Climate change and environmental decay is not something a person can choose to “believe” or “not believe”. It is not a theology or a political position. Climate change is something we need to understand, based on the facts and evidence collected every day.

A person who ignores facts and creates their own views based on emotions, opinions, peer pressure, and greed creates nothing but a personal “truthiness.” The formal definition of truthiness: the quality of seeming or being felt to be true, even if not necessarily true. In my opinion, that is the truth disease rampant among climate change deniers. Of course, climate deniers might say that climate change activists create a truthiness of their own. However, we have science and nature on our side. We look at the facts of scientists and observers, not opinion.

Why don’t climate deniers get the message, despite the facts? I can name several reasons, based on my experience in ministry.

First, climate deniers I know are conservative Christians. Most of these folks are already suspicious of science. After all, scientists developed the theory of evolution and debunked the literalism of the Bible. These folks are suspicious also of academia, the institution of scientists and the place where  young people are exposed to doubts about faith and God. Conservative Christians wrongly believe that all scientists are God-haters and liberal anarchists. Their conclusion: don’t trust academia or scientists. You cannot trust scientists, unless you are sick and need modern medicine. The facts collected by medical science are acceptable because they can extend your life. Conservative Christians pick and choose acceptable science just like they pick and choose Scripture. If they understood either, their faith would blow up, which could be a good thing! The roots of religious-based climate denial go deep into preserving myth instead of facing facts.

But wait!  Many climate deniers make their living by destroying our water, soil, and air. The exulted farmer. Facebook sometimes has posts that say, “If you enjoy your food, thank a farmer.” Thousands of people “like” this post each time it goes around. Yet, most farmers use toxic chemicals that pollute our water, and they practice a monoculture that weakens soil. I witnessed, in several locations, planes spraying chemicals near ponds, reservoirs, rivers, farmhouses and—oops—over the edge of small towns. In the hilly prairie pothole region of North Dakota grain fields cover every square inch of land, over the hills, right up the water’s edge. Once, while paddling down a river there, I saw bean seedlings growing right down to the river. In fact, I had to walk through the plants to portage around an obstacle on the water.  I am certain that when the pesticide planes spray, they cannot avoid hitting the water. If nothing else, drift and erosion will send the chemicals into the magnificent  rivers and abundant small lakes where waterfowl and shorebirds nest every summer.

Last fall I talked to a farmer about how the post-harvest money is distributed to their creditors. Farmers get large sums of money at the end of their season; however, most of it goes to pay the creditors that made it all possible: seed companies, farm equipment lenders and the credit card company to pay off their operational and  living expenses from the previous year.  Oh yeah, she said, the chemical company. They get their money, too. She began to tell me about the chemicals they must use to bring in a harvest big enough to pay all the creditors. They must use them. That is true if you operate in the current industrialized agriculture system with whom they pre-sell their harvest under contract.  But what about the effects of so many poisons? The farmers I talk to with vehemently deny the damage brought by pesticides and fertizers—it is a bunch of hooey. I also see a passive denial—meh! No big deal. Many climate deniers simply cannot face the consequences wrought by their livelihood. Furthermore, the chemical companies, to whom they have mortgaged their future, have a chokehold on their land.

Fact: agriculture is the driving force behind climate change. The rise in  greenhouse gases is attributed first to methane releases from rice cultivation, methane releases from cattle stockyards, and nitrous oxide releases from fertilizer application. And, since 75% of pesticides are controlled—globally—by only 5 companies, profit greed can only influence their leaders and investors to be climate deniers. Double whammy if your government leaders are investors in these companies.

When the facts disrupt a person’s religious beliefs and/or suggest that their livelihood is polluting our planet and/or could disrupt corporate profits, people put on blinders. No, no, it ain’t so. An Inconvenient Truth, according to Al Gore. Denial is a powerful force but it does not chase away the facts, which stand on their own.

Who will protect us? A change is not coming from the corporate top down anytime soon. Why disrupt the profit flow?  Change is not coming from our future government, either. The fastest growing church in the world (evangelical Protestant) doesn’t care. All together now: climate change is a conspiracy theory put forth by liberal, non-Christian, granola-crunching academic-types. We have nothing to do with it.  

Since the election and the appointment of climate-deniers to every top office in our government, people have asked me variations on this question: “Is God Angry?” They believe our planet is in peril and that nobody cares. What does God think of our misuse and the mismanagement of our abundance? Next week I will attempt to answer that riveting question in “Sunday Reflection: Is God Angry?”