Stewards of the Earth

The Psalmist says, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." Add that spiritual insight to the Christian doctrine of creation, in which God makes the world out of nothing and places in the midst of the world human beings in the image of God to be the means of God's care giving presence over the world (Genesis 2). You begin to establish the basis for a pretty substantial theology of Christian "environmental" stewardship. When one considers further that the Incarnation of Christ and the Resurrection are both divine affirmations of the goodness of creation, with the Resurrection entailing a reclamation of the created order (See Oliver O'Donnovan's Resurrection and Moral Order for a wonderful theological assessment in this regard), Christians have no excuse for not being interested in environmental concerns.

That's what makes the situation described here all the more troubling. In The Denver Post David Harsanyi reports on the doctrinaire orthodoxy that has stopped genuine debate about global warming, especially in the wake of Al Gore's resurgent influence via his new movie.

The only inconvenient truth about global warming, contends Colorado State University's Bill Gray, is that a genuine debate has never actually taken place. Hundreds of scientists, many of them prominent in the field, agree.

Gray is perhaps the world's foremost hurricane expert. His Tropical Storm Forecast sets the standard. Yet, his criticism of the global warming "hoax" makes him an outcast.

"They've been brainwashing us for 20 years," Gray says. "Starting with the nuclear winter and now with the global warming. This scare will also run its course. In 15-20 years, we'll look back and see what a hoax this was."

Gray directs me to a 1975 Newsweek article that whipped up a different fear: a coming ice age.

"Climatologists," reads the piece, "are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change. ... The longer the planners delay, the more difficult will they find it to cope with climatic change once the results become grim reality."

Thank God they did nothing. Imagine how warm we'd be?

Another highly respected climatologist, Roger Pielke Sr. at the University of Colorado, is also skeptical.

Pielke contends there isn't enough intellectual diversity in the debate. He claims a few vocal individuals are quoted "over and over" again, when in fact there are a variety of opinions. . . . .

"Let's just say a crowd of baby boomers and yuppies have hijacked this thing," Gray says. "It's about politics. Very few people have experience with some real data. I think that there is so much general lack of knowledge on this. I've been at this over 50 years down in the trenches working, thinking and teaching."

Gray acknowledges that we've had some warming the past 30 years. "I don't question that," he explains. "And humans might have caused a very slight amount of this warming. Very slight. But this warming trend is not going to keep on going. My belief is that three, four years from now, the globe will start to cool again, as it did from the middle '40s to the middle '70s."

Yes, Christians are theologically compelled to be concerned about the environment and any serious and credible threat that "global warming" presents. And we are compelled to be repentant if human activity has indeed triggered it. But, how shall that ever be known unless there is a genuine debate over the actual science.

In order to be good stewards over the world in which we have been placed, we need to know the facts of our situation. That can't happen if genuine dissent and intellectual inquiry are short-circuited. Christians are also interested in truth -- about God, human beings, and the world. So, be a good steward of God's world and our home. Start by educating yourself about the diversity of opinion on this issue. Try this for starters.