Clyde Burnett, Peak to Peak.   Pope Francis explains, “Climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all. Nature cannot be regarded as something separate from ourselves. There is need for an economic ecology; in debates on the environment we must integrate questions of justice so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. We lack leadership with concern for all and without prejudice for future generations. But there is a problem of lack of interest.”

Jewish leaders have also addressed the climate crisis in a broad-based Rabbinic letter. They suggest Jewish groups could shift their investments in lethal fossil-fuel production to life-giving enterprises; the citizenry could insist that our tax money stop subsidizing Big Oil and instead support renewable energy. Other religious leaders, Muslims (except from oil producing countries), Evangelical Christians, Mennonites, and the Dalai Lama have followed the leadership of the Pope’s encyclical with calls for environmental stewardship.

Our new historical measurements of Greenland ice show that that CO2 did vary with temperature. And some believe that the Greek Earth Goddess, Gaia, kept the temperature in balance so that when we had temporary changes like volcanoes, sun spots, or orbit perturbations, she would adjust the greenhouse effect with CO2 to eventually repair the damage. But that is a slow process and humans burning fossil fuel are moving too quickly.

Dr. Katherine Hayhoe (PhD Atmospheric Science at Illinois, faculty at Texas Tech in Lubock, recipient of 2014 American Geophysical Union prize for science communication (funded by Nederland’s Nature’s Own), author of A Climate for Change with Andrew Farley, Evangelical Minister) has an excellent discussion of climate with 30 climate science figures. She says that our planet is sick, sending us warning signs. We need to know the diagnosis for our planet to stop making the problem worse. Christians are called to love others who are in real danger.

Dr. John Houghton, Fellow of the Royal Society and former chairman of the Scientific Assessment Working Group of IPCC, is author of Global Warming. In Chapter 8, he compares the science of global warming to religion; some interpret our responsibility to the Gardens of the Bible to be stewards, others to exploit. Humans have the science knowledge, but have a lack of will. Recall the statement of the Rio conference: Human beings are at the center of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with Nature. For climate change deniers, Houghton suggests the precautionary principle: Do you not buy fire insurance on your home in the slightest concern of a fire? Or is your precautionary principle only for the hereafter?

Our emphasis on exploiting fossil fuel energy to attain further economic growth for developed countries has been at the detriment of the less developed island countries and Arctic villages that are losing their homes to the oceans. Do our citizens love others who are in real danger? Listen to the Pope: we need to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.