Faith in a Changing Climate

The world needs climate change leadership, and the church can provide that leadership. But first church leaders and people of faith need to understand the nature of the complex dilemmas that we face, and what they can realistically do in response. The church also needs a theology that is appropriate for these unprecedented times.
Faith in a Changing Climate provides a clear, factual and unemotional explanation of climate change, and related topics such as resource depletion, population overshoot and our destruction of the natural world.
The following three statements summarize the book’s message; they can be used as a part of a theology for our times.
- Understand physical realities,
- Accept and adapt, and
- Live within Gaia.
Faith in an Age of Limits is unique in the manner in which it integrates science, technology and faith. The book helps the reader understand the following concepts and ideas.
- The nature and importance of climate change, and why an urgent response is needed.
- The fact that climate change is not a problem — it is a predicament. Problems have solutions, predicaments do not. When faced with a predicament we can respond and adapt, but we cannot make it go away.
- The complexity of climate change, and how it interacts with many other equally complex issues, such as energy depletion.
- A recognition that many of the proposed solutions to these crises are not realistic given the urgency of the situation.
- The fallacy of green technology 'hopium'.
- Ways in which in which people of faith, working both as individuals and within the larger church, can respond and provide leadership.
- Thoughts to do with the spiritual and theological aspects of these challenges.
- The importance of local communities and parishes.
The book is organized into the following ten chapters.
- Noah’s Ark
- An Opportunity for Leadership
- A Journey
- The 300-Year Party
- The City of Man
- Exile
- Green Technology to the Rescue
- Toward a New Theology
- The One and Future Church
- The Three Guidelines
Chapters
Chapter 1 — Noah’s Ark
Noah
Personal Background
We Are “We”
Organization of this Book
The Missing Happy Chapter
Chapter 2 — An Opportunity for Leadership
The Parable of the Inheritance
Isaiah (8th century BCE)
Our Predicaments
Limits to Growth
Climate Change Not the Core Problem
Oil — The Magic Fuel
Time
An Age of Limits
Three Guidelines
Understand Physical Realities
Accept and Adapt
Live within Gaia
Caution
Through a Glass Darkly
Lessons from 2020
Personal Experience
Paradoxes
The Renewables Paradox
Jevons Paradox
The Carbon Capture Paradox
From Augustine to Newton to Schrödinger’s Cat
Medieval World View
Scientific World View
Quantum World View
Climate Change Background
Conferences of the Parties (COPs)
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
The IPCC 1.5°C Report
Net Zero by 2050
Where Is God In All This?
Today’s Church
Chapter 3 — A Journey
Jeremiah (7th Century BCE)
The Parable of the Blind Golfers
A Theology for Our Times
All Disciplines
Two Cultures
Engineers
Church Leadership
A Chemical Engineer’s Journey
Steps in the Journey
1: The Machine Stops
2: Entropy: Into the Greenhouse World
3: Twilight in the Desert
4: The Hubbert Peak
5: Sustainable Growth — An Oxymoron
6: No Brighter Future
7: City of God
8: Light Bulbs
9: The Ladder of Awareness
10: Laudato Sí
Chapter 4 — The 300-Year Party
The Parable of the Reindeer
Thomas Newcomen (1664-1729)
The Party Starts
Deforestation
Coal and Steam Power
Information Technology
The Party Ends
The Parable of the Reindeer Continued
Chapter 5 — The City of Man
The Parable of the Red Queen
Augustine of Hippo (354-430)
Thermodynamic Limits
First Law
The Second Law
The Third Law / Zeno's Paradox
Energy Returned on Energy Invested (ERoEI)
Nine Pounds of Gold
Defining ERoEI
The Energy Cliff
The Tragedy of the Commons
Natural Resources
Minerals
Fresh/Fossil Water
Climate Change
Causes of Climate Change
Historical Understanding
Process — Not an Event
Methane
Tipping Points
Environmental
Ecosphere Destruction
Population
Economics
Growth
Usury
The Consequences
The Uninhabitable Earth
Six Degrees
Deep Adaptation
Decline and Collapse
Causes of Decline
Catabolic Collapse
Dark Ages
Chapter 6 — Exile
The Parable of Ozymandias
John Shelby Spong (1931-2021)
Exile
Climate Exile
A Church in Decline
OK Boomer
Denial
Types of Denial
Honest Denial
Malicious Denial
Individualism
Tribalism
Abstraction
Bright Green Denial
Greenwashing
Don't Want to Think About It
Priorities
Responding to Denial
To Talk, or Not
Climate Science
Trust in Experts
Increasing Awareness
Sowing Seeds
Story-Telling
Humor
A Changing Perception
Hope with Patience
Fatalism
Hopium
Realistic Hope
Plant a Tree
Chapter 7 — Green Technology to the Rescue
The Parable of the Wine Vat
Al Gore (1948- )
Wisdom and Cleverness
Listen to the Engineers and Project Managers
Realities
Physical
Project Management
Scalability
Project Resources
Infrastructure
Regulations
Political
Systems
Complexity
Broken Supply Chains
No Technological Fix
Unknown Unknowns
Alternative Energy Sources
Challenges
Anaesthetics from Windmills
Intermittent Energy
Going First Subsidy
Progress to Date
Solar Power
Wind Power
Hydrogen
Biofuels
Nuclear Power (Fission)
Unrealized Hopes
Safety
Geothermal
Futuristic Energy Sources
Small Modular Reactors
Thorium Reactors
Nuclear Power (Fusion)
Cold Fusion
Energy Storage
Carbon Capture and Storage
Biotic Carbon Capture
Abiotic Carbon Capture
Thermodynamic Limits
Geoengineering
Artificial Intelligence
Chapter 8— Toward a New Theology
The Parable of the Green Factory
Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)
The Slough of Despond
Semper Reformanda
Chistianity and . . .
Truth
Royalty to Apocalypse
Ethics
Elements of Theology
Biblical Theology
Scriptural Accuracy
Relevance to the Modern World
Human Dominance
Historical Theology
Augustine of Hippo
Gregory I and Monasticism
Luther and the Printing Press
Dogmatic Theology
Practical Theology
Policy Statements
Mission Statements
The ‘Green Bishops’ Mission Statement
Episcopal Mission Statement
Interfaith Mission Statement
Faith in a Changing Climate Mission Statement
Elements of a New Theology
Climate Change as a Value
Multi-Discipline
Quantification
Ora et Labora
Justice for Future Generations
Stoicism
Sacrifice
Dissensus
Puritanism
Old-Fashioned Language
Confusion of Purpose
Thinking Sustainability
Theologians: One Funeral at a Time
Social Justice
Faith vs. Works
Gaia
Earth as an Entity
Foundation Stories
Eco-Theology
Chapter 9 — The Once and Future Church
The Parable of the Church Kitchen
Benedict of Nursia (c. 480-c. 547)
The Opportunity
Leadership and Management
The Emergent Church
Lessons from the Pandemic
Yesterday’s Priorities
Bold Action
Leaving The Church of Material Progress
Response
Humility
Repentance
Simpler Life
Walk the Talk
From the Pulpit
Types of Response
Institutional Change
Local Community / The Parish
Sharing Grief
Remembrance of Things Past
Community Gardens
Personal Action
Monasticism
A Path Forward
Chapter 9 — The Three Guidelines
Noah
1. Understand Physical Realities
Science — Hydrogen Reality
Engineering — Nuclear Power
Management — Carbon Capture
2. Accept and Adapt
Acceptance
Adaptation
3. Live within Gaia
Final Thoughts
Avoid the Moral High Ground
Help Others
Cassandrafreude
Where Is God In All This?
Moral and Spiritual Response
The Canticle of the Sun
Citations
Index