Towards a Traditionalist Ecology, Part 2: Secular "Climate Change"
Which is the real sin: emitting carbon or covetousness?
II. Secular “Climate Change”
Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you… ye shall see the glory of the Lord.
~Exodus 16:4-7
Before I came to live in Christ, I sincerely worried about climate change. I wanted to do something to prevent storms, droughts, and famines from driving humanity extinct. But I’m not so worried, anymore. For one thing, we are commanded by the Lord not to let our hearts be troubled nor fearful (John 14:27). If my faith were simple and deep enough, this commandment alone would suffice, for my mind. But even were my faith so pure, it could still be profitable to consider why mankind is more and more anxious about ecology, and why such anxiety is ultimately foolish. In these days the climate of fear is warming faster than the climate of weather.
This article won’t contest the veracity of the scientific models of “anthropogenic climate change.” For that type of content, I would recommend the work of meteorologist Cliff Mass, science writer Ian Plimer, or journalist Michael Shellenberger. Whether the mainstream models are right or not, both climate change and all of its associated hand-wringing are just symptoms of a deeper spiritual problem. Mainstream climate change thinking is a branch of a doomed tree, planted in the dead gravel of materialism. Accordingly, this essay seeks to go deeper, to the roots of our worldview. We need a Christian approach to the ecology of creation, informed by the traditions of Scripture and Church Fathers. As we’ll see, “climate change” of a sort is an important part of this ecology, but not in the way that secular media tells us.
Some Christians in high worldly places lament the “crisis of climate change,” and insist that it’s our God-given responsibility to reduce carbon emissions. Interestingly, this same responsibility is promoted by globalist managerial organizations such as the U.N., who oppose and seek to fully supplant traditional Christian responsibilities. Shouldn’t we be suspicious of any organizations that demand that nations guarantee their citizens “abortion rights” in order to receive loans or grants? Such organizations draw people away from the fear of God. They promote just the type of fear and anxiety that the Lord forbids: a clinging anxiety about losing our worldly possessions.
Modern climate change rhetoric calls to mind the malignant murmuring of the Israelites in the wilderness, as described in Exodus 16. Immediately after being miraculously liberated from Egypt through God’s parting of the Red Sea, the Israelites began to complain that Moses and God brought them out into the middle of nowhere to die. The Israelites at that time were as indignant as Greta Thunberg, and as faithless as young people who “don’t want to bring a child into a world this messed up.”
The Israelites’ complaints earned them condemnation. According to St. Cyril of Alexandria, they would have been correct to ask God to provide for their needs, and to trust that whatever He gave was for their spiritual benefit: “Give us this day our daily bread.” In a way, the Israelites’ hunger in the wilderness was a gift from God: an opportunity to practice deeper faith. The trial was also a test for how God’s people would receive such a gift.1 Although the Israelites failed, accusing God instead of thanking and entreating him, God had mercy on them. He sent manna and quails to nourish them for their journeys. The story of the manna contains several crucial lessons about both secular and Christian conceptions of “climate change.”
The story of the manna shows us that real problems – ecological and otherwise – that afflict human societies come from sinful reactions to the challenges that God gives us. These challenges are meant to lead us to wisdom and communion. We fail to rise to the challenge when we disobey God. This is illustrated by the nature of the manna’s perishability. When the manna first came down, Moses said:
“Let no man leave of it till the morning…” But some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank.”
~Exodus 16:19-20
The manna decayed – but not because manna was inherently perishable. Indeed, the manna stayed pure and edible over the night before the sabbath day, when no more manna could be gathered. The decay happened because of the Israelites’ disobedience to God’s command. The root of this disobedience, according to St. John Chrysostom, was covetousness, a sin that spiritually stinks and decays one’s soul. It’s important to note that the spiritual transgression of covetousness caused a corruption of physical nature.2
The Israelites coveted three things: convenience, comfort, and control. It would be convenient for the Israelites to not have to glean the manna, tomorrow. They would feel more comfortable knowing that they had some manna put up in the kitchen. They could control their own food source, without relying on God’s provision, if they were to hoard some manna overnight.
In our time, our society also fiercely covets convenience, comfort, and control. Convenience has meant ubiquitous disposable plastic and industrial fast food that can be ordered with a swipe of a thumb. Comfort has meant an overindulgence in food, to such a degree that more people now perish from obesity than from hunger. The obsession with control finds pure expression (including a perfect backfire) in the contemporary production of bread: modern wheat farmers often spray herbicide on their fields at the end of the summer, to hasten the drying process of the wheat plants, in order to ensure that all of the grain can be harvested before an autumn rain.3
Many of the proposed policies that promise to “solve the climate crisis” heap covetous sin upon covetous sin. The ideal end goal of climate policies would be to track and ration all of the carbon on earth. It is difficult to imagine a more comprehensive attempt to control physical reality, and a more overt effort to rely solely on our human striving, rather than on God. Such spiritual putrefaction could easily backfire and make our ecological problems worse than ever.
St. Cyril of Alexandria, Nicholas P. Lunn, and Gregory K. Hillis, Glaphyra on the Pentateuch, Fathers of the Church: A New Translation, volume 137, 138 (Washington, D.C: The Catholic University of America Press, 2018). Page 56.
Joseph T. Lienhard, Ronnie J. Rombs, and Thomas C. Oden, eds., Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture 3 (Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 2001). Pages 87-88.
Some of these herbicides can linger on the wheat and enter into the human body, where they can wreak havoc on our intestinal microbiome, possibly contributing to the recent epidemic of “gluten intolerance.” This parallels the story of the manna: then, covetousness spoiled manna overnight. Now, control-obsessed farm practices have spoiled many people’s ability to digest bread.