Quote of note

“To be a superpower is to be the champion of peace, freedom, and democracy, of human rights, environmental quality, and the alleviation of suffering.”
-- President Jimmy Carter, PBS Newshour Interview, 19 Novemeber 1996.

Spam hurts the earth?

According to a study released by McAfee, “Carbon Footprint of Spam,” the world expends 33 billion kilowatt-hours (KWh) of electricity to send, route, and filter spam messages. That’s the equivalent of the electricity required to power 2.4 million homes, the study estimates. And that much energy use emits the same amount of greenhouse gases as 3.1 million passenger cars using 2 billion gallons of gas.

An Information Week article by Thomas Claburn (Apr 16), "Spam is killing the planet", reminds people that even unnecessary computer use causes pollution.

"... the argument that spam should be fought to save the planet can be applied to other computing activities. Consider the environmental impact of more than 11 million World of Warcraft subscribers, or the broader population of gamers and their consoles. How much energy is frittered away as a result of Facebook, MySpace, and other social networks?"

I must confess that I have procrastinated in replacing a power supply in my older computer. So I've had to leave it running 24x7. This reminder should prod me to get that done this weekend. So how serious are we, really, about being good stewards of God's earth? What can you do this week to reduce your computing carbon footprint?

In the news

Below are a few links related to care for God's earth (one part of Christian Stewardship). What have you done for God's world this week?

• Government study: Climate change affects water, agriculture
• More seminaries linking religion, environmental concern
• Congo Basin - world's largest protected wetland
• Conservationists killed in Virunga Park, D.R. Congo (page 3 of the magazine PDF)

WWF 2006 Annual Report

The 2006 annual report by the World Wildlife Federation is interesting for all who want to be good stewards of God's creation. But it's also kind of neat to look through.

The WWF report uses a special online report viewer program that lets you flip pages, zoom in or out on a page and even use hyperlinks to jump to sections of the report. Maybe I should call it nerd and nature nurture.

Christian and moderate

PBS has an interesting story about Christian moderates. Here are a few comments by people in the article:

"I hope that we're not entering a time where Christians are interpreted as being evangelical Christians alone."

"We evangelicals can sometimes become too dogmatic and legalistic."

"It seems unlikely to me that God working in the world is delivering contradictory messages to me in my church and to the white evangelicals in their churches."

Doomsday clock creeps nearer to midnight

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has announced that the time of its symbolic Doomsday Clock is now two minutes closer to midnight -- the time representing global cataclysm. It now stands at 11:55pm.

This is only the fourth time since 1948 that the Bulletin, which focuses on manmade threats, has moved the clock forward. When started in 1947, the clock was set at 11:53 pm. The furthest from midnight was in 1991 (11:43 pm), when both the U.S and Russia were pulling back tactical nukes. The closest, 11:58pm in 1953, was in the era of U.S.-Soviet tensions.

The two main factors causing this they say is mankind's threats to human civilization posed by global warming plus nuclear tension related to Iran and North Korea. Director Kennete Benedict says the dangers of global warming are nearly as great as those of nuclear weapons.

Our challenge is to be good stewards of God's earth, even if it "costs" a little more. A legitimate Christian concern is whether a government administration's actions have eased or worsened the dangers posed by global warming and nuclear weapons.

Related article: Nuclear Doomsday: Is the clock still ticking?

God's earth slow to heal

The ozone hole over the Antarctic is the largest ever.

Despite actions to reduce gasses that deplete the earth's ozone layer, scientists have discovered that the at the current rate, it will take about 60 years to heal. Of course, if countries and corporation let their worship of money overcome their worship of God and protection of God's earth it might never happen.

Evangelicals embrace care for God's earth

Environmentalists and Evangelicals are coming together to be better stewards of God's earth.

On the other hand, the Southern Baptist Convention in June of 2006 passed a resolution denigrating environmental activism and warning that it could create divisions among evangelicals. And James Dobson has said that evangelicals should stay focused on anti-abortion actions and combatting gay marriage.

Yet a pastor af The Vineyard USA was one of 86 evangelical signers of letter urging all Christians as well as the government to combat global warming.

It was a Republican, President Nixon, who supported air and water protection, protection of endangered species, and created the Environmental Protection Agency.

A 2006 Pew Research Center survey found that 66% of white evangelicals believed there was good evidence that God's Earth was getting warmer and 32% blamed human activity for the warming.

• Original source: USA Today story (AP)

Climate change squeezes winemakers

The increasing number of extremely hot days could reduce the area in the U.S. that's suitable for growing premium wine grapes by as much as 81 percent by the end of this century, says a National Academy of Sciences study.

Global warming will affect people's jobs and the way we live. But some are still in denial -- like those tobacco company "scientists" claimed that smoking cigarettes didn't cause lung cancer. Right!

• Climate change threatens wineries (USA Today)
• An Inconvenient Truth - Climate Crisis

Stewardship: High tech trash pollutes

Many people have an image of the technology industry as a "clean" one. Elizabeth Grossman, author of "High Tech Trash", says it just ain't so:

• The tech industry dumps pollutants into our groundwater.
• Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs) used on "regular" monitors are the most hazardous components.
• The U.S. alone tosses out about 250 million computers each year!

ACTION: What can you, a steward of God's earth, do?

• Re-use. Donate old computers and peripherals when possible.
• Recycle. Some manufacturers accept returns, but they usually also charge you for shipping. That's an aggravating, but return the stuff when you can. You can already recycle printer cartridges through manufacturers and some vendor stores.
• Change habits -- use LCD or plasma monitors, for example. As these increase in clarity and decrease in price, it's a very viable option.
• Encourage companies to offer a recycling policy for old computers, monitors, and the like and to build the price of recycling into the item's cost.

Stewardship: Poverty and Conservation

What are Christians to do about conserving God's world in an area where people live in poverty? As Christians, we are called to help those in need. At the same time we are to be good stewards of God's earth. These two actions need not conflict, though.

The latest Nature Conservancy magazine addresses this thorny problem in " The Poverty/Conservation Equation ". The issue includes related articles, too, including "Does Conservation Matter to the Poor?" and "Is Poverty Relevant to Conservation".

Conserving God's world ... helping the poor ... are you part of the solution or part of the problem?

Stewardship: What is 'Green Energy"?

Both red and blue politicians go green on energy, says the American Council on Renewable Energy. Even power companies are beginning to offer customers the choice to pay a bit extra per month for blocks of "Green Energy", also called " renewable energy". Georgia Power's pages on Green Energy describe what Green Energy is and how to sign up.

Related Green Energy links

• Green-e - renewable energy certification program
• Green Energy News
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory (federal government)
• The Green Power Network (U.S. Department of Energy)

Supplemental reading: Care of God's Earth

Stewardship: Kiss snows of Kilimanjaro goodbye

The rise of just a few degrees in average world temperature will raise ocean levels about half a meter by 2100. So say nearly all scientists who've studied the issue, according to John Harte, University of California, Berkeley. Harte was speaking at the U.S.-China Symposium on Climate Change at UC Berkeley this week. Even Evangelicals agree that global warming is real and we need to act now.

But that's not all. Warmer air means less snow, including on snow-capped Mt. Kilimanjaro. By 2020, Kilimanjaro could have a bare top, and that's just the good news, Harte says.

A related issue is soot (black carbon particles). Liquid and most solid aeosols actually cool the air mass under them, but soot soaks up heat and warms the air mass . Diesel engines produce soot. Outdoor fires produce soot. Global warming will increase the amount of wildfires. Many nations are trying to encourage use of diesel in vehicles.

Carbon dioxide is the number one cause of global warming, yet soot doesn't stay aloft as long as carbon dioxide. So reducing soot has a faster cooling effect, though CO2 emissions need to be reduced drastically. The Kyoto Protocol is a great step forward, but Kyoto ignores black carbon problems. Does anyone see the problem here? Is delaying action on climate change a foolhardy gamble?

"An Inconvenient Truth", a film about the impact of global warming, has started playing in select theaters. Watch for it in your area.

On the front lines of global warming

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has a page about "Witnesses to climate change" that has blurbs and links to articles about four people who describe what climate change has done to their area and their lives.

God's earth: Hotter climate in the future

The NOAA site has a good page summarizing global warming trends and predictions for the future of God's earth. The conclusions are especially significant in view of the current Administration's seeming tendency to ignore scientific facts and theories and stifle scientific research that don't fit its political agenda.

Too cool toward global warming?

"It is now plain that the emission of greenhouse gases' causing global warming at a rate that is unsustainable," said Tony Blair in a forward to a report of the British Met (meteorological) office. Even modest temperature increases could disrupt ocean currents and plunge Europe into a mini ice age.

Canada says the link between human activity and global warming is undeniable . Furthermore, a recent poll shows that 71 percent of Americans also believe that global warming is for real. An even greater percentage, 75%, want more Federal action on global warming. They are even willing to sacrifice to do something about it.
What is your church doing to protect God's earth? Are you part of the solution?

Care for creation, care for poor

Recently-retired climate and weather physicist John Houghton links stewardship of God's creation with care for the poor. He says that a conservative estimate suggests that there will be as many as 150 million environmental refugees by the year 2050. Houghton says that most of the people likely to be disadvantaged because of climate change live in poorer countries.

• Read the full article in Christianity Today

Pollute less - improve gas mileage

The Federal Trade Commission site has a page devoted to helping you get better gas mileage. Better mileage means less cost for you plus less pollution of God's earth. We don't "own" it, you know -- we're supposed to be taking care of it till Jesus returns.

Good, Better, Best -- How to Improve Gas Mileage