Discerning Ethics

Diverse Christian Responses to Divisive Moral Issues

Hak Joon Lee, Tim Dearborn, Hak Joon Lee, Tim Dearborn

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780830843725
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Racism. Immigration. Gun violence. Sexuality. Health care.The number of ethical issues that demand a response from Christians today is almost dizzying. How can Christians navigate such matters? What are faithful responses to these questions?Edited by two theologians with pastoral experience, this volume invites engagement with these issues and more by drawing on real-life experiences and offering a range of responses to some of the most challenging moral questions confronting the church today. With an unflinching yet irenic approach, this resource can help Christians as they seek to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.

1

Climate Change

Rebecca Shenton and John Mustol

REAL LIFE

“Pastor Charlie” has been pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Rockport on the Texas Gulf Coast for twenty-seven years. On Wednesday, August 23, 2017, tropical depression Harvey was off the coast with winds of thirty-five miles per hour—not a concern. But with unusually warm water in the Gulf of Mexico, Harvey rapidly strengthened into a category four hurricane and moved onshore. Pastor Charlie and others evacuated, but not all were able to leave. Harvey hit Friday night, August 25, with the eye passing directly over Rockport. Church members Annie and her husband, Bill,1 were unable to evacuate and rode out the storm barricaded in a closet in their home. It was the most terrifying experience of their lives. They survived, but their badly damaged house was condemned. Harvey lingered over southeast Texas for a week, causing heavy rains, historic flooding, sixty-eight deaths, and $125 billion in damage.2

Pastor Charlie returned after the storm to find devastation—homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed, and debris was everywhere. The church and his home were still standing but badly damaged. Some church members lost their homes. Recovery was difficult but encouraging as churches and the community shared resources and worked together as never before. Most members stayed in Rockport, but some moved away—including Annie and Bill. After their ordeal, they could not face another awful storm. Pastor Charlie noted that the storm exposed poverty in the community. Many who were poor suffered more because they were already living in inadequate housing and could not evacuate. “No longer can we turn a blind eye to these folks,” he said.

Although a few in the community had previously mentioned climate change, it has not been a priority issue. Pastor Charlie says that environmental changes in Rockport are obvious—increased shoreline erosion, higher tides, changing weather patterns—but connecting these to a slow, variable process like climate change is difficult. Besides, the church and community face more urgent concerns, such as caring for their families and one another. As Pastor Charlie put it, despite the experience of Harvey, people are just trying to put one foot in front of the other and get on with life as best they can.

We can draw two lessons from the experience of the people in Rockport. First, ordinary people are concerned with the immediate problems of life, not with a seemingly distant, slow, and variable process like climate change that presents only a potential future threat. For Rockport’s residents, Harvey was bad, but the last bad storm was Celia in 1970, almost a half century ago; it doesn’t seem like hurricanes are becoming more frequent or severe. The connections between lifestyle, carbon emissions, climate change, storms, and sea level are not clear to most people, so it is hard for them to see the need for change. Second, as Pastor Charlie noted, those who are poor and marginalized suffer most from climate change. This is true globally and presents a profound moral problem for the affluent of the world, who bear greater responsibility for climate change.

REAL WORLD

Climate change or global warming involves the entire planet’s climate system. For over two hundred years, people have been burning increasing amounts of fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—for their energy needs. Today, these fuels remain the major energy sources for our global economy.

Burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other greenhouse gases (GHG)3, which are emitted into the atmosphere through, for example, our cars’ tailpipes and factory smokestacks. The earth’s ecosystems remove CO₂ from the atmosphere by absorption into the oceans and photosynthesis carried out by plants, especially in the great forests of the world. However, GHG emissions have increased several-fold while we humans have simultaneously been cutting down forests.4 As a result, the earth’s ecosystems can no longer absorb all the CO₂ we produce, and atmospheric concentrations are rising—by about 40 percent between 1800 and 2017, from 280 to 406 parts per million (ppm). This is almost entirely due to human activity, and mainly fossil fuel use.

GHGs are normal and necessary. By increasing the heat-retaining capacity of the atmosphere, they warm the earth by 20-30ºC (35-55ºF), making it suitable for human life. Of course, GHGs and the climate have always varied. For example, in the last 2.5 million years, warming and cooling cycles have caused a series of ice ages. But our current situation is unique because we are raising GHG (mainly CO₂) levels far faster than ever before in earth’s history, causing global average temperatures to rise rapidly—about 1.0ºC (1.8ºF) since 1900.5 A warmer atmosphere contains more energy and moisture, leading to more frequent and intense weather events such as hurricanes, rainstorms, and droughts. Also, warmer temperatures are melting glaciers and the polar ice caps, warming the oceans, raising sea levels, and causing changes in ecosystems, while rising CO₂ levels are causing ocean acidification.6

Human behavior is the most important yet the most uncertain factor in understanding the future of climate change. Its global scope means that global cooperation is required to address it. This brings up the enormously complex and difficult topic of climate change politics.

Although we have known about climate change since the nineteenth century, it became a public issue only in the 1980s. The United Nations took up the issue and formed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988, a cooperative international body providing scientific information on climate change and its ecological, political, and economic impacts. At this time, it has produced five reports, the last one in 2014. A special report focusing on the importance of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 to 2.0°C was issued in 2018.7 A sixth report is due out in 2023. In 1992, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was formed at the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also called the Earth Summit. Since then, nations continue dialogue in a yearly Conference of the Parties (COP). In 1997, in Kyoto, Japan, the UNFCCC adopted the Kyoto Protocol, which imposed some modest reductions in emissions on developed nations but not on developing countries. Participation has been limited, but some nations (mainly in Europe) have sought to meet these reductions with mixed results. The annual COP meetings have been the principal venues for pushing toward the goal of a global agreement on climate change. After much delay, such an agreement was signed by 195 nations, at the COP 21 meeting in Paris, France, in December 2015. This set a limit of 1.5-2.0ºC rise in global average temperatures to be achieved through emissions reductions by all nations, including developing nations. Unfortunately, the Paris Accord is voluntary and has no firm mechanisms for accountability. Nonetheless, many political leaders and activists have hailed it as a landmark event. Its effectiveness was significantly weakened in June 2017 when President Trump withdrew the United States from the accord.

Despite these agreements, global GHG levels continue to rise, illustrating the extreme challenge of climate change. Some factors that complicate its politics include: (1) disputes between the wealthier, more developed nations of Europe and North America (Global North), whose development and affluence have depended on fossil fuel use, and poorer, developing nations of Africa, South America, and parts of Asia (Global South), who want to use fossil fuels for their own development and hold the Global North responsible for their historical emissions that caused the problem in the first place; (2) the rise of economic neoliberal ideologies that favor unfettered capitalism, resist government controls, and view climate change regulations as a threat to economic freedom; (3) our current overwhelming dependence on fossil fuels, impeding our ability to envision alternatives; (4) the potentially catastrophic consequences of climate change if we fail to act, tending to paralyze our thinking and acting; and (5) people’s focus on the more immediate concerns of life—self-care, family, jobs, and security rather than long-term consequences for their children and grandchildren. There are many other factors, but these illustrate the extreme difficulty and complexity of the political problem of climate change.

If we continue our present course, CO₂ levels could exceed 800 ppm by 2100, and temperatures could rise by 4ºC (10ºF).8 Such a world would be much harsher with frequent storms, floods, droughts, higher sea levels, and displaced peoples. Although we cannot predict the exact timing of these changes, unless we act to reduce GHG emissions, they will happen. All people must be engaged, especially Christians who worship the God who is Creator and Lord of all the earth.

RANGE OF RESPONSES

Like many other issues, climate change and other environmental problems have become politically polarized in American society. Those on the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Foreword by Mark Labberton
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction | Hak Joon Lee
• Part One: Ethics of the Globe
• Part Two: Ethics of the BODY
• Part Three: Ethics of Violence
• Part Four: Ethics of Formation
• Afterword | Tim A. Dearborn
• Contributors
• Author Index
• Subject Index
• Scripture Index
• Notes
• Praise for Discerning Ethics
• About the Authors
• More Titles from InterVarsity Press
• Copyright