loving the least of these

7/31/2019 Loving the Least of These

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DOROTHY BOORSE Leith Anderson Thomas AckermanChris Shore Galen Carey

Ken Wilson Jo Anne Lyon

with contributions by:

LovingtheLeastof TheseADDRESSING A

CHANGING ENVIRONMENT


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Loving the Least o Tese: Addressing a Changing EnvironmentA conversation piece rom the National Association o Evangelicals

LEAD AUHORDorothy Boorse, Ph.D. associate proessor o biology, Gordon College

PREFACELeith Anderson, president, National Association o Evangelicals

CONRIBUING AUHORSKen Wilson, senior pastor, Vineyard Church o Ann ArborChristopher Shore, director o the Climate Change Response Initiative, WorldVisionTomas Ackerman, proessor o atmospheric sciences and director o the JointInstitute or the Study o the Atmosphere and Ocean, University o WashingtonGalen Carey, vice president, government relations, National Association oEvangelicals

AFERWORDJo Anne Lyon, general superintendent, Te Wesleyan Church

PROJEC MANAGERJennier Haglo, Esq., special projects and events director, National Associationo Evangelicals

Te mission o the National Association o Evangelicals is to honor God byconnecting and representing evangelical Christians. Founded in 1942, theAssociation represents more than 45,000 local churches rom more than 40dierent denominations and serves a constituency o millions.

For more inormation about the NAE visit www.nae.net.

Copyright 2011 National Association o Evangelicals

Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken rom Te Holy Bible,New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 byBiblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Cover photos courtesy o World Relie.

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Loving the Least o These:

Addressing a Changing Environment

Dorothy Boorse

Preace by

Leith Anderson

With Contributions by

Ken WilsonChristopher ShoreTomas Ackerman

Galen Carey

Aerword by

Jo Anne Lyon


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Table of Contents

Preace Leith Anderson

A Note rom the Author Dorothy Boorse

Introduction

Section 1: A Biblical Basis or Christian EngagementA Pastors Perspective Ken Wilson

Section 2: A Changing EnvironmentA Scientists Perspective Tomas Ackerman

Section 3: How Climate Aects the PoorA Development Workers Perspective Chris Shore

Section 4: What Should We Do?A Pro-Lie Perspective Galen Carey

Conclusion

Aerword Jo Anne Lyon

PREFACE

Jesus said, Te poor you will always have with you (Matthew 26:11). Ithought that sounded like an excuse to ignore the poor. Ten a pastor toldme that Jesus was quoting rom Deuteronomy 15:11 and that I shouldread the whole quote that Jesus knew so well: Tere will always be poorpeople in the land. Tereore I command you to be openhanded towardyour ellow Isrealites who are poor and needy in your land.

God calls us to care or those who are poor, vulnerable and oppressed. Itis the Christian thing to do.

While others debate the science and politics o climate change, mythoughts go to the poor people who are neither scientists nor politicians.Tey will never study carbon dioxide in the air or acidication o theocean. But they will suer rom dry wells in the Sahel o Arica andoods along the coasts o Bangladesh. Teir crops will ail while oursupermarkets are ull. Tey will suer while we study.

At the National Association o Evangelicals, we asked some o ourChristian sisters and brothers to share their knowledge and experienceregarding the eects o a changing environment on the poor. Our goalwas to write a document useul to the evangelical community, pastorsand laypeople. Tis is not an ofcial policy statement o the NAE or itsBoard o Directors. Rather, it is a conversation piece. It is a call to care, tounderstand, to respond.

We heard stories rom missionaries, statistics rom scientists, andexhortations rom pastors. Teir words were collected into one documentthat was reviewed by two dozen Bible scholars, proessors, and evangelicalleaderswe wanted the thinking o many and not just o a ew.

Please read with an open mind and with open hands. But most o all, joinme with an open heart or the poor.

Leith Anderson

PresidentNational Association o Evangelicals


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A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

Te changing environment is a serious concern around the globe. It is an issueor evangelical Christians today.

Tis document covers our ideas: a biblical basis or Christian engagement, alook at changing environments around the world, insight into how environ-mental variances aect the poor, and thoughts on what Christians should do.Each section includes text and examples, and each ends with a reection roman expert to urther the discussion.

First, we explore why evangelicals should even consider environmental change,ocusing on the biblical call to honor God through stewardship, to love ourneighbors, and to witness to the rest o the world. Ken Wilson oers a pastoralperspective on these ideas.

Second, we look at how environments are changing around the world andhow to approach conicting scientic data. Note that we do not include anexhaustive scientic look at climate change. Rather, this is a starting place orthose who are interested to dig deeper. Scientist Tomas Ackerman reects onhis study o the world and Gods word.Tird, we investigate how changes in the environment interact with povertyto worsen its eects by increasing conicts and migration while decreasingthe ability o the poor to improve their well-being. Development worker ChrisShore, o World Vision, shares the impact climate change has had on his work.

Last, we think about what our role as evangelicals should be and what, ianything, we can do to turn the tide or the sake o the poor. Galen Carey, vicepresident o government relations or the NAE, shares how he believes God iscalling all evangelicals to care or the poor.

Climate change lies on top o many other actors aecting the natural world andaecting the impact o the environment on poverty. Photos and stories cited areexamples o how environmental events aect the poor. We do not attribute any

particular amount o any specic event to climate change, although such eventsare more likely in a changing climate.

More than two dozen people reviewed this document during various stageso the writing, another dozen oered their advice, and several others helpedus nd the people and inormation we needed. Tanks to all o them! Allquotes, except those cited rom a published source, are rom phone and e-mailinterviews I conducted.

One nal note: Tis document is short. It was not our intent to include an ex-haustive list o reasons to care or creation (there are many!) or to provide all theanswers to the questions o why and how climate change is happening. Rather,this booklet serves as a starting point to think about and discuss how climatechange aects the poor and what we, as ollowers o Christ, can do about it.

Dorothy Boorse

Lead AuthorGordon College

INTRODUCTION

In 2010, Americans watched oil uncontrollably gush rom a well drilledby the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gul o Mexico. Businesseswere wiped out and livelihoods destroyed. Fishing suered. ourismstalled.

Although the oil spill was not related to climate change, it was eyeopening or American Christians. Devastated coastal communities seenalongside a damaged environment helped us connect the ideas o care oour neighbors and care o creation in a new way. Some in the evangelicalcommunity spoke out with renewed vigor on the importance o caringor the world God has entrusted to us. For example, the Southern BaptistConvention passed a resolution on the disaster in the Gul, calling onChristians to recognize the responsibility to care or the environment oruture generations.1

Figure 1. Images o the aereects o a huge oil spill rom the Deepwater Horizonoil well in the Gul o Mexico shocked many people and prompted a new look at therole Christians play in caring or the environment and those aected by the disaster.Photo courtesy o Te Associated Press.


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1On the other side o the world, also during the summer o 2010, a heatwave in Russia killed hundreds o people and triggered dozens o resthat burned or days around Moscow.2 In Pakistan, oods aected morethan 20 million people, damaged or destroyed almost 2 million homes,and devastated Pakistans inrastructure, rom irrigation systems to powerplants.3

Te magnitude o the heat wave and oods may have been related tophenomena that come with a changing climate. Te Russian res wereincreased by drought and by extremely warm regional temperatures.2,4

Te oods in Pakistan were worsened by severe heat and record-breakingmonsoon rainall, which were aected by the extremely warm ocean tem-peratures.5 Although most scientists will not attribute any single weatherextreme or natural disaster to climate change,5 they agree that such eventsare increasing in requency.6-9

What is climate change?

What does it mean or the poor?

What does it mean or Christians?

Read on, and consider.

A BIBLICAL BASIS FORCHRISTIAN ENGAGEMENT

Evangelicals look to the Bible or guidance in all areas o lie. What canthe Bible say to us in this world where pollution, heat waves, oods, anddroughts are requent? Te Bible does not tell us anything directly abouthow to evaluate scientic reports or how to respond to a changing envi-ronment. But it does give several principles that might be helpul: care or

creation, love our neighbors, and witness to the world.

Love God, Care or CreationOne o the best places to start might be with Jesus summary o the entireOld estament:

eacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?Jesus replied, Love the Lord your God with all your heart andwith all your soul and with all your mind. Tis is the rst andgreatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love yourneighbor as yoursel. All the Law and the Prophets hang on thesetwo commandments. (Matthew 22:36-40)

For many evangelicals, loving God means spending time in worship andprayer. Tis is oundational. But there is another way to express our loveor God. Jesus tells us: I you love me, keep my commands (John 14:15).

Loving God means obeying. Tis includes caring about what happens toGods creation because God cares about it and because God gave us thejob o caring or it. We worship God by caring or creation. We dont wor-ship creation. God created the world or his glory, and because o this, itreveals his glory to us:

LORD, our Lord,how majestic is your name in all the earth!You have set your gloryin the heavens. (Psalm 8:1; see also Psalm 19)

God also gave humans a special place in that creation, as we can see in thesame passage:

You made them rulers over the works o your hands;you put everything under their eet. (Psalm 8:6)

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Figure 2. Floods in Pakistan. Photo courtesy o Augustine Joseph.


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Tis special place, however, is not as owners. Although God gave humansdominion over the earth, the Bible is ull o reerences to Gods continuedownership. God does not give us complete control to do with creation aswe will. Rather, the Bible makes it clear that our authority is only entrust-ed to us; God retains ultimate authority. Te earth is the LORDs, andeverything in it (Psalm 24:1).

Despite problems caused by human sin (see Genesis 3:17-29), the earthstill brings glory to God, and God still cares or and sustains the naturalprocesses o the world. Te psalmist says: Praise the LORD, all his workseverywhere in his dominion. Praise the LORD, my soul (Psalm 103:22).Because Gods glory is revealed in creation, we should be intentionalabout caring or his artistry.

Te term stewardship is oen used to describe how we ought to think oour relationship to Gods creation. We are like the servants in the parableo the talents (see Matthew 25:14-30). Te natural world is a precious gior which we will be held accountable. We hold it in trust or God, but wealso hold it or the next generations. John Calvin understood the concepto stewardship:

Let him who possesses a eld, so partake o its yearly ruits, thathe may not suer the ground to be injured by his negligence; butlet him endeavor to hand it down to posterity as he received it, oreven better cultivated. Let him so eed on its ruits that he neitherdissipates it by luxury, nor permits it to be marred by neglect.Moreover, let everyone regard himsel as the steward o God inall things which he possesses.10

It is tempting but unwise to assume that God would prevent us rom dras-tically harming the earth. God is sovereign, yet he allows us to experiencethe natural outcomes o our own actions. God lets us make poor deci-

sions about our household budgets. He allows us to eat poorly or abuseour bodies with drugs. Likewise, even though God cares and providesor the creatures o the earth, humans have the reedom to make deci-sions that harm even the basic unctions o ecosystems, decisions such aspolluting the oceans and deliberately or carelessly setting orest res. Goddoes not always choose to step in and save us rom the consequences oour actions in other areas o our lives, and we should not assume that hewill do so when we are unaithul stewards o the earth.

Exercising stewardship calls us to plan ahead and to use our God-givengis, abilities and natural resources to care or this world he created. Intodays reality, that includes considering our changing environment inorder to evaluate how best to care or what he has entrusted to us.

Love God, Love Your NeighborIn Matthew 22:39, Jesus gave us a second command: Love your neigh-

bor as yoursel. For us to be aithul in loving God, we must love ourneighbor. In Lukes account o the same incident, a bystander asks, Butwho is my neighbor? thus setting the stage or one o the best-known oall Jesus parables: the story o the Good Samaritan. Loving my neighbor,according to the parable, includes responding to the needs o someonewho has been hurt. We are to eed him, clothe him, care or his woundsand provide or him.

Care o the poor and oppressed is a resounding theme in both the Oldand New estaments, as, or example, in Deuteronomy 15:10-11:

Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart;then because o this the LORD your God will bless you in all yourwork and in everything you put your hand to. Tere will always

be poor people in the land. Tereore I command you to be open-handed toward your ellow Israelites who are poor and needy inyour land.

God gave the Israelites structures and rules that established provision orthe poor. Relatives were to redeem sold land and support widows; cloakscould not be kept in pledge; the poor could glean in the elds. We are toldto care or those who are hungry and thirsty, even i they are our enemies(see Proverbs 25:21-22; Romans 12:20).

Nothing could be clearer than Jesus words in Matthew 25:36-44. Jesustells his disciples that on Judgment Day, we will stand beore God and an-swer or the way we treated those who were hungry, naked and sick, andor those who were strangers and prisoners: ruly I tell you, whateveryou did or one o the least o these brothers and sisters o mine, you didor me (v. 40). And, on the other hand, Jesus says, ruly I tell you, what-ever you did not do or one o the least o these, you did not do or me(v. 45). When we care or the poor, we are ministering to Jesus himsel: o

care or the weakest is to care or Christ.

Tere are millions o suering people in the world, and thousands oChristians who oer them assistance. Unortunately, the realities o cli-mate change mean that those suering millions may become billions. Allo us who ollow Jesus will need to respond.

Love God, Witness to the WorldEvangelism is a high priority or evangelicals, and rightly so. Jesus said,Tereore go and make disciples o all nations, baptizing them in thename o the Father and o the Son and o the Holy Spirit, and teachingthem to obey everything I have commanded you (Matthew 28:19-20).

In October 2010, more than 4,000 evangelical leaders attended theLausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape own, South Arica.Te Lausanne Movement was ounded in 1974 by evangelicals such as


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Billy Graham and John Stott to unite all evangelicals in the common tasko the total evangelization o the world.11 At the conclusion o the 2010conerence, the Congress issued the Cape own Commitment, whichstates three basic principles: Human beings are lost; the gospel is goodnews; and the Churchs mission goes on.

Te Cape own Commitment recognizes that our care o creation aectsour witness to the world, stating:

Te Bible declares Gods redemptive purpose or creation itsel.Integral mission means discerning, proclaiming, and living outthe biblical truth that the gospel is Gods good news, through thecross and resurrection o Jesus Christ, or individual persons, andor society, and or creation. All three are broken and suering

because o sin; all three are included in the redeeming love andmission o God; all three must be part o the comprehensivemission o Gods people.12

Sharing our aith with the world and seeing its people come to knowChrist are integral parts o the Christian lie. Many evangelicals support

relie and developmentwork, because theywant to live out thecommand to careor the poor. We liveout the gospel bymeeting the poor andvulnerable where theyare, showing themthe love o Christ aswe address their basicneeds and point them

to salvation in Christ.

Moved by Gods love or the vulnerable, evangelicals are quick to givewhen disaster strikes. When the earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, evangelicalsdonated millions o dollars, other resources, and time to meet the needso the country, and they continue to take part in rebuilding the lives o theHaitians. Tis displays the love and compassion o Christ.

Yet people need to see not only our witness in relie eorts aer a disasterbut also that we understand what causes natural disasters to be so terrible.Tey need to see not only that we will clean up aer the disaster but alsothat, whenever possible, we will help prevent situations that displacemillions. As we will see, changes in the environment are threat multipliersor the many problems aced by the poor around the globe. Recognizingthis reality will strengthen our witness.

excerpt rom the Cape Town Commitment:Christs Peace or His Suering Creation

Our biblical mandate in relation to Gods creation is provided in The

Conession o Faith section 7 (a). All human beings are to be stewardso the rich abundance o Gods good creation. We are authorized toexercise godly dominion in using it or the sake o human welare and

needs, or example in arming, shing, mining, energy generation,engineering, construction, trade, medicine. As we do so, we are also

commanded to care or the earth and all its creatures, because theearth belongs to God, not to us. We do this or the sake o the LordJesus Christ who is the creator, owner, sustainer, redeemer and heir oall creation.

We lament over the widespread abuse and destruction o the earthsresources, including its bio-diversity. Probably the most serious and

urgent challenge aced by the physical world now is the threat oclimate change. This will d isproportionately afect those in poorercountries, or it is there that climate extremes will be most severe and

where there is little capability to adapt to them. World poverty andclimate change need to be addressed together and with equal urgency.

2011 The Lausanne Movement

Figure 3. Nigerianstend a tree planted tostabilize soils as part o areorestation project. ManyChristian organizationsalready include creationcare, including climate-change adaptation, as apart o their work. Photocourtesy o World Vision.


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God is a relational Goda Father loving a Son, ever generating the lie-giving Spirit. Tings are more connected than we can possibly appreciate.We were created by God as part o a network o creatures who share his liebreathaecting each other and aected by the whole. As Gods imagebearers, we are to rule under his authority and on his behaltendingcreation as stewards (see Genesis 1:27-28; 2:15). Sin, however, separates usrom God, rom one another, and rom our divine purpose. We lose ourheart or the most vulnerable among us, including uture generations whohave no voice but Gods.

Tose who study the climate cite an accumulating body o evidencepointing to an increase in average temperatures across the globe. Teseclimate scientists, thousands o them rom many nations, are convinced

that the rise in temperatures is real and dangerous. Tey dicker over thedetails, as expected. But the vast majority o them concur: Human activity,especially the burning o ossil uels that release heat-trapping gases into theatmosphere, worsens the problem. O al l the possible causes that have beenidentied, human activity is the only one we can do something about.

Te predicted eects o the increased carbon levels in the atmosphere areplaying out: more intense heat waves; more intense ooding in some areasand more intense drought in others; ice sheets melting and sea levels rising;oceans becoming more acidic. Te rapid pace o the changes is placing aburden on living creatures, including humans, and especially on those whomost depend on the natural environmentthe vulnerable poor. Te poorhave ewer options when their homes are ooded or their cities are hit by aheat wave or their armland is aected by drought.

Scripture challenges us about our role within creation. We are co-regentswith God, or better or worse. Te choice is ours to make. Until ourredeemed selves are revealed, the creation groans, waiting or us to exercise

our stewardship or blessing (see Romans 8:19). Tis redemption is the worko Jesus, the image o the invisible God, the rstborn over all creation(Colossians 1:15).

Jesus, our redeemer, calls us to join him in caring or the poor, to whomthe kingdom belongs (see Matthew 25:38-46). We cannot care or the most

vulnerable among us without caring or the creation on which they depend.I there is reasonable evidence that our actions may be harming vulnerablepopulations and uture generations, then we violate prudence and justiceto insist on absolute proo beore taking steps to lessen the harm. We riskbeing counted among those who destroy the earth (Revelation 11:18).

God grant us the grace to rise to this challenge with wisdom, in the name othe Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who together hold all things.

Ken WilsonSenior Pastor, Vineyard Church o Ann Arbor, Michigan

A

PAstorsPersPective

A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT

Climate change is hard to understand; it is controversial, and it is morecomplicated than commentators and journalists oen admit. Yet seekingto understand it is important, because climate impacts the poor andvulnerable. In this section, we will look at the science underlying ourunderstanding o climate, discuss what research suggests about the utureo Earths climate, consider how to untangle scientic controversies, andhear the aith journey o a Christian climate scientist.

The Basic ScienceClimate is the average weather patterns that occur in a region over a longtime. Tese include actors such as humidity, temperature, windiness,cloudiness and precipitation. It is determined by the balance betweenabsorbed solar energy and the energy emitted to space by Earths suraceand atmosphere.

Te basic science o the earths surace temperature, and thus the climate,has been known or 200 years.13 Greenhouse gases (such as water vapor,carbon dioxide and methane) absorb inrared, or heat, radiation romthe earths surace. Tis trapped energy acts like a blanket, warming theearths surace in a phenomenon called the greenhouse eect. Withoutthis natural warming eect, lie on Earth would not be possible.13

Climate is dynamic, not static, and it changes over time due to externaldrivers (called orcing actors) and natural internal variability.14,15 Someo these changes happen on time scales and through processes that areeasy to understand. For example, each year, the seasonal cycle o climatechange is driven by Earths rotation around the sun and the tilt o itsaxis.14 Occasionally, large volcanic eruptions temporarily cool Earth bycreating particle clouds that reect solar radiation.16 Internal changesalter the distribution o energy in the ocean and atmosphere; or example,the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) periodically creates pocketso warmer or cooler water in parts o the oceams, which aects some seasurace temperatures and mid-latitude weather.15 Within an 11-year span,sunspot cycles can cause small variations in climate.15

Tese processes are well understood, even i they are not predictable.Over the last 1,000 years, the earths climate record has shown a lot onatural variability. Natural cycles and events, such as the one mentionedabove, greatly aect year-to-year variations. However, the global averagetemperature has risen at a rate that is most likely greater than naturalvariability can account or. Evidence suggests that an increase in carbon

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dioxide and other greenhouse gasses accounts or much o the warmingover the last 50 years.14

Since the Industrial Revolution o the 19th century, when ossil uelsbegan to be widely used as energy sources, carbon dioxide, the primarygreenhouse gas that is released when ossil uels are burned, has increasedby about 40 percent in the atmosphere.17 When caused by humans, suchactors that aect climate, like the increase in carbon dioxide emissions,are called, anthropogenic (human-caused) orcing actors.15

Much o the current debate in our society about climate change is aboutthe relative importance o natural and human-caused actors. Is the recentchange in Earth surace temperature due solely to natural orcing actorsand internal variability? Tose who take this approach tend to minimize

the role o human activity in aecting the environment. Others attributerecent climate change almost exclusively to human activities resulting inmethane and carbon dioxide emissions and human-caused deorestation.Tose who take this approach may ail to recognize sufciently the eectso natural actors.

In contrast to the way climate change debates are oen portrayed in themedia, scientists who study climate rarely attribute climate variabilityexclusively to either natural or human orcing actors. Instead, theycompare and evaluate the two. On the short term (a ew years to a ewdecades), natural variability is most likely to play the largest role. Ontimescales o several decades to a century, human activity is most likelyto be the dominant driver. One way to visualize these two eects isthat natural variability (and intermittent volcanic eruptions) produceslarge, year-to-year changes in regional and global climate, resultingin a sometimes warmer- and sometimes colder-than-average climate.Underlying this year-to-year variability is a slow, but steady, orcing dueto human activity that is driving an overall increase in Earths surace

temperature.

Tis is explained by a recent National Academy o Sciences report:

Most o the warming over the last several decades can beattributed to human activities that release carbon dioxide(CO

2) and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases (GHGs) into

the atmosphere. Te burning o ossil uelscoal, oil, andnatural gasor energy is the single largest human driver oclimate change, but agriculture, orest clearing, and certainindustrial activities also make signicant contributions. Naturalclimate variability leads to year-to-year and decade-to-decadeuctuations in temperature and other climate variables, as well assubstantial regional dierences, but cannot explain or oset thelong-term warming trend.18

Changes in the EnvironmentWe see evidence that climate is changing now.19 Some o these evidencesinclude the warming o oceans, melting o ice caps, rise in atmospherictemperature, and increased evaporation. Te National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently released a reportexplaining ten o the evidences or climate change, as seen in the gurebelow.

Our growing understanding o the physics and chemistry o theatmosphere helps us predict how temperatures will rise as greenhousegases increase. Scientists predict that the temperature o the atmospherewill increase between 3.5 and 11 degrees Fahrenheit by the end o thiscentury.20

Changes o this magnitude are large and unprecedented in relatively shorttime rames. Scientists estimate that the temperature change between thelast glacial period and our current climate is an increase o about 10 to 14degrees Fahrenheit. Tat change occurred over about 5,000 years, and theclimate has been quite stable or the last 10,000 years, with changes o lessthan 2 degrees Fahrenheit. 21-22 Even a ew degrees o temperature changeover a century mean a huge increase in heat energy or the atmosphereand ocean. A rapidly warming world will yield erratic weather, meltingice and glacier loss, rise in the sea level, changes to agriculture, loss oorests, decline o sheries, and increased human health issues.

Figure 4. Tere are multiple eects o climate change already occurring.19


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Erratic Weather

In Chicago in 1995, nearly 700 deaths were attributed to heat. In thesummer o 2003, Europe experienced intense heat waves, estimated to bethe highest in 500 years.23 Heat-related deaths were estimated at 45,000people or more.24 Heat waves tend to kill the sick, the old, and the inrm,especially through cardiovascular ailure and air pollution.25 We cantattribute all heat waves directly to climate change, but climate change willlikely increase their requency.

In contrast, the winter o 20092010 was extremely harsh in parts onorthern Europe.26 Tis cold weather is partially attributable to changesin wind currents. Warm airow was reduced in Europe, while arcticwinds increased. Due to the complex eedbacks in the movement o bothocean and wind currents, climate change may redirect wind currents,warming some parts o the globe while causing extreme cold events inothers. Consequently, even though some places were exceptionally cold,the period rom January to April 2010 was the warmest on record or theplanet.27

Careul analysis leads to the projection that summers such as theextremely hot one in Europe in 2003 are likely to be average by themiddle o the 21st century and considered cool by the year 2100.28

We are also likely to experience an increase in storm destruction andseverity. A warmer world will lead to more evaporation o water rom thesurace, more water vapor in the atmosphere, and more precipitation onaverage. Tis means a tendency toward more intense rainall events andalso less rainall in some semi-arid areas.

Tere is no evidence that storms will increase in number overall, butthere is evidence or an increase in intensity o individual storms, leadingto an increase in the most damaging types o storms.29 By one estimate,250 million people in lower-income countries were harmed by extremeevents rom 2000 to 2004.30 Tis is many times higher than the impacts inhigh-income countries, in part because poorer people oen have to live invulnerable areas.

Melting Ice and Glacier Loss

Polar ice, glacial ice and arctic permarost are melting. Tis melting willhave a number o eects on low-lying areas, polar regions and glaciers.25

Melting will have an impact on wildlie and cause the release o evenmore greenhouse gases.31-32 One o the ways it can do this is throughpositive eedback loops, which occur when a change triggers a series oevents that makes the original change even greater. For example, warmingo permarost in the Arctic releases trapped gasses rom the rozenground. Tese, in turn, contribute to a rise in air temperature and greaterwarming o the ground.33 Tere are negative eedback loops as well. An

example o a negative eedback is increased plant growth in some placesas carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere. Tose negative eedbackloops are helpul, but they are not enough to keep climate rom warmingoverall.34

Another example o positive eedback is the melting o ice. As ice melts,dark soil or ocean water is exposed, leading to more absorption o solarradiation, more warming and urther melting. Tis ice melt has importantconsequences or polar and hence, global climate, but also has importantconsequences on a smaller scale. One specic example o positiveeedback is the melting o glaciers in the Andes.

Te Bolivian capital o La Paz is a crowded, bustling city in an arid,rugged landscape. Te water or the city comes, as it does or most o thepeople in the Andes, rom glacial meltwater. Te glaciers slowly let go otheir precious resources during the summer and regain that water romsnowall during the winter. Climate change has made glaciers melt morerapidly than they otherwise would. Already, mountainous countries thatdepend on glacial melt experience limited water resources.35-36

In 2009, National Geographic News reported that the glaciers atMontanas Glacier National Park may be gone by 2020, endangering theregions wildlie, although some scientists are cautious about predictingthe glaciers demise. What is generally agreed on is that the glacierso Glacier National Park shrank by 67 percent in the past 100 years.37Worldwide, the pace o glacial melting is ar above what we would expecti there were no changes in the climate.38

Figure 5. Glaciers in the Andes are drying. Many people must adapt to lesspredictable water supplies as glacial streams and rivers dry. Photo courtesy o RobBroek.


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Sea Level Rise

As ocean temperatures rise, the water expands and raises the waterlevel. Melting glaciers also contribute to the rise in sea level, but onlyin a small way. From 1870 until 2001, sea levels rose about 7.8 inches.39Conservative lower estimates o uture sea level rise are between 1.3 and3.2 eet by the year 2100.40

Coastal Alaska is vulnerable to the rise in sea level.41 Shishmare, Alaska,

is a sparsely populated community on a remote arctic island. Te Native

American inhabitants live on a diet o seal and other marine lie. But theloss o arctic ice, the rise o the sea and an increase in severe storms havewashed away part o the town and made it difcult or the residents toremain. Hunting and shing are more dangerous, and a traditional way olie is collapsing. oday, the people o Shishmare are trying to raise undsto move to a new location.42

uvalu, a tropical island in the South Pacic, is the second smallestsovereign nation in the world. Its 12,000-plus inhabitants all live lessthan 14 eet above sea level. Like Shishmare, uvalu is on the rontline o climate change. As sea levels rise and storms erode the coastline,islanders ace the real possibility that their homeland may soon beuninhabitable.43-44

AgricultureIn a warmer world, there is the likelihood that precipitation willincrease in many parts o the globe. In other places, heat will accelerateevaporation, or wind currents will divert precipitation elsewhere. Someregions o the globe will experience increased drought.45 Australia,already the driest continent, is likely to become drier, as are parts osub-Saharan Arica.46-47 Scientists estimate that with a 3.5- to 4.5-degree-Fahrenheit global temperature increase, an additional 2.4 to 3.1 billionpeople will experience water stress.48 Tis will deprive millions o oodand income.

In addition to water stress, temperature rise aects plants by making themgrow more quickly. Increased carbon dioxide by itsel also increases plantgrowth. While this might sound desirable, rapid growth oen resultsin lower crop yields. For example, some studies have estimated that a1.8-degree-Fahrenheit temperature rise will result in a 1 to 9 percentdecrease in corn production.48 Other crops show similar trends. In a ewcases, crop yields rise with increased temperatures, but this is unusual.Unortunately, many weeds respond better to an increase in carbondioxide than do cash crops.48

Loss of Forests

Worldwide, orests play a great role in the lives o the poor, providinguel, ood, and other resources. Climate change worsens orest loss, acidrain, and insect damage to trees.46,48-49 Damaged orests have a difculttime slowing oods and taking up carbon dioxide. In the southern UnitedStates, orests provide thousands o jobs.50 Te orest economy and thepeople it supports are threatened by a drier, warmer uture.51

For example, the southern United States rom exas to Virginia andKentucky to Florida, has orests that are economic powerhouses,producing more paper pulp by volume than any other nation andsupporting thousands o jobs.50 A drier, warmer uture, with more resand outbreaks o beetles, threatens this orest economy and the thousands

Figure 7. Vietnam isanother ood-pronecountry. Photo courtesy oWorld Vision.

Figure 6. Shishmare, Alaska, is already experiencing loss o land romstorms, as portions o the island are washed into the ocean. Photocourtesy o Te American Association or the Advancement o Science.


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o people it supports.51

Alaska has suered the death o millions o acres o trees. Pests, whichused to be killed by cold weather, now live longer, grow aster and eatmore than they used to. Increased problems with pests and res couldcause a loss o 50 percent o the harvestable timber in Alaska, at anestimated cost o $332 million.52

Decline of Fisheries

Rising temperatures alter ecosystems and even cause the extinction ospecies. An increase in average annual temperatures o only 4 to 8 degreesFahrenheit will put between 20 and 30 percent o plant and animalspecies at risk.53 Many people rely on wild animal species just as othersrely on orests. One example o a potential loss is the change in sheriesworldwide.

All over the world, bodies o water and the sh they house are in decline.Overshing and climate change together have harmed the cod sherieso the North Sea. Warmer temperatures result in less ood or cod larvaeand ewer sh or people who depend on them.54 Over-irrigation andpollution are already harming an important Arican water resource.Lake Chad has a $45 million shing industry that supports 150,000shermen. Unortunately the lake has lost 92 percent o its surace areain 40 years.55 A changing climate brings the lake just that much closer tocollapse.56 Globally, sheries contribute between $225 and $240 billionto the economy annually. Researchers estimate that healthier sheries

could have prevented malnourishment or 20 million people in 2000.57However, sheries are not only stressed by harvest and pollution but alsodamaged by changes to the climate.

Human Health Challenges

Te eects o a changing climate on human health include an increasein ood-borne illness such as salmonella, an increase in tropical diseases,malnutrition rom crop ailures, cardiorespiratory distress rom heat andairborne pollution in cities and other medical problems.58-59 Many othese problems are already more common in poor populations.60-61 Oneexample is the eect o heat waves, which can directly kill thousands, as

Europe experienced in the summer o 2003.23

But not all the changes are negative. Tere are some positive impacts. SirJohn Houghton, ormer head o the Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange, noted that in Siberia and other areas at high northern latitudes,winters will be less cold, and growing seasons will be longer. However,he said that careul studies demonstrate that adverse impacts will aroutweigh positive eects, more so as temperatures rise more than 2 to 3.5degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels.62-63

All over the globe, scientists have come to the same conclusions. InJune 2009, the Academies o Science o 13 countries (Canada, France,Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, Russia, the United States, Italy,India, China, Mexico, South Arica and Brazil) issued a statementendorsing the conclusions o the world body that studies climate change(the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and urging worldgovernments to take urgent action to address climate change.64

Figure 9. Gatheringprecious water in Chad.Lake Chad provideswater to more than 20million people livingin the our countriesthat surround it. Photocourtesy o earund.

Figure 8.A orest o dead and dying trees in the American Southwest.Photo courtesy o Storm Usrey.


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In spite o the act that scientic proessional societies (including theAmerican Association or the Advancement o Science,65 AmericanChemical Society,66 American Physical Society,67 American Geophysi-cal Union,68 and American Meteorological Society69) attribute much otodays warming o the globe to human activity, many people are stillunsure. Lets look at some ways to evaluate evidence when science seemsto be controversial.

Evaluating the EvidenceTere are diering claims about any scientic controversy. It is hard tosort through the media hype to discover the truth. Christians, as wellas others, have voiced skepticism about climate change. Skepticism ishealthy. In act, modern science is based on skepticism. We start out

unlikely to believe a new idea, and then, as we get more evidence, weorm a clearer view o the world and either accept the new idea becauseevidence supports it, or reject the idea as evidence does not support it.

However, in issues that are highly divisive and argued in the publicorums, the discussion can easily become conusing. Te ollowing aresome ideas or sorting out scientic issues in the news:

Dig Deeper into the Facts

How are environments around the world changing? Is there a physicalexplanation or the phenomenon? What could reasonable alternativeexplanations be? Te questions we ask about climate change oen liewith the relative importance o natural and human-caused actors, asdiscussed above. In the case o climate understanding, there is a great dealo scientic evidence that can answer these questions.

Avoid Polarizing Voices

Dont look or good inormation rom angry people who call othersnames or reer to conspiracy theories. Listen to those who are careul withtheir words, a biblical characteristic shown in James 1:19-20.

Listen

Look to ofcial joint statements rom proessional societies. For example,the nations top scientists in the National Academies o Science (NAS) andother proessional societies represent the conclusions o tens o thousandso scientists.

One o the advantages o such statements is that they remove individualbiases scientists may have. Scientists dont all vote the same way, dont likethe same activities, may not even like each other, and would not agreeto something as a group unless they thought it was accurate. Check theresource list or some reputable sources.

Get to Know a Scientist

Get to know local scientists who are Christians. Let them help you sortthrough the scientic inormation in the media. Are there scientistsin your church? Ask or advice. O course, no scientist understands allscientic questions. Scientists also dont have a single point o view. Butthey can help you understand why there is uncertainty and show youwhere to nd unbiased inormation.

Sometimes people, including scientists, talk outside their areas oexpertise. Know the dierence between an expert in the area in whichyou are asking a question and a person with a general interest.

Moving Past ControversyIn 2009, e-mails and documents released by hackers and taken rom theUniversity o East Anglia Climate Research Unit cast doubts on climatechange research. Across the world, people elt shocked by what appearedto be raudulent practices on the part o climate scientists. However, threeindependent reviews o the scientic center and its sta,70-73 as well as areview o a collaborator at Pennsylvania State University,73 agreed that theconclusions o the scientic community were sound. Other authoritiesincluding the National Academy o Sciences have reached similarconclusions independently.

For better or worse, the events o Climategate, as it was called,shook many people who thought they understood climate change. Itdecreased trust o the scientic community. Several o the reviews, whileholding that the science was sound, ound that scientists did not shareinormation well, or the processes they worked under were not openenough. Tese are serious problems in communication, and as a result othe scrutiny, stronger policies have been put into place to make sure data

is shared and models are transparent.

In addition to reviews o the University unit, there were reviews o theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) itsel and its 3,000-page 2007 report. One review o the IPCC 2007 report was by a panelcommissioned by the United Nations and led by a team o independentvolunteer scientists rom several countries.74 Tey gave the IPCCscientic process a mixed review. Tey concluded that the 2007 IPCCreport was well supported with very ew errors and with well-supportedmain conclusions, particularly in the rst three volumes. However, thepanel concluded that some o the summary statements in the separatesummary volume ocused narrowly on individual negative consequences.Tey also were critical o the process in place to deal with act checkingtens o thousands o statements and sources, although the errors that havebeen ound have been very ew.

Te same climate trends that scientists were describing beore the


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My ather was a minister in the Christian Reormed Church, and mymother was educated as a high school mathematics and English teacher.I grew up in a house ull o books and ideas and arguments, and many oall three dealt with God and religion. My parents were totally committedto Covenant theology and raised their children rom birth as members oGods amily. All seven o us went to Christian schools; in these schools, wewere taught that everything in the world belonged to God and that whatevercareer we chose was Gods work. I then attended Calvin College. My years atCalvin were a pivotal period in my lie, not only because o the ne educationthat I received, but because o the witness o my proessors, who showed methat intellectual excellence and Christian conviction could exist in harmony.Troughout my education, I grew in my knowledge o and commitment tomy aith.

I gradually ound my way to an undergraduate degree in physics and thengraduate school. By Gods providence, I was led to the atmospheric sciencesdepartment at the University o Washington and a conversation with aproessor there. He invited me to do a special research project with himtoinvestigate the possible eects o a commercial eet o supersonic airplaneson the chemistry o the stratosphere. In one short quarter, I discovered whatI wanted to do. My prior education, my love or the environment, and myreligious commitment all coalesced into what I can only describe as a call.

In my second year in atmospheric sciences, I read an article describing howEarths climate is modulated by particles in the atmosphere and greenhousegases. I was ascinated by this subject and gradually switched my researchto the study o planetary climate, which I continue to this day. I earned myPh.D. more than 35 years ago. Since that time, I have had the great privilegeo working as a research scientist or NASA, serving as the chie scientisto a large climate program run by the Department o Energy, and being aproessor at two prestigious universities. I have published more than 150

peer-reviewed scientic papers in the eld o climate on a wide range otopics. Trough all this, I have remained rmly convinced that God hascalled me to this work just as surely as he called my ather, my youngerbrother and my son to be ministers o his word.

As the years went by, many other climate scientists and I became aware o thepotential or increasing greenhouse gas concentrations to warm the suraceo Earth. Te idea itsel was not new (its roots can be traced to John yndalein the 1850s and Svente Arrhenius in the 1880s), but human inuence onclimate was. During the decade o the 1980s, concern among scientists grew.Our understanding o atmospheric physics, our measurements, and ourmodels told a consistent story o a warming o planet Earth due to humanactivity. For most scientists, there is no single moment o blinding light onthe Damascus road in which one is suddenly convinced o some scientictruth. Rather, it is a journey o study and research, o careul constructionand testing o hypothesis. It is like working on a huge jigsaw puzzle withonly a uzzy picture as a guide. But, eventually, the combined eorts o

AscientistsPersPect

ive

controversy about procedure arose have been conrmed by subsequentresearch. For example, a report o a survey o all o the research since2006 on climate change commissioned by the Swedish government oundthat new research published since 2006 conrms earlier research resultsconcerning ongoing climate change, human inuence and possible utureclimate change we believe that the published results show that some othe eects o continued global warming are more severe than previouslythought and that uture climate warming may be greater than previouslyestimated.75

One healthy outcome o these problems has been a change in the waysome scientists operateespecially in communicating, transparency anddata sharing. Such changes needed to occur. However, the e-mail leako 2009 did not change the conclusions o scientic studies. All o the

subsequent evidence and extensive reviews have upheld the scienticbasis o climate change in spite o procedural aws. Unortunately, oneo the eects was an erosion o trust o scientists by many in the generalpublic. It may take time or the scientic community to regain that trust.New procedures and transparency as well as the voice o Christians whoare active in peer-reviewed climate science will help. Tomas Ackerman,who gives expert voice in this document, is one such scientist.


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many scientists lead to a much clearer picture, a rm theory o how Earthclimate works. Trough such a process, my colleagues and I have reachedan understanding o the role that carbon dioxide plays in maintaining ourclimate and how increasing concentrations will warm our planet, leading tochanges in our climate. Tese conclusions, while not without uncertainty, areneither arbitrary nor capricious; they are rmly rooted in the laws o physicsand chemistry.

I have never elt a dissonance between these two aspects o my lie, the studyo the world and o Gods word. Trough them both, I see God. Among mymost treasured theological truths are the providence o God and commongrace: He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain onthe righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45). God gives talents to allpeople, and among those talents is intellectual ability. Over the years, I have

learned much about my discipline rom those who do not believe in God.Does their disbelie in God taint their physical science? For the most part, Ithink not. o think otherwise is to deny the grace o God operating in ourworld.

We are called as children o God to seek justice and care or the earth thatGod has given us. Degrading the environment, polluting air and water, andmisusing valuable resources are obvious ways in which we Christians all arshort o Gods commands. But now we are conronted by the act that we arealtering Earths climate by our own activities, a situation that generates a seto complex moral and ethical questions. I am encouraged that the evangelicalchurch has begun serious discussion o the climate issues, including calls toreconsider our proigate use o the global environment. I hope and pray thatits voice will become increasingly clear on these issues.

Tomas AckermanProessor o Atmospheric Sciences

Director o the Joint Institute or the Study o the Atmosphere and OceanUniversity o Washington

HOW CLIMATE AFFECTS THE POOR

Bangladesh is a river delta the size o Wisconsin. Most o its territory isless than 30 eet above sea level; consequently, water and ooding aremajor acts o lie. But the requency and severity o weather extremesmajor cyclones, killer oods and droughtare escalating.76

Peter Vander Meulen, director o the Christian Reormed Churchs Ofceo Social Justice, shares the story o one Bangladeshi armer. Alliuddin

owns less than three acres o land and successully manages multiplesmall, irrigated vegetable plots to produce enough ood and income toeed, house and clothe his amily. He uses irrigation water rom the smallbranch o a stream with its source in the hills o Assam. In past yearsthis stream had been a reliable source o water throughout the long dryseason, but now it resembles a shallow, seasonal stream. Due to changesin rainall patterns (shorter, more intense bursts o rain resulting in hugebut short-duration runo), once-perennial rivers are showing signs obecoming seasonal, and precious soil is eroding.

I Alliuddins irrigation source dries up beore his vegetables areharvested, he has only a ew options. With unds, he may nd an

3SECTION

Figure 10.Alliuddin and his amily. Photo courtesy o Peter VanderMeulen.


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alternative water source, such as a shallow or deep motorized well. Butthe pace o change and the addition o other actors such as deorestationin the jungles and hills o India make these transitions more difcult.

From 500 million small arms around the world, armers like Alliuddineed more than 2 billion people, almost a third o humanity. I Alliuddinand the armers on similar small arms cannot cope with a changingclimate, the worlds ood supply, along with the lives o millions more, willbe threatened.77-78

Stories like Alliuddins illustrate how hard it is or the poor to deal withchanges in the environment. Te impact on the poor can be summarizedas our main problems: (1) Poor people are more aected by disasters. (2)Te cost prevention and survival (mitigation and adaptation) are higher

relative to their income. (3) Tey are more likely to be displaced, and (4)they are more likely to be aected by ensuing conicts.

able 1. A Changing Environment and Poverty

Problem Impacts on the Poor Example

Disasters Te poor become more vul-nerable aer disasters as theyoen have no buer to dealwith crop ailures or physicaldamages to their homes. Teyare less likely to have ood orother disaster insurance.

Aer a ood in Peru in Janu-ary 2010, villagers struggledto rebuild due to a lack oresources and the closing oa nearby historic site, MachuPicchu, which resulted in mil-lions o dollars in lost touristrevenue.

Cost oAdaptation

Te poor are less likely tohave reserve unds to allocateto adaptation eorts. I they

choose to spend money onadapting to or preparing orchanges, they do so at thesacrice o other necessaryitems, such as ood, educationor health care.

Erratic rain over the lastdecade has orced armersin the village o Ndieyat in

Kenya to adjust. Farmers nowplant almost anytime it rains,because they dont know i therains will continue. Still theadditional costs or extra seeddo not guarantee crop success.

Displacement Migration disrupts livelihoodsand oen aects host andtransit countries negatively.

Millions o Pakistanis weredisplaced by the record-breaking 2010 oods; manymore reugees are expected inthe next years.

DiminishedResources

Lack o resources leads toviolent conicts over territoryand goods.

Nomadic herders, shermenand armers in Nigeria clashover resources such as landand water.

Natural DisastersTe poor, especially in poor nations, are the most vulnerable to abruptchanges in the environment.79-80,34 In one study on the eect o climateunpredictability, researchers ound that in 16 poor nations, poor peoplewill become more vulnerable i climate continues to change, becausethey have no buer to help them deal with crop ailures or other suddenchanges.81 Similarly, poor people are less likely to have ood or otherdisaster insurance or to be able to manage in the case o disasters.

Te cost o responding to changes in the environment can be high orrural villagers. Aer a devastating ood in Peru in January 2010, Jerrell

Richer, director o the Goshen College Study-Service erm in Peru, toldthis story:

Four consecutive days o rain inundated the region around thevillages o Lucre, Huacarpay, near the town o San Jeronimo.Te Cusco airport was closed, bridges were washed out, and thenearby railway line was partially destroyed. Several weeks later,students rom Goshen College went to assist with the cleanup ina rural area devastated by the oods. People lost their homes andmost, i not all, o their possessions. Tey were relocated to a tentcity erected by the government on a nearby ridgeline.

Te students assisted with cleanup and attempted to help withreconstruction, which was slow going due to lack o resources in thisvery poor community. Government promises o support were unullled.Tere was very little money to purchase construction supplies. Tispoverty was made even worse by the closing o the nearby historic site,

Figure 11. Erosion on this Bangladeshi river has caused 400amilies to lose their land over a period o years. Photo courtesyo Peter Vander Meulen.


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Machu Picchu, sacred city o the Incas and the most visited touristdestination in South America. Many oreign tourists cancelled trips,which resulted in millions o dollars in lost tourist revenues to the region.

Te Peruvian oods were not due solely to climate change; they resultedrom several causes. But climate change, by increasing the likelihood oextreme events, makes the livelihood o Peruvians more precarious.

AdaptationAdapting to a changing environment by moving, building saer struc-tures, or erecting water tanks costs money. For example, an initial esti-mate o the cost o adapting to changes in the climate (activities such asplanting ood-tolerant crops; building new roads, levies, and bridges;building water storage in dry areas; moving out o ooded lands; growing

drought-tolerant crops; and preventing the spread o disease) was $40 to$170 billion per year, about the cost o three Olympic Games series. How-ever a subsequent, more-detailed assessment suggested that this estimatewas too low.82 A recent report by CARE International states:

Climate change is not the sole cause o poverty, but it works withother actors to intensiy the vicious circle which traps peoplein poverty. Tis makes it harder to help people out o the down-ward poverty spiral. It is also likely that more people will all intopoverty i climate change undermines their current livelihoodstrategy.83

Te improvement in predicting weather and developing early warningsystems oers opportunities to prevent the loss o human lie that comesrom disasters such as the storms that caused ooding in Pakistan in2010.84-85 Such warning systems are a part o climate change adaptationand will require substantial investments.

Figure 12. GoshenCollege studentshelp rebuild aerextreme stormshit Peru. Photocourtesy o JerrellRicher.

DisplacementTe eects o storms, oods and droughts on individuals are obviousproblems. But changes to the environment can also be a serious concernor societies at large, as groups o people migrate to seek more sustainablelivelihoods.

Many environmental reugees are expected as desertication, rising seas,disasters and wars produce climate reugees.86-88 Bangladesh is expectedto produce 20 million climate reugees by the year 2030.87 Low estimatessuggest upwards o 50 million environmental reugees by 2050; manyestimates are higher.87

In 2008 alone, an estimated 36 million people were internally displacedas a result o sudden-onset natural disasters, including 20 milliondisplaced by disasters associated with climate change.89 In addition, ithas been recognized that more gradual changes, such as rising sea levels,desertication, water scarcity and decreased agricultural output will causepeople to migrate in order to support livelihoods.

ConfictConicts have many causes and are hard to attribute to just one actor.However, conicts are likely to increase as a changing climate causesresources to become more limited. In a 2009 study on the estimatedeects o climate change on Arica, researchers concluded that increasedtemperatures are associated with increased conict, which suggests aroughly 54 percent increase in armed conict incidence by 2030, or anadditional 393,000 battle deaths.90

Conicts over water are already common in many parts o the world andare likely to increase as the climate changes.91-92 In Nigeria, or example,

Figure 13. Tisyoung Bangladeshigirl struggles withthe diculties thatcome rom povertyand climate change.Photo courtesyo Peter VanderMeulen.


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nomadic herders, shermen and armers clash over resources such asland and scarce water.93 Tis conict is worsened by drought, one o theoutcomes o climate change.

As a result o concerns about heightened conict, natural disasters andmigration, as well as the costs the military bears with the threat o sea-level rise and its use o coastal bases, the U.S. Department o Deense hasidentied climate change as a national-security issue.94 In a 2010 reportthe Department o Deense stated, While climate change alone doesnot cause conict, it may act as an accelerant o instability or conict. ...In addition, extreme weather events may lead to increased demands ordeense support to civil authorities or humanitarian assistance or disasterresponse both within the United States and overseas.95

Climate and Vulnerable U.S. populationsChanging climate isnt only an issue that aects those in third-worldcountries. A recent study showed that in the United States, poor peopleand minorities are hurt most, a disparity called the climate gap.96 Forexample, mortality rates rom heat waves are twice as high among AricanAmericans in Los Angeles as among other residents. People in urbanareas, the poor and those with medical problems are more vulnerableto heat waves.97 In the 1995 heat wave that killed 700 people in Chicago,those without transportation and air conditioning were more likely todie.79 By the end o the century, heat waves as intense as the one in 1995could occur every other year. And thats a low estimate. Other requencyestimates are higher.80

Arican Americans are likely to be disproportionately aected by achanging climate. Tose who live in the Atlantic hurricane zone havebeen ound to suer heat death at 150 to 200 percent o the rate o non-Hispanic whites and have a 36 percent higher rate o asthma, which ismade worse by heat. More o U.S. Arican Americans income is spent onenergy, and they are less likely to have insurance.98

In Caliornia, agricultural and tourism workersmany o whom areHispanicare particularly vulnerable due to changes in job availability.In addition, households in the lowest income bracket use a threetimes greater proportion o their income or water than do those inthe wealthiest income bracket.99 Samuel Rodriguez, president o theNational Hispanic Christian Leadership Conerence, says, Te Hispaniccommunity is likely to be disproportionately impacted by the eects oclimate change. We need to speak to the moral, social and economicconsequences that stem rom the reality o climate change.

he last thing most people living in poverty need is climate change. Inthe developed world, we may not eel the immediate impacts, becausemost o us have the resources not to eel them: When its hot, we turn onthe air conditioner. I we are thirsty, we turn on the tap or pour a cooldrink rom the rerigerator, even i it hasnt rained in weeks. Food arriveson our grocers shelves each week, and we can aord to buy it. But orpeople who live on less than a dollar a day, air conditioning is not anoption. Tey may not even have shelter. Finding water that is sae to drinkor enough ood to keep their children healthy may take several hours othe day. Much o their time is spent struggling to survive.

For the people whom World Vision serves throughout the world, climate

change is not a ctitious or a ar-o threat. Its a very real intensier opoverty today. For those already struggling under the weight o poverty,climate change increases vulnerability to environmental shocks that areoutside their control, and it decreases the resources that would help themcope. Te eects have already undone years o development investmentby driving people climbing out o poverty back down the developmentladder.

Climate change is a global phenomenon that aects people everywhere,but it hits the poor hardest. For example, an Arican armer who barelyekes out a living with insufcient seeds, tools and other equipment maynow be getting more rain, less rain, or the same amount, but in muchmore intense storms. Tere may be too much water or planting, too littlewater to germinate the seeds, rain coming at the wrong time and wipingout the crop. Tis armer likely has no crop insurance or governmentassistance to all back on, very limited savings, and little or no access tocredit. So any weather shock will drive her into deeper poverty, orcing

ADeveloPmentWorkersPersPective

Figure 14. Ruralarmer and herchildren workin the felds.Photo courtesy oWorld Vision.


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her to sell her only assets, such as her animals or tools. She may even beorced to eat the seeds she needs to grow next years crop.

Spend time with people already in vulnerable and environmentallydegraded places such as Haiti, Ethiopia or Malawi, where deorestationhas been intense and thorough. When rains or storms come, severeooding, erosion and destruction result. How do people rebuild andrecover? Unortunately, by using up all their resources, oregoing theeducation o their children, eating less, and putting o medical care.Disasters set back the development process, which means that preciousresources are spent on rebuilding rather than on projects that wouldimprove quality o lie.

Responding to a changing climate is a present-day reality. We work withcommunities to respond in a variety o ways, including the ollowing:

Partnering with the World Bank and the people o Humbo, Ethiopia,to establish Ethiopias rst-ever carbon-trading orestry project. Teproject has been hugely successul, reoresting over 6,741 acres odegraded orest, increasing crop yields, and providing additionalsources o income or the local communities.

In Vietnam, a country among the top ve most aected by risingsea levels, we have established disaster-risk reduction plans in manycommunities located in the Quang Ngai province, along with trainingand supplies or 10 community-rescue teams.

In Benin, we are working with communities to set up protectivebarrages around elds and plant vetiver grass in the lowlands to

conserve the limited rainall they do get and to better delegateirrigation o the elds.

Climate change is making the ght against poverty much harder. Teseare just a ew examples o how organizations are helping people dealingwith poverty to adapt to the reality o our changing climate. It is a globalissue that will require a global response.

Christopher ShoreDirector, Environment and Climate IssuesWorld Vision International

WHAT SHOULD WE DO?

I the things we have been reading are truethat we are called to loveGod and to love our neighbor, that our climate is changing, and thischange will aect the poor most o allthen we, the evangelical amily,have no choice but to act on this problem. What might such a responselook like?

Pray or WisdomEvangelicals believe in the power o prayer. We should pray or discern-ment as we sort through conusing messages about climate change. We

should pray specically or those who are likely to be most aected by po-tential changes to our climate. Write and ask missionaries and aid workersyou support how climate change may aect them, now or in the uture.Commit to praying or them on a weekly basis. Invite others to join youin concern, study and prayer. Finally, pray or our leaders, who must workthrough complicated issues surrounding climate change.

Make Liestyle ChangesPeople have long adapted their lie habits and systems to the energy thatis available to them. Te challenge or us is to make changes voluntarily,or the sake o the poor and or the sake o Gods creation, beore they areorced on us by world events. We can do this with some o the ollowingchanges:

Live more simply. Most Americans can make liestyle changes that will re-duce their energy requirements. We can learn godliness with contentmentand avoid being enslaved to materialism (see 1 imothy 6:6-9).

Use energy more eciently. Most o us waste a signicant portion o theenergy we consume. We could enjoy many comorts while using lessenergy. Churches should lead the way in energy efciency, and many othem are beginning to do so! Our houses o worship should be models ogood stewardship.

Switch to renewable energy sources. Several alternative energy optionsexist that do not increase greenhouse gases. Tese include wind, solar, hy-droelectric and geothermal power. Te challenge will be to develop themas viable energy sources on the scale we need and at a price we can aord.

Consider energy policy reorms. I we had to pay the ull cost o the energywe use, we would certainly use it more wisely. Changes to our energypolicy should be careully studied and implemented in a way that rewardsconservation and efciency while cushioning the impact on those withlimited means.

I you are unsure about the science o climate change, implementing someo the above changes is still benecial or other reasons. Reducing the

4Section


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use o ossil uels will preserveour limited supply or uturegenerations, improve healththrough lower air and waterpollution, and reduce depend-ence on oreign oil. Reducingour consumption will savemoney, which we can use tourther the work o Gods king-dom. Our care or creation willreduce revenues to regimes inoil-producing countries, someo which sponsor terrorismand/or religious persecution.

And when nonbelievers seeChristians take the lead in car-ing or the poor and or Godsworld, we win a hearing or thegospel.

Support CommunitiesEorts to AdaptWhen disasters strike,evangelicals respond and givegenerously. Most churches takespecial oerings or allocateunds rom their budgetsto help those aected byhurricanes, earthquakes, oodsand tsunamis. Sometimes,though, we miss opportunities

to be proactiveto helppeople prepare or comingdisasters.

Millions o the worlds poorestace potential hardship andsuering rom changes inthe environment. We can

Energy Star for Congregations

Saving energy in your church building makescommon sense. The money saved can gointo your missions budget, can pay or thatyouth minister youve wanted to hire. Thelist o benets is endless. For this reason,many churches are using the Energy Star orCongregations program, a set o resourcesor congregations, in order to identiy waysto lower their energy use. One resource is thepamphlet: Putting Energy into Stewardship:Energy Star Guide or Congregations.

Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas,is an example o a church that successullylowered its energy use. By careul planning,they made changes in 2006 and 2007,cutting their energy use by 33 percent,and lowering their annual energy cost by$725,000. At the same time, they are saving10.5 million pounds o CO2 rom enteringthe atmosphere. In 2007, the churchwon the 2007 Energy Star Award or SmallBusinesses and Congregations.

Other churches, both small and large, aremaking similar conservation eforts, savingmoney and protecting creation and the poorat the same time.

http://www.energystar.gov/ia/business/small_business/con-

gregations_guidebook/Cong_Guide.pd

Energy Star. 2007. In the News: Prestonwood Baptist Church.

2007 Energy Star Award or Small Businesses and Congrega-

tions, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department

o Energy

Recent years have seen considerable debate, at both the popular and thescientic level, about the reality, causes and potential impact o changesto our climate. While there are disagreements over details, a broadconsensus is emerging among scientists. I these experts are right, ourchanging climate threatens the health, security and well-being o millionso people who are made in Gods image. I our actions are contributingto the problems, making a bad situation worse, we need to know about it.And i there are things we can do to protect our neighbors, both at homeand around the world, we should be ready to do our part.

Te scientic consensus is not yet widely accepted within the evangelicalcommunity.i Tere are disagreements about the acts and predictions,suspicions about the motives o those who propose solutions, and

concerns about unintended consequences i we adopt the recommendedremedies. Tese are important issues that need prayerul study anddiscernment. Lives are at stakelives o precious human beings orwhom Jesus died.

Precisely because we are pro-lie and pro-amily, we are not content toroll the dice with our own and our neighbors uture. We take appropriateprecautions. We pray or Gods deliverance, and we seek to align ourlives with our prayers. Providentially, some o the behaviors that wouldmitigate climate change are also benecial or other reasons.

Reducing our consumption o oreign oil would improve our peace,security and well-being by limiting nancial transers to regimes thatabuse human rights and sponsor terrorism, while also improving ourtrade balances. It would also preserve a valuable nonrenewable naturalresource or uture generations. Burning less coal would lead to cleanerair and improved health. Improving energy efciency in our cars, homesand ofces would ree up money or investment in our amilies and

businesses, and or advancing the gospel and caring or the poor aroundthe world.

Some commentators rightly maintain that poor countries need aordableenergy to grow their way out o poverty and nance environmentalprotection. Using market mechanisms and price increases to reduceossil uel usage, they warn, could have a disproportionate impact on thepoor by denying them access to the energy they need. Could the cure beworse than the disease? We need to consider the very real possibility ounintended consequences.

However, it would be tragic and shortsighted to advise poor countries toollow the Western pathway to wealth through proigate nonrenewableenergy consumption. Such a strategy would almost certainly hastenthe negative impacts o climate change. In any case, the cost o oil, inparticular, is likely to rise dramatically as demand increases and suppliesplateau. A development plan or poor countries that relies on cheap ossil

APro-lifePersPective

contribute directly to evangelical relie-and development-agencies thatare planning or adaptation, poverty relie and development, conictresolution and disaster relie both in the United States and abroad. Wecan also support international assistance by our government. Everynation, including our own, needs to analyze its vulnerabilities andmake appropriate plans. We can encourage communities to incorporateconsideration o climate change into their long-term plans. Tere are,o course, many other things evangelicals can do, and this is not anexhaustive list.


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uels seems doomed to ailure. Instead, all countries, whether rich orpoor, will need to work toward more sustainable development pathways.Meeting the needs o uture generations or clean energy and sustainabledevelopment will require extraordinary eorts on the part o scientists,engineers, inventors, researchers, politicians, and others using theirGod-given talents. Te Church can support those working in these eldswith prayer and encouragement. As the NAE has said elsewhere, Humanintelligence and will, guided by Gods grace, can nd ways to securegreater measures both o peace and o reedom, and to preserve andprotect the dignity o man.100

We do not know what the uture holds. But we do know who holds theuture. Te gracious end o human history has been assured in theresurrection o Jesus Christ: Gods kingdom will triumph, in Gods time

beyond time.100

So we approach the uture not with ear but with hope.

Galen CareyVice President, Government RelationsNational Association o Evangelicals

iAccording to research published by the University o Maryland in 2011, 31 percent oevangelicals believe that most scientists think that the problem o climate change isurgent and enough is known to take action. But among evangelicals who are aware o thescientic consensus, nine out o 10 say preventing climate change is an important goal.

Kull, S., J. Steinbruner, N. Gallagher, C. Ramsay, E. Lewis, J. Siegel, K. Jones and S. Subias,Faith and Global Policy Challenges: How Spiritual Values Shape views on Poverty,Nuclear Risks, and E nvironmental Degradation, Center or International and SecurityStudies at Maryland, School o Public Policy, University o Maryland and Program onInternational Policy Attitudes (November 18, 2011).

CONCLUSION

In 2004, evangelical leaders adopted a consensus document, For theHealth o the Nationthat summarizes our collective wisdom on whyand how evangelicals should engage in civic aairs.101 Te documentidentied seven areas o common concern: religious reedom, marriageand amily, sanctity o lie, poverty, human rights, peace, and care ocreation.

Arguments can be made or the priority o one or another o theseconcerns, but the big picture is that they are closely interrelated. Tehealth o our nation, and the world, depends on progress in each o theseareas. For example, the genocide in Darur, in which Sudanese amilieshave been torn apart, women raped, and thousands murdered, arose in

part rom a conict over water and grazing rights. I millions o climatereugees are orced to relocate, this will have a prooundly destabilizingimpact on world peace and security. Environmental conicts, in otherwords, oen threaten the sanctity o human lie, the integrity o theamily, and the ability o government to protect peace, human rights,individual reedoms, and national security.

In the biblical story o Joseph, the climate changed, and drought came.Te people o Egypt might have starved. But, as J. Matthew Sleeth, MD,author oServe God, Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action, says,Joseph was wise and stored up crops or the years o hardship. Sleeth seesa clear parallel to today. Tere was a climate crisis. Te people obeyed.Tey conserved, and lives were saved. oday, Sleeth says, we need to planahead or what climate changes might bring.

Wealthy people and nations may be aected by changes to the climate,but we have resources to adapt. Te poor do not. As ollowers o Jesus,committed to justice and compassion, we seek to understand the potential

threats to the lives and well-being o poor and vulnerable people. We donot claim to know exactly what will happen as temperatures rise. Butwe can come alongside the poor and make it possible to adapt to rapidchanges, and even by our own choices, to lessen the impacts o climatechange.

Evangelicals have a long history o caring or the poor. One NAE memberdenomination, the Salvation Army, was ounded nearly a century anda hal ago specically to reach out to the poor. Te NAE was only twoyears old when it ormed the War Relie Commission (now known asWorld Relie ) to care or reugees during World War II. Even beore that,o course, evangelical missionaries were building clinics, hospitals andschools around the world as integral parts o their witness to Gods loveand compassion through Jesus Christ. It was deep concern or the poorthat prompted the NAE to study the potential impact o climate changeson the poor.


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Tis is not an issue one person can solve, but together, by Gods grace, wecan make a dierence. It would be easy to eel overwhelmed. We couldthrow up our hands in despair. Our aith, however, encourages us topersist: Let us not become weary in doing good, or at the proper timewe will reap a harvest i we do not give up (Galatians 6:9).

AFTERWORD

I arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on a rainy night in the late 1990s. AsI stepped outside, I heard someone say, Follow me. I ound mysel inwater up to my ankles as I ran to a waiting vehicle. As we drove throughthe streets, I heard screams and cries coupled with the sounds o allingmetal.

Te driver said, Tose are people in Citi Soleil losing their homes. Ithappens every time we have a hard rain. I later visited Citi Soleil andunderstood the incredible ragility o what has been called one o thelargest and most vulnerable slums in the world.

I was not aware o the denuded mountains, the overworked soil, and the

use o chemicals that damage Haitis ecosystems, making the countrymore vulnerable to oods and other disasters. A devastating earthquakein 2010 brought these issues to worldwide attention.

In Zambia in 2009, I watched an AIDS widow and mother o ourclutching a handmade shovel and scratching the soils hard surace. Teenergy needed ar surpassed her strength. Seasons are now unpredictable.Te rains barely came during the rainy season, ollowed by an earlydrought. As a result, this mother was still trying to plant a garden in someborrowed space in hopes there would be ood or the next season.

As I stood there, helpless, I heard the words echo through my mind:Love your neighbor as yoursel. I pondered the practicality o this. Later,on the same trip, I heard the bewildered village elders say, We used toknow exactly when to plant, and almost the day the rains would start, butsomething very strange is going on that we have never experienced, nordid our ancestors.

Yes, climate change is happening. While we debate the causes o climatechange, people are dying rom its eects. Do we love our neighboronly i it costs us little or nothing, agrees with our politics, is convenient,and doesnt interrupt our lives? In her bookeaching a Stone to alk,Annie Dillard challenges us regarding the power o God. She writes, Tewaking God may draw us out to where we can never return. Tis is a callto more ully understand the reality o loving our neighbors as ourselves.Living at this level brings new eyesnew understandings, new eelings,and yesnew and bold actions.

May God draw us out to where we can never return. May our neighborslive!

Jo Anne LyonGeneral SuperintendentTe Wesleyan Church

Fig. 15. Girl in Cambodia. Photo courtesy o World Relie.


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SPECIAL ADVISORS*

Matthew AndersonExecutive DirectorNational Religious Partnership or the Environment

Edward R. BrownExecutive DirectorCare o Creation, Inc.

Mitch HescoxPresidentEvangelical Environmental Network

Sir John Houghton, Ph.D.Former head o the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

ADVISORS

Paul R. CortsPresidentCouncil or Christian Colleges & Universities

Calvin B. DeWittProessorUniversity o Wisconsin-Madison

Jerrell Ross Richer, Ph.D.Director, Study Service erm in PeruCarl Kreider Proessor o EconomicsGoshen College

Samuel RodriguezPresidentNational Hispanic Christian Leadership Conerence

Andy RyskampExecutive DirectorChristian Reormed World Relie Committee

Larry J. SchweigerPresident and CEONational Wildlie Federation

Matthew and Nancy SleethDirectorsBlessed Earth

REVIEWERS

Rory Anderson

om BakerAdvocacy Alliance Managerearund UK

Stephan J. BaumanPresident and CEOWorld Relie

Dave EvansPresident

Food or the HungryLuke Gascho, Ph.D.Executive Director, Merry Lea Environmental Learning CenterGoshen College

Stephen A. Hayner, Ph.D.PresidentColumbia Teological Seminary

Helen HeatherClimate Change Campaign Managerearund UK

Ryan HobertDeputy Director, Energy & ClimateUnited Nations Foundation

Ian S. Johnston, Ph.D.

Proessor o Biological SciencesBethel University

Gregg KeenComplementary Interventions Program DirectorCompassion International

Raymond J. Lewis, Ph.D.Associate Proessor o BiologyWheaton College

Rick Lindroth, Ph.D.Proessor o Ecology and Associate Dean or ResearchUniversity o Wisconsin-Madison

W. Meredith Long, Ph.D.Senior Director or International ProgramsWorld Concern


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RESOURCES for further study and action*

National Academies o Sciences oers a short, readable and reesummary, Understanding and Responding to Climate Change. Seehttp://dels-old.nas.edu/climatechange/understanding-climate-change.shtml.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association provides an annual re-port on climate: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/bams-state-o-the-climate.

Books for Church LibrariesBailey, Liberty Hyde, and Norman Wirzba. Te Holy Earth: oward a NewEnvironmental Ethic. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2009.

Ball, Jim. Global Warming and the Risen Lord: Christian Discipleship andClimate Change. Evangelical Environmental Network, 2010.

Bouma-Prediger, Steven. For the Beauty o the Earth: A Christian Visionor Creation Care. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001.

Bouma-Prediger, Steven, and Brian J. Walsh. Beyond Homelessness:Christian Faith in a Culture o Displacement. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B.Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008.

Brown, Edward R. Our Fathers World: Mobilizing the Church to Care orCreation. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008.

DeWitt, Calvin B. Earthwise: A Guide to Hopeul Creation Care, 3rd ed.,Grand Rapids: Faith Alive Christian Resources, 2011.

DeWitt, Calvin B. Te Environment and the Christian: What Can WeLearn rom the New estament?Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing

Group, 1991.

Gascho, Luke. Creation Care: Keepers o the Earth. Herald Press, October27, 2008.

Hayhoe, Katherine, and Andrew Farley.A Climate or Change: GlobalWarming Facts or Faith-Based Decisions. Nashville, N: FaithWords,2009.

Jones, James.Jesus and the Earth. London: SPCK Publishing, 2003.

McMinn, Lisa Graham and Megan Anna Ne. Walking Gently on Earth:Making Faithul Choices about Food, Energy, Shelter and More. DownersGrove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2010.

Robinson, ri, and Jason Chatraw. Saving Gods Green Earth: Rediscover-ing the Churchs Responsibility to Environmental Stewardship. Ampelon

Monty LynnAssociate Dean, College o Business AdministrationAbilene Christian University

Lisa Graham McMinn, Ph.D.Proessor o SociologyGeorge Fox University

Steve MoorePresident and CEOTe Mission Exchange

David NeEditor in Chie

Christianity oday

Lowell (Rusty) Pritchard, Ph.D.President and CEOFlourish: Reviving Lives and Landscapes

Scott SabinExecutive DirectorPlant with Purpose

Joseph K. Sheldon, Ph.D.Retired Distinguished Proessor, Messiah CollegeBoard Vice Chair, Pacic Rim Institute or Environmental Stewardship

John P. iemstra, Ph.D.Proessor o EconomicsCalvin College

Richard WeaverHead o Climate Policyearund UK

Robert White, Ph.D.Proessor o Geophysics, Cambridge UniversityFellow, Te Royal SocietyFounding Director, Te Faraday Institute or Science and Religion

John R. Wood, Ph.D.Proessor o Biology and Environmental Studies, Te Kings UniversityCollegeAcademic Dean, Te Au Sable Institute o Environmental Studies

*Advisors and reviewers are listed as individuals and not representing theirorganizations in any ocial capacity.


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