In Depth:  climate change

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Shall we stand idly by?
earth watch

Shall we stand idly by?
Paul Kunert
Paul Kunert

Is it just me, or is it getting hot in here? Up and down my street, blinds are down and curtains drawn against the midday heat. Overnight, from bedroom windows, strangely alien aircon flues dangle. Parks and lawns are Sahel-brown, hosepipes are banned across the South [of England], and with warm, dry weather forecast for August, we’re all beginning to hope for a spot of rain. Maybe by the time you read this we’ll have had some.

This year is shaping up to be a record-breaker. In May, we had the hottest day ever recorded for the month, and then in June, the same again. Globally, June was the second-hottest on record, just slightly below record-holding 2024. And there’s an intense El Niño brewing in the Pacific that looks like it’s going to set yet more unwelcome records. Phew, what a scorcher.

A national briefing
earth watch

A national briefing
Paul Kunert
Paul Kunert

The tail-end of last year saw over 1,200 politicians and leaders from business, faith, culture, sport and the media gather at Westminster Central Hall for the National Emergency Briefing on the climate and nature crisis.

Ten of the UK’s leading experts – including leading climate scientists at top British universities (Oxford, Manchester, Exeter, Newcastle, Lancaster and UCL), many of them global leaders in their fields, and a former lieutenant-general in the British army – briefed them on the latest implications for health, food, national security and the economy. (You can find recordings of the event at www.nebriefing.org/) What, I wondered as I watched, might be an Evangelical response?

The Biblical support for a greener Christmas
scattering seeds of hope

The Biblical support for a greener Christmas
Heather Munro
Heather Munro

For the last few years, my sister and I have been sewing reusable wrapping. We buy lovely cotton cloth in Christmas prints, hem the material, tie with ribbon, and reuse the fabrics every year. They look beautiful under the tree — and it feels good to celebrate Christmas in a way that doesn’t add to the planet’s waste.

But did you know that Christmas itself is the ultimate reason to care for the earth? Not the commercial one, with glitter and excess, but the real one... “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1v14).

Setting the record straight on climate 'alarmism'

Setting the record straight on climate 'alarmism'
Paul Kunert
Paul Kunert

"Peace, peace," they say, when there is no peace. [1]

"Don’t worry, everything’s fine, carry on as you are" – even a cursory reading of the Biblical prophets reveals this to be the very epitome of false prophecy. Yet this is precisely the counsel Paul Mills’ article, published earlier this year, offers us.

A flourishing earth is possible - and promised
earth watch

A flourishing earth is possible - and promised
Paul Kunert
Paul Kunert

It’s COP season again. COP30 – or to give it its full title, the 30th Conference of the Parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – gets underway imminently.

Dimly we might recall COP26 hitting headlines in the UK four years ago when Glasgow hosted it. Boris Johnson’s one minute to midnight speech, perhaps? Maybe “keeping 1.5 alive”? Or Alok Sharma’s tears when India pulled the rug on his deal to phase out coal?

The false religion of climate alarmism

The false religion of climate alarmism
Paul Mills
Paul Mills

“Watch out for false prophets... By their fruit you will recognise them…every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.” (Matthew 7:15-17, NIV) 

Climate alarmism [1] is often spoken of in religious terms. [2] The connection naturally springs to mind when considering the priestesses of Gaia at "climate" demonstrations, or the cult-like statements of protestors justifying their latest acts of cultural iconoclasm or infrastructure sabotage. Claire Coutinho, the former UK Energy Secretary, noted that the achievement of net zero carbon emissions has become “a religion” for such protest groups. [3] This way of thinking would appear to have become a sub-sect of full-blown Nature worship, or is certainly adjacent to it. Commentators often note that alarmist thinking has filled the religious vacuum in Western societies as adherence to Christianity has waned. 

Is real change possible in stewarding God’s earth?
earth watch

Is real change possible in stewarding God’s earth?
Paul Kunert
Paul Kunert

Is real change possible? That, for those who watch closely our heating world, is the crucial question. If we’re to avoid the worst effects of climate breakdown, we need actual real change.

Or to bring it into the Biblical narrative, if we’re to fulfil our first calling to rule and care for all creation as God’s agents, we’ll need actual real change. It sounds obvious but it’s not always easy to see.

Innovative evangelism launched: Bible study and gardening

Innovative evangelism launched: Bible study and gardening
Emily Pollok
Emily Pollok

By bringing God, Bible study and gardening together, Hazelnut Community Farm in East Bristol is pioneering an innovative approach to living out the Christian faith that reaches their neighbourhood with the gospel while combating the climate crisis.

Located in the grounds of St Anne’s Church, the farm is both a Christian community and a community garden, a space for outdoor worship and a thriving vegetable plot.

Attenborough's Ocean asks: What are we doing here?
earth watch

Attenborough's Ocean asks: What are we doing here?
Paul Kunert
Paul Kunert

Ocean. David Attenborough’s latest made-for-the-big-screen documentary. Perhaps you’ve seen it. If not, please do – I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Barrow-rolling seal, sun-dappled kelp forest, coral garden reef, phytoplankton and whale, the astonishing beauty of it all. You’ll experience joy, wonder, horror, anger, hope and much else besides, all in the space of 90 minutes. It’s impossible not to be stirred, maybe shaken. Available in cinemas and, by the time you’re reading this, on Disney+.

The 7th Carbon Budget: love your neighbour?
earth watch

The 7th Carbon Budget: love your neighbour?
Paul Kunert
Paul Kunert

The Seventh Carbon Budget is out now. It won’t make it to our news feeds, but it’s an important document.

Published by the UK government’s Climate Change Committee (CCC), it’s a well-articulated pathway to (trigger alert) net zero. It’s their best effort at how we in the UK can live more or less as we do now, but without ruining the world around us. For us evangelicals though, there’s something about it that really stands out. Something quite amazing. Though lacking the poetry of Isaiah 65, its themes of prospering humanity, long life, well-being, justice, peace and a flourishing earth could come right out of the prophets.

Environment: Are humans the number one problem?
engaging with culture today

Environment: Are humans the number one problem?
Hadden Turner
Hadden Turner

The environment (or creation) needs humans. While this claim is uncontroversial for Christians, in some environmentalist circles this assertion attracts scorn.

Surely, humans are the environment’s number-one problem, the cause of widespread degradation and damage?

Why aren't Christians leading on climate change?
earth watch

Why aren't Christians leading on climate change?
Paul Kunert
Paul Kunert

Donald Trump is now President of the most economically powerful nation on the planet and – the President-elect is self-avowedly no friend of God’s creation.

He has signed an order to withdraw from the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change and has pledged to roll back Biden’s clean energy law, the Inflation Reduction Act. And he’s doubling down on oil and gas: ‘Drill, baby, drill’.

Wildfires: Climate change is ‘here & now’

Wildfires: Climate change is ‘here & now’
en staff
en staff

Leading climate scientist and evangelical Christian Katharine Hayhoe says the wildfires causing devastation in California are a stark reminder of the reality of climate change today.

Hayhoe, currently Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy, a non-profit international charitable organisation, says Los Angeles County was ‘tinder dry’ after receiving only 0.16 inches of rain since last May and experiencing ‘an unusually warm summer’.

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