Transcript Religion and Climate Change

CLIMATE CHANGE IS
ABOUT SCIENCE, NOT
RELIGION
Sustainability Myth Busters 14
September 2015
Outline
• Assumptions
• Issues
• Different religious interpretations and responses to climate change
• Conflict between ‘science’ and ‘religion’
• Relevance of religion?
• Task
What is climate change?
• Change in long-term weather patterns induced as a result of the
greenhouse effect
• Greenhouse effect – greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb
and re-emit heat being radiated from the earth, trapping warmth.
• Greenhouse gases include water vapour, CO2 and methane
• CO2 makes up the bulk of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
• CO2 is linked to energy and industry, leading a majority of climate
scientists to argue that the current change in climate is human
induced (International Energy Agency; National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Association)
• Growing consensus that human activity is causing climate change
iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/2/024024/article
Assumptions
• Climate change is about science
• Anna Rose from the Australian Youth Climate Coalition “It's not a
conspiracy, it's not a plot, it's not a religion: it's science. And it's time to
take it seriously again.”
• "wanted to try and bring that science back to the forefront of the debate
so people didn't get too distracted by short term politics”.
• http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2012/04/26/3489290.htm
• Climate change is about economics
• Stern Review 2006
• Market based solutions embedded in the market regime – carbon
trading, offsets, 1992 UNFCCC agreement – find solutions to climate
change without impeding economic growth and market functions
2015
• COP21 in Paris at the end of this year
• Goal – reach a new agreement on the reduction of carbon emissions
to replace the Kyoto Protocol that runs out December 2020
• Representatives from almost 200 countries debate minutiae of
climate change
• High-level UN meetings
• Side events, presentations and negotiations
• Civil society gatherings and events
Issues
• Agreement that climate change is happening and that it is largely
human-induced
• Both dissenters and advocates claim “science” in their support –
you cannot argue with science – has science become the new
religion?
• 2009 COP15 – agreement reached to limit global warming to 2
degrees celsius, establishment of climate fund to assist developing
countries adapt to effects of climate change
• 2012 COP 18 – Kyoto Protocol extended beyond it’s end date (2012)
to 2020.
• Kyoto Protocol includes emissions targets for Northern (Annex 1)
countries, but not Southern countries.
• New agreement will include emissions targets for both Northern
and Southern countries
Issues
• No one wants to commit to further emissions reduction targets
• Northern governments
• unwilling to limit their emissions outputs further until Southern powers
also commit to reducing their emissions.
• acknowledge some historic responsibility, but argue that rising economic
powers such as China and India need to take responsibility for their
emissions as well.
• Unequal burden for Northern emitters to take the brunt of the emissions
reductions.
• Southern governments
• Should not have to cap emissions until they have reached a commensurate
level of development with the North.
Issues
• Northern governments
• admitted some culpability for existing CO2 levels
• committed to reducing their emissions and providing financial and
technological support for developing countries through climate change
adaptation and mitigation approaches.
• In reality –
• emissions reductions have been minimal
• largely been the result of economic crises
Example: The European Union
• One of the few state blocs that met its emissions reduction
obligations under the Kyoto protocol,
• BUT - mainly because of the economic collapse in post-Communist
‘Economies in Transition’ (EIT)
• Reported reduction in emissions by Annex 1 countries, from 19,000
to 17,800 million metric tons CO2 equivalent (mtCO2e) for the 1990–
2008 period is entirely due to the economic collapse in EIT countries
(over this period EIT emissions dropped from 5900 to 3800 mtCO2e
while at the same time non-EIT Annex 1 countries’ emissions rose
from 13,000 to 14,100 mtCO2e).
Example: The Global Financial Crisis
• Emissions of non-EIT Annex 1 countries rose 14.9% during the boom
years of 1990 to 2007,
• Collapse of financial markets starting in 2008 nearly halved this
overall increase to 8.4%. But even this reduced rate is still
significantly above the Kyoto target.
• Main- stream economic view that the EIT recession and the GFC
were large-scale events unlikely to be repeated on a regular basis,
then the non-EIT 1990–2007 growth in emissions of 14.9% reflects an
emerging trend across industrialized countries, as such carbon
emissions in industrialized countries are rising, not falling (UNFCC
2011: 11, Figure 2; See also Steger, Goodman and Wilson 2013,
especially chapter 7).
Issues
• Suggests that current economic operating model is at least tied to climate
change in some way
• Other issues – responsibility and justice.
• Intergenerational justice – not just about present arrangements but also
impacts on future generations
• Is it primarily concern of individuals – do individuals need to change their
consumptive lifestyles, do governments need to promote alternative
technologies? Is climate change a scientific issue, economic problem,
social, political, moral – or all of these???
• Growing recognition that climate change is all of these – it impacts every
area of life so all areas of society should be involved in discussing and
developing solutions
• As Hulme makes clear, what we believe profoundly affects our attitudes,
behaviours and politics and the type of world we wish to see
Religious perspectives on climate change
• right-wing, conservative, frequently religiously-affiliated climate skeptics,
• science is trying to bamboozle us in some kind of conspiracy.
• Genesis 1:28, God tells the human beings He has just created to “fill the
earth and subdue it.”
• Privileges Judeo-Christian scriptures over the authority of science.
• Eschatological view of human existence and history which consequently
affects views on climate change
• Example: Mark Driscoll
• Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, an Evangelical megachurch, speaking
at a major evangelical conference earlier this year “I know who made the
environment. He's coming back and he's going to burn it all up. So yes, I
drive an SUV.”
• Suggests a “throwaway theology that sees the created world as
disposable”
Religious perspectives on climate change
• Both the Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches
promote a completely different approach to climate change and to
science.
• The Pontifical Academy of Sciences May 2011 report on shrinking
mountain glaciers
• emphasized the sense of stewardship and responsibility shared by
all humanity. “By acting now, in the spirit of common but
differentiated responsibility, we accept our duty to one another and
to the stewardship of a planet blessed with the gift of life”.
• Science and rationality, in this view, are not seen as the enemies of
faith, but rather as gifts from God that enable us to think, to make
good and responsible decisions about how we care for our world.
Science vs religion?
• scientists construct religion as the antithesis of reason.
• Science based on reason and evidence. Religion based on emotions,
spirituality, largely irrational.
• sets up a false dichotomy between religion and science, between
rationalism and spirituality and emotion.
• Need to think about assumptions that sit behind the words
‘science’ and ‘religion’
• What even is ‘religion’?
• If climate change is constructed as primarily the domain of
scientists, then religion and faith have no part to play in the
discussions around how to deal with the challenges that climate
change will bring.
Contributions
• Moral frameworks
• Most religions have an ethic of respect and care for creation at their core,
though, as Hulme notes, this results in very different views of what should
be our main priorities for action on climate change. Agreeing that we
should care for creation does not necessarily mean that we agree on how
that should be done. This is a microcosm of some of the broader issues
plaguing action on climate change
• Language – religious language plays a part in the discourses on
climate change, particularly within the global justice movement
which draws on narratives of sacredness, moral responsibility,
ethics of otherness
• But also raises a question about where ‘religious’ perspectives end
and secular begin. Is religious and secular useful?
Contributions
• Communities of social action – many churches, synagogues,
mosques, temples have climate action groups
• Ethic of otherness – this is not just about our responsibilities to
others now, but also into the future. Owing to their connection
with the transcendental realm religions often promote longer term
view
• Care for/of creation
• Stewardship
Influence of religious leaders and communities
• Religion continues to be an important factor shaping the attitudes
and behaviours of billions of people around the world
• Religious leaders and communities can be highly influential in
encouraging attitudinal and behavioural change – Pope Francis,
Channels of Hope
• Religious worldviews offer alternative frameworks for how we
think about the value of the environment, the relationship between
humanity and the natural world and our responsibilities towards it
that could enhance public activism and engagement
• Religious worldviews are also concerned with questions of justice
that Climate change also raises.
Task
• Develop an outline for training module for one of three groups:
• Secular climate scientists and civil society practitioners on the relevance of
religious perspectives for promoting effective responses to climate change
• Religious leaders who are skeptical of climate change, drawing on the
teachings of religious traditions and leaders.
• The general public, utilizing both secular and religious approaches, to raise
awareness about climate change and how to respond
• What should the training module include? What would the main
focus/priority be? How would you implement it? How long would it be?
What would be the main resources you would use?
Additional resources
• If you’re interested 
• Steger, M.B., J. Goodman and E.K. Wilson. 2013. Justice Globalism: Ideology,
Crises, Policy. London: Sage, especially Chapter Seven
• M. Hulme. 2009. Why We Disagree about Climate Change. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press (see also more recent publications)
• The Religion Factor Blog – http://religionfactor.net also Facebook and
Twitter @FactorReligion
• Centre for Religion, Conflict and the Public Domain – Facebook and Twitter
@crcpd_rug