Environment From a Christian View

Environment from a Christian Perspective

Using Toulmin's Argument Model, this paper will explore the way in which Christians should act in response to the environmental challenges facing the planet. There are many reasons that all citizens should be paying attention to the problems that the earth is facing, due to climate change and pollution. And Christians, while they have spiritual values that differ from Muslims, Buddhists and other faiths, are citizens of the world and should be attentive to ways in which they can help reduce global climate change and make the planet safe and healthy for future generations. Thesis: What specific actions should Christians take with regard to the challenges facing the world's environment and the need for preservation and restoration?

Claim

It is a well-documented fact that the planet and its vital ecosystems are being threatened and challenged by climate change, which is being caused in no small way by human activities. These threats and challenges are having a dramatic effect on wildlife, on the habitat that provides wildlife with the resources to survive and prosper, and on the sustainability of human beings and their communities throughout the planet.

Hence, all the world's people, including the Christian community, should be engaged in any and all behaviors that can help mitigate the conditions that are causing the earth to heat up.

Grounds

The grounds for the assertion that the planet is being threatened by climate change are gleaned from empirical data gathered and published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an international organization of scientists -- launched by the United Nations' Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization -- that has dedicated the past twenty plus years to intensive empirical research on climate change.

The IPCC is composed of thousands of scientists from 195 nations in the world. In its "First Assessment Report" (issued in 1990) the IPCC asserted that while there is a "natural greenhouse effect" which keeps the earth "warmer than it would otherwise be," emissions produced by human activities "…are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and nitrous oxide."

In the "Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007," the most recent report, IPCC states that "…Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level" (IPCC, 2007).

The global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide "…has increased from a pre-industrial value of about 280 parts per million (ppm) to 379 ppm in 2005" (IPCC). The IPCC reports that the "primary source" of the enormous increase in carbon dioxide "…results from fossil fuel use" (coal-fired and oil-fired electrical generating plants, plus internal combustion engines in vehicles that use gasoline and diesel fuels). The annual release of carbon dioxide into the air -- that is produced through the burning of fossil fuels -- has increased from an average of 6.4 gigatons of carbon (GtC) [fluctuating between 6.0 to 6.8 GtC] per year in the 1990s to 7.2 [fluctuating between 6.9 to 7.5] per year in the period 2000 to 2005 (IPCC).

Warrant

"Then God said, 'Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground…'" (Genesis 1: 26) (Bible Gateway).

Because they place great faith in the Bible, specifically the commandment in Genesis (1:26-28) that gives humans "dominion over the earth," Christians should be at the forefront of the movement to be stewards of God's creation, and they should not only be concerned with redemption and the afterlife but also they should be alert to environmental issues. Laurel Kearns writes in the peer-reviewed Sociology of Religion that it was against the "anti-environmentalism of the Reagan administration" that Christians -- who, ironically were courted by Reagan -- began to become focused on the environment. Kearns asserts that some churches are interested in becoming "creation awareness centers" rather than "barren edifices surrounded by parking lots" (Kearns, 1996, p. 3). The "anti-science bias" that many Christians (in particular evangelicals) have previously embraced (i.e., doubts about evolution and climate change) must be replaced with common sense applications that are based on real science, Kearns explains.

Backing

While Kearns' assertions were offered in 1996, ten years later (Goodstein, 2006) an article in The New York Times reports that Christian leaders are getting organized and getting united when it comes to the environment. The Times reported that 86 evangelical Christian leaders "…have decided to back a major initiative to fight global warming" (Goodstein, p. 1). In fact among the 86 leaders were the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges and leaders of other Christian groups including pastors of "mega-churches" like Rick Warren of Saddleback Church. Pastor Duane Litfin, president of Wheaton College in Illinois (an "influential evangelical institution") said that Christians "…have not paid as much attention to climate change as we should, and that's why I'm willing to step up" (Goodstein, pg. 1).

Not all evangelical leaders signed on to the statement that endorses the idea of Christians taking action to mitigate global climate change. Some in fact have tried to "derail" action taken by the 86 evangelical leaders, Goodstein writes. Indeed, an opposition group of evangelical leaders -- called the "Interfaith Stewardship Alliance" -- argued in their petition, "…the science is not settled" on whether global climate change was real and on whether humans were causing it. Still, while so much empirical evidence is available that humans are producing the greenhouse gases that heat up the planet -- and that humans can help reduce those greenhouse gases by using less electricity -- the "Evangelical Climate Initiative" went ahead with their marketing ideas and produced radio and television commercials to advance their beliefs (Goodstein, p. 2).