In fact, if you think about it, "change" is the very heart of the gospel message. We are changed from sinner to saint - that is the Good News. So why would we be surprised that God's creation would be subject to change as well.
More importantly, not being God, we do not always see the ramification of change. So as this piece points out, shifting to biofuels has increased the price of grain and therefore increased food shortages in desperate and hungry parts of the world. The story of the banning of DDT and the subsequent rise in deaths from malaria in the poor tropical regions is now well known.
Now, if we buy that change is part of creation, but continue to argue the problem is "man-made" change, we still have a theological problem because such a statement sets us apart from creation. We are created, we are not creator, and more we are created precisely as one of God's agents of change in His whole creation. We, uniquely, are created in His image, and one of the things that means is we are ourselves creative. In our limited creativity we generate the change in God's whole creation.
Change is not bad - change is part of the dynamism God created in the universe. (here is a reason EVERYONE should learn calculus, it is the language of changing systems, but I digress.) And even the evaluation of a specific change as "good" or "bad" requires, in many cases, a perspective that as created, not creator, we simply cannot attain.
We are to be stewards of God's creation, but that does not mean unchanged preservation, and it means we have to be very, very smart about how that creation works. Just remember, we are still learning.
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