The latest report from the UN’s climate scientists was both incredibly downbeat about climate change and almost entirely ignored by a media fixated on Ukraine. In this episode we consider the communication and changing narratives around climate change, why an unscientific hyper-fatalism has set in with many activists, and what impact this might be having on younger generations terrified humanity itself is going extinct. We then discuss what an authentically Christian response to our environmental crisis would look like. How can we steer a middle path between complacency and despair? Does our different theology of the future change how we act on climate change?
- ‘We’re heading Straight for a Demi-Apocalypse’ – Emma Marris in The Atlantic
- Climate anxiety in children – study in The Lancet
- Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability – IPCC report
- Excerpts from CS Lewis’s essay Living in an Atomic Age
- Christian Aid’s climate change projects
- A Rocha’s Eco Church scheme
- The Christian Climate Alliance’s principles and values for Christian climate activism
- ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis’ – 1967 essay by Lynn White
In each episode of Matters of Life and Death, brought to you by Premier Unbelievable?, John Wyatt and his son Tim discuss issues in healthcare, ethics, technology, science, faith and more. John is a doctor, professor of ethics, and writer and speaker on many of these topics, while Tim is a religion and social affairs journalist. We talk about how Christians can better engage with a particular question of life, death or something else in between.
This week we’re bringing you an episode from our back catalogue, this time from March 2022. The latest report from the UN’s climate scientists was both incredibly downbeat about climate change and almost entirely ignored by a media fixated on Ukraine. In this episode we consider the communication and changing narratives around climate change, why an unscientific hyper-fatalism has set in with many activists, and what impact this might be having on younger generations terrified humanity itself is going extinct. We then discuss what an authentically Christian response to our environmental crisis would look like. How can we steer a middle path between complacency and despair? Does our different theology of the future change how we act on climate change?
• Christian Aid’s climate change projects https://christianaid.org.uk/get-involved/campaigns/campaign-climate-justice
• A Rocha’s Eco Church scheme https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/
• Christian Climate Action’s principles and values for Christian climate activism https://christianclimateaction.org/who-we-are/cca-principals-and-values/
• ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis’ – 1967 essay by Lynn White https://www.cmu.ca/faculty/gmatties/lynnwhiterootsofcrisis.pdf
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