Climate Change
This week the government has announced a Climate Change Bill proposing legally binding targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by Britain. By 2020 they aim for a reduction of between 26% and 32%, and 60% by 2050.
The carbon dioxide, water vapour and methane in the atmosphere act as a sort of 'blanket' to keep in some of the sun's warmth. Without this 'blanket' our planet would be very cold indeed. By burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas we have released more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and the planet is heating up too much.
People in the UK are responsible for emitting as much as 50 times more CO2 than people in the poorest countries. With the USA, Japan, Germany and Canada we are one of the five largest emitters of CO2 per capita. These are the countries most responsible for climate change.
But it will not be they who suffer most. Rather it will be those who are least to blame - and indeed they are already suffering. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, loss of life and adverse economic impacts from climate change are expected to be greatest in developing countries. The three countries most vulnerable to climate change during the 21st Century will be Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and Afghanistan. According to the Red Cross, by 2022 the costs of climatic disasters are expected to rise to a figure 10 times predicted aid flows. The number of refugees will leap from 15 million today to 150 million or more by 2050.
And it is not just the poor today who will suffer; the effects for our children and their children will be far worse. It takes 30 to 50 years for greenhouse gases to have their full effect on the climate. The damage already done to the climate by artificial greenhouse gas emissions will affect us for the next 1,000 years. (Met Office)
The churches have been accused of not speaking about the matter and not having a "Green Theology". This is what I would like to address.
God created the world, saw that it was good and gave humankind dominion over the earth.
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
We are accountable to God for everything that he gives to us. Jesus told the parable of the talents to illustrate this ( Matthew 25 ).
When we help others God is pleased. If we do not help or even harm others we are accountable for this, even though may be unaware of this at the time. We know this from Jesus parable of the sheep and goats ( Matthew 25 ) when both groups were unaware that they had helped, or ignored Jesus, when confronted with the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick or imprisoned.
We should be "green" because we have a duty to care for the world that God has created and entrusted to us. We have an obligation to love others as ourselves. We have a responsibility to those who are vulnerable. Both to those in the developing world at the moment and to future generations.
What can we do in response?