Christians, the Care of Creation, and Global Climate Change

Lindy Scott, Scott

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN:
  9781556358449
  9781498251235
• eBook ISBN:
  9781630877026
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Christians, the Care of Creation, and Global Climate Change is a wake-up call for Christians and others. It is a cogent and persuasive call to love God and our neighbors by caring for creation--especially in light of the dramatic climate changes occurring before our eyes. This book is not the final word on the subject, but it is a sincere invitation to examine the scientific evidence for global warming and to respond with individual and collective faithful actions. CONTRIBUTORS: Douglas Allen, Jeffrey K. Greenberg, P. J. Hill, Sir John T. Houghton, A. Duane Litfin, Ben Lowe, Vincent E. Morris, L. Kristen Page, Lindy Scott, Noah J. Toly

Part I

A Panel Discussion on Global Climate Change

1 • Introduction to the Panel Discussion

A. Duane Litfin

I was asked to give a few introductory comments this evening for two reasons.

First, in my role as president of Wheaton College, I am often asked to speak an official word on behalf of the college. In this case, if you examine the College’s confessional stance you will find an explicit affirmation of Wheaton’s concern for our stewardship of God’s creation. I want to affirm that the college takes seriously the issues of creation care.

But there is also a second, more personal reason I was asked to say a word: I am one of the original signatories of the widely published Evangelical Climate Initiative statement on global warming.

Some have asked why I signed that document. The answer: over the last two decades I have found within myself a growing awareness of and concern for these issues. I’m driven in this, as in so much else in my life, by my biblical and theological training and experience.

I am increasingly exercised about what it means to be a Christian living in the world today. How do we live in the light of a biblical understanding of God’s created order, what happened to it through sin and brokenness, and the ways in which we continue in our sinfulness to defile this thing that God created good? What is our responsibility as his stewards of that created order, and how can we be a part of the redemptive process he initiated in Christ?

These sorts of theological issues drive me. As the awareness has dawned upon me as to what’s happening with global climate change, particularly through human contributions, it has prompted me to become more and more concerned. So when I was asked to join that statement, I studied it carefully and decided to sign it.

I should point out that I do not often do that. Numerous causes come before me that people want me to sign onto. Yet I seldom add my name, even when I agree. The reason is, given my position, it’s difficult for me to sign anything—that is, to stand up and put myself on the line for something—without taking Wheaton College with me.

That is in fact what has happened in this instance. No matter how hard I stress it, no matter how clearly I make the point that I’m signing this only as an individual, it seems to matter little. Because of my role as spokesperson for Wheaton College, it is in the nature of things that my signature is perceived as Duane Litfin putting Wheaton College on the line.

Because of that, once I signed the ECI statement, I began receiving a wide range of responses. Most of them, probably a large majority, have been affirming. But there have also been those who disagreed, raising questions as to whether I should be doing any such thing, precisely because of the inevitability of my taking the college with me. I have been reminded that whether I like it or not, I am perceived to be speaking for the entire Wheaton College community, and there may be voices in this community who are not well represented by what I was signing.

It’s worth noting that I understand this concern. It goes hand in hand with leadership. Positions of leadership often empower you, but they also tend to muzzle you. It is enough for me to speak openly and forthrightly about things that have to do explicitly with the institution’s stance. It’s another thing for me to be signing my name to something that takes us beyond that, which, in some ways, the ECI statement does.

Yet I do not regret signing that statement. I am neither a scientist nor an economist, so I must be careful about making scientific or economic policy declarations. But my biblical and theological commitments tell me we need to stand up and be counted for the issues of neighbor care and creation care. We need to speak up.

But one of the results of my having joined the ECI statement is that I am far less naive about the range of opinions on this subject than when I started. Just this week I was struck by a Newsweek article wherein economist Robert Samuelson, a rather estimable voice, condemned the vaunted Stern Report as “a masterpiece of misleading public relations,” one filled with “intellectual fictions” that will create the worst of both worlds; that is, a program that harms the economy without much helping the environment.1

What are we nonscientists and non-economists to make of such disputes? The issues are daunting, and I have attempted to avoid dogmatism. But what I do know is that we are called to be faithful to the Lord in our stewardship of his creation. We see the facts of global warming; no one seems to be much debating that. The question is, what does it all mean? Is this warming generated by human beings? If so, how much of it? And if we can answer that question, what are we to do about it? What steps should we take, or what steps should we avoid? What does it all mean?

I know I am not the one to answer such questions. I’m here with you to learn. The issues are exceedingly complex and we should expect no simple answers. What we must do is listen to well-meaning, well-informed, even expert voices. And that is what we have the opportunity to do here tonight.

Let’s listen together.

1. Robert Samuelson, “The Worst of Both Worlds,” Newsweek, November 13, 2006. Accessed January 30, 2008. Online: http://www.newsweek.com/id/45565.

2 • Is the sky falling? a brief introduction to climate change science

Douglas Allen

1. introduction

Of potentially great importance to the future well-being of humankind is the threat of significant changes occurring in the Earth’s “climate system”: atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere (ice and snow), lithosphere (Earth’s crust and outer mantle), and biosphere. Climate scientists have used various data sources to reconstruct past and presently evolving climate, while computer models are employed to predict future climate scenarios.

Various observations of the Earth’s climate system have led to the consensus that the Earth’s global average surface temperature has increased significantly over the last century (the so-called global warming). This warming may be due in part to natural climate forcings (volcanoes, solar variability), but human-caused factors likely play a significant (or even the major) role.

Of particular interest are the effects from increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, which absorb infrared radiation emitted from the Earth’s surface and radiate a portion of it downward, thereby warming the surface. This “greenhouse effect” is crucial for maintaining habitable temperatures on the Earth. However, rising greenhouse gas concentrations above naturally occurring levels due to anthropogenic emissions may result in an “enhanced greenhouse effect,” with serious climate consequences.

This chapter provides an overview of climate change science for a better understanding of the observations, models, and methodologies that climate scientists use to detect, attribute, and predict climate change.

2. why is the climate change debate so confusing?

Before delving into the science of climate change, we need to first analyze the reasons why the climate change debate often seems so confusing.1 This confusion is due to three types of problems: definitions and usage of the terms “weather” and “climate,” various complications in the science of climate change, and philosophical biases of those presenting claims about climate change.

To help avoid problems with semantics, we first need some definitions. The Earth’s climate and weather are both described in terms of the same physical properties of the atmosphere (temperature, wind, pressure, humidity, precipitation, and the like), which we’ll refer to as climate variables. “Weather” refers to what is happening at any specific time. This statement, “Yesterday’s high temperature in Wheaton, Illinois, was 56°F,” is a statement about the weather. “Climate” refers to the average of the weather over time and/or geographic area. This statement, “The average high temperature in Wheaton on this date is 56°F,” is a statement about climate, not weather.

“Climate change” refers to a change in the average value of a climate variable over a certain geographic area, while “global climate change” refers to the change in climate averaged over the whole Earth. Due to the nature of the averaging, the timescales of changes in climate (years to centuries) are much longer than typical changes in weather (minutes to days). A common error is to use a specific weather event (e.g., Hurricane Katrina) to implicate changes in climate. This can lead to confusion, since climate depends on the time-averaged weather, not on one specific event.

Besides confusion between the terms “weather” and “climate,” there are several scientific reasons why the climate change debate can be confusing. First, climate changes occur on long timescales on the order of decades to centuries or longer, so we need long data records in order to discern trends. Analysis of long data records can often be complicated by missing data, changes in instrumentation or data-collection procedures, o...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part 1: A Panel Discussion on Global Climate Change
• Chapter 1: Introduction to the Panel Discussion
• Chapter 2: Is the sky falling? a brief introduction to climate change science
• Chapter 3: Global Climate: Implications for Global Health
• Chapter 4: The Economics of Global Warming
• Chapter 5: Climate Change: Global Problem, Global Solutions
• Part 2: A Christian College Takes Some Initial Steps
• Chapter 6: Big Science, Big God
• Chapter 7: The Greening of Wheaton College: An Unlikely Tree Hugger
• Chapter 8: The Greening of Wheaton College: A Bigger Vision
• Chapter 9: The Greening of Wheaton College: Environment, Economics, and Equity
• Epilogue: So What? Now What?
• Contributors