Warming up to the idea.

When I was 16 I started smoking. It looked cool, I thought. Not to date myself, but that was about the time they began to put the warning labels on the side of the cigarette packs. I read the warning and listened to all the dialogue. Some smokers argued that it was all much ado about nothing. I listened, I heard, but I chose to ignore the warnings and the science, which some legitimately called into question. I was young, I was healthy, and it was so cool. Twenty odd years later at approximately two packs per day (yes I can be rather compulsive), following a stay in ICU for heart problems I finally quit. But it took heart problems to prompt me to stop. It wasn't the warnings or the science. I was so addicted to smoke and nicotine that I found every excuse to keep on smoking.

A friend of mine recently suggested that global warning was the biggest scam since Bernie Madoff.

Maybe.

But, so what? What if it is? Or what if all the scientists who support it are completely wrong, naive, or misled? What is it exactly that we find so repulsive about it that we take a stand against it? Allow me to clarify two points before I continue. The first is, as any freshman geology survey course will tell you, that the earth has alternately warmed and cooled many times over the course of history - the question is how much worse is humanity and our technology making it. Second, global warming doesn't simply mean that the weather is always warmer, it means there are violent shifts in the weather caused by a changing climate.

Most scientists do not dispute the understanding that the earth is in a warming period. The question becomes whether or not human technology is exacerbating the situation. So, what if we're not? Contrary to the majority of scientists who claim we are, what if the recent emails are right and we've been fooled? What is it exactly that we are being asked to do that is so unpalatable?

Reduce emissions from fossil fuels. Forgive me, but I don't understand, what's the issue? Does anyone honestly think that all the carbon monoxide we're pumping into the atmosphere is good for us? What about oil consumption - are we truly that pleased with the cost of gas, oil, and heating oil? Again I date myself, but when I started driving gas was .28 per gallon - I paid $2.39 a gallon yesterday. And besides the simple cost, I hear politicians repeatedly claiming we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. But beyond these issues, I believe that the way we pollute our air and water is contrary to our call to be good stewards of God's Creation.

So even if global warming is a hoax, what is the issue? Shouldn't we, as people of faith, respect God's creation? Shouldn't we seek to live in as close a harmony with creation as possible? I'm not suggesting that we abandon all technology and live like primitives, but I am suggesting that we are God's caretakers of creation, and as such we have an obligation to the Lord, as well as to our fellow humans to safeguard it. Yes, I realize, that there are costs involved with capping emissions and finding alternatives to fossil fuels. There are costs to converting to 'greener' technologies. There are changes that have to be made that will be uncomfortable. But following God has never been easy and often God, and Jesus as well, has called us to sacrificial love, sacrificial giving. What does our faith call us to as we think about our planet?

"The earth is the Lords' and everything in it" (Psalm 24:1) suggests that we are not empowered as stewards to use and abuse it in any old way we choose. Rather the psalmist encourages us to remember that we are the creation, not the creator. Are we so addicted to the carbon monoxide that is produced by our cars and factories that we cannot find other ways to empower our technology? Do we wait until it is too late to avoid the consequences of our activities to change? Will we be like the one steward who buried his talent, too afraid to risk himself for his Lord?

Perhaps global warming is a hoax. Certainly the hacked emails make one ask questions. Perhaps all of the science is simply wrong. Still, I cannot help but believe that all the smog, pollution, and carbon emissions are not good for us. The gunk we dump in our water is not healthy for us. So I am warming up to the idea that global warming or not, we need to make some changes. And as I reflect on the simple question of my health and the health of my family and my children, and my children's children, I also pause to ask what God would have us do with the creation that the Lord has so lovingly given into our care.