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Christian-right views are threatening the environment
(Glenn Scherer, Grist.org, 27 October 2004)
Forty-five senators and 186 representatives in 2003 earned 80- to 100-percent approval ratings from the nation's three most influential Christian right advocacy groups -- the Christian Coalition, Eagle Forum, and Family Resource Council. Many of those same lawmakers also got flunking grades -- less than 10 percent, on average -- from the League of Conservation Voters last year. . . . These statistics are puzzling at first. Opposing abortion and stem-cell research is consistent with the religious right's belief that life begins at the moment of conception. Opposing gay marriage is consistent with its claim that homosexual activity is proscribed by the Bible. Both beliefs are a familiar staple of today's political discourse. But a scripture-based justification for anti-environmentalism -- when was the last time you heard a conservative politician talk about that? . . . Odds are it was in 1981, when President Reagan's first secretary of the interior, James Watt, told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. "God gave us these things to use. After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back," Watt said in public testimony. . . . Christian fundamentalists feel that concern for the future of our planet is irrelevant, because it has no future. [COMMENT: Of course, in a sense they are correct, because there is no future for them. They are on evolution's dead end road and are on their way to becoming extinct, hopefully soon. . . . And I don't mean to only single out Christians but all members of these cults we call religions.] They believe we are living in the End Time, when the son of God will return, the righteous will enter heaven, and sinners will be condemned to eternal hellfire. They may also believe, along with millions of other Christian fundamentalists, that environmental destruction is not only to be disregarded but actually welcomed -- even hastened -- as a sign of the coming Apocalypse. . . . We are not talking about a handful of fringe lawmakers who hold or are beholden to these beliefs. The 231 legislators (all but five of them Republicans) who received an average 80 percent approval rating or higher from the leading religious-right organizations make up more than 40 percent of the U.S. Congress. . . . Like it or not, faith in the Apocalypse is a powerful driving force in modern American politics. . . . Ever since the dawn of Christianity, groups of believers have searched the scriptures for signs of the End Time and the Second Coming. Today, most of the roughly 50 million right-wing fundamentalist Christians in the United States believe in some form of End-Time theology. . . . Those 50 million believers make up only a subset of the estimated 100 million born-again evangelicals in the United States . . . People under the spell of such potent prophecies cannot be expected to worry about the environment. Why care about the earth when the droughts, floods, and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the Apocalypse foretold in the Bible? Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the Rapture? And why care about converting from oil to solar when the same God who performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes can whip up a few billion barrels of light crude with a Word? . . . To understand how the Christian right worldview is shaping and even fueling congressional anti-environmentalism, consider two influential born-again lawmakers: House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair James Inhofe (R-Okla.). . . . Inhofe, the Senate's most outspoken environmental critic, is also unwavering in his wish to remake America as a Christian state. . . . DeLay is also a self-declared member of the Christian Zionists, an End-Time faction numbering 20 million Americans. Christian Zionists believe that the 1948 creation of the state of Israel marked the first event in what author Hal Lindsey calls the "countdown to Armageddon" and they are committed to making that doomsday clock tick faster, speeding Christ's return. . . . In 2002, DeLay visited pastor John Hagee's Cornerstone Church. Hagee preached a fiery message as simple as it was horrifying: "The war between America and Iraq is the gateway to the Apocalypse!" he said, urging his followers to support the war, perhaps in order to bring about the Second Coming. After Hagee finished, DeLay rose to second the motion. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "what has been spoken here tonight is the truth from God." . . . James Inhofe might be an environmentalist's worst nightmare. The Oklahoma senator makes major policy decisions based on heavy corporate and theological influences, flawed science, and probably an apocalyptic worldview -- and he chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. . . . "I trust God with my legislative goals and the issues that are important to my constituents," Inhofe has told Pentecostal Evangel magazine. "I don't believe there is a single issue we deal with in government that hasn't been dealt with in the Scriptures." . . . Faith in Christ's impending return causes End-Timers to be interested only in short-term political-theological outcomes, not long-term solutions. Unfortunately, nearly every environmental issue, from the conservation of endangered species to the curbing of climate change, requires belief in and commitment to an enduring earth. And yet, no amount of scientific evidence will likely shake fundamentalists of their End-Time faith or bring them over to the cause of saving the environment. . . . Many years ago, a friend of mine introduced me to his "religious grandparents," who, whenever they were asked about the future, proclaimed, "Armageddon's comin'!" And they believed it. Christ was due back any day, so they never bothered to paint or shingle their house. What was the point? Over the years, I drove by their place and watched the protective layers of paint peel, the bare clapboards weather, the sills and roof rot. Eventually, the house fell into ruin and had to be torn down, leaving my friend's grandparents destitute. . . . In a way, their prediction had proven right. But this humble apocalypse, a house divided against itself, was no work of God, but of man. This is a parable for the 231 Christian right-backed legislators of the 108th Congress. Their constituency's cherished beliefs may lead to the most dangerous and destructive self-fulfilling prophecy of all time.

posted by LoZo 2:02 PM

 

Global warming lead to Great Dying
(Brian Holmes, EarthTimes.org, 2005-01-21)
Great Dying, a catastrophic event that happened some 250 million years ago led to extinction of 90 percent of all marine life and nearly three-quarters of terrestrial plants and animals. . . . Was it a sudden extinction triggered by a meteorite’s impact or was it something else? Researchers led by Peter Ward of the University of Washington, who examined the Karoo Basin of South Africa, employing chemical, biological and other types of analysis, say that the mass extinction may have been triggered by a volcanic eruption. . . . The 1,000-foot-thick exposed section of sediment showed a gradual extinction over about 10 million years. Then suddenly there was a sharp rise in the extinction rate that remained so for 5 million more years. From this the team has speculated that the extinctions may have been the result of global warming and oxygen deprivation for extended time. . . . The team says that Siberia at that time had massive volcanoes that led to global warming while geologic action leading to a drop in global sea levels. . . . "Once you expose a huge amount of underwater sediment to the atmosphere, two very bad things happen -- a huge amount of carbon in the sediments is released and also methane. Once [methane] hits the atmosphere, it's the most efficient greenhouse gas on the planet," says Ward.

[COMMENT by Lorenzo: One of the "silver bullets" touted as a cure for our current energy crisis, are undersea deposites of methane hydrates. But according to Richard Heinman's Power Down, there is a significant risk in mining these deposits, as they are susceptible to cataclysmic avalanches, which in turn can unleash more greenhouse gases into our atmosphere than the entire Industrial Age has thus far. I'm afraid there simply are no more easy answers out there. Read Power Down and decide for yourself.]

posted by LoZo 5:51 PM