Faith

FAITH

For many people the world over, climate change presents an existential crisis. Some fall back on faith to ground them in the face of climate change’s magnitude, even to guide them through it. For others, faith precludes an acceptance of climate change’s harsh realities. The Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology has an incredible archive of articles on religion and climate change from 2009 to present.

In recent history, a prominent narrative has positioned religiosity as antithetical to environmentalism and climate denialism has flourished in right-wing, white Christian communities. Politically prominent and powerful Christian interest groups, such as Focus on the Family and Family Research Council, have launched

campaigns denouncing environmental movements. According to a November of 2022 Pew study 57% of American adults believe “climate change is an extremely serious problem”  compared to 34% of Evangelical Protestants. Despite the rhetoric from these groups, some researchers have argued that it is the confluence of these religious movements with conservative American politics, which has determined their stance on climate change. In other words, for these folks, their political identity has affected their religious convictions as a driver of their environmental convictions.

Many people of Christian faiths have pushed back on the toxic narrative of denialism. Two prominent evangelical groups Evangelical Environmental Network and Young Evangelicals for Climate Action are working to change this narrative. In addition, Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, is another evangelical Christian and  leading climate scientist who has garnered substantial attention for her ability to bridge the political divide, profoundly explaining the way that her faith has driven her work. Climate change, she argues, is a blatantly Christian cause because of the ways it will disproportionately affect the poor and cause the extinction of so many of God’s creatures. This ethos has been reiterated in the international Christian community. Pope Benedict XVI spoke strongly urging climate action and took action steps toward renewables. And Pope Francis, quoting science specifically, clarified that action was needed now.

Aligning faith with environmental stewardship is key for many in driving environmental action and believing in the possibility of a more sustainable future. In Muslim belief each person is called to be “khalifah” or caretaker of the earth. The Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition released a new climate statement in 2022. In fact, statements on climate change have been released from a multitude of international and interfaith communities, including Baha’i, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. In early 2021, The Mind and Life Institute moderated a fascinating conversation between the Dalai Lama, Greta Thunberg and leading scientists.

For many indigenous communities, faith is a thread which runs through a resilient history and a pathway toward a sustainable future. The legacy of colonialism is vivid both in modern dynamics of faith and within the dynamics of the climate crisis. The struggle of Native communities to resist the Dakota Access Pipeline, is just one explicit example of this intersection. The rallying cry ‘Defend the Sacred’ was prominent in resistance to the pipeline and summarized a key legal argument that the pipeline violated the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s right to religious freedom. The integrity of Lake Oahe and surrounding areas, a site sacred to the tribes, would have been gravely threatened by the pipeline. Respect of indigenous spirituality and epistemologies, long subjected to colonialist erasure, is a key to combating climate change and pursuing climate justice. The US Army Corps of engineers is working to update the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). Expected in Spring, 2023, it has, as of 6/1/2023, not yet been released. In the meantime, Harvard U reports that the pipeline still lacks a key permit from the Corps to cross under Lake Oahe in south Dakota.

The idea that religion and climate science are inherently opposing forces is myopic and harmful. On the contrary, faith is unquestionably sustaining and sustainable.

Don Cheadle Talks with Katharine Hayhoe: Faith & Climate Change

CURRENT NEWS

One pastor’s mission to prepare his community for climate change

By YCC Team 05/29/23
Rev. Gerald Godette is a pastor and scientist. So he’s in a unique position to talk to people of faith about sea level rise, extreme weather, and other climate change impacts.
Read more
AP

Muslims around the world consider climate during Ramadan

By Edna Tarigan And Mariam Fam 04/17/23
In the heart of Jakarta, the grand Istiqlal Mosque was built with a vision for it to stand for a thousand years. The mosque was conceived by Soekarno, Indonesia’s founding father, and was designed as…
Read more

Calls for a ‘green’ Ramadan revive Islam’s long tradition of sustainability and care for the planet

By Noorzehra Zaidi 03/27/23
The communal experience of iftars – the after-sunset meal that brings people of the faith together during the holy month starting on March 22, 2023 – often necessitates the use of utensils designed for mass…
Read more

How 10 years of Pope Francis has changed climate action

By Aryn Baker 03/15/23
It was clear from day one that Pope Francis was going to shake things up in the climate world. On March 13, 2013, the newly elected Pope, then Argentinian cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, took the…
Read more

The Wizards of Climate Change: How Can Technology Serve Hope and Justice?

By RNS Press Release Distribution Service 03/08/23
The Institute of Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS) invites you to attend our 2023 summer conference, The Wizards of Climate Change: How Can Technology Serve Hope and Justice? Technological wizardry has been pitched…
Read more

Don’t overlook the faith in climate action

By Simran Jeet Singh 03/03/23
In the midst of this unseasonably warm winter, I found myself repeating an easy joke during small talk before meetings. “Summer in February feels amazing — so long as you don’t think about why.”
Read more
OPB

The Christian case for fighting climate change is being tested in Eastern Oregon

By Antonio Sierra 02/25/23
Like many Christian stories, the origin of Climate Vigil began with an awakening. Peter Fargo, who founded the group, traces the idea back to the birth of his son in 2019. “There was something about…
Read more

Could churches be prime locations for EV charging stations? One company thinks so.

By Amethyst Holmes 02/23/23
As more drivers make the decision to switch from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles, places to power them remain few and far between in large parts of the country. And with the Inflation Reduction Act…
Read more

Christian climate activist challenges church to take action

By Kathryn Post 02/17/23
When Kyle Meyaard-Schaap was 17, his brother came home from a semester abroad and announced the unthinkable: He was a vegetarian.
Read more

Younger evangelicals in the U.S. are more concerned than their elders about climate change

By Michael Lipka and Others 12/07/22
Young people around the world have been at the forefront of climate change protests, and in the United States, adults under 40 are considerably more likely than their elders to express concern about the issue…
Read more

Religious Americans worried about climate change are diverse

By Ayurella Horn-Muller 12/05/22
Highly religious Americans concerned about warming temperatures around the globe are racially and ethnically diverse, according to survey results from a recent Pew Research Center report. The big picture: While few very religious Americans say…
Read more

Pew poll: 42% of religious Americans pray for the environment

By Kate Yoder 11/17/22
Religious Americans overwhelmingly believe they have a duty to protect the Earth, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, with 80 percent saying God entrusted them with that responsibility. The survey also…
Read more

KEY RESOURCES

Let’s talk faith & climate

05/26/21
Communication Guidance For Faith Leaders

Books and Articles

04/01/21
Yale forum on religion and Ecology  

Communications Engagement

03/31/21
Our Moving Forward: A Guide to Climate Action For Your Congregation and Community provides you with information and resources to reduce energy use, to build  

Our Mission

03/31/21
Because the Earth and all people are sacred and at risk, GreenFaith is building a worldwide, multi-faith climate and environmental movement. Together our members create communities to transform ourselves, our spiritual institutions, and society to…

Mission & History

03/30/21
Vision Interfaith Power & Light envisions a stable climate where humans live in right and just relationship, interconnected with a healthy, thriving, natural world. Mission Interfaith Power & Light inspires and mobilizes people of faith…

Indigenous Environmental Network

03/30/21
www.ienearth.org Indigenous Environmental Network      

Why faith and environment matters

03/30/21
Spiritual values drive individual behaviours for more than 80 per cent of people. In many countries, spiritual beliefs and religions define cultural values, social inclusion, political engagement and economic prosperity. In 2008, the United Nations…

Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Religion and Foreign Policy: The Fourth National Climate Assessment

03/30/21
The U.S. Global Change Research Program issued its National Climate Assessment in November. Three-hundred author scientists from thirteen agencies produced a 1000+ page report without censorship. Climate changes across the United States will result in…

Climate Caretakers

05/12/20
Climate Caretakers commit to care for the climate through regular prayer and action that glorifies God and loves our neighbors.

Interfaith Power and Light – Congregational Solar Directory

05/12/20
The number of congregations with solar has more than doubled since the last survey in 2016 for a total of 770! Their combined efforts equal 45 megawatts of installed solar...

Young Evangelicals for Climate Action

02/14/20
We are young evangelicals in the United States who are coming together and taking action to overcome the climate crisis as part of our Christian discipleship and witness.

20.’25: The Global Evangelical Clean Energy Initiative

01/31/20
In the pursuit of its objectives, WEA Creation Care Task Force, the WEA Business Coalition, and the WEA Sustainability Center have partnered to work with Smart Roofs Solar to support WEA’s Project 20.’25 to assist…

World Evangelical Alliance Sustainability Center

01/31/20
The WEA Sustainability Center connects 600 million evangelical Christians around the globe with global efforts to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Sustainable Development Goals); provides impetus for broader engagement of evangelical church communities…

A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions (2015)

02/14/20
Drawing on the two authors' experiences, one as an internationally recognized climate scientist and the other as an evangelical leader of a growing church, this book explains the science underlying global warming, the impact that…

MORE NEWS

Poll: Politics drives religious Americans’ views on the environment

By Yonat Shimron   11/17/22  
Many reasons have been suggested as to why highly religious Americans are less likely to be worried about climate change or work to try to stem it. But in the end, a new Pew Research…
Read more

Religious groups’ views on climate change

By Becka A. Alper   11/17/22  
Most Americans say the Earth is getting warmer, including a narrow majority (53%) who say it is mostly because of human activity, such as burning fossil fuels. Most also view global climate change as an…
Read more

‘It makes climate change real’: How carbon emissions got rebranded as ‘pollution’

By Kate Yoder   10/22/22  
What do you think of when you hear the word "pollution" — a city smothered in smog, a beach strewn with trash, factories pumping out dark clouds?
Read more

Bible demands action on climate change, Evangelicals say in new report

By Jack Jenkins   08/30/22  
The National Association of Evangelicals has unveiled a sweeping report on global climate change, laying out what its authors call the “biblical basis” for environmental activism to help spur fellow evangelicals to address the planetary…
Read more

Editorial: The Vatican acts on climate change, but US bishops dawdle

By NCR Editorial Staff   07/28/22  
Not a week after James Webb Space Telescope photos dazzled our eyes with the sparkling, cool colors of the universe, we were then confronted with the harsh, hot reality facing us here on planet Earth…
Read more

Hallelujah, churches have seen the light

By Amy Westervelt   07/10/22  
The Presbyterian Church made a huge announcement this week: it will divest $4-$7 million from fossil fuels entirely. That includes removing its money from five oil companies: Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Marathon Petroleum, Phillips 66 and…
Read more

Commissioners approve divestment from five energy companies

By Mike Ferguson   07/06/22  
By a 340-41 margin on Wednesday, commissioners to the 225th General Assembly voted to place five energy companies — Chevron, ExxonMobil, Marathon Petroleum, Phillips 66 and Valero Energy — on the General Assembly Divestment/Proscription List…
Read more

Global faith institutions announce divestment as oil and gas companies threaten 1.5°c climate goal with reckless expansion plans

07/05/22  
In a challenge to the fossil fuel industry’s dangerous expansion plans and increasingly empty rhetoric on climate, 35 faith institutions from seven countries today announced their divestment from fossil fuel companies. Organised by the World…
Read more

A Christian Response to Climate Change: Q&A with Katharine Hayhoe and Sandra Richter

07/03/22  
Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts may be natural, such as through variations in the solar cycle. But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver…
Read more

Religious leaders urge banks to stop financing drivers of climate change

By Jake Spring   05/09/22  
Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders joined United Nations officials on Monday in urging financial institutions to stop bankrolling activities that are driving climate change, including ending support for new fossil fuel projects.
Read more

Virginia church ‘leading by example’ on climate action through solar, efficiency

By Elizabeth McGowan   03/23/22  
When the choir at Rock Spring Congregational United Church of Christ complained about overheating while harmonizing under incandescent lights more than 15 years ago, congregant John Overholt didn’t just empathize.
Read more

Vatican Calls for a ‘Cultural Revolution’ to Fight Climate Change

By Angely Mercado   02/25/22  
The Vatican is once again trying to make climate action a key issue for Catholics, as it launches a program called the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, named after the Pope’s 2015 letter that framed protecting…
Read more

New D.C. solar farm is response to Pope Francis’s call to care for Earth

By YCC Team   01/03/22  
Catholic sisters living in a convent in northeast Washington, D.C., used to look out their windows at a big, empty field. Now they gaze out at a solar farm that, in spring, will have flowers…
Read more

Meet the ecologist who works for God and fights against grass

By Cara Buckley   12/07/21  
A Long Island couple say that fighting climate change and protecting biodiversity starts at home. Or rather, right outside your home in the suburbs.
Read more

Indigenous and faith leaders urge Procter & Gamble to end logging of old-growth forests

By Diana Kruzman   11/09/21  
Mitchell Lands couldn’t make the trip south from Canada, where he lives on the traditional lands of the Migisi Sahgaigan, or Eagle Lake First Nation, in the province of Ontario. But Lands’ voice echoed in…
Read more

Finding common ground between faith and science on climate change

By Pamela McCall and Elaine Clark   11/08/21  
In June, 90% of Utah was in “extreme drought.” Gov. Spencer Cox asked Utahns to cut back their water use — and to pray for rain. That drew ire on social media. Some said the…
Read more
RNS

Caught between hope and despair on climate change

By Thomas Reese   11/04/21  
As world leaders meet in Glasgow, Scotland, I am depressed by the inability of nations to deal with the coming climate catastrophe. The fault is not entirely on the heads of world leaders. They are…
Read more

As COP26 conference gathers, faith-based environmentalists fight ‘eco-grief’

By Elizabeth E. Evans   11/02/21  
There’s a word for climate disaster fatigue: It’s called “eco-grief.” As the United Nations Climate Conference (known as COP26) gathers world leaders in Glasgow, Scotland, over the next two weeks to discuss climate change, and…
Read more

Faith groups increasingly join fight against climate change

By Luis Andres Henao And Jessie Wardarski   11/02/21  
On a boat ride along a bayou that shares the name of his Native American tribe, Donald Dardar points to a cross marking his ancestors’ south Louisiana burial ground — a place he fears will…
Read more

Demonstrators Hold Multi-Faith Rally for Climate Change Action

By Ben Kern and WORT News Department   10/18/21  
Dozens gathered around the Wisconsin Capitol Building today for one mission: improving global climate health. The event, called Prayers for the Planet, was coordinated through Greenfaith — a worldwide, multi-faith coalition that seeks a better…
Read more

‘Destroying the planet is against our religion,’ say Colorado Springs religious leaders at climate protest

By Debbie Kelley   10/18/21  
When religious leaders speak, people tend to listen. That’s why about 40 people representing different faith traditions gathered on the steps of Colorado Springs City Hall Friday to reiterate a theme common to the beliefs…
Read more

Biden to Discuss Climate Change With Pope Francis at Vatican

By Justin Sink   10/14/21  
President Joe Biden is expected discuss the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change with Pope Francis at the Vatican later this month, ahead of international summits in Rome and Glasgow, Scotland.
Read more

‘You are making the future today’, Pope tells youth climate activists

By Angelo Amante   09/29/21  
Pope Francis on Wednesday praised youth climate campaigners for their efforts to tackle global warming and encouraged them to carry on with their work "for the good of humanity". Thousands of young activists have converged…
Read more

Baltimore is hooking up a Black megachurch with some serious solar battery power

By Maria Gallucci   09/14/21  
Empowerment Temple, a predominantly Black megachurch in Baltimore’s Park Heights area, is a place neighbors can often go for free meals, school supplies, and drive-thru COVID-19 tests. Soon, they’ll also be able to visit the…
Read more

Christian leaders unite to issue stark warning over climate crisis

By Harriet Sherwood   09/07/21  
Archbishop of Canterbury, pope and leader of Orthodox church ask for people’s prayers ahead of Cop26
Read more

Religious Americans Demand Climate Action

By Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons and Maggie Siddiqi   07/21/21  
President Joe Biden has pursued a bold agenda to address the climate crisis. On his first day in office, he had the United States rejoin the Paris climate agreement.1 A week later, he signed an executive…
Read more

In the Midwest, faith communities are ramping up the fight against climate change

By Jena Brooker   06/30/21  
Outside the hulking limestone facade of Gesu Catholic Church and School in Detroit, Michigan, a group of fifth and sixth graders sit in the grass next to two rain gardens full of native plants —…
Read more

Church offers guidelines for response to climate migration

By Christopher Wells   05/27/21  
A new booklet published by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development “calls on us to broaden the way we look at this drama of our time” – the drama of “those driven from their…
Read more

Methodist Church dumps Shell over ‘inadequate’ climate plans

05/27/21  
Leverage our market expertise Expert insights, analysis and smart data help you cut through the noise to spot trends, risks and opportunities. Join over 300,000 Finance professionals who already subscribe to the FT.
Read more

Vatican official: Church divestment from fossil fuels is ‘moral imperative’

By Brian Roewe   05/20/21  
An official in the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development urged Catholic institutions around the world to divest from fossil fuels, calling it a moral and theological imperative and a response to Pope Francis'…
Read more

John Kerry, US climate envoy, meets pope and speaks at Vatican conference

By Cindy Wooden   05/15/21  
John Kerry, U.S. President Joe Biden's special envoy for climate, met privately with Pope Francis May 15, the day after giving a keynote address at a closed-door meeting of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences and…
Read more

Spiritual leaders seek to spur an ‘ecological conversion’

By Steve Curwood   05/13/21  
Science and policy are vital in building a more sustainable world, but they often don’t convey the values that engage and encourage people to participate in the process. Spiritual traditions and ancient teachings, on the other…
Read more

Young evangelicals push to ‘build a bigger choir loft’ for U.S. climate action

By Laurie Goering   05/12/21  
Growing up in a conservative Christian home and school, Kyle Meyaard-Schaap learned a lot about scripture and its values but "almost nothing about climate change", he remembers. The U.S. evangelical movement he belongs to has…
Read more

Le Moyne Jesuits among CNY religious leaders to call for a transition from fossil fuels

By Maddie Rhodes   05/12/21  
Around 400,000 religious members across upper New York have signed this statement. Endorsers of the statement include the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse and The Episcopal Diocese of Central New York.
Read more

COP and the Cloth: Quantitatively and Normatively Assessing Religious NGO Participation at the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

By David Krantz   05/10/21  
How much is religion quantitatively involved in global climate politics? After assessing the role of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change from a normative perspective, this descriptive, transdisciplinary…
Read more

Ashes to ashes: Pentecostalism, the PM and the climate crisis

By Graham Readfearn   05/08/21  
“We are called, all of us, for a time and for a season and God would have us use it wisely.” Scott Morrison, Australia’s prime minister and a Pentecostal Christian, flew in on a taxpayer-funded…
Read more

I couldn’t go back to school. So I started a farm to connect with my Jewish values.

By Remi Welbel   05/04/21  
After being sent home from school, a life of relative COVID-ignorant bliss, I arrived in the ravaging chaos of the pandemic. My mother — the head of infection control and epidemiology for the largest public…
Read more

5 Buddhist Practices to Help Tackle Climate Change

By Lama Willa B. Miller   05/02/21  
Climate change can feel so immense that it hurts just to think about. Lama Willa Miller offers five meditations to help bring the truth of climate change into your awareness and lay the ground for a…
Read more

Can faith leaders shift public opinion toward climate action?

By Brian H. Smith   04/26/21  
More than eight in 10 people on the planet (84%) identify with a religious tradition — including 2.3 billion Christians, 1.8 billion Muslims, 1.1 billion Hindus, 500 million Buddhists, and 14 million Jews. Just these…
Read more

Pope Francis, in Earth Day messages, warns ‘we are at the edge’ on climate change

By Brian Roewe   04/22/21  
In twin Earth Day messages, Pope Francis warned a gathering of world leaders and the global community at large that "we are at the edge" with climate change, and the time to take action is…
Read more

Meet the Jewish Activist Digging Through the Trash for Climate Justice

By Orge Castellano   04/22/21  
A few years ago, Anna Sacks was an utterly different person. Her existence revolved around the monotonous slender buildings, high-rise cubicles, and exceedingly demanding domains of Manhattan’s corporate world. Soon, the young New Yorker’s workday…
Read more

Jewish activists take climate change fight to halls of power

By Maya Mirsky   04/21/21  
What can one person do about climate change? For Grace Wallis, the answer is simple: a lot, but not enough. “Individual actions don’t create direct change, immediate change, in the areas that are most effective…
Read more

‘Within minutes I was weeping’: the US pastor using scripture to mobilize climate action

By Melissa Godin   04/20/21  
The Rev Scott Hardin-Nieri regularly revisits the story of Noah’s ark. “People look at that story fondly, because they focus on all the animals that were saved,” the pastor says. But for Hardin-Nieri, Noah’s ark…
Read more

Green Shoots of Hope, Part Two – Youth Climate Leaders in the Americas

By Brian Roewe   04/13/21  
One of the Earth’s most precious resources are youth leaders from many countries who are mobilizing to vocally share their demands regarding climate change. This diverse group includes Indigenous climate activists, who are rallying and protesting…
Read more

People of faith are allies to stall climate change

By Tobias Muller   04/08/21  
I am used to sceptical looks when I talk to scientists about my work with religious communities. They have reason to see science as under threat from zealots: examples abound, from the treatment of Galileo…
Read more

Catholic seminary installs a solar farm shaped like a cross

By Sarah Kennedy   04/02/21  
From their plane windows, people traveling to and from Chicago may notice the shape of a cross in a field outside the city. This cross is made entirely of rows of solar panels that help…
Read more

He’s a Famous Evangelical Preacher, but His Kids Wish He’d Pipe Down

By Nicholas Kristof   03/27/21  
The Rev. Rick Joyner is a famous evangelical leader who has called on Christians to arm themselves for an inevitable civil war against liberals, who he suggests are allies of the devil. But this is…
Read more

For These Young Evangelical Activists, Facing the Climate Crisis Is an Act of Faith

By Alex Morris   03/21/21  
A few years back, William Morris came to realize just how he could be a light unto the world. Before this precise moment in time, his visions of a missionary life had involved foreign climes,…
Read more

People of Faith Worldwide Rise Up for Climate Justice

By Jessica Corbett   03/12/21  
"We envision a world transformed, in which humanity in all its diversity has developed a shared reverence for life on Earth." So declares a new joint statement—entitled "Sacred People, Sacred Earth"—supported by religious groups and leaders…
Read more

Hard-hitting video explains the origins of climate change ‘polarization’

By Bud Ward   03/12/21  
A story “about today. That started yesterday. And impacts tomorrow.” That’s how the University of Virginia’s Religion, Race & Democracy Lab introduces its new “God $ Green: An Unholy Alliance” 19-minute publicly available “eye-popping” video.…
Read more