Climate Change, China and America from a Biblical Christian Perspective

Is Climate Change Real

To be clear, I believe mankind continues to make choices that impact our climate in a negative way. One can argue that there are cyclical trends throughout the history of the planet. However, enough research has been done that, in my opinion, we are well past the point where Christians can no longer ignore the impact of global industrialization on our continuing deterioration. Too many Christians have been resistant and believe, in the face of mounting evidence, that it is heretical to side with environmentalists on this reality. There is so much evidence on the continuing destructive nature of climate change that I am not going to take the time to list sources. If one digs deep enough we can always find those who believe the fringes of any topic, including climate change. The truth is that our planet is getting warmer and the footprint of man is having an impact. The actual long-term impact and timetable for the “tipping point” are in continued debate.

Are We Responsible to God for Our Role in Climate Change

I also believe that God left mankind in charge of this world and its inhabitants. He is the Creator of everything but man was assigned to be a caretaker. 

Genesis 1:26 – Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Genesis 1:28-29 – And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.

Genesis 2:15 – The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Man, and specifically those who accept God’s commands (Christians), are called to be stewards over the planet. Webster calls that, “the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care”. So, how are we doing? Well as a human race, not very well. 

What Can Americans Do about Climate Change

Here is where I depart from many in the climate change camp. As a Biblical Christian, I recognize we are to be stewards of the earth and instead, we are doing more harm than good. However, we also need to recognize those things we can impact (both as a nation and as Biblical Christians), and, what we can’t impact in any tangible way. 

China, North Korea, Iran, India, Russia, and others are smoking up the sky with abandon while we in the West diddle with electric cars with batteries made by the rare earth China has locked in on. As divisive, disjointed, and distracted as the world governments are today, I don’t believe we will ever make a dent in the climate catastrophe that is headed our way. To think we can engage/waste resources while ignoring countries who could care less about climate change is impractical at best and ludicrous at worst. At some point we will either die in our own waste or science will rescue us in some way. Reducing emissions will never be even a fraction of the final answer. 

In my view, the continuing progression of climate change and its consequences is not going to stop based on the strategies implemented over the last 10-15 years. We can, and many do, offer lip service to the cause. In the end, however, nothing yet offered has or will be successful in reducing global warming. All the rhetoric and distractions on projects that hold little true impact only serve to undermine the financial resources of Western nations, while our enemies continue to gain strength. Consider our greatest adversary, China. The chart below represents CO2 emissions between the US and China. Note our efforts to reduce carbon emissions while China continues on its spike in industrial growth. One offsets the other and the climate continues to worsen. 

So, as America directs more and more of our limited resources toward reducing carbon into the atmosphere, China remains on an accelerated path toward intersecting with our per capita footprint. However, what is most dramatic is the full impact of CO2 emissions by country, documented in the chart below.  

And where is much of this growth in China emissions coming from? The chart below is a list of the countries with the greatest coal-fired energy capacity in gigawatts as of July of 2022. The China disparity is dramatic and growing. Media misinformation and misdirection aside, these are the facts.

The Green New Deal, Biden’s Infrastructure Plan, gas stoves being pulled from the market, stopping the use of private jets, electric cars using Chinese rare earth metals for batteries, Chinese solar panels, Carbon Offsets, and moving from cows to bugs for food, will have little impact on the progression of China (and others like Russia and India) from adding billions and billions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, unabated. Look at what China’s “climate” was like around the 2022 Winter Olympics. 

And yet, what is Gretta Thunburg and our Climate Czar, John Kerry constantly pointing a finger at… America. And we dutifully keep spending our finite resources fighting a losing battle as China grows stronger, while unbelievably only in the last few months have we begun consideration in changing their “developing nation” status. 

Conclusion

I have been criticized in an earlier post for claiming that America should stop squandering our resources on a losing climate change battle while watching China and others grow their infrastructure and economy. The understandable attack has come under a veil of God’s calling for Christians to be stewards of the planet and the premise that just because others do wrong does not give us a license to ignore our responsibilities. Of course, from a purely altruistic and targeted theological view, their points are totally valid. 

However, if one was chewing a piece of gum while on the Titanic would it be wise to run below deck and try to stuff the gum in the hole? 

For decades, America has been the stabilizing force against those who wish to expand their territory. As we submit to woke ideology, fentanyl and legal pot, no border control, horrible self-serving government mismanagement regardless of political ideology, disenfranchised military and police, unprosecuted crime, a severe loss of patriotism, saber-rattling by Russia, North Korea, and China, and finally, economic suicide attempting to reverse climate change, who will be replacing us… the UN? 

As we look at the world through the lens of reality, in my view, all the wasted resources directed toward climate change vs. so many other nearer-term problems, seems inappropriate. To be clear, we do need to work toward reducing CO2 and protecting our planet. But in a measured, timely and strategic way, balanced with the worst offenders carrying their weight as well. Ultimately I believe science will either solve the problem of an overheating planet or it will not. Perhaps that is a fatalistic view but underlying it is a faithful trust that God is ultimately in control.

As Biblical Christians, we need to recognize that time is short (Matt 24:32-33). It is always short, whether it be in the life of an individual, or in the life of a planet that will eventually be burned up in preparation for a New Heaven on a New Earth (2 Peter 3:13). Our ability to share the gospel is becoming more and more unacceptable outside the walls of the church. Even if all this is merely a cycle that will eventually reverse itself or science will come to the rescue on climate change, we need to be focused on loving our neighbor (Luke 10:27) and the Great Commission (Matt 28:19-20). 

POSTSCRIPT….

Consider recently when “Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., left one Biden administration official without words Wednesday when he pressed him to answer one simple question: How much would spending $50 trillion in American taxpayer money to become carbon-neutral lower global temperatures?”…. There was no answer given. As a point of perspective, our current national debt stands at $31 trillion, which was $15 trillion in 2011.