The Christian Economics of Climate Action

In my work as a business professor over the past four years, I have been researching what happens to our brains when watching online lectures.

I have been researching what happens to our brains when watching online lectures.

What I have found is that though our attention wanders when we watch long videos, it does not seem to have a large impact on how much we learn from a lesson. The factors that influence whether or not someone will learn during a lecture are likely unconscious and predetermined, such as whether we are interested in a subject or have meaningful social connections to the learning experience.

Economic choices are similar to online lectures in many ways. In business schools, we teach that humans usually make choices that are in their calculated self-interest and know best what is right for them. When everyone freely takes care of themselves in this way we, will have a more efficient economic system.

Economic choices are similar to online lectures in many ways.

However, we also teach that real life is not so simple. Our desires are often the product of our culture, family, or values. When making choices, we are not perfectly rational and often choose what feels right unconsciously rather than making a calculated decision.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, of course. Faith cannot be reduced to numbers. Hope runs deep. Christ’s love is not a calculation.

Faith cannot be reduced to numbers.

Like it or not, humanity is at a crossroads with climate change. Scientists are all but unanimous on the fact that greenhouse gasses are fuelling unprecedented changes in our environment and that humans are the cause.

They have also been consistently accurate in their projections in climate change to date and have dire projections on how the climate will change in the future. For instance, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 1990 FAR projection, among others, has been accurate at predicting warming trends within a normal margin of error (see Frame and Stone, 2012). If climate scientists’ projections continue to be accurate, the poor of future generations will suffer catastrophically by the end of the century.

Yet North Americans are becoming increasingly divided on climate issues, both within the church and outside of it. Climate action has become political and partisan, fuelled in part by the communities and values that we have created.

There are clear reasons for this. Climate action is also an economic issue, and many of the proposed solutions require radical changes in our lifestyles and ultimately restrict our personal freedom.

Many of the proposed solutions require radical changes in our lifestyles.

In Canada, for instance, the government has enacted a federal carbon tax which will drive up the price of fuel and heating. Though there is good evidence that this will reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, Canadians will feel a pinch. People with lower incomes may not be able to afford fuel for their cars.

The government has taken steps to ensure that the tax will accommodate this problem by making the policy revenue neutral. However it is difficult for many to trust that a government led by a gilded prime minister truly has the interests of the working and middle classes at heart.

Yet, farmers would also need to respect a year-long sabbath every 7 years.

In the Old Testament, the Israelites were given instructions on how to soberly build societies that worked for the people by cultivating the the fruits of the land  (Deuteronomy 28). Yet, in this society, farmers would also need to respect a year-long sabbath every 7 years, where they were forbidden from producing (Leviticus 25:4-6). Moreover, every 50 years the Israelites would celebrate the Jubilee, when all Israelites (rich or poor) had their debts forgiven and their original land and possessions returned to them (Leviticus 25:8-17).

The Israelites built economies that prospered, but also used this wealth as an end to a higher calling beyond themselves. The land belonged to God, not to humans, and the Israelites were expected to respect God’s above all else, even if that means occasionally committing to radical socioeconomic changes (Leviticus 25:23-24).

In today’s society, market mechanisms such as consumption or debt are used to build better lives for people, but can become perverted when we pursue material wealth for self-gratification alone.

Market mechanisms can become perverted when we pursue material wealth for self-gratification alone.

This is well illustrated in the case of climate change. Our best science tells us that our pursuit of convenience and material well-being comes at the expense of future generations, and especially the livelihoods of the world’s poor. No one person is individually at fault for this; we all share responsibility because we all consume fossil fuels.

Paradoxically, those who work hard and are financially successful create consequences that will be felt by people in faraway lands, or by future generations that we will never know. Worse, the solutions provided by governments feel oppressive and uncharacteristic of a free society, especially because they seem to penalize those who work hardest.

I will continue to pray that we in rich societies will act before it is too late.

However, as Christians, like the ancient Israelites before us, we are called to glorify God (Matthew 6:19-24) and take radical steps to advance God’s kingdom through economic means (Matthew 19:16-30). I believe that we are called to take action on climate change and to do so by using our best science and practical know-how because we are called to care for the poor and for future generations.

We know that climate change is caused by humans, specifically by our consumption of fossil fuels. We also know that international cooperation and enforced government action is the only way we can reasonably expect to address the crisis. Though it might feel strange to many of us, I believe that Christians are called to support government action on climate change, and I will continue to pray that we in rich societies will act before it is too late.

[Photo by Michelle Spollen on Unsplash]