Global Climate Change: Christian Action vs. Scientific Debate

Often the debate over Global Warming has been divisive and brutal. People with strong convictions on both sides passionately argue, and even accuse those on the other side of lying, deception, and political games. The huge underlying question in this debate has not been global warming itself as much as how much our human action has contributed to global climate change. In the last few years, it seems that those who argue that human activity has caused, or at least accelerated, global climate change have been getting the upper hand. Many reports, articles, and papers have seemed to point decisively to a correlation between humans and climate change (see this, this, and this, for a few examples).

The question that I continue to wrestle with is to what degree we, as Christians, are supposed to enter into this debate. I have seen people within the church be some of the most ardent defenders, and attackers, on both sides of this debate. But should this debate, and any evidence that is produced by either side, even matter when it comes to caring for our planet? I just read an awesome article by Greg Boyd (see it here). In it, he questions some of the assumptions made by those who insist that global warming is happening to the degree that many would like to think. However, his point is not really about climate change itself, but rather that, within the Kingdom of God, none of this should really matter. To quote him from the article, “Our commitment to live as good stewards of creation and as good caretakers of the animal kingdom shouldn’t be affected in the least by the state of the ever-changing and usually ambiguous scientific or political debate.”

I think this is very well said. Why should some scientific research tell us what we already know as followers of Christ, namely, that we must care for the world in which we have been created to live on? Whatever the next report says, how we care for creation reflects what we think about its creator. We should seek to end the exploitation and destruction of the plants and animals not because there is a new finding that says our human activity is hurting the world, but because that is what we have been called to do as citizens of this planet and of the Kingdom of God. I want to care for the world that we live on, not because I heard on the evening news that I should, but because as a follower of Christ I have no other option.