by Jaydee Hanson

A recent political cartoon shows the four horsemen of the Apocalypse as Famine, War, Death, & Terror. Galloping up in the distance is a horse labeled Global Warming. This cartoon capitalizes on the sense of many persons that climate change is so terrifying, so uncontrollable that there is little that can be done by humans.

More than one hundred years of scientific research has demonstrated that climate change is not just more bad weather; it is accelerated by the actions of humans. If humans through our actions have helped cause climate change, then it is a reflection of our (poor) stewardship of God’s creation. If we have helped cause the problem of climate change, then we are responsible for reducing the speed of climate change.

In the terrible words of Isaiah: The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers; the heavens languish together with the earth. The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes; broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer…(Isaiah 24:4-6).

Isaiah’s oracle was not written with climate change in mind, but it could have been. Because of nearly three hundred years of industrial use of fossil fuels to provide energy, the environment of the most fragile places on earth is suffering greatly. Tuvalu, a Pacific Island nation, is searching for a country willing to take its people as the islands are being submerged. Global warming is raising sea levels and low lying island states are literally disappearing. Deserts are expanding throughout the world, and glaciers and ice caps are melting at the poles.

Christians believe that we have been given responsibility to be good stewards of the planet earth. How can we do this when the environment itself is changing? Global environmental problems are hard to comprehend. Between 1960 and 2000, world population doubled to 6 billion people, but world energy consumption quadrupled in the same forty years. While growth in energy consumption has slowed, carbon dioxide pollution than causes climate change stays in the atmosphere for years. Pollution from fossil fuel sources must be reduced greatly if we are to avert the worst effects of climate change.

The first thing we must do is repent of our misuse of God’s creation, to ask forgiveness for our participation in the destruction of God’s creation. The next thing we must do is to act to change our ways. By doing nothing, we contribute more to the problem. Writer Andrew Kimbrell has suggested that in our age there are two kinds of evil. A hot evil like the evil of terrorism, and a cold evil that is more insidious. The cold evil of our energy production system is difficult for the average person to begin to fight. Until recently, the decisions about which ways we would produce energy were made by oil companies, power companies, automobile companies, utilities, but not individuals. A person wanting to pollute less could conserve energy or buy more efficient appliances or lights, but not easily decide not to obtain energy from less polluting sources. The cold impersonal energy supply systems made those decisions for us.

Ten years ago, I published a list of the ten most important things one could do to help conserve energy. It lists many ways that through purchasing one could be more ecologically responsible. The list ranged from purchasing compact fluorescent light bulbs to purchasing an energy efficient car. All of these suggestions help a little, and I want to encourage little steps as much as big steps, but we cannot quickly solve the problem of climate change through individual purchases if the products we need to be better stewards are not available.

Bulbs are not the most significant way to reduce carbon dioxide pollution. However, energy efficient appliances save many more tons of CO2 pollution. Before the passage of the 1986 law mandating federal energy efficiency standards, today’s least efficient appliances were among the most efficient available. Today, even the person who cares little about stewardship of God’s creation is a more responsible steward when they buy major home appliances that the best could have been ten years ago. Today, my number one item on the top ten things that you can do to help save the environment is a letter to the US President, your US Senators, and Representative in Congress. Ask them what they are doing to help stop global warming/climate change. Ask them to support renewable energy, higher automobile efficiency standards, and higher appliance standards.

Jesus reminds us that stewards should not bury their talents. The answers to our climate change dilemma already exist, but they are being buried and not put in the energy bills Congress wishes to pass. Funding for solar power, renewable energy sources, and energy efficiency is lower than it was 20 years ago. Last May, religious leaders from some forty denominations and faith movements wrote President Bush asking him to make Conservation his major priority in energy legislation. Instead, the major priority is expanding domestic oil and gas production, including drilling in pristine areas like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Climate change is a profoundly religious issue. We are called to be good stewards. In the case of climate change, we know how to be better stewards. Our elected leaders hold the keys to whether we can solve this problem quickly or whether we wait until the effects are so great that we must act or not survive.

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