Climate change and Christians
Published Friday, 10 Jul 2009, by Anglican Media Melbourne
by Roland Ashby
Christians must care about climate change “because this is God’s world and any damage we do to God’s world is an offence against God Himself,” Professor David Griggs, Director of Monash University’s Sustainability Institute said last month.
He was speaking at ‘Climate Change – Impacts and Responses’, a conference hosted and organised by St Hilary’s Kew on 16 May. The Revd Tim Costello, CEO of World Vision Australia, and Brett Parris, Chief Economist of World Vision Australia also gave keynote addresses.
Dr Griggs, who is a Christian, is also Vice-Chair of the World Climate Research Programme, and has recently been appointed as a member of the State Government’s Ministerial Reference Council on Climate Change Adaptation. He told the conference that there is “no doubt the world is warming” and that the world had been steadily warming over the last 100 years.
This, he said, has been largely caused by the burning of fossil fuels, which is putting greater quantities of Greenhouse Gases, particularly Co2, into the atmosphere. “The more there are of these gases in the atmosphere, the more heat is trapped as in a greenhouse.”
He said if the world is to avoid severe consequences then developed countries like Australia must reduce their C02 emissions “by around 20-40% by 2020, and by about 80-95% by 2050,” with the aim of keeping the rise in temperature to no higher than 2 degrees Celsius and the amount of C02 at no more than 450 ppm.”
He added that if you contrast this “with the Federal Government’s most powerful commitment of 25% by 2020, there is a 77% chance the rise of 2 degrees Celsius will be exceeded.”
He said the consequences of not curbing carbon emissions will be catastrophic for humanity and the planet.
“Climate Change affects our ability to grow food around the world. For a long time, food prices were stable. But then over the last year the prices for the cereal crops of rice, wheat and maize have doubled. In 2007 Australia’s rice crop failed (10% of the world’s rice) enough to put the world rice prices up and this is going to be a much more common occurrence of Climate Change.”
In addition to bush fires, he said the implications of climate change for Victoria are already being seen in some alarming statistics.
“The Australian Centre for Biodiversity shows Victoria’s biodiversity is in freefall. 70% of the River Redgum Forests on the Murray River floodplains are in moderate to severe decline. 65% of Victoria’s woodland birds have declined significantly since 2005, and 75% of Victoria’s rivers are in poor to very poor condition. And so it goes on.”
The second keynote speaker, CEO of World Vision Australia, the Revd Tim Costello, said Climate Change has serious implications for the world’s poorest nations, in the areas of health, prosperity and justice.
“The prestigious medical journal The Lancet, after a year-long study at University College London, recently declared Climate Change is the biggest global health threat of the 20th Century. The evidence suggests Climate Change is putting huge pressure on existing development challenges for the world’s most vulnerable communities, and leading to accelerated soil erosion, decreasing water availability and quality, and increasing mortality rates through malnutrition, diarrhea and tropical diseases.”
He said we can be sure that “God takes a dim view of wealthy Christians decimating the livelihood of the poor by our unwillingness to modify our emission-intensive lifestyles,” and that developing countries are right to object “when we ask them to curb their emissions without our making sacrifices.”
Australia had an “extraordinary moral obligation”, he added, “to use some of its enormous wealth – a blessing based significantly on our fossil-fuel exports – to invest in technology to reduce our own emissions, and to transfer that technology to poorer countries to do the same. “We also have to ask for their forgiveness for bringing this upon them.”
World Vision Australia Chief Economist Brett Parris, who is a member of St Hilary’s, also spoke at the conference, warning against false hopes, including the “false hope that Jesus is going to come back and prevent all this going pear-shaped. We need to confront this issue openly. I know from experience in different parts of the church that there are strains of thinking that it’s OK if things get really bad because it’s the End Times and Jesus is going to come back. In fact the worse things get the closer that Great Day comes, so ‘bring it on!’
“The flaw in that kind of theology is that every age through history has thought it was special. Every generation of Christians before ours thought they were in the End Times and Jesus was going to come back. But Jesus didn’t come back to save the Roman Christians as the barbarians destroyed their Empire. Jesus didn’t come back during the Black Death in the 1340s when a third of the European population died from bubonic plague and bodies piled high in the streets. Jesus didn’t come back to prevent the holocaust and a war in which 60 million people perished.
“So all the past evidence we have suggests that God has other plans. We don’t know when God will wrap things up and it would be purest folly to imagine that we, of all generations, are special and that we can just let things slide and hope Jesus steps in to clean up our mess.”
He said that although a certain amount of climate change is now unavoidable, “We must choose to hope, because when we hope we choose to believe that a different path is possible and we start to explore that path.”
He added that there are good grounds for hope, including:
“a growing global grass roots movement pushing for change…the implosion of the radical free-market agenda and the idea that the unfettered free-market always knows best has been shown to be the nonsense it always was;
“a growing recognition that the climate and development agendas are inseparable. We will either solve both the problem of poverty and the problem of climate change and sustainability or we’ll solve neither of them. So the climate crisis means the world has to take the crisis of poverty more seriously;
“emerging technologies and grand plans. Incredible possibilities exist with things like combining large-scale renewable energy systems linked to smart grids. For example, there are ideas for huge arrays of concentrated solar and wind stations in North Africa feeding into the grid in Europe through high voltage direct current cables. In Australia it would be possible to build a smart grid at the same time as the national broadband network is rolled out. Australia has huge renewable energy potential and we’ve barely begun to harness it;
“leadership. President Obama has emerged in the US appointing as energy secretary Steven Chu – a Nobel Prize winning physicist who has pushed alternative energy sources strongly for many years;
“the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to guide and strengthen us. We may not know when Jesus is coming back but we’re assured by God that God’s spirit lives in us both individually and as a community. We don’t have to do this in our own strength.”
In his opening words of welcome to the conference, the Vicar of St Hilary’s, the Revd Paul Perini, related a story about Martin Luther. “When Martin Luther was once asked, ‘What would you do if the Lord Jesus returned tomorrow?’, the great reformer replied, ‘I would plant a tree’.
“Probably, his intention was to quieten the apocalyptic expectations of the radical prophetic movement of those turbulent times. For us his words, in our times, reflect a belief that there is continuity between this creation and the new creation yet to come. To live in the expectation of the new that is to come we care diligently for the creation we already have. We plant a tree.”
Read our other related stories:
Government climate change response inadequate
Fires raise our awareness of climate vulnerability
Bishop calls for strong action on climate change
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Posted by: Andrew on Thursday 7 July 2009 at 04:31pm
We need to be wary and careful of buying into the secular paranoia over climate change. The evidence remains contentious and subject to greater debate than some would suggest. Further, it is disturbing that secular green perspectives are now being somewhat blithely adopted by the church. Firstly, the notion that humans are fundamentally a problem for the planet and subsequent calls for minimising population growth through restrictions on immigration and birth rates are totally inconsistent with the scriptures. Further, Christians need to be wary of being drawn into the hysterical views that immediate failure to act drastically will lead to catastrophic consequences as if somehow God, as sole sustainer and ruler over the earth, was powerless. In practice we should care for and be good stewards of the environment but we would be mindful to 'keep our heads in all situations and do the work of an evangelist' consistent with the priority of the gospel rather than be distracted by the latest 'cause'.
Posted by: Andrew on Friday 7 July 2009 at 11:41am
Areas of the Church's response to the theory of climate change and the environment lack a biblical perspective that challenges worldly viewpoints. The multifaith submission to the Federal Government on its response to climate change didn't appear to add anything unique to the debate and certainly nothing distinctly Christian (how could it possibly when almost every other religion was represented?). Its no surprise the Government hasn't responded given the lack of any unique viewpoint in this submission.
The view that humans solely can resolve the problem and that failure to act immediately and drastically will lead to cataclysmic outcomes is inconsistent with the sovereignty and Lordship of a gracious and merciful God and the biblical view that the world and environment is sustained by God and God alone (Ps 135:5-7). Whilst of course we should be good stewards of the creation and seek to live responsibly the scriptures warn against overreacting to natural disasters and other events happening around us ahead of Jesus' inevitable return (Mark 13:8). The near-panic displayed by some in our world and echoed by elements of the church is in stark contrast to the call of the scriptures to remain level headed and pray in all circumstances whilst remaining focussed on biblical priorities. Accordingly Paul warns Timothy to "keep his head in all situations" and "do the work of an evangelist" (2 Tim 4:5). The challenge that Christians in Melbourne face today are to stay focussed on the Gospel of Jesus and preach it both in season and out of season calling people to repent of their sin and be saved. Does this mean we don't care about the environment and act as careful stewards? Of course not but it does mean we are not drawn into the panic and fear that characterises some areas of the community over this issue.
The unbiblical nature of worldly argument on this issue is furthermore no more evident than in the suggestion that people are a problem for the planet, as if the good of the planet was a higher moral objective than human beings. Accordingly, we now see a growing number of voices calling for "sustainable population" policies with outworkings ranging from limiting immigration and refugees to constraints on fertility and birth rates. Policies around abortion on demand and euthanasia would certainly be an extension of this as life is progressively cheapened by our society. In contrast, God clearly has ordained and desires his earth to be filled with people (Gen 1:28; Gen 15:5), the pinnacle of his creation as his image-bearers.
Christians can make a unique and vital contribution to the debate on climate change and the environment. Importantly, central to this must be reminding the world of the unique value of human beings in God's sight (even above the interests of the environment), God's complete sovereignty and pointing people to the risen Christ (who is Lord even of the climate)no matter what pressures are being exerted on us. We need a more biblically based response that provides a vital perspective and challenges worldly views, pointing people to Jesus so they can repent and receive the forgiveness of sins.
Posted by: Ian Bryce on Thursday 10 October 2009 at 04:28pm
As Christians we should be good custodians of God's creation, as per Genesis. However, I don't think we should be brow beating ourselves over the climate warming. This is more God's doing than our doing.
The climate is far too complex to blame temperature rises on CO2 alone. Temperatures have been increasing since 1880, but the correlation with the CO2 concentration is poor - 22%. However, the correlation with sunspot activity is 79%.
The major greenhouse gas is actually water vapour, which increases our temperatures by 32oC. (It would be awfully cold without it.) The other gases like CO2 only contribute 3oC.
The factors affecting our climate are: sunspot cycles, geomagnetic activity, the gravitational effects of the major planets on earth's eliptical course around the sun, the ocean currents, the salinity of the ocean, and volcanic activity.
There is more than 772 giga tonnes of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere each year. Humans only contribute 29 giga tonnes. The oceans contribute 330gt, soil respiation 220gt, animals & plants respiration 220gt, other 80gt. (Source NASA)
Even if we were able to remove that CO2 from the atmosphere, it would be replaced by more CO2 from the oceans - Henry's law.
There is also a good correlation between sea surface temperatures and our recorded temperatures. Considering that the oceans cover 79% of the planet, they will receive most of the radiation from the sun, and will be able to store it. The ocean currents then circulate the warm and cool water around the continents driving the climate e.g. El Nino and La Nina's.
According to a number of scientists the sun is going into a cycle of less activity, and therefore we will see a cooling of about 1.2oC. There has already been cooling since 2002 of about 0.2oC.
We need less cooling, because the growing seasons will be shorter, and the plants will grow more slowly. With 385ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere, our plants are starved for CO2 - they need more CO2.
As the CO2 concentration rises, its effect becomes less on temperature. When it was at 280ppm, (about 1870) the temperature increase would have been 2.8oC, now it is at 385ppm, the temperature increase is only 0.1oC, or 2.9oC total.
We shouldn't worry about rising CO2 levels - we should be attacking the level of pollution in the world that is lowering the standard of living in many major cities.
Posted by: Exasperated Evangelical Anglican on Sunday 11 November 2009 at 09:45pm
The Bible tells us:
"Do not love the world or the things in the world.... the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides for ever" 1 John 2:15-17
"But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly" 2 Peter 3:7
The Bible teaches us that the present world is on its way out. There is nothing we can do to save it. All we can do is save PEOPLE -- by preaching the gospel to them so that they will repent and believe in Jesus. The church has a Great Commission: not to save the planet, but to take Jesus to the nations and baptise people in his name.
Why then has the church jumped on this secular, greenie bandwagon? Even if humans are causing climate change (and that is debatable), it is exasperating to hear all this pious sounding language from Christians about preserving God's world when God himself has said in his Word that we are to shun this world and look to the next. All they are doing is dressing up secular, evolutionistic philosophy in religious language.
Even if we stop emitting CO2 into the atmosphere (to the extreme detriment of the world's poorest people in developing nations, who will have to remain in cold dark diseased hunger if not allowed to produce electricity and refrigerate food), Jesus may return tomorrow. He said he is coming quickly, like a thief. Should we not instead spend the church's money and effort preaching the gospel so that more people can be converted and saved from damnation before he returns? What good is a pristine green planet when thousands of souls living on it are destined for hell?
I suggest that anyone interested in this issue have a look at this excellent article:
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/janetalbrechtsen/index.php/theaustralian/comments/beware_the_uns_copenhagen_plot/
If our government signs the proposed Copenhagen treaty next month, we may lose our national sovereignty not to mention billions of dollars of hard-earned money every year, ceded to an unaccountable world government. Can someone please explain why the church is supporting this insanity?
- exasperated Melbourne evangelical
Posted by: Andrew on Monday 12 December 2009 at 09:05pm
Given the recent scandal of climategate - where a number of highly important expert advisors to the IPCC - have been caught out brazenly cooking the books; I'm curious if our church will now re-evaluate the almost-hysterical position it has taken on this issue.
Posted by: Vivienne on Thursday 4 April 2010 at 10:29am
Andrew, please explain :"Firstly, the notion that humans are fundamentally a problem for the planet and subsequent calls for minimising population growth through restrictions on immigration and birth rates are totally inconsistent with the scriptures". As humans, we have been given "dominion" over the planet, but with any privilege, there are equivalent responsibilities. Caring for Creation, and the Natural kingdom, has not evolved to be a part of modern Christianity, but with today's pressing problems, the notion that the Earth is static and made especially for us humans needs to be challenged. "Go forth and multiply" is hardly relevant today, with the global population predicted to blow-out at 9 billion! Making ourselves into a "invasive pest species" is not ethical or responsible stewardship or God's planet. We are not infallible, or without flaws - in fact the concept of Sin has been minimised by Christian thinking - and we are a global threat. Denying climate change is dangerous and secular cynicism. We need to look further than our own backyards and continuing blindly the "business as usual" approach towards planetary disaster. The evidence of climate change can be seen in species extinctions and especially in our planet's extremities and the oceans. We could be next! An over-population of humans, along with anthropogenic climate change, is our planet's greatest threat and Christians should be addressing these issues. Ignoring modern ethical problems gives room for secularism and atheism to grow.