by The failure of Congress to enact a climate change law, like the failure of last December’s Copenhagen meeting to produce a new international climate change treaty, has provoked various responses from the proponents of such measures. A recent article in the New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/11/101011fa_fact_lizza) cast blame on Republicans (for being obstructionists), Democrats (for being timid), special interests (for abusing the political process), the media (for being manipulated by climate skeptics), and the American people (for ranking climate change so low on their to-do list). Perhaps the harshest criticism was reserved for President Obama, whom it was suggested that history may view as “the James Buchanan of climate change.”
Besides blame, the other common sentiment is disbelief. Climate change activists cannot believe that Congress has been unwilling to act, and that the American people don’t seem to care. If the science is so obvious, environmentalists wonder, why doesn’t everyone sit up and take notice?
This reaction strikes me as similar to the way in which Christians must struggle with unbelief in the world around us. If God has made Himself known to us in so many ways, why don’t people believe that? Of course, there are theological explanations that explain how people are blind and in the dark until God reveals Himself to them. But, on a daily basis, it is troubling, puzzlling, and discouraging for Christians to see that the world around us doesn’t believe the truth that is so clear to us.
One of the students in my Environmental Sustainability seminar actually made this comparison as well (in a different context) while we discussed climate change and whether we should take action in light of any scientific uncertainty. We discussed the precautionary principle and the student complained that this is the same reasoning that some people use to convince others they should believe in God. There are always skeptics on all sides, but we can’t give up sharing the truth.