The Bible declared that God made a perfect creation. He delegated to men and women the responsibility of caring for it.
Then God said, “Let us make mankind... so that they may rule over the fish... and the birds... the livestock... and the wild animals..." God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful, fill the earth and subdue it" (Genesis 1:26-28).
Many Bible followers appear to take this passage as a green light to dismantle, destroy, and do whatever they want to the earth with no regard for anything other than themselves.
The temperature of our world has been quite constant for the past 60 million years. Occasionally a cooling (ice age) will occur caused by fluctuations of earth's orbit or by slight variations in the energy outputs of the sun. Now, for the first time in history, the global temperature is no longer constant. It is steadily increasing. The Global warming phenomena can be traced to the 1880s and the initiation of the Industrial Age.
Man-caused temperature increase is already having a global effect. Heat waves, floods, and destructive forest fires are having their effects. Droughts are occurring in places never before afflicted and the droughts are longer and more widespread.
Warming oceans drive changing weather patterns.
Higher temperatures put more energy into storms which sharply increases their intensity and destructiveness.
Melting ice is decimating both polar regions resulting in loss of habit for polar animals with the result of a thinning out of the ranks. The release of massive amounts of fresh water results in higher sea levels and increased flooding in coastal regions.
Glaciers worldwide are melting and shrinking.
Many animal species are becoming extinct as temperatures increase. Mostly through the loss of habitat, animals from elephant to birds to butterflies are dying out.The justification for most Bible readers on Climate Change seems to be Revelation 21 verse 1, which says:
"Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea."
By claiming there will be a new earth, this gives some justification to do nothing to save and restore the earth they currently live on, and instead, allows them to act passively or continue with the "business as usual" mindset that has led to the devastating impacts of Climate Change.
Does this passage and the Bible permit readers to be passive about the devastating effects of Climate Change being caused by humans?
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