THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIV, Issue # 102, May 14, 2012
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
USING EARTH'S BLESSINGS TO BETTER MANKIND & PLANET:
Rational Thought Underlies Conservative Christian Views
on Climate Change & the Environment
By Dr. David Russell Legates
ENVIRONMENTALISM, ECONOMICS, SCIENCE, CHRISTIANITY, & ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP: HOW CAN ANYONE THINKING RATIONALLY ARGUE
THAT POVERTY & ECONOMIC HARDSHIP WILL ENHANCE ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP, OR THAT THE PLANET IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE PEOPLE WHO
LIVE ON IT? WHAT GOOD ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP REQUIRES: SOUND FINANCIAL FOOTING, WHICH, IN TURN, REQUIRES MAINTAINING A STRONG,
VIBRANT, INNOVATIVE ECONOMY -- AN ECONOMY THAT INCLUDES PLENTIFUL, DEPENDABLE, & AFFORDABLE ENERGY
FULL STORY:
Although he has rarely been willing to discuss or debate energy or environmental issues with those who do not share his views, environmentalist David Suzuki
frequently challenges them on other grounds. In his recent article, “Religious Right Is Wrong About Climate Change,” Suzuki claims that some U.S. and
Canadian scientists hold religious views that are anti-science.
Suzuki asserts that some climate scientists – including me, by name – put “misguided beliefs above rational thought.” His implicit assumption is that
Conservative Christian views are irrational and incompatible with science, and that I have replaced Almighty God with the “almighty dollar,” believing the
economy matters more than the environment.
As a coauthor of the Cornwall Alliance’s Renewed Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Examination of the Theology, Science
and Economics of Global Warming, which forms the basis for the Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming that Suzuki criticizes, I know the
Cornwall Alliance fully and carefully integrates scientific, economic, ethical, and theological reasoning to support its conclusions. There’s nothing at all
irrational about it – unless you consider religion irrational per se.
However, Suzuki is correct regarding one aspect of my belief: the economy does matter as much as the environment. Good environmental stewardship requires
sound financial footing – and improving and safeguarding human health and welfare requires maintaining a strong, vibrant, innovative economy that can sustain
continued environmental progress.
When a country is in dire need of food, clothing, shelter and other necessities for life, it cannot possibly be concerned with environmental issues. The poor
people of India pour untreated sewage into the Ganges River – and then draw their drinking and “cleaning” water from it. So poor that they’re desperate simply
for survival, they cannot possibly concern themselves with environmental stewardship. Only when economic improvements allow technological advancements
to increase the quality of life, provide ample food and clothing, house citizens, provide clean drinking water, and treat and eradicate diseases can a thus wealthier
society turn its attention to caring for the environment.
That is precisely what has happened in more developed nations. As the United States and Canada advanced economically, we developed technologies and
policies that increased our quality and length of life. In turn, this has led us to be more proactive with our environmental stewardship.
We emit far less pollution and waste today, both per person and per unit of production, than we did fifty years ago. We feed more people with every parcel of
land, we get more energy from every drop of oil, we are more efficient at everything we do, and we are much better stewards of our environment. But none of that
could have occurred without a strong and developing economy.
Unfortunately, some socalled "environmentalists" wish to keep Africa and other developing continents, nations, and regions in perpetual underdevelopment.
They pay them off to be “environmentally conscious,” by giving them handouts – food and monetary aid – to keep them alive and perhaps have little solar
panels on their huts. But they also ensure that those poor families never prosper or become middle class – so as to perpetuate environmentalist notions of “noble
natives,” supposedly “at one” with their environment and living a “sustainable” existence.
Equally harmful, much of that money is lost to corruption, while the people are forced to continue living in a state of poverty, disease, malnutrition and
deprivation, as technologies that could enhance their length and quality of life are denied to them. Among the technologies denied are modern seeds, fertilizers,
and high-tech, high-yield farming methods to increase food supplies; natural gas and electricity to heat homes and cook food, instead of cutting down forests
and burning wood, thereby degrading indoor air quality and causing lethal lung infections; refrigeration so that people do not have to choose between eating
spoiled food and going hungry; and the use of insecticides, including the powerful insect repellant DDT, to spare them from the agonizing illness and death
brought on by malaria.
Each of these enhancements requires plentiful, dependable, affordable energy. Yet, in the name of “saving the planet” or “preventing cataclysmic climate change,”
environmentalists like Suzuki deny developing countries the modern technologies and energy they need to improve their lives and environment – thereby
perpetuating high infant mortality, significantly shortened life spans, and greatly decreased quality of life.
Climate alarmism is the rationale for these deadly policies – and that is where political ideology mixes with the new religion of environmentalism. Overstated or
non-existent threats to the environment, along with impractical or imaginary ways to prevent the purported threats, are the new scripture on which the adherents
develop their theologies and policies for directing and micromanaging the course of human events. Unfortunately, these eco-religionists never encounter (or
intentionally avert their eyes from) the misery and devastation that their policies dramatically inflict on the world’s poorest people. That is because they are too
concerned with “saving the planet.”
Back in North America, some wish to have energy rationed or be made increasingly expensive, creating artificial fuel poverty for millions. Such policies will make
food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and medical care – in short, everything – more expensive and scarce, create more unemployed workers, push many people
back into conditions of poverty and deprivation, and gravely impair human health and welfare. This strategy will not save the planet, as they hope, because one
of its first casualties will be environmental stewardship. History and human nature both testify that, forced by economic limits to choose between a cleaner
environment and food on the table, people always choose food.
In the Parable of the Talents, Jesus told of a master who gave one of his servants a single talent, and then condemned him for hiding it in the earth and not
putting it to use. Often we think of the talent only as money or ability, but it really stands for every resource – including natural resources. How will the Master of
all creation judge us if we hide our resources in the earth, and then on Judgment Day say, “Behold, you have what is yours”?
If we do not use the resources God has set before us in the earth to care for those in need, our Creator will likely condemn us, saying:
“You kept buried what I gave you, instead of using and investing it.
You failed to employ my gifts to care for the poor, the hungry, the
sick, and those who were dying from disease. You have been
worthless, irresponsible stewards of my creation.”
We would deserve the same fate as the servant the master called “wicked and lazy.”
I fail to understand how anyone thinking rationally can argue that poverty and economic hardship will enhance environmental stewardship, or that the planet is
more important than the people who live on it.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Science, Ethics, & Human Health:
Human Health & Public Policy
Dr. David Russell Legates is Professor of Climatology in the Center for Climatic Research at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware, U.S.A. He is a Christian
and a Senior Fellow of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity