“The nations were angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great– and for destroying those who destroy the earth and for rewarding your servants the prophets”(Revelation 11:18).

Because there is so much controversy about global climate change in conservative evangelical circles, it seems like a risky issue to address here.  But I’ll be the Guinea pig by telling you how I think about it.  You be the judge about whether or not it’s a reasonable and biblically sound way to think.

To begin, let me say that I don’t consider any of the following to in any way be authorities on global warming: politicians (past or present), economists, preachers, news reporters, talk show hosts, Hollywood celebrities, parachurch ministry leaders, seminary professors, free-market libertarians, or scientists and publicists being paid by companies that stand to gain by either affirmation or denial of global warming.  Not listening to them eliminates from my consideration most of those who are talking about it as though they were authorities.

Since it’s primarily a question of science, I choose to listen to earth scientists—and atmospheric and climate scientists in particular.  But because there are behavioral issues suggested by whatever the science is telling us, when it comes to ethics in relationship to the global warming and its consequent climate change, I find it as close to ideal as possible to find and listen to the views of atmospheric scientists who share my view of Christian ethics.  There are two individuals that I’ve chosen to listen to because they’re recognized and highly respected atmospheric scientists whose conclusions are carefully vetted by other such authorities, and they’re followers of Christ: Sir John Houghton former chief atmospheric scientist in the UK and Dr. Thomas Ackerman in the US.  (Follow the links to their scientific conclusions and Christian views by clicking on their names. Also see John Houghton’s Wikipedia information here.)

[A new resource has become available since this article was first posted: A Climate For Change, a new book by climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe and her pastor husband, Andrew Farley.  Katharine is both a follower of Christ and a member of the Academy of Sciences who contributed to the Nobel Prize winning report from the International Panel on Climate Change.  Her scientific assessments appear sound and her writing style is smooth and easily grasped.]

From these individuals I get information that makes me conclude that global warming is happening, that worldwide human behavior is a major contributor to global warming, and that the general effects of global warming on God’s creation are and will continue to be far more negative than positive.   So for me, that’s it.

Well, not quite.  There’s a significant follow-up question: if global warming is happening and humans are a major cause, how must Christians then live?  That’s not as easy a question to answer.  What helps me with the answer, though, is the old story of the boy who was standing next to some authorities who were trying to figure out how to get a semi-trailer unstuck from an overpass that was two inches too low for it.  They were considering cutting off the top of the truck, cutting out a section of girders, or even digging out the concrete below the overpass.  Standing no more than wheel height, the boy tugged on the sleeve of an official and asked: “Why don’t you take  some air out of the tires?”  The “authorities” were thinking of top-down and complex resolutions.  The boy was looking at it bottom-up, where the solution was obvious.

My viewpoint on global warming and all other threats to the creation is similar.  All sorts of internationally complex and controversial top-down “solutions” to the problem are being suggested.  Further, vested interests with virtually unlimited amounts of cash are throwing all sorts of wrenches in the works.  Debate rages and confusion reigns.  So my bottom-up question is this: “Why don’t we each individually curb our unnecessary burning of fossil fuels (which we know pollutes the air), stop spewing other stuff into the air that we shouldn’t breathe, stop spreading on our soil stuff we shouldn’t eat, stop pouring into our water stuff we shouldn’t drink,  cut back on our material consumption, live more simply, make some personal sacrifices in the use of transportation and energy, buy locally, and “reduce, recycle, and reuse”?  If we did what we could down here by the “wheels,” there would be fewer upper-level problems to deal with.  Ultimately the Copenhagen conference is about examining the standards of living of the industrialized world and about how the rich nations can help the poor ones.

The truth is that collectively our human habits are doing a lot of damage to God’s good creation. Whether these are directly, indirectly, or even related at all to global warming, lots of bad things are happening: the dying of the trees; the collapse of global fisheries; the disappearance of amphibians; the increase in human cancer, asthma, and allergies; vastly premature puberty in girls; loss of access to fresh water; alteration of ocean chemistry; heavy metal poisoning of marine mammals; and massive loss of biodiversity by human-caused extinctions of species made, cared for, and cherished by their Creator.

In my opinion, far too much human energy is spent on the big and complex debates, and not nearly enough on our just doing what we know is right and good for the creation.  Who and what is “destroying the earth” referenced by the apostle John?  We likely consider ourselves to be the saints who “reverence [God's] name.”  But if we are also culpable in the destruction of the earth, what then?  I don’t know about you, but that sobers me.