Biblical Environmental Stewardship

Some weeks ago I posted my criticism on the Evangelical Climate Initiative, a poorly conceived effort by a group or evangelicals who have succumbed to the prevailing theology of human caused global warming. John at Blogotional points us to another effort by the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance, along with several other groups, to promote a different vision of environmental stewardship which makes much more sense to me that anything the ECI had to offer.

These paragraphs caught my eye:

"On the other hand," said Beisner, "Ill-founded or exaggerated concerns include fears of catastrophic man-made global warming, overpopulation, resource depletion and cataclysmic species extinction."

Speaking about the Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI), a statement signed by some members of the evangelical community that promotes the theory of catastrophic man-made global warming, Beisner said "[We] disagree with their assessment of the scientific evidence of the extent of human contribution to global warming, their prediction of the impact of climate change on human communities and the rest of the ecosystem, and their prescription of major reduction of carbon dioxide emissions as a solution to the alleged problem. The ECI does not specify how much emission reduction is needed to achieve its goals [to counteract global warming]. [This is] to ignore one of the most important aspects of the climatology debate: How much benefit would be gained at what cost to the global economy. And the global economy is not just an economist abstraction. It is real people who depend on that economy for jobs, income and the food, clothing, shelter, transportation and all other goods that they need."

Paul Driessen, senior policy advisor for the Congress of Racial Equality, admonished celebrities, media and wayward religious leaders who are "twisting common definitions of ethics, morality, social responsibility and compassion for the poor to justify global warming agendas."

Driessen also noted, "It is often the very policies they promote that actually represent the greatest threats to the world's poor. Over two billion of the world's people still do not have electricity for lights and refrigeration in their homes, for hospitals and clinics, for schools, shops, offices and factories, for wastewater treatment and other modern technologies that we often take for granted," he said. "And yet these poor countries are told they mustn't build coal or gas-fired electrical power plants, because First World countries are concerned about global warming."

That approach is so much smarter than the ECI, there's no comparison. Read the whole article to get the full story on this new approach. It think it has some potential.

Tags: Evangelical, Evangelical Climate Initiative, Global Warming, Biblical Environmental Stewarship, Interfaith Stewardship Alliance