On Sunday 17 November, thousands of people around Australia have gathered to call for increased action in the cause of climate change. ABC Local interviewed leaders from three faith and climate change groups.
Sunday 17 November, thousands of people around Australia have gathered to call for increased action in the cause of climate change. It marks the end of a week where from the tragedy of Typhoon Hiayan in the Philippines, through to the global politics of the UN Warsaw Conference, climate has been at the forefront of the news.
Just a week ago Australia’s former Prime Minister, John Howard speaking in London suggested that for some Climate Change was something akin to a religion.
This remark was not meant to be complimentary. Religion was used here as illustrative of blind faith triumphing over evidence and rationality. It is fuelled by observations that for some, Environmentalism, does have elements of nature worship and animist paganism, running counter to Christianity.
Paradoxically this kind of ‘religion’ argument is also deployed by supporters of climate change against the climate change deniers. They argue that for many years, fundamentalist Christians have been associated with the idea that since God gave us charge of the planet, we were free to exploit, until God decided otherwise; and that would probably herald the End Times, anyway, so there was no need for us to take action .
In fact, all our major religious traditions speak of creation and of our relationship to the earth. If God has established a created order in which each believer is a meaningful part, then religious communities have great potential as allies or enemies of both sides of the debate.
In this week’s Issue, we take a look at faith and climate Change. Are religions part of the problem or the solution?
GUESTS
Matthew Sleeth, founder of Blessed Earth
Steve Bradbury, director of the Micah Centre, set up across churches to keep the government on track with the Millenium Goals
Miriam Pepper, founding member of the Uniting Church’s ecology network, Uniting Earthweb
Related Audio:
The Issue: Faith and Climate Change
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Source ABC Local
