God, Creation and Climate Change PDF 2009

God, Studies...

God, Studies 02/2009 Studies 02/09 Climate change threatens the future of the planet and raises deeply spiritual and ethical questions. In this book, biblical scholars, theologians and ethicists creatively develop perspectives, from Creation and Christian and other traditions, that can inspire and empower us to make the significant changes in worldviews, practices and policies needed at this kairotic time. Contributors include: Sigurd Bergmann (Norway), Karen L. Bloomquist (editor, USA), Colette Bouka Coula (Cameroon), Norman Climate Change God, Creation and Climate Change Habel (Australia), Anupama Hial (India), Tore Johnsen (Norway), James B. Martin-Schramm (USA), Cynthia Moe-Lobeda (USA), Elaine Gleci Neuenfeldt (Brazil), Barbara Rossing (USA), Christoph Spiritual and Ethical Perspectives Stueckelberger (Switzerland), and George Zachariah (India). LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY PRESS The Lutheran World Federation – A Communion of Churches DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-c1 1 05/08/2009 10:07:41 AM DTS-Studies-201002-text.indd 10 02/03/2011 15:55:18 PM  God, Creation and Climate Change. Spiritual and Ethical Perspectives LWF Studies, 2009 July 2009 edited by Karen L. Bloomquist on behalf of DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-21 1 05/08/2009 16:32:50 PM  God, Creation and Climate Change: Spiritual and Ethical Perspectives LWF Studies, 2009 Karen L. Bloomquist, editor on behalf of The Lutheran World Federation—A Communion of Churches Copyright 2009 Lutheran University Press and the Lutheran World Federation All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior permission. Editorial assistance: LWF, Department for Theology and Studies Design: LWF-OCS Artwork on cover: LWF-OCS. Photo: Crashing waves at Spoon Bay, New South Wales, Australia. © Brent Pearson Published by Lutheran University Press under the auspices of: The Lutheran World Federation —A Communion of Churches 150, rte de Ferney, P O Box 2100 CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland This book is also available in Europe using ISBN 978-3-905676-71-6 ISSN 1025-2290 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Creation and climate change : spiritual and ethical perspectives / edited by Karen L. Bloomquist ; on behalf of the Lutheran World Federation.         p. cm. -- (LWF studies ; 2009)    Includes bibliographical references and index.    ISBN-13: 978-1-932688-42-9 (alk. paper)    ISBN-10: 1-932688-42-0 (alk. paper) 1. Human ecology--Religious aspects--Christianity. 2. Climatic changes--Moral and ethical aspects. 3. Environmental ethics. I. Bloomquist, Karen L., 1948- II. Lutheran World Federation.    BT695.5.C74 2009    261.8’8--dc22                                                              2009028558 Lutheran University Press, P O Box 390759, Minneapolis, MN 55439 Manufactured in Switzerland by SRO Kundig DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-22 2 05/08/2009 16:32:50 PM  Contents 5 Introduction Karen L. Bloomquist 11 What Do You See, Feel, Believe in the Face of Climate Change? An LWF survey (2008) 13 God, Creation and Climate Change A resource for reflection and discussion 27 Addressing Realities on the Ground Colette Bouka Coula 33 Human Rights and Climate Change James B. Martin-Schramm 47 Who Dies First? Who is Sacrificed First? Ethical Aspects of Climate Justice Christoph Stueckelberger 63 An LWF Climate Change Encounter in India 73 A Faith and Life-Changing Experience Anupama Hial 75 Discerning the Times: A Spirituality of Resistance and Alternatives George Zachariah 93 Caminhada: A Pilgrimage with Land, Water and the Bible Elaine Gleci Neuenfeldt 101 Listen to the Voice of Nature. Indigenous Perspectives Tore Johnsen 115 Wisdom Cosmology and Climate Change Norman Habel DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-23 3 05/08/2009 16:32:50 PM   God, Creation and Climate Change 127 Black Saturday Norman Habel 129 God’s Lament for the Earth: Climate Change, Apocalypse and the Urgent Kairos Moment Barbara Rossing 145 Cross, Resurrection and the Indwelling God Cynthia Moe-Lobeda 159 Invoking the Spirit amid Dangerous Environmental Change Sigurd Bergmann 175 Appendix LWF Resolution on Climate Change DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-24 4 05/08/2009 16:32:50 PM   Introduction Karen L. Bloomquist Today much public attention is being given to “climate change”—the human-caused disruption of the global climate and weather systems, due especially to the emission of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels. These gases trap solar radiation entering the atmosphere, thus warming the atmosphere, land and oceans and increasing the frequency and intensity of storms, floods and droughts. Sea levels rise and the coastal lands that are home and provide a livelihood for many millions of people throughout the world, not to mention all the other creatures that depend on such natural habitats, are destroyed. Climate change is not only an environmental matter but is also cor- related with more severe food shortages, loss of livelihoods, conflicts over land and water, increasing impoverishment and the forced migration of peoples, along with other economic and political crises. Some are predicting that without immediate action to redress climate change, fifty years of development gains in poor countries will be permanently lost. The figure of 250 million who are currently affected each year by climate change related disasters is likely to increase significantly. Cli- mate change is becoming a serious threat to at least half of the world’s population. It can no longer be viewed as someone else’s problem. The future of life as we have known it on this planet is at stake. Governments, businesses, communities and individuals need to take timely actions to mitigate or adapt to the effects of climate change, along with churches and other faith communities. The Lutheran World Federation, its related diaconal or development work and a number of member churches are already extensively involved in such efforts. Yet, underlying all the proposed actions and initiatives is a growing awareness that quick “solutions,” as helpful as some of them may be, will not suffice. Instead, major changes are needed in how we think and in what we value. At the 2009 Global Humanitarian Forum meeting in Geneva, where experts discussed their innovative efforts to protect and restore the “global commons” in the face of climate change, it was acknowledged that economic incentives alone are inadequate. They asked,  See the appendix for the actions taken at the 2008 meeting of the LWF Council, Arusha, Tanzania. DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-25 5 05/08/2009 16:32:50 PM   God, Creation and Climate Change How can people be persuaded to think beyond their own generation or self-interests? How can the future of the earth itself be part of our thinking? These secular experts were posing the very kinds of questions that are deeply spiritual and ethical in nature. In other words, climate change has opened up the theological-ethical agenda that churches and other faith communities urgently need to take up. Awareness of climate change is provoking old and not so old questions about the relationships (a) between human beings and the rest of creation; (b) between God and nature; (c) between divine activity and human re- sponsibility; and (d) among human communities globally. Much of what in the past were referred to as “acts of God” are now seen as caused at least in part by human activity. Climate change may literally be melting icebergs but it also exposes metaphorical “icebergs” of how God, human beings and the rest of creation have been conceptualized in ways that contribute to the injustices that are escalating under climate change. People in local communities are likely to draw upon a variety of spiri- tual resources—including local or indigenous wisdom and practices—for coping with or adapting to what is occurring. For Christians, biblical resources are likely to be prominent among these. Attention needs to be given to how we read and interpret the Bible in relation to what we are experiencing—not with a sense that God is punishing or abandoning us, but with a sense of God’s abiding promise which empowers us to act. We need to go beyond the poles of either a fearful sense of apocalyptic doom that only waits for God’s inevitable judgment or, on the other hand, a mor- alistic sense of activism, driven by a sense of what we need to do to “save” the world. God has already saved the world. The question is, How do we participate in the redemption of all creation to which Scripture testifies, and embody hope for the future rather than succumbing to despair? In this book Recent LWF work on climate change, which the LWF Council called for in 2007, began with the development of a survey that asked people in local communities what they see, feel and believe in the face of what is occurring. Select responses to these basic questions informed the development of a resource for reflection and discussion in local settings, which is reprinted here and available in English and German at www.lutheranworld.org/ What_We_Do/Dts/Programs/DTS-Church-Social_Issues.html (with DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-26 6 05/08/2009 16:32:50 PM  Introduction  discussion questions and photos). The premise behind this resource is that climate change is provoking the need to reconsider and revise much of what people have previously assumed or believed. In October 2008, the LWF Department for Theology and Studies convened a small consultation of biblical scholars, theologians and ethicists who have been active in this area. They were asked to develop more in-depth papers related to what was presented in summary fashion in the above resource. Most of the articles in this book are by participants in this consultation. Colette Bouka Coula, Cameroon, staff member of the LWF Depart- ment for World Service in Geneva, cites some of the ways in which DWS related programs have been working to mitigate and adapt to climate change in some of the most vulnerable areas of the world, since long before these efforts were associated with “climate change.” James Martin-Schramm, who teaches at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa (USA), summarizes the key information from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and connects climate change to the human rights concerns that have been on the ecumenical and civil society agenda for some time. The Swiss Protestant ethicist, Christoph Stueckelberger, di- rector of Globethics.net, systematically takes up different ethical aspects of climate justice, and the difficult tensions at stake. Furthermore, he reflects on his learnings from over twenty years of involvement in these matters through the World Council of Churches and other organizations, and urges collaborative work with many other actors in society. The commitment to focus on where people, land and water are espe- cially vulnerable to climate change was carried forth in a special LWF encounter in April 2009 in Puri (Orissa), India. Here participants witnessed the dramatic effects of how climate change has already washed away land and villages, and how the people themselves are responding. The communiqué, “An LWF Climate Change Encounter in India,” poignantly describes what the participants witnessed, and their call to the rest of the Lutheran communion. One of the participants, Anupama Hial, a pastor in Orissa, shares how she was impacted by the encounter. George Zachariah, who teaches at Gurukul Lutheran Theological College in Chennai, India, deepens and broadens the ethical analysis of climate change and its in- terconnection with other realities of injustice, and calls for resistance to what is occurring and the development of alternatives. The Brazilian biblical theologian, Elaine Gleci Neuenfeldt, who cur- rently staffs the women’s desk in the LWF Department for Mission and Development, proposes a pilgrimage theology “on the road” which, in the DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-27 7 05/08/2009 16:32:50 PM   God, Creation and Climate Change face of climate change, focuses on experiences of the Brazilian women’s movement in relation to the land and water, and how this resonates with and is empowered by biblical accounts of land and water. The Sami pas- tor, Tore Johnsen, from Norway, raises up the Sami yoik that protests against how the land was used by the intruding culture, and develops the “circle of life” indigenous spiritual tradition shared also with Native Americans. On this basis, he reconceives central aspects of Christian theology in ways that are more connected with the earth and cosmos. Norman Habel, an Australian Lutheran Old Testament scholar, who for many years has promoted reading the Bible from the perspective of the earth, draws upon the biblical wisdom tradition, with its underlying design and innate codes for all of life, which in human folly we have broken and which results in climate change. He also connects this with the ravaging bushfires in Australia, another result of climate change. Barbara Rossing, who teaches New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago (USA), and regularly speaks publicly to counter the apocalypticism some associate with climate change, asks where God is in this crisis. In interpreting Revelation and other biblical texts, she finds that God is lamenting with us and the earth, rather than punishing or cursing us. “God is crying for a world that needs to be freed from the toxic system of imperial exploitation.” She calls for public metanoia at this urgent kairotic time. Both Habel and Rossing were Bible study writers for the 2003 LWF Assembly and participants in the 2009 Puri encounter. The moral inertia that relatively privileged Christian feel in the face of climate change is the point of departure for Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, a Lutheran ethicist who teaches at Seattle University (USA), and who has also written for other LWF resources. She draws upon Luther’s (and Bonhoeffer’s) interpretations of a theology of the cross, as well as Luther’s notion of the indwelling God, to empower moral agency so that we might turn from being creation’s “uncreators” to working for more just, sustainable ways of life for all. In the final article, Sigurd Bergmann, who teaches at the Norwe- gian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, claims that environmental changes are radically changing culture, religion and the conditions for faith, and explores where the Spirit of life is “taking place” today. Amid a sweep through history, intellectual thought, art and current technological and economic realities, he points to the distinctive task of Christian theology in relation to these other perspectives, especially in remembering the suffering and liberation of creation. He concludes DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-28 8 05/08/2009 16:32:50 PM  Introduction  by suggesting that the church be reimagined “as an agglomeration of local places and a global space for creative experiments in the arts of survival in environmentally changing contexts.” Where from here? It is hoped that the articles in this book will stir and motivate you not only to face the urgency of the unprecedented global crisis of climate change as manifest in your context, along with the various social, eco- nomic and political issues related to it, but to reflect in new ways on the spiritual resources that are a part of Christian and other traditions and are so crucial for empowering and sustaining us in facing and redressing this challenge not only now but also for the future. We are eager to hear your further thoughts and examples of how you are affected and what you are doing: Contact [email protected] DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-29 9 05/08/2009 16:32:50 PM DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-210 10 05/08/2009 16:32:50 PM  11 What Do You See, Feel, Believe in the Face of Climate Change? An LWF survey (2008) What is different today? In recent years, what general changes have you noticed in the climate in your area? How is this affecting the land, the plants, the air, the animals and the people? What is different from what your parents or grandparents experienced? Who? Who or what is especially affected by these changes? Who es- pecially bears the burden? Who or what is especially responsible for climate change? Why? How do people explain these changes? Why are they happening? (The stories or folk wisdom as well as more scientific explanations.) What has gone wrong? In the relationship between human beings and the rest of creation? In the relationship between people? In the relationship with God? God? How do you feel God is related to or involved in this? What ques- tions would you pose to God? How is your faith in God affected? What spiritual resources do you draw upon? The future? How do you view the future, for your community, coming generations, and the earth as a whole? What do you fear or hope for? What spiritual resources do you draw upon? Solutions? What needs to change in your society? What trade-offs are there? What is being done that can make a difference? What local solu- tions would you propose? DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-211 11 05/08/2009 16:32:50 PM DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-212 12 05/08/2009 16:32:50 PM  13 God, Creation and Climate Change A resource for reflection and discussion What is going on? Around the world we are experiencing the effects of climate change: water and air temperatures are rising at alarming rates, adversely affecting the habitats that sustain life for fish, animals, plants and hu- man beings. Devastation caused by more severe droughts and floods is increasing. Storms and hurricanes are becoming more frequent and intense. New diseases are appearing and old ones are spreading. For example, because of warmer temperatures the breeding of malaria-car- rying mosquitoes has increased. In overly industrialized areas, the air quality is deteriorating. Climate conditions are affecting people’s health and in some areas heat-related deaths are on the increase.1 Hunger is predicted to escalate as the climate changes. The predictable, dependable order of things is changing: when winter or summer begins, or when the rainy season comes, if at all, is becoming ever more unpredictable. The availability of clean water to sustain life is jeopardized, especially as much of it is being privatized. Houses built on what seemed to be solid ground are suddenly swept into raging waters. Growing seasons for crops are changing significantly, as is the yield of crops related to soil quality, moisture and erosion. In some places, winters are becoming colder, and in others, warmer. Where the food needed for daily life will come from, and when, is becoming more unpredictable, making the right to food more precarious, especially for the most vulnerable. Some are wondering whether they can still rely on God’s promise to Noah: “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Gen 8:22). As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded in 2007: Human beings are exposed to climate change through changing weather patterns (for example, more intense and frequent extreme events) and indi- DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-213 13 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  14 God, Creation and Climate Change rectly through changes in water, air, food quality and quantity, ecosystems, agriculture, and economy… Increased frequency of heat stress, droughts and floods negatively affect crop yields and livestock beyond the impacts of mean climate change, creating the possibility for surprises, with impacts that are larger, and occurring earlier, than predicted using changes in mean variables alone. This is especially the case for subsistence sectors at low latitudes. Climate variability and change also modify the risks of fires, pest and pathogen outbreak, negatively affecting food, fiber and forestry. In other words, the predictabilities on which we have depended for life as human beings have long known it are changing dramatically. We wonder on what we can depend for the future. As numerous studies have indicated, it is especially human activity that is causing or at least significantly contributing to climate change. Nevertheless, for people in many parts of the world for whom there is a close relationship between the divine and what occurs through nature, the “God questions” cannot be ignored. God and climate change? Some people view climate change as if God had disappeared from the scene, had been pushed to the margins by human activity and was no longer active in the cosmos. But for persons of faith, the extensive global and cosmic realities of climate change need to be considered in light of how we understand God, creation and humanity. In many passages of the Bible, natural occurrences such as those occurring today due to human-induced climate change, were attributed to God. People in many parts of the world still do so today. God has been considered the agent causing floods, storms, droughts and other local and global “natural” catastrophes. People view what is occurring as being acts of God, and ask why. Throughout the ages and from different faith perspectives, weather related disasters have often been considered as “acts of God.” When the destructive effects of climate change occur, some immediately re- spond that God must be punishing human beings—and this is how they interpret certain biblical passages. People are told simply to wait and endure God’s judgment, rather than doing anything to change what is considered to be God ordained and thus, inevitable. DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-214 14 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  God, Creation and Climate Change 15 As people of faith, we maintain that somehow God is involved in climate change—especially to wake us up to the urgency of what is oc- curring—but we cannot attribute climate change only to “acts of God.” We must also turn to science, through which we learn more deeply, and with greater awe, about what God has created. Many of the problems associated with climate change have arisen because of how human beings have misused that which God has cre- ated for the benefit of all creatures. The church has long taught that we are to be good stewards or caretakers of what God has given, and must continue to do so. But the challenge goes deeper than this. To a large extent, many global facets of the climate change crisis have come about because of how interrelated assumptions about God, creation and human beings have profoundly influenced and shaped modern societies, institutions and ways of life. These have been passed on through centuries of teachings in the church, which for example, separated nature from grace. Western thinking which tended to separate human beings from the rest of creation contributed to the rise of industrialization and capitalism. Devel- opments such as these, in turn, have spread throughout the world. Over the centuries, these assumptions, and the practices based on them, have contrib- uted cumulatively and now disastrously to climate change, which seriously threatens the future of life on the planet as we have known it. The effect of climate change is like that of hunger—it weakens, gnaws and although it may not be the sole cause of death, it pushes you in that direction. These assumptions include, That God is transcendent, unchanging, all powerful, a heavenly monarch or patriarch ruling above and controlling the world, un- touched by earthly realities A worldview with God at the top, then men over women, children, animals and, at the bottom, the rest of creation That as agents of God, human beings are to use or exert power over the rest of creation That God acts primarily in history and not also in and through nature That only human beings, and specifically Christians, benefit from God’s grace or redemption DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-215 15 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  16 God, Creation and Climate Change That spiritual matters are separate from what is embodied or “of this earth.” The influence and effects of assumptions such as these have spread over the entire world through colonization, conquest, empire building, mis- sionary movements and economic development. This continues today through accelerated processes of globalization. These assumptions have undergirded and furthered habits and practices around the world that we now realize have, over time, contributed dramatically to climate change and are threatening life as we have known it. Such practices include, Economic life based on endless quests for ever greater growth and profit driven by greed, which the global economic crisis is starkly exposing today Increasing dependence on fossil fuel extraction to further this development Conquering practices of colonization and empire, especially in the constant quest for more resources and markets Patriarchal ideologies that perpetuate control over and oppression of both women and the earth Discrimination against all those seen as “other” because of their gender, race, ethnicity, caste, economic or political status Assuming that some aspects of creation (such as trees, water or air) are dispensable, rather than respecting and valuing all of creation An anthropocentrism that tends to value only that which serves human ends. Climate change is provoking the need for climatic changes in some faith understandings that have long been taken for granted. Climate change may literally be melting icebergs but it also exposes metaphori- cal “icebergs” of how God, human beings and the rest of creation have been conceptualized in ways that contribute to the destruction and DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-216 16 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  God, Creation and Climate Change 17 injustices that have escalated under the currently reigning regime of climate change. The Triune God is intimately related with all of creation When people think about “God” they often refer to a supreme being who reigns over and above the world as an almighty ruler or monarch (almost always as “he”). When something goes wrong in nature, such as occurs under climate change, it is then immediately assumed that this is caused by “God”—as an almighty actor standing outside of and controlling all that occurs on earth. Throughout the ages, and in many religious traditions, humans have prayed and offered sacrifices so that God would bestow favorable conditions for growing crops, protect from storms and rising waters, and control the natural forces of the environ- ment. After all, isn’t God the power over all the cosmos, and thus the One able to control everything, including climate change? Many biblical references seem to reflect such understandings of God. These are often interpreted in ways that make too sharp a separation between God and nature. In part, this was to distinguish ancient Israel’s understanding of God from some of the nature religions, according to which the fate of humans was determined by the gods acting in the cycles and forces of nature. But, making a sharp separation between God and nature becomes a problem when it overlooks the intimate relationship that God has with all of creation, as described in the beginning of Gen- esis and in many other places in the Bible. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole Earth is full of his glory” (Isa 6:3) The glory here is the vibrant presence of God, which was earlier depicted as the fire cloud of God’s presence at Sinai. Later it “filled” the tabernacle and then the temple of Solomon. But here Isaiah goes further and declares that God’s very presence fills the whole earth, which is God’s sanctuary. The God revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures is not unchanging in the same way as are some other gods. God is related to creation and history not by being immune to space and time but by keeping promises. “God’s will” should not simply be equated with natural occurrences, insist- ing that God is causing all that occurs. Yet, at the same time, we may glimpse what God has created and intends, which contrasts with the breakdown or destruction of the fragility of creation that is occurring DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-217 17 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  18 God, Creation and Climate Change through climate change. Creation is good because God created all that is, although not everything that occurs in creation is good. In the Book of Job, when Job reaches the depths of despair he not only accuses God of harassing humans unjustly, but also indicts God for God’s rough treatment of creation. Job claims that God uses divine wisdom to hold back the waters until they dry up and to unloosen them so they flood the land (Job 12:15). In chapters 38–39, God takes Job on a tour of the various aspects of the cosmos to enlighten him about the mysterious “ways” of the natural world. It is not for Job to try to rule nature, but to explore how God has created all that exists and to discover how humans fit into this mysteriously complex design of God. Here and elsewhere in Scripture, we begin to catch a new sense of who God is—not an all-controlling monarch who punishes even the in- nocent, but God revealed yet hidden throughout creation. God’s grace and love are ultimately more crucial than might and power. God is intimately related with humans and the rest of creation, present in the midst of vulnerability and suffering. Today, a similar shift is called for in how we imagine or think of God, standing as we do in the midst of a creation suffering the effects of climate change. Those who have used little of the earth’s resources find themselves the most dramatically affected. Yet, blaming God for this is not the answer. As Scripture continually reminds us, human unfaithful- ness to God is the problem. This is reflected in the unjust treatment of humans and the rest of creation. The twentieth-century Lutheran ecological theologian, Joseph Sittler, insisted that nature comes from God, cannot be apart from God, and is capable of bearing the glory of God.2 Grace is the fundamental reality of God, as Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer. Grace is the sheer giveness of life, the world and ourselves. We are “justified” by grace even in our relation to the things of nature. Condemnation (the opposite of justification) is present in the absence of a gracious regard for nature, such as when we pollute or use nature as a dump. This concurs with Martin Luther’s sixteenth-century perspective: all of creation is the abode of God. Rather than removed or set over creation, God is in, with and under all that is creaturely. Despite all the negativities—such as the disruption and destruction occurring due to climate change—we still trust that God is at work in this world, often hidden beneath its opposite. This is also at the heart of what Luther meant by a theology of the cross: God is neither to be seen nor sought behind creation nor inferred DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-218 18 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  God, Creation and Climate Change 19 from it, but only recognized in and through it. The cross reveals how radically God is immanent in creation. Throughout the history of the church, there have been many debates as to what is most central about God. For some, God’s almighty power has been key, while for others it is God’s everlasting love. For Lutherans and many other Christians, what is most important is that God is love. God seeks to be in intimate relation with what God has created, including human beings: being with rather than being above or distant from creation. It is the Spirit of God (ruach) who conveys this sense of intimacy between God and creation. God is alive and active as the Spirit, giving life to all that is. God’s “breath” expresses God’s life-creating, life-preserving goodness. The Spirit of God is the inexhaustible, ever-creative power of God, the life-bestowing force of creation and re-creation, ruling not by controlling power but through powerlessness. God overturns our human notions of power. God’s transforming activity goes beyond any human-erected boundaries, and cannot be limited by dominant values and systems, such as those that have contributed to climate change. The Spirit of God helps human beings to perceive God in the midst of creation. 3 God rules through seeming powerlessness. In its confession of faith in the Triune God, the church has insisted that God is essentially relational, not an autonomous God but God-in- communion. This is in sharp distinction to views that consider God to be a being who is self-sufficient and separate from creation, controlling it from “outside” or “above,” as does an imperial ruler. God who is love seeks to be close to, not distant from creation. The purpose of Trinitarian theology is not to define God or God’s “substance,” but to describe the whole, interrelated gracious movement of God who seeks communion—intimate relationship—with what God has created. Creation is far more than just a backdrop for God’s main redemptive activity in human history. It is the redemption of all creation that is at stake (Rom 8), not redemption from creation. God’s labors of creation, preservation, and redemption are not three separate or separable works but a single labor, whose object is precisely the birthing of the world that God intends. God is “in labor” in the world, for the world, that it might become what, in its conception, it is.4 In other words, God is the source, power and goal—the spirit that enlivens the complex processes of creation. God is the source of all being rather DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-219 19 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  20 God, Creation and Climate Change than one who intervenes from outside. This is how theologians such as Sallie McFague refer to God: as the inspirited body of the whole universe, creating, guiding and saving all that is. Rather than assuming God to be like a will or intellect ordering and controlling the world, God is the breath that enlivens and energizes the living breathing planet. God permeates, suf- fers with and energizes the innermost aspect of all that is created, in ways known and unknowable, in ways that are both intimate and transcendent.5 We can only gratefully receive rather than solve this mystery. Picturing God’s activity in such organic ways is more appropriate than in machine like ways, which have compounded the problems we face today. The machine model assumes that rational control is what is important, with God as the ultimate fixer. Instead, the focus shifts from control to relationships—interdependent relationships throughout all of creation. This is similar to how many indigenous traditions and faiths have viewed the relationship between God and creation. The interdependence of everything has been common knowledge throughout most of world history—all the relationships necessary for life to flourish, including the predictability of the climate. Many indigenous peoples have long assumed such an ecological vision of life, in contrast to perspectives which value human life at the expense of other forms of life. Taking creation seriously as God’s abode means that the physical space of creation becomes important. This spatial dimension has long been celebrated, for example, in the Psalms: “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! … even the sparrow finds a home … at your altars.” (Ps 84:1–3). We dwell in God who surrounds us, from before and beyond all time: “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, and ever you have formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Ps 90:1–2). The incarnation—God becoming fully human in Jesus of Nazareth—is the clearest testimony to God’s intimate relationship with what is created. In him, divinity and humanity, heaven and earth are brought together. The central festivals of the church year emphasize this in powerfully poetic and symbolic ways. At Christmas, “heaven and nature sing” as a bright star in the heavens is linked on earth with a lowly manger. On Good Fri- day, God is revealed in the One who suffers and dies with all of creation, and at Easter, heaven and earth exult with the living God. At Pentecost, the wind of the Spirit blew from heaven, empowering those in the early church to communicate across their earth-bound differences. DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-220 20 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  God, Creation and Climate Change 21 So what about human beings? In recent centuries in the West, and throughout much of the world today, the above perspectives have been overshadowed. Some human beings have acted as if they were demigods who can order and control, for their own self-interests, the land, trees, air, water and other creatures, includ- ing vulnerable human communities. This often occurs in the name of “development” or “progress.” The air, water, soil and plants are valued in so far as they will further human development or progress, rather than because of their own intrinsic worth. The accumulation of money and goods has displaced the liberating economy of the Creator, based on synergy, cooperation and life-enhancing justice for all of creation. Consequently, the delicate interrelationships within creation have been upset. Creation’s protest is now being experienced through climate change. Being creatures within creation is at the core of a Christian anthropology. However, many human beings have lost the sense of being part of a living, changing, dynamic cosmos, which has its being in and through God. Based on the two creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2, human beings have often assumed themselves to be the crown of creation, or the main purpose for which God created everything else. This has been due to misunderstanding the call to “have dominion over” (Gen 1:28) in ways that have led to the exploitation of creation, rather than a sense of responsibil- ity and accountability for what God has created. In Genesis 2, in the midst of the plants and water of the garden, God forms the first human being from the dusty earth and breathes life into ‘adam. Tilling and keeping the garden—cultivating and preserving God’s creation—is the mandate given to humans. Human beings are to be servants of the rest of creation, not its rulers. This is similar to how in Mark 10:41–45, Jesus calls the disciples to follow him by serving rather than ruling over others. Assuming human beings are separate from or above nature can imply a complete freedom of action toward creation—using or exploiting it in ways that serve human ends, or as “raw material for human sustenance and aggrandizement.”6 Instead, creation has a dignity and purpose that goes beyond human purposes. Sin and salvation are both spiritual and earthly matters; they have to do with how we relate to the forms of God’s presence we encounter in our daily, ordinary lives.7 Sin is our failure to live out of the relational matrix we share with the rest of creation and with God. It is our refusal to remove ourselves from the center of the world. We attempt to escape DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-221 21 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  22 God, Creation and Climate Change our creaturehood and the relationships and vocation that belong to it. Sin is living falsely, contrary to the appropriate relationships that constitute reality. When relationships are violated, injustice, abuse and destruction result. Sin is refusing to accept the limits and responsibili- ties of our place within the whole of creation. Environmental exclusion in the form of exile is a core theme of the Old Testament, and it speaks to the condition of those millions who are already finding they are forced to migrate from their ancestral lands because of drought and flood caused by climate change. 8 The writings of the Old Testament Prophets repeatedly remind us that God will not tolerate injustices inflicted on other human beings and on the rest of creation, through dominating power, control and oppression. However, in many of these passages where God responds to injustice, God is depicted as an all-controlling male ruler or warrior who acts in punitive, violent, destructive ways. The problem is that this legitimizes rather than transforming patterns of violence against humanity and creation. The power to change the injustices should be consistent with God’s overall purpose of restoring and transforming creation. Carol Dempsey indicates how this is conveyed in especially chapters 42, 49, 52, 53, 61 and 65 of the Book of Isaiah: (1) The redemption of humankind is connected to the restoration of cre- ation; (2) the human community has a responsibility toward all creation; (3) the vision of Isaiah 65:17–25 can no longer remain apocalyptic or eschatological but must become a reality for the planet and life on the planet; (4) the divine vision for all creation is one that speaks of respect for all of life and life lived in balance and relationship….The focus must shift from the use of power to dominate, control and oppress to the use of power to empower oneself and others and liberate all of creation from its groaning and oppression. 9 The call to repentance in Mark 1:15 can be heard as a call to return to a proper relationship with the Creator and creation, “a call to be liber- ated from our human perceived need to be God, and instead to assume our rightful place in the world as humble two-leggeds in the circle of creation with all the other created.”10 Given the kairos of climate change today, there is an urgent need for repentance or conversion. DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-222 22 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  God, Creation and Climate Change 23 We need to shift from: Human independence, to human interdependence with the rest of creation Making separations based on oppositions and dualisms, to empha- sizing interrelated balances and connections Technological control, to respect for, care and balanced use of creation and its resources, including through appropriate technologies Creation as only the backdrop for human worship, to creation pulsating with life, pathos and worship of God An exclusive focus on God active in human history, to God active in, with and through the spatial realities of the whole creation, in which humans participate A predominantly Christocentric focus on the redemption of human beings, to Trinitarian thinking that takes more seriously creation, the Spirit and the interrelationships throughout the cosmos, with all of creation as the scope of redemption Sin only as a broken relationship between humans and God, to the sinful ways relationships with creation are broken God’s grace separate from nature, to God’s grace known in, with, through and transformative of nature Transcendence that is spiritualized and removed from the life and matter of creation, to a sense of the divine mysteriously active in, with and through what is created An obsession with progress and development as measured in economic terms, to what will result in more sustainable life for all of creation Allegiance to the global market system, to being inspired by a vision of God’s economy for the sake of the well-being of all, including earth itself DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-223 23 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  24 God, Creation and Climate Change A focus only on technological or market-base “fixes,” to the heal- ing of creation. The redemption of all creation God’s anger leads not to judgment but to redemption, not just of human be- ings, but of all creation: “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom 8:21). Because of God’s transforming grace, rather than because of fear, we are empowered to change our attitudes, lifestyles, and prac- tices—to put things right again. The way things are now cannot continue with “business as usual.” Instead, the God of grace who is active through, with and in nature, is revealing how urgent it is to recover the spiritual significance of valuing our common good with the rest of creation.11 In the fourth century, St Ambrose wrote, “For the mystery of the Incarnation of God is the salvation of the whole of creation.”12 Salvation is the direction of creation, and creation is the place of salvation.13 In other words, the health and well-being of all of creation is what salvation is about. Christ’s liberating, healing and inclusive ministry takes place in and for creation. In Christ, God identifies with all suffering bodies, including the suffering of creation itself. This cosmic scope of Christ is communicated especially in Colossians 1. The horizon of salvation or redemption or reconciliation is widened significantly here. Its focus is not on human beings; in fact, they are not even mentioned in this passage. Instead, celebrated here is the intimate relation of Christ and the whole of creation, from before the dawn of time. The fullness of God comes to dwell bodily in creation. The powers of this world are put in their place, and broken relationships throughout creation are restored or reconciled. Similarly in Romans 8, salvation not only includes human beings but the whole cosmos. Creation itself longs for the revealing of those who, through the power of the Spirit, will rescue the whole created order, and bring about that justice and peace for which the whole creation yearns. This builds on the biblical promise of a new heaven and earth (Isa 65 and 66) and on the creation story in which human beings are to be caretakers of creation. The freedom for which creation longs will come about through human agents, transformed by the Spirit, to bring wise, healing and restorative justice to the whole creation.14 DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-224 24 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  God, Creation and Climate Change 25 In the earthly life of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels, we see one who was continually challenging the traditional dualisms by which people lived their lives: male over female, rich over poor, humans over nature. His compassionate love and justice embraced all of creation, leading him to cross all kinds of boundaries of his day. Similarly, climate change transgresses boundaries, of both natural and human-defined separations, of communities, of nation-states, of lands, of waters, of near and distant neighbors, of rich and poor, of dif- ferent cultures, of the past and the future. Many of its effects know no boundaries. Climate change reminds us that we are all in this together. It is the future of life on the planet that is at stake. Yet some bear the brunt and the consequences far more than others, and are far more vulnerable. Under climate change, nature has become “the new poor,” as vulnerable and expendable as poor human beings and communities have been. This is where our attention and priority especially needs to be. The church is far more than a just another actor in civil society for addressing climate change. It has a global even cosmic expanse, crossing boundaries of both space and time. It includes those who are contributing most dramatically to climate change as well as those rendered most vulnerable by it; together they are interconnected and transformed into each other, as members of one communion. The communion of saints crosses all boundaries of time—those in the past and in the present as well as future generations whose very pos- sibilities for life are being jeopardized by climate change. Furthermore, through the Sacraments, God’s promises become tangible through common elements of creation—water, bread, and wine—through which we are redeemed, nourished and empowered. We are redeemed by God not apart from but through what is created. We have been washed in the waters of redemption in baptism and fed with the bread and wine of Holy Communion. Through these Sacraments, the life-sustaining power of God’s promises is effected in us, as a foretaste of the feast to come. The church bears witness to the new creation, as a communion, as the body of Christ in the world that God has created and will bring to fulfillment. Living out of this present and future reality, Christians should be at the forefront of redressing the effects and changing the course of climate change. We are challenged to see new possibilities for reconciliation and restoration within creation, in ways that will benefit all rather than just a few. DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-225 25 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  26 God, Creation and Climate Change The reality of God’s redemption is lived out as we pursue greater justice for all. It does not suffice to address the crises evoked by climate change through short-term fixes or “solutions” that only reflect the same old paths of economic and human progress which have brought us to this point. We must move beyond narrow anthropocentric views of life, and embrace more interconnected views in which God, human beings and the rest of creation are intimately related. When we do so, the injustices imposed on other communities or other realms of creation become all too apparent, as well as our capacity for putting things right again, in communion with the rest of creation. Notes 1 At www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/climate/cli_effects.html&edu=high. 2 Steven Bowman-Prediger and Peter Bakken (eds), Evocations of Grace: The Writings of Joseph Sittler on Ecology, Theology and Ethics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), p. 104. 3 Michael Welker, God the Spirit (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004), p. 334. 4 Douglas John Hall, Professing the Faith (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993), p. 167. 5 Sallie McFague, The Body of God: An Ecological Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993), esp. pp. 145, 147. 6 Hall, op. cit. (note 4), p. 167. 7 McFague, op. cit. (note 5), p. 114. 8 Michael S. Northcott, A Moral Climate: The Ethics of Global Warming (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2007), p. 161. 9 Carol J. Dempsey, The Prophets: A Liberation-Critical Reading (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000), p. 179. 10 George Tinker, Spirit and Resistance: Political Theology and American Indian Liberation (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004), p. 113. 11 Rolita Machila, “Why are Earth and God Angry?,” in Thinking it Over..., Issue 20 (August 2008), at www.lutheranworld.org/What_We_Do/Dts /DTS-Welcome.html. 12 Exposition of the Christian Faith, V, VIII, 105b. 13 McFague, op. cit. (note 5), p. 180. 14 N. Thomas Wright, in The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. 10 (Nashville: Abingden 2002), pp. 596–97. DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-226 26 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  27 Addressing Realities on the Ground Colette Bouka Coula As the relief and development arm of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the country, regional and associate programs of the Department for World Service (DWS) have long been working in contexts where people and the rest of creation are especially vulnerable. Responding to and preparing for disasters and creating sustainable communities were priorities long before the relation to climate change became evident. Responding to climate change is part of reacting to the struggles of those who are trying to survive in very difficult settings. Battles are fought over the right to food and access to basic social services, to be accepted and to live as persons infected or affected by HIV and AIDS, as well as how to survive both natural and human-caused calamities and to protect and take care of the surrounding environment. Climate change and its effects deeply affect people’s livelihood. Therefore, alternative ways have to be identified together with the local communities in order to cope with and adapt to the situation. Actions carried out through a number of DWS projects are designed to mitigate the effects of climate change affecting communities in intervention areas. This has been occurring for many years, although often under terms other than “climate change.” Moreover, DWS engages in advocacy. For instance, in Central America, social movements opposed to the policies of governments and transna- tional corporations are supported. In Zimbabwe, a new climate change project is being initiated that aims at contributing not only to local level environmental management, but also to the development of a national policy on climate change. In the following, I shall focus on some aspects of what LWF/DWS country programs have done and are doing together with the local com- munity. Two aspects of interventions under emergency response are highlighted here: disaster risk management and environment protec- tion and conservation, which are directly linked to climate change. The information listed here is based on reports by the respective country programs. DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-227 27 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  28 God, Creation and Climate Change Emergency response and disaster risk management Beside the emergency operations carried out with refugees, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and victims of wars and other social distur- bances, climate change induced by natural disasters, including outbreaks of epidemics, are new challenges for some communities and ongoing ones for others (such as in Angola, Bangladesh, Cambodia, etc). Climate change manifests itself in disrupted seasonal weather patterns causing intermit- tent and cyclical floods, droughts and cyclones. Drought and crop failure result in an increased number of persons seeking food relief (Swaziland). Floods, leading to malaria, are becoming more widespread (Zambia). Responses are varied but are mainly based on building and strength- ening the capacities of the local communities to deal with the situation. This includes, Angola: training communities in cholera prevention and staff in disaster preparedness Bangladesh, Balkans, Cambodia, Central America: training com- munities in disaster preparedness Cambodia: establishing community-based disaster risk manage- ment training to help communities prevent, prepare for and mitigate natural disasters Central America: training local risk management committees and establishing early warning systems Mozambique: strengthening local structures such as village com- mittees for disaster preparedness through training Nepal: mobilizing disaster management teams at the community level, providing training in small-scale flood intervention measures and increasing the community’s capacity effectively to respond to disasters Tanzania: training or capacity building for disaster response, creating awareness to enhance communities’ capacity to respond and adapt to climate change DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-228 28 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  Addressing Realities on the Ground 29 Zimbabwe: facilitating development of disaster preparedness plans for communities. According to the different country reports, the impact of the disaster risk reduction programs is felt in the communities after these training programs have been conducted. Other ways of responding are through relief food distribution, training communities in agricultural practices, introducing more drought resistant and flood tolerant crops and distrib- uting mosquito nets in situations of malaria outbreaks. As a result of climate change, natural resources such as firewood are becoming scarce which, in turn, can lead to conflict. In Ethiopia, the provision of water that can be managed by communities, soil and water conservation strategies, conflict resolution and peace-building initiatives have been helpful in furthering community cohesion. The necessary humanitarian interventions have taken the priorities and choices of the communities into consideration. Even under such condi- tions, communities have been sensitized to human rights issues, the right to relief and to development. This has helped communities to break out of the vicious circle of poverty and vulnerability. Preparedness and miti- gation systems are put in place with the communities that participate in analyzing vulnerability and devising mechanisms to combat disasters. At the community level, the contribution of women to disaster man- agement is vital. Training has brought about significant changes in the attitude of communities prone to and affected by disasters: they now prepare themselves before disaster strikes again. In India, acquired skills helped disaster management teams to help their own communities and neighbors that were less well equipped and skilled. Environmental protection and conservation Global warming is accompanied by deforestation, soil erosion, land and soil degradation, loss of soil fertility and biodiversity, increasing soil salinity, drought and a scarcity of wood. In Central America, wa- ter resources are depleted through irrational use by governments and transnational corporations, the development of mining enterprises and non-sustainable logging. There is uncontrolled logging, destruction of endangered plant species, and excessive land use leading to a shortage of firewood (Mozambique). DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-229 29 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  30 God, Creation and Climate Change With the support of DWS country programs, communities have re- sponded to these challenges in various ways. Angola: communities have been able to identify alternative tech- nologies such as making bricks out of anthills and building with bricks rather than with wood. Bangladesh: mitigating actions, including training on environmental issues to build communities’ awareness, environment education and rehabilitation, have been carried out. As a result, communities have been engaged in establishing tree nurseries and tree planting and reforestation projects to fight against erosion that threatens farmland. For instance, millions of trees have been planted. Bangladesh: in limited ways, RDRS Bangladesh is extending support to managing garbage collection of the municipal area of the Rangpur district. Garbage is transformed into manure, and communities are involved in compost preparation to replace chemical fertilizer. Similar projects are carried out in India, Liberia and Rwanda. Bangladesh and Rwanda: biogas plants and solar lightning are introduced in rural areas and solar lamps used in refugee camps in Nepal. Burundi, Eritrea, Zambia and Zimbabwe: development of fuel-sav- ing stoves and the increased use of local smokeless stoves by the communities to reduce the consumption of firewood. In Rwanda, fuel-efficient stoves, promoted by the program, have been adopted by the government and are now used nationwide. Cambodia: organization of community forestry projects and pro- motion of alternatives to charcoal and firewood selling have been adopted as a means of livelihood. Ethiopia and India: well and spring construction, water harvesting (or collecting) structures are built. Haiti and Peru: protection of water sources and the few remaining forests, as well as replanting native pasture grasses. DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-230 30 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  Addressing Realities on the Ground 31 India and Rwanda: farmers are reverting to traditional crops that require less water and are more pest resistant, and efforts are un- dertaken to develop seedlings better adapted to local conditions. India: the environment is protected, conserved and regenerated, the community is sensitized, Indigenous knowledge is drawn upon, and environmental friendly practices are carried out; disaster management teams are organized and trained. Mauritania: soil and water conservation activities are taking place, as well as rehabilitation of water retention structures by affected communities, resulting in increased in soil fertility, expansion of cultivable areas, recharging of water ground. Mauritania: promotion of biological agriculture, use of biological treatment methods in gardening. Nepal: improved seasonal and off-season farming techniques are used. Bioengineering, rather than civil engineering, is offered for taming rivers and for flood protection. DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-231 31 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-232 32 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  33 Human Rights and Climate Change James B. Martin-Schramm The heavy reliance on fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) together with ecologically damaging land use patterns have produced grave threats to justice, peace and the integrity of creation. The related challenges posed by global warming and climate change are unprecedented in human his- tory. The first half of this article summarizes recent scientific findings about global warming and identifies specific ways climate change imperils human rights around the world. The second half explores two different proposals for securing human rights, which address intra-generational ethical issues related to global climate change. Climate science After nearly two decades of intensive study, scientists have reached a much greater consensus about the causes and likely impacts of global climate change. In 1998, the United Nations (UN) established the Inter- governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to review and assess the most recent scientific, technical and socioeconomic information relevant to climate change. The IPCC has produced reports every five years and issued its Fourth Assessment Report in four installments during 2007. Over 1,200 authors have contributed to the report and their work was reviewed by more than 2,500 scientific experts.  Since each report for policy makers is approved line by line in plenary sessions, the IPCC’s findings are arguably the least controversial and most accepted assess- ments of climate change in the scientific community.  I have also written a second paper that addresses intergenerational ethical issues related to global climate change and develops ethical criteria to assess the adequacy of various climate policy proposals. The paper is published in the online Journal of Lutheran Ethics. See www.elca. org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/Journal-of-Lutheran-Ethics/Issues/April-2009/Assess- ing-Climate-Policy-Proposals.aspx. Both papers have been revised and expanded in Climate Justice: Ethics, Energy, and Public Policy, to be published by Fortress Press in January 2010.  Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, Fact Sheet for Climate Change 2007, at www. ipcc.ch/press /factsheet.htm, accessed July 2007. DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-233 33 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  34 God, Creation and Climate Change In its Fourth Assessment Report, the IPCC states that it has very high confidence [greater than ninety percent probability] that “the glob- ally averaged net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming.” The report demonstrates that, as a result of human activities, global atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have substantially increased. For example, the global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas, has increased from a pre-industrial value of about 280 ppm to 379 ppm in 2005. The growing atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide “exceeds by far the natural range over the last 650,000 years (180 to 300 ppm) as determined from ice cores.” Direct scientific observations of climate change led the IPCC to de- clare that warming of the climate system is “unequivocal.” It notes that “eleven of the last twelve years (1995–2006) rank among the 12 warmest years in the instrumental record of global surface temperature.” The IPCC also identifies “numerous long-term changes in Arctic temperatures and ice, widespread changes in precipitation amounts, ocean salinity, wind patterns and aspects of extreme weather including droughts, heavy precipitation, heat waves and the intensity of tropical cyclones.” These key findings lead the IPCC to the following conclusion: If the world takes a business-as-usual approach and continues a fossil fuel intensive energy path during the twenty-first century, the IPCC projects current concentrations of greenhouse gases could more than quadruple by the year 2100. Under this scenario, global average surface temperature will increase by 4.0ºC (7.2ºF) by the end of the twenty-first century. Put into perspective, the global-average surface temperature only increased 0.6ºC (1.1ºF) during the twentieth century.  In a report issued after the IPCC released its Fourth Assessment Report, the US Climate Change Science Program warned “[w]e are very likely to experience a faster  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Fourth Assessment Report: The Physical Science Basis (Geneva: IPCC Secretariat, February 2007), pp. 2–3, at www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf, ac- cessed July 2007.  Ibid.  Ibid., pp. 4–6.  Ibid. This mean projection is for the fossil fuel-intensive A1F1 scenario, the worst of the six developed by the IPCC. Under this scenario greenhouse gas concentrations are projected to increase from approximately 430 ppm of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in 2005 to 1550 ppm CO2e by 2100. Even under the IPCC’s best case scenario, (B1) greenhouse gas concentrations increase to 600 ppm CO2e by 2100, which they estimate will lead to a warming of 3.2ºF by the end of this century—almost three times the rate of warming over the past 100 years. DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-234 34 05/08/2009 16:32:51 PM  Human Rights and Climate Change 35 rate of climate change in the next 100 years than has been seen over the past 10,000 years.” This rapid rate of global warming will raise sea levels, endangering millions living in low-lying areas, despoil freshwater resources for one sixth of the world’s population, widen the range of infectious diseases such as malaria, reduce global agricultural production and increase the risk of extinction for twenty to thirty percent of all surveyed plant and animal species.  The IPCC emphasizes that poor communities will be “especially vulnerable” to increasing climate change, “in particular those concentrated in high-risk areas” who “have more limited adaptive capacities, and are more dependent on climate-sensitive resources such as local water and food supplies.” Climate change and human rights Given this warning, it should come as no surprise that some poor and vulnerable communities around the world are beginning to argue that climate change is resulting in violations of their human rights. In Decem- ber 2005, over sixty Inuit Indians, who live in Arctic regions of the USA and Canada, submitted a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Faced with a rate of warming that is almost twice the pace experienced elsewhere on the planet, the petitioners requested relief “from human rights violations resulting from the impacts of glo- bal warming and climate change caused by acts and omissions of the United States.”10  US Climate Change Science Program, The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Wa- ter Resources, and Biodiversity (September 2007, public review draft), p. 7, at www.climatescience.gov/ Library/sap/sap4-3/public-review-draft/sap4-3prd-all.pdf, accessed September 2007.  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change Im- pacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability (Geneva: IPCC Secretariat, April 2007), p. 8, at www.ipcc.ch/ SPM6avr07.pdf, accessed July 2007.  Ibid. 10 Inuit 2005, Petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Seeking Relief from Violations Resulting from Global Warming Caused by Acts and Omission of the United States, p. 1, at www.inuitcircumpolar.com /files /uploads /icc-files /FINALPetitionSum- mary.pdf., accessed October 2008. Cited in James Peter Louviere and Donald A. Brown, The Significance of Understanding Inadequate National Climate Change Programs as Human Rights Violations, at http://climateethics.org/?p=39, accessed October 2008. DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-235 35 05/08/2009 16:32:52 PM  36 God, Creation and Climate Change In 2008, we observed the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.11 Drafted originally to protect human dignity after the ravages of World War II, there are several articles in the Universal Declaration which can be applied directly to the perils posed by global climate change. Excerpted below are the most clearly relevant articles in the Declaration: Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Article 7: All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination. Article 12: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence…. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks. Article 17: Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property. Article 22: Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social secu- rity and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality. Article 25: Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. Article 28: Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized. Most nations of the world have endorsed the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and approximately seventy-five percent have ratified other legally binding international laws, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant 11 United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, at www.un.org/Overview/rights.html, accessed July 2008. DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-236 36 05/08/2009 16:32:52 PM  Human Rights and Climate Change 37 on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).12 The Inuit Indians appeal to both of these international laws in their petition to the Inter- American Commission on Human Rights. They also appeal to other legally binding agreements. For example, they argue that, as a member of the Organization of American States, the USA must respect their rights under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. They also argue that, as a signatory of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the USA has committed to developing and implementing policies aimed at reducing its greenhouse gas emissions.13 The following quote from the Inuit petition summarizes their argument: The impacts of climate change, caused by acts and omissions by the United States, violate the Inuit’s fundamental human rights protected by the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and other international instruments. These include their rights to the benefits of culture, to property, to the preservation of health, life, physical integrity, security, and a means of subsistence, and to residence, movement, and inviolability of the home.14 Nearly three years later, the Inuit case remains pending before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. While it is clear that human rights enshrined in various laws appear to be jeopardized by global climate change, this does not mean that the Inuits (or others) will prevail in their legal cases. Since climate change is a global phe- nomenon it is difficult to establish which entities have the jurisdiction and authority to rule in any particular case. In addition, courts find it difficult to assign proportional national or corporate responsibility for the greenhouse gases that have been emitted since the advent of the Industrial Revolution. Legal matters aside, a strong moral argument can be made that global climate change is causing human rights violations.15 In 2000, the World Council of Churches (WCC) issued a statement that “equitable rights to the 12 Louviere and Brown, op. cit. (note 10). 13 Inuit 2005, op. cit. (note 10), p. 5. 14 Ibid. 15 See Donald Brown, “The Case for Understanding Inadequate Climate Change Strategies as Human Rights Violations,” in Laura Westra, Klaus Bosselmann and Richard Westra (eds), Recon- ciling Human Existence with Ecological Integrity (London: Earthscan Publications, 2008). DTS-Studies-God_Climate_Change-237 37 05/08/2009 16:32:52 PM  38 God, Creation and Climate Change atmosphere as a global commons must be the foundation of proposals to address climate change.”16 Michael Northcott, author of A Moral Climate: The Ethics of Global Warming, discourages appeals to rights language in Christian responses to climate change.17 In a recent paper, Northcott argues