My post on my Global Footprint provoked a wee bit of debate, so I spent a lot of my (very quiet) weekend on call reading around the issues of global warming and how we as Christians should be responding to it.

Most scientists seem to agree that global warming is taking place at a faster rate than ever before. The polar ice-caps are melting and are unlikely to exist at the end of 21st century. Apparently the earth has warmed up by 0.6 degrees over the last century, the most rapid warming of the planet for 10,000 years, and CO2 in the atmosphere has risen to its highest level in 400,000 years. I am not sure how this squares with beliefs in Creation and a Young Earth, but it certainly appears that something going on.

Whatever that something is, since God gave his commands to Adam in the Garden of Eden, we have been called to have stewardship over the earth. We have been given dominion over this planet to subdue it, to tend to it and to nurture it (Genesis 1:26-31, Genesis 2:15, Psalm 8).

Some have suggested that environmentalism has itself turned into a new religion. Ray Evans of the Lavoisier Group said:

To put it in its bluntest terms, when you don't believe in God you don't believe in nothing. You believe in whatever is the fashion of the day, and environmentalism has scooped the pool.

This, of course, is different to many of the values held by some in the environmentalist movement where human life is seen to have no more intrinsic value that the life of an ant or a tree. Patrick Moore was a founding member of Greenpeace before he felt compelled to leave as the initial "broad-based vision [was] challenged by a new philosophy of radical environmentalism."

In the name of "deep ecology" many environmentalists have taken a sharp turn to the ultra-left, ushering in a mood of extremism and intolerance...It is anti-human. The human species is characterized as a 'cancer' on the face of the earth. The extremists perpetuate the belief that all human activity is negative whereas the rest of nature is good...This aspect of environmental extremism leads to disdain and disrespect for fellow humans and the belief that it would be 'good' if a disease such as AIDS were to wipe out most of the population

Environmental stewardship to me is more taking responsbility for God's creation which itself acts as a testimony to his goodness and as a means of common grace. Earth and heaven will be cast away and replaced by a new heaven and a new earth just as our own bodies are, but we equally look after our bodies until that time. In the same way as it would be wrong for me to refuse to treat your diabetes on the grounds that illness came with the Fall and is part of God's curse, it is irresponsible to ignore the damage that we might be causing to the earth. Our stewardship involves responsibly developing and nurturing the earth for our benefit and for God's glory, preserving it well for future generations.

As a native of the "Oil Capital of Europe" and from a family dependent on the oil industry for work, I've grown up knowing that oil reserves are eventually going to run out. It reminds to be responsible for the energy that I do use, as much as I have to consider what happens to the rubbish I throw away and how I use the earth's resources. I therefore want to limit what I consume and use and to be careful about what I am using. For me, this will mean buying more local-grown food, reducing and recycling packaging, and trying to remember to turn the heating off when I go out to work. It will perhaps be only a tiny contribution to a much greater problem but a small step in the right direction.

The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein,
for he has founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
Psalm 24:1-2