Does your spirituality influence your take on climate change?

DB 10 =]

jim- you clearly are on the side of the argument that humans are capable of doing harm. me too, as I am aware of the track record of the human race in the 20th century, extinctions, Chernobyl, Bhopal, the ozone layer destruction, climate change, almost every major ocean fishery overexploited, yadda yadda.

I think it is a matter of knowledge. What's the worst that could happen, question asked by people too ignorant to actually know the answer to their question.

& thanks too, Destiny. Destiny itself visited my thread, ha!

And of course, let's not *forget* one of the most basic laws of science: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction!

I'm not sure what it would be called, but I recognize that all living things have an impact on the world around them (and vice versa). Plants take in CO2 and release oxygen, animals breathe in air (oxygen, nitrogen, etc.) and release CO2 (and oxygen, nitrogen, etc.) [needless to say this is much more complicated as plants also respire and animals also release other gases, etc.]. All this is normal, and the world developed mechanisms of interactivity that balanced the competing needs of all of its communities.

Alas, there are limits to the world's ability to balance things. While the example is anachronistic, think about cramming people into a phone booth. At first it's kind of cozy. But the more people you put in, the more uncomfortable it gets until eventually either people start suffocating and getting crushed...or the phone booth splits apart.

We used to dump sewage into rivers. The river carried the raw waste downstream while simultaneously degrading it into CO2 and water. But then we had too many people dumping too much sewage into too few rivers (which flowed with less water because we were taking it out for irrigation and upstream cities). And the river got polluted and could no longer balance itself. It's called carrying capacity in ecological circles.

When we were few, the world could handle our activity, though even then there could be localized degradation (think of a leaching field that has reached its saturation point). We are no longer few. And we've increased the kinds of activities that impact our environment. And thus our impact is potentially greater.

In short, it's just common sense that need to be aware of the delicate balance that is our environment, and the fact that we have the potential to influence it either positively or negatively. To think otherwise is irrational.

Yes.

I suppose so. I don't believe in the concept of a soul.

Religion is a funny thing. On the far political left are Wiccans, on the far right are literal wordsmiths. Most are in between, with a partial head and heart relationship with the environment.

Funny question, Chris. I date my "environmentalism" to a spiritual experience I had (or a series of them), while I was studying in a Catholic monastery in my early 20s. I have rarely felt so prayerful and aware of the divine than when fishing at night, alone on a lake, looking at stars so clear you can follow the "Milky Way" across the sky from midnight on. I think I have an acutely intuitive sense that all creation is "intelligent". I do, in fact, believe in "intelligent design" - not a science, but as faith - or more correctly, "experience".

That said, what mostly influences my view of climate change is science - the IPCC Reports, and the fact that every major scientific organization in the world endorses those Reports. Unfortunately, only about 9% of the population is influenced by scientific research re: climate change, according to a University of Virginia study in 12/2008.

David and Steve- interesting. So the problem with climate change is not so much that people have religious problems with it or have a lack of spiritual connection with the topic. It's more that climate change is about science, and that most people refuse to learn anything about the science.
Based on Gather I guess I would accept that.

Very insightful, Chris.

no

Absolutely not.

We don't live near water and my neighbor is building an Ark. Should I worry?

I think the most abominable influence is the belief that the world will end soon. Those who really believe that the world is coming to an end probably care less about being "stewards of the earth."

Michael- those who believe that it is impossible for us to destroy what God gave us live in a dream world, and they are the ones who have no incentive at all to be good stewards. Some of those people are believers in the End Times. Some of those people actually welcome the prospect of a massive war in the middle east, as they feel it is a pre-requisite to the Rapture.

I think there is a high probability that the authors of the IPCC report are very influenced by their spirituality. They believe global warming could cause floods, pestulence, drought....