Greener than thou

Greener than thou is an article in World that talks about the greening of evangelicals. Here are a few excerpts.

The Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI), a statement signed by 86 prominent Christian leaders, outlines the catastrophic dangers of global warming and cites biblically mandated stewardship as the impetus for governmental restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions. Support from such highly visible sources as Purpose Driven Life author Rick Warren and Foursquare Church president Jack Hayford gives the ECI an unprecedented measure of credibility among those typically leery of environmental causes.

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When asked for comment on that peculiar recommendation, Mr. Richards expressed little surprise: "Perhaps many of those who signed the Evangelical Climate Initiative were primarily concerned with the issue of whether we should be stewards of God's creation, which, of course, yes, that's non-negotiable. But the specific policy position, I don't know if everyone that signed it looked carefully and thought carefully about the consequences of that."

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ECI leaders have staked their position on the authority of scientific reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN-sponsored collaboration of multinational representatives. The most recent comprehensive IPCC report states that some of the climate changes in the past 50 years are attributable to human activities. The 2001 document further contends that "the projected rate and magnitude of warming and sea-level rise can be lessened by reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

The ECI statement dubs the IPCC "the world's most authoritative body of scientists and policy experts on the issue of global warming." But research scientist John Christy, a lead author on the IPCC report, disputes such a glowing endorsement: "Most of the folks in the IPCC are not climate scientists. It's luring and convenient for them to latch onto a simplified view, a Time-magazine-type view, of climate change." …

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Mr. Chilton explains that CO2-emissions reductions would dramatically increase the cost of energy, dragging "down economic growth to potentially stagnation or shrinkage. That has huge implications on people's well-being, much larger than the possibility of sea-level rise."

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Evangelical members of the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance, a group of prominent academics and clergy united in skepticism of global warming extremes, share no such conviction. ISA advisor P.J. Hill, an economics professor at Wheaton College, rejects making climate change policy an article of faith: "One can take very seriously the biblical mandate for stewardship and yet come down on very different sides depending on how one assesses the science and economics. The Bible does not give us the answer."