Environmental Policy Climate Change & Energy

1. Environmental PolicyClimate Change & Energy Bob Trube (Theology) & Luke Corwin (Science) Christian Graduate Student Alliance The Ohio State University Royer Activity Center – Oct. 8, 2004

2. Perspective • 1990 February 14 • Voyager 1, 1500mm lens • More than 4,000,000,000 miles from home. • Where is Earth in this photograph? • Isaiah 40:15

3. Climate Change • Change in global mean temperature • Definitions • Causes • Effects • Responses (Kyoto Protocol) • Specifics • Cost • Figures from Climate Change 2001: Synthesis Report

4. Definitions • Greenhouse Effect: “Greenhouse gases effectively absorb infrared radiation, emitted by the Earth's surface, by the atmosphereitself due to the same gases, and by clouds. Atmospheric radiation is emitted to all sides, including downward to the Earth's surface. Thus greenhouse gases trap heat within the surface-troposphere system.” • Aerosols: “A collection of airborne solid or liquid particles, with a typical size between 0.01 and 10 µm that reside in the atmosphere for at least several hours. Aerosols may be of either natural or anthropogenic origin. Aerosols may influence climate in two ways: directly through scattering and absorbing radiation, and indirectly through acting as condensation nuclei for cloud formation or modifying the optical properties and lifetime of clouds.”

8. Kyoto Protocol • Calls upon developed and transitioning nations “to reduce their anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride) by at least 5% below 1990 levels in the commitment period 2008 to 2012.” • If implemented, it is estimated to reduce US 2010 GDP between 0.24% and 1.96%. • Russian Cabinet submitted treaty to Parliament for Ratification Oct. 1, 2004. This would bring it into force.

9. Energy Policy • Current Use Issues • Oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) • Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Storage • Alternative Energy Issues • Energy Generation • Energy Storage

10. Current Use Issues • Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) • U.S. uses 20 million barrels per day → 7.3 billion barrels per year • Estimates: 3.2 to 31.5 billion barrels recoverable from ANWR • Yucca Mountain • Fission Produces small volume of waste compared to other fossil fuels • Waste is chemically toxic and radioactive for millennia

11. Alternative Energy Issues • Energy Generation • Nuclear Fusion currently decades from viability • Wind and solar power useful but unreliable and require much land • Biomass, geothermal, and hydropower also potentially beneficial • Energy Storage • Fuel Cells require the production of Hydrogen from water or petroleum

12. Two Final Questions • How much, if any, of this is the responsibility of any government? • How much is your responsibility?

13. Environmental Policy Theological Foundations

14. Why does theology matter? “What we do about ecology depends on our ideas of the man-nature relationship. More science and more technology are not going to get us out of the present ecologic crisis until we find a new religion or rethink our old one.” Lynn White, Jr. “The Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis,” Science, Vol. 155, pp.1203-1207, 10 March 1967 as cited in Francis A. Schaeffer, Pollution and the Death of Man (Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1970), p.112.

15. A Prior Consideration: The God-Creation Relationship • God created all things ex nihilo (Gen. 1) • God is both transcendent and immanent—wholly other yet intimately involved. • All creation was “very good”. (Gen 1:31) • God cares deeply about all his creatures (Psalm 112) • Implication: Motive not survival but loving what God loves.

16. Our Relationship to Creation • Begins with understanding our unique status: physical creatures who bear the imago dei (Genesis 1:26-27) • That image is expressed in part through our responsible rule over and loving care of “the garden.” (Genesis 1:26-30, 2:15) • By our nature we will have an “environmental impact.”

17. What went wrong? • Human rebellion included using the creation contrary to God’s command (Gen. 3:1-6) • The result was alienation: from God, from self, from others, from creation (Gen. 3:8ff.) • Implication: Pollution, distortion, destruction and death are the result of our “rebellious dominion.”

18. Salvation and the healing of creation In the Old Testament • Sabbath includes the animals, the land • Preservation of fruit-bearing trees during sieges (Deuteronomy 20:19-20) • God’s concern not only for the people but also the animals of Nineveh (Jonah 4:11)

19. Salvation and the healing of creation In the New Testament • God has reconciled all things to himself in Christ (Colossians 1:19-20) • Creation groans along with us awaiting redemption (Romans 8:19-23) • Jesus and the creation: “with the wild beasts” (Mk 1:13, cf Is. 11:6-9)

20. Salvation and the healing of creation Implications for Christians: • Salvation brings substantial healing in all our relationships including our relationship to creation (loving what God made and loves, stewardship of what God entrusts, healing what is “not good” because of the fall, deliverance from consumer idolatry) • Full healing awaits Christ’s return.

21. Beginning steps for Christians Acting locally: • Simplicity of lifestyle • Sabbath • Caring for our spaces (homes, workplaces, neighborhoods, church facilities) • Nurturing beauty and the arts in our personal and corporate lives.

22. Beginning steps for Christians Thinking globally: • Recognize that many environmental degradations can only be addressed through public policy and work to shape these policies (local zoning boards, state EPA, federal environmental policy, global environmental accords)