One concern that distinguishes today’s situation from earlier times of crisis in human history is that now the future of the earth itself is at stake. We can see that the atmosphere is changing in ways that are hostile to the natural environment and to the human community. Temperatures are increasing, sea levels are rising, devastating weather events are becoming more common, biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, water is becoming more contaminated, ever more plastics are entering the food chain. Globally, 2023 was the hottest year ever recorded. It is estimated that no more than sixty more years of harvests can be expected. No wonder Pope Francis says that, “the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point.”
The catastrophic climate change that defines our time is not mysterious or unexplained. Sound scientific work has demonstrated that it is human activity that is causing it. Specifically, it is the human activity, primarily extraction and burning of fossil fuels, that releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and causes global warming.
All the evidence confirms that global warming poses a clear and present danger to life on earth and yet we continue down the same road. We have to ask, as Naomi Klein puts it: “What is wrong with us?”
Part of the answer to this question is an acknowledgement that Christianity has more often been part of the problem than part of the solution. Concern for the integrity of the natural order has not been prominent in the worship and proclamation of the churches. Meanwhile, Western Christianity was closely allied to a colonial commercial enterprise that sought to make profit from new resources and new markets with little thought for the future of the environment. Today’s ecological crisis challenges us to rethink the meaning of Christian faith.
The World Council of Churches’ mission affirmation Together towards Life made a start on this:
Human greed is contributing to global warming and other forms of climate change. If this trend continues and earth is fatally damaged, what can we imagine salvation to be? Humanity cannot be saved alone while the rest of the created world perishes. Eco-justice cannot be separated from salvation, and salvation cannot come without a new humility that respects the needs of all life on earth.
Thinking Mission Blog 