Climate change
Date posted: 1 Apr 2022
Dear Editor,
Christians differ in their response to the ‘climate emergency’. Some, like David Golding that the (February en), accept ‘evidence is irrefutable’ that emissions from fossil fuels are endangering billions of people as the Earth heats up. Over recent years, reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have become more specific in attributing global warming to the release of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere.
‘Hundreds of millions will be severely affected as… the climate changes’
John Emyr & John Houghton
Date posted: 1 Apr 2022
Back in 2014, Sir John Houghton (1931 – 2020) agreed to be interviewed by John Emyr. That interview was translated into Welsh and appeared in the Welsh-language magazine Cristion. It now appears for the first time in English.
JE: Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed. When, and under what circumstances, did you first acquire a personal faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord?
earth watch
What will you do to adapt?
Simon Marsh
Date posted: 1 Sep 2022
What did you do to stay cool this summer?
By the time you read this, I hope we’ll be heading into somewhat cooler weather, but at the time of writing, we’ve just experienced the hottest temperatures ever in the UK.
earth watch
Since 1970: 69% gone!
Simon Marsh
Date posted: 1 Dec 2022
One of my favourite children’s books is Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpens’ Wonderful Earth!
It’s a joyous and beautifully illustrated celebration of the wonder and diversity of creation. And sometimes creation is just gloriously weird; who could forget creatures such as the football fish, the weedy seadragon or the pink fairy armadillo? Wonderful Earth! is in part an imaginative reworking of Psalm 104, which celebrates the greatness of the Creator and His creation. There are wild donkeys quenching their thirst from mountain streams, cedars of Lebanon where the birds nest, hyraxes taking refuge in the crags, lions roaring for their prey and Leviathan frolicking in the vast sea, which teems with creatures beyond number.
letter from Australia
From fires to floods
David Robertson
Date posted: 1 Aug 2022
Australia is experiencing a new government and a new Prime Minister.
As predicted before the recent election, the Labor party won and its leader, Anthony Albanese, was duly elected PM. It is noticeable and a reason for thanksgiving that there was no dispute about the result and the former PM, Scott Morrison, handed over the reins of power before all the votes were counted!
earth watch
Eight million threatened
Simon Marsh
Date posted: 1 Nov 2022
What do Glasgow, Sharm El Sheikh, Kunming, and Montreal have in common? Shipbuilding cities? Exotic holiday destinations? Which is the odd one out, and why do they matter to the future of the planet?
You may remember the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow last year. The follow-up conference will be taking place shortly in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El Sheikh where there will be an assessment of whether countries are doing enough to tackle climate change (almost certainly not, according to the independent think tank Chatham House).
earth watch
Spotting climate error
Simon Marsh
Date posted: 1 Apr 2022
Do you have an EV? No, that’s not shorthand for an Evangelical or even a new English translation of the Bible, it’s an Electric Vehicle.
My recent purchase of an EV has got me pondering, in a strange sort of way, the importance of truth when it comes to creation care.
Global warming
Date posted: 1 Sep 2022
Dear Editor,
How to respond to David Robertson’s ‘Letter from Australia’? (en August 2022)
news in brief
Iraq: early inscriptions found in Mosul
Archaeologists restoring the historic Syriac Orthodox Mar Thomas Church in Mosul, Iraq, which was badly damaged by Islamic State fighters, have discovered about a dozen ancient relics and parchments.
The relics include six stone containers with Aramaic inscriptions, some relating to important figures in the early church. One refers to Simon ‘The Zealot’, one of Christ’s disciples; another mentions Saint Theodore, a Roman soldier born in Corum, Turkey, in the third century, who was beheaded for having converted to Christianity.
Hunger emergency: Christians respond
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Aug 2022
Even before the invasion of Ukraine, many of the poorest nations of the world were suffering the catastrophic impact of climate change.
Earlier this year the island of Madagascar, for example, experienced its ‘worst drought’ in 40 years. UNICEF says half a million under-fives will be ‘acutely malnourished’ this year; in the south, where 80% of the people depend on agriculture to survive, the UN World Food Programme estimates that half of the population now faces hunger. The drought has decimated crops and dried up water sources, resulting in little sustenance for communities and cattle. The pandemic, deforestation and Madagascar’s cyclone season have further exacerbated their woes. According to UNWFP, this could become ‘the first famine to be caused by climate change’.
earth watch
Creation’s hope: Christ
Simon Marsh
Date posted: 1 Jan 2022
What happened at COP26?
At
the
beginning
of
November,
delegates from every nation
in the world
arrived
in Glasgow
for COP26, the UN
conference on climate change. COPs (in
full, the Conference of the Parties to the
UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change) happen annually but the big ones
are every five years or
so. COP26 was
particularly critical, being
the first major
gathering since the Paris Agreement in 2015;
the first test of whether countries would live
up to their promises on climate change.
legal eye
Worried by the new Police Act? You should be
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Jul 2022
Noisy and disruptive protests are, frankly, a nuisance to us all. At the time of writing, the prospect of serious disruption for many rail passengers with the planned June’s rail strikes is bad enough, but at least travellers can plan ahead and take a different route (or drive, if they can afford the fuel).
But try driving through a busy city and finding the road blocked with climate change protesters chained to their vehicles – all in a good cause, of course; but creating not merely a public nuisance but serious disruption.
Jesus’ return and green issues today
Dave Gobbett
Date posted: 1 Dec 2022
The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, widely known as COP27, has just been running in Egypt. In a timely new book* Dave Gobbett of Highfields Church Cardiff helps us think through a Biblical perspective on the environment. This extract explains how Jesus’ return might impact our thinking on this issue.
‘We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him … The Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever’ (1 Thess. 4:14, 16).
Indonesia: Primate brings gospel to interfaith summit
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Dec 2022
The Archbishop of Nigeria, Henry Ndukuba, has told a new international platform of religious leaders how many in the Global South are ‘finding in Jesus Christ hope for living and eternity’.
But the Primate also told the R20 (a gathering of leaders from major world religions in the countries of the G20,): ‘Nigeria is now one of the most dangerous countries to be a Christian.’
earth watch
Birds on a high wire
Simon Marsh
Date posted: 1 Feb 2022
In recent months, while the world’s attention has been on what we’re doing to the climate, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that – even aside from climate change – the rest of creation’s in a bad way as well.
We don’t always realise this. Over the last few decades we’ve been fed a diet of Attenborough documentaries which show an amazing world, but one seemingly untouched by human hand. Only recently this has begun to change. Scientists refer to the ‘shifting baseline syndrome’ as each successive generation of people accepts the world they see around them as normal, without realising how much nature has been lost in the past.
Christian mountaineer speaks out
en staff
Date posted: 1 Oct 2022
An evangelical mountaineer is encouraging individual believers to take small, seemingly ‘insignificant’ actions to help combat climate change.
Raphael Moser, a mountain guide and sports coach specialising in Alpine routes, was speaking after it emerged glaciers are melting faster and faster.
Science and faith
Date posted: 1 Oct 2022
Dear Editor,
In the recent past, scientific discoveries have overturned several widely-held notions that each in their way denied what the Bible teaches. For example, the Bible states or strongly implies:–
‘Fanatical arrogance of men of science?’ Selective, alarmist and dystopian
By Prof. Keith R. Fox
Date posted: 1 Sep 2022
‘I have never seen Francis Crick in a modest mood’ wrote James Watson at the start of his book The Double Helix.
Crick may well have said the same about Watson because these two scientists were certainly not known for their humility. And surely it is no surprise that some scientists are arrogant, just as are some sportspersons, some teachers, some doctors, some pastors and church leaders, and so on. Humans are not perfect and one way of being imperfect is arrogance. Scientists are no exception – they exhibit the same range of imperfections as society at large.
The promise of unfailing ‘seedtime and harvest’: a cover for climate complacency?
David Golding
Date posted: 1 Feb 2022
New figures just released by the European Climate Agency Copernicus reveal the last seven years as the world’s hottest on record.
We declare clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency and that the world’s people face untold suffering due to the climate crisis unless there are major transformations to global society. (Article in Bioscience endorsed by 11,000 scientists from 153 nations, 5 November 2019)
Are you sitting comfortably?
Tear Fund
Date posted: 1 Jan 2022
While you are sitting here reading this from the comfort of your chair (or, who knows, maybe in your bed or even in the bath), 62-year-old consultant cardiologist Professor Graham Stuart has rather more uncomfortable seating.
The Bristol grandparent is scheduled to be rowing 3,000 miles from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean – crossing the Atlantic Ocean as part of a team of 12.
Scientific arrogance?
Date posted: 1 Aug 2022
Dear Editor,
I’ll admit that I was not inclined to lend a sympathetic ear to William Philip’s article, entitled ‘The fanatical arrogance of men of science’ (en June), given his insensitive stance on climate change during COP26 in Glasgow (see http://ne-calltoaction.org.uk/?m=202207). Indeed, it really upset me to see all the good people I’ve worked with over the years maligned in this way and I hate to think of the damage such teaching could do to young people. The article fosters an attitude of fear and antagonism towards the whole scientific community and this is undeserved. ‘Men (and women) of science’ are not generally ‘fanatically arrogant’, any more than are men of politics, lawyers, school teachers – or ‘men of the church’.
Climate reactions
Date posted: 1 May 2022
Dear Editor,
Just to say how pleased I am to see the interview with Sir John Houghton in the centre-page spread in the April issue of Evangelicals Now. Many thanks.
The hopeful church in a hopeless world
We live in a hopeless world. Or at least a world full of false hopes which are quickly dashed.
In the West we seem to be going through what Os Guinness calls ‘a civilisational moment’ – a time when the foundations are being destroyed. Reading of the four horsemen of the apocalypse from Revelation at times feels like reading a news bulletin – death, war, civil strife, famine and plague no longer seem the stuff of ages past. The fears that people have about climate change, racism, economic depression or gender confusion only add to the growing sense of hopelessness and gloom.