Is Climate Change the biggest issue facing the world today?
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You would have thought from the news today, that the single greatest moral or ethical issue of our time was climate change.
From the old big guns (Attenboroughs) to the new young things (Thurnbergs) everyone is on zee bandwaggon.
So how should a Christian think about climate change? Should we too drop everything and go on a crusade to save the planet?
A Christian view of Climate Change - is it happening?
We must ask ourselves first - is climate change actually
happening. The primary indicator of climate change is levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The earth's atmosphere is made up of Nitrogen (approx 78% thankfully), Oxygen (approx 21%), Argon (approx 0.93%) a few other gasses in tiny amounts and then carbon dioxide coming in at 0.04%. In the lingo of parts per million CO2 comes in at 400ppm - that is minuscule.
That C02 should hold such remarkable power over the earth since it amount to only 0.04% of the atmosphere needs a word of explanation.
C02 is a "greenhouse gas." So too, by the way, is water vapour. Water vapour's greenhouse effect is much larger than C02s but it is a necessary part of the water cycle: hence the emphasis on CO2.
In a typical back garden greenhouse, light from the sun comes through the panes of glass easily. It is then absorbed by the soil, plants, wood, etc. And here is the trick. When it re-radiates from the soil and plants and wood, it re-radiates at a wavelength that cannot now pass through the glass. So the heat is trapped in the greenhouse.
This is the same phenomenon that is taking place in our atmosphere. Sunlight can pass through the atmosphere where it is absorbed by the earth. It re-radiates back at a wavelength which is trapped by "greenhouse gasses" such as C02, making the earth warmer than it otherwise would be.
Finetuning miracles...
Isn't it amazing that God has created this little planet with just enough CO2 so that we are not too hot and not too cold! On planet Mars 95% of the atmosphere is CO2! All this fine-tuning passes most people by, but we should be amazed at the Creator's power and wisdom.
The CO2 level is changing
Anyway, back to CO2. The levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are changing. Since records began, around 1960, CO2 levels have risen from around 300ppm to 400ppm - an enormous jump of 33% in 50 years.
Should we believe this? Yes. There is no good reason to doubt the science on this one. Christians are rightly highly sceptical about large theories such as evolution which are founded on enormous philosophical presuppositions (like there is no Creator, or there is a Creator; read Signature in the Cell by Stephen Meyer). But there is no reason for global warming data to be prejudiced. No-one has God/no-God capital to make out of it. Indeed, it could be argued that the case for global warming is an amazing proof of just how finely tuned the earth's atmosphere was by God for human life.
So yes, the amount of greenhouse gases is increasing and the overall temperature of the earth is rising as a result. There is no reason to doubt this, and its not good news for the future of the planet.
So how then should a believer think about climate change (a much better term than global warming, because though the net effect of climate change is global warming, all kinds of disruptions in weather patterns may cause some places becoming colder)?
We are stewards of the earth
Christians believe that God gave to mankind not only dominion over the earth but stewardship of it (Genesis 2:15). It's not ours to do what we want with, but ours to care for. Our highly mechanised industrial lifestyles in the world today do mean that little by little we are ruining our planet - in a host of different ways.
So we ought to pay heed to the warnings and where we can do our part, we should act......
A Christian view of ethics
.....but we must ask what human behaviour lies beneath climate change. Ultimately it must be human greed, the sin of human greed. If we did not want so much stuff or eat the wrong kinds of food we would not harm the planet.
These underlying sins of greed - that the world completely ignores because it can't deal with them - are the root causes of climate change. When did you last hear David Attenborough or Chris Packham talk about greed?
No-one can change the human heart but God, through the Gospel of Jesus Christ can. No-one can convict of greed and change the human heart to want less except the Gospel.
The Gospel is the only solution to climate change!
And for this reason, the Gospel remains the Christian's main priority. Let liberal churches who have lost the Gospel preach climate change - a purely moralistic works religion - but let we who have been touched by God's power preach the Gospel which alone can bring about deep and lasting change in our hearts and lives.
A Christian view of the future of the world
And there is another truth here. A Christian view of the future means we know that the world will one day pass away in the Great Fire. This fallen earth is not humanity's final home.
Isn't that another amazing truth being made very clear in these days? While astronomers are looking for new planets to inhabit (impossible given the fine tuning of this planet) we know that the answer to this world's fate is not to save the planet - as if we could! (there's another problem with "save the planet" folks - we are not God!)
Our deepest response to climate change is to long for the return of Jesus Christ when all things will be made new. We wait for a new heavens and a new earth in which only righteousness will live. Our hope is not in a fixed up clapped out old world - this one - but a brand new renewed heaven and a brand new earth.
Gospel Gospel Gospel
So instead of making climate change the one-issue passion of our lives, we continue to make the Gospel the all-consuming passion of our lives, for it is the power of God unto salvation.
A word for Christian Parents
Christian parents must teach their children to be influenced by the Gospel of hope more than the teenage stars of this world's passing media. Although, no doubt, it is a good thing to encourage good stewardship of the earth, our children must be taught to look up to Christians who are working for much greater, more important and eternal causes.
From the old big guns (Attenboroughs) to the new young things (Thurnbergs) everyone is on zee bandwaggon.
So how should a Christian think about climate change? Should we too drop everything and go on a crusade to save the planet?
A Christian view of Climate Change - is it happening?
We must ask ourselves first - is climate change actually
That C02 should hold such remarkable power over the earth since it amount to only 0.04% of the atmosphere needs a word of explanation.
C02 is a "greenhouse gas." So too, by the way, is water vapour. Water vapour's greenhouse effect is much larger than C02s but it is a necessary part of the water cycle: hence the emphasis on CO2.
In a typical back garden greenhouse, light from the sun comes through the panes of glass easily. It is then absorbed by the soil, plants, wood, etc. And here is the trick. When it re-radiates from the soil and plants and wood, it re-radiates at a wavelength that cannot now pass through the glass. So the heat is trapped in the greenhouse.
This is the same phenomenon that is taking place in our atmosphere. Sunlight can pass through the atmosphere where it is absorbed by the earth. It re-radiates back at a wavelength which is trapped by "greenhouse gasses" such as C02, making the earth warmer than it otherwise would be.
Finetuning miracles...
Isn't it amazing that God has created this little planet with just enough CO2 so that we are not too hot and not too cold! On planet Mars 95% of the atmosphere is CO2! All this fine-tuning passes most people by, but we should be amazed at the Creator's power and wisdom.
The CO2 level is changingAnyway, back to CO2. The levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are changing. Since records began, around 1960, CO2 levels have risen from around 300ppm to 400ppm - an enormous jump of 33% in 50 years.
Should we believe this? Yes. There is no good reason to doubt the science on this one. Christians are rightly highly sceptical about large theories such as evolution which are founded on enormous philosophical presuppositions (like there is no Creator, or there is a Creator; read Signature in the Cell by Stephen Meyer). But there is no reason for global warming data to be prejudiced. No-one has God/no-God capital to make out of it. Indeed, it could be argued that the case for global warming is an amazing proof of just how finely tuned the earth's atmosphere was by God for human life.
So yes, the amount of greenhouse gases is increasing and the overall temperature of the earth is rising as a result. There is no reason to doubt this, and its not good news for the future of the planet.
So how then should a believer think about climate change (a much better term than global warming, because though the net effect of climate change is global warming, all kinds of disruptions in weather patterns may cause some places becoming colder)?
We are stewards of the earth
Christians believe that God gave to mankind not only dominion over the earth but stewardship of it (Genesis 2:15). It's not ours to do what we want with, but ours to care for. Our highly mechanised industrial lifestyles in the world today do mean that little by little we are ruining our planet - in a host of different ways.
So we ought to pay heed to the warnings and where we can do our part, we should act......
A Christian view of ethics
.....but we must ask what human behaviour lies beneath climate change. Ultimately it must be human greed, the sin of human greed. If we did not want so much stuff or eat the wrong kinds of food we would not harm the planet.
These underlying sins of greed - that the world completely ignores because it can't deal with them - are the root causes of climate change. When did you last hear David Attenborough or Chris Packham talk about greed?
No-one can change the human heart but God, through the Gospel of Jesus Christ can. No-one can convict of greed and change the human heart to want less except the Gospel.
The Gospel is the only solution to climate change!
And for this reason, the Gospel remains the Christian's main priority. Let liberal churches who have lost the Gospel preach climate change - a purely moralistic works religion - but let we who have been touched by God's power preach the Gospel which alone can bring about deep and lasting change in our hearts and lives.
A Christian view of the future of the world
And there is another truth here. A Christian view of the future means we know that the world will one day pass away in the Great Fire. This fallen earth is not humanity's final home.
Isn't that another amazing truth being made very clear in these days? While astronomers are looking for new planets to inhabit (impossible given the fine tuning of this planet) we know that the answer to this world's fate is not to save the planet - as if we could! (there's another problem with "save the planet" folks - we are not God!)
Our deepest response to climate change is to long for the return of Jesus Christ when all things will be made new. We wait for a new heavens and a new earth in which only righteousness will live. Our hope is not in a fixed up clapped out old world - this one - but a brand new renewed heaven and a brand new earth.
Gospel Gospel Gospel
So instead of making climate change the one-issue passion of our lives, we continue to make the Gospel the all-consuming passion of our lives, for it is the power of God unto salvation.
A word for Christian Parents
Christian parents must teach their children to be influenced by the Gospel of hope more than the teenage stars of this world's passing media. Although, no doubt, it is a good thing to encourage good stewardship of the earth, our children must be taught to look up to Christians who are working for much greater, more important and eternal causes.
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